Go ahead and take your Bibles, if you have them, and open to the prophet Isaiah. The prophet Isaiah. We will be beginning now the prophetic section of the Old Testament. The prophets, you may know or you may remember, we addressed this earlier in our study, is the longest collection of books in the entire Bible. If you just did a count from Isaiah to Malachi, that one section of the Old Testament is longer than the entire New Testament combined. The prophets are a big deal. God gives a lot of space to the prophets. And just by way of recap, because we've been kind of in the wisdom literature section for most, if not all, of this calendar year, We've left off in the historical books trying to trace the timeline, the narrative of God's people, and the big event that happens towards the end of their history, and it's a big deal in the prophet Jeremiah, is the Babylonian captivity. And the Babylonian captivity, they go into exile in 586 BC, The prophet Isaiah is writing in the second half of the 700s BC. In other words, he's writing about 150 give or take years before that great event. And so Jeremiah, and we'll look at Jeremiah next week, as you've been hearing from Dr. Phillips in the morning series, Jeremiah is writing like at the time that they're going in. And he's dealing with, in today's text, he's dealing with the immediate aftermath of the fall of Jerusalem. Jeremiah, or excuse me, Isaiah rather, is well before that time period, and yet he speaks of those events. And Isaiah is, he's by far the most complicated book that we have studied. It is, with the exception of the Psalms, the longest. And it's been cherished by the church for The entire history of the church, it's one of the most often quoted Old Testament books in the New Testament. In fact, if memory serves, I could be wrong about this. With the exception of the Psalms, Christ and the apostles quote Isaiah, rather, more than any other Old Testament book. It's a big deal. And there are... Many have called it the fifth gospel. You know, we have Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, but many would say Isaiah is the fifth gospel because of the clarity of the picture of the Lord Jesus that we will see briefly in Isaiah's 53rd chapter. When Jesus goes to preach in the synagogue in Nazareth, in Luke chapter 4, we talked about this last year, they hand him the scroll, and what does he read from? He reads from the prophet Isaiah, and he says, in your hearing, this prophecy is fulfilled. When Mark begins his gospel, He says, this is the beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, as was said in the prophet Isaiah. And he begins to quote from the prophet Isaiah. The book of Isaiah is a very foundational book, and it's a book that you all know passages from very well. We quote several passages from Isaiah at Christmastime. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and you shall call his name Emmanuel. shall call his name Immanuel as Isaiah records in chapter 7 verse 14. For to us a child is Born to us a son is given, and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end. Isaiah chapter nine, six to seven. We know several passages of this book well. Some of you probably are very familiar with Isaiah chapter 6. Can anybody tell me what major event happens there? Isaiah 6. R.C. Sproul's entire ministry is launched off of his preaching of this passage. Ms. Berenger. And that hymn that we sing, Holy, Holy, Holy, is a reference to Isaiah chapter 6, where Isaiah sees the Lord high and lifted up, and the angels are circling around the throne and singing, Holy, Holy, Holy. I referenced earlier the passage of Isaiah 53, which is so plainly a fourth telling and a foretelling of the work that Jesus would accomplish. There's also passages of great comfort throughout the book. Isaiah chapter 40 verses one and two was the first passage that I attempted to memorize as a new Christian. Comfort, comfort my people says your God. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem and cry to her that her warfare is ended, that her iniquity is pardoned, that she has received from the Lord's hand double for all her sins. That's a great comfort, especially as you wrestle with sin in your own life and wrestle with the guilt of that, knowing that the Lord has abundant grace for you. Um, these are wonderful passages that we should all know, but the challenge is, and what we're going to try and see today is how does all of this, how do all of these passages, fit together? How does it all work? And one important thing to know about Isaiah is, as we've already said, when he's writing, he's writing in the latter half of the seventh century BC. Isaiah chapter one, verse one says, this is the vision of Isaiah, the son of Amoz, which he saw concerning Judah. So this is Isaiah's vision concerning the people of Judah. and Jerusalem in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, the kings of Judah. So these are the men who were in charge of God's people. These were the kings throughout the time of Isaiah's writing. Now it's most likely he starts writing towards the tail end of Uzziah's rule. In fact, Isaiah 6 says, in the year King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord, I, and lifted up. So he begins his ministry at the very tail end of Uzziah's rule. And that's significant because Uzziah's king for like 60 years, like people lived their entire life. And the only king that there was, was Uzziah. And then he also follows through with Ahaz, Jotham, and Hezekiah. And all of these kings, that's one way that many people would outline the book. The sections of the book could be read to deal chronologically with the state of God's people under the reigns of these kings. So under that scheme, you would have chapters one to six under Uzziah. Chapters seven to 12 would be under Ahaz and Jotham. 15 to 35, is broken down a number of different ways because we're not quite sure where the sections on Jotham end and where the sections under Hezekiah begin. So there's a great split there. But 36 through the end of the book would be under Hezekiah and will ultimately point to subsequent kings all the way up to the new heavens and the new earth. The problem with outlining the book that way is while it's interesting, Unless we're going to do a deep dive on the Old Testament historical kings in order, I don't know that just referencing the reign of Jotham is going to bring to mind a great deal of context for you guys. And that's okay, because it doesn't really immediately spark a lot of information in my mind either. So we're not going to work through it according to that outline. Though you could, but you just have to do a lot of groundwork in the historical books first. Another approach is to divide the book into micro sections because there's a lot of back and forth throughout the prophet. And that's a valid way to do it. And so you would have groupings of chapters like one to five, six to 12, 13 to 17 and on through the problem with that is there's 66 chapters and we're trying to work through this whole book in one lesson. So that's way too small of sections to do. though it is helpful. So what I'm going to propose, and what I'm going to give you, is a very stripped down, very simplified, three-part outline, okay, to do the whole books. Now, this is going to give you a flavor of the book, because it is so detailed and it is so long. There is a lot of overlap within these sections, in large part because the book of Isaiah, much like Pastor Phillips has referenced the book of Jeremiah, A lot of this is a collection of his sermons. And his sermons are rarely ever only making one particular point. So there is significant overlap. there's going to be significant overlap in these sections. So he's writing around a hundred or so years before Jeremiah, as we've already said, and generally you can divide this book into two major sections. 1 to 38 is dealing with the Assyrian crisis. And we know that because of chapter 8 verses 5 to 8, which I'll read for you guys right now. The Lord spoke to me again. Because this people has refused the waters of Shiloh that flow gently and rejoiced over Rezan and the son of Ramaliah, therefore, behold, the Lord is bringing up against them the waters of the river, mighty and many, the king of Assyria and all his glory. And it will rise over all its channels and go over all its banks. And it will sweep on into Judah. It will overflow and pass on, reaching even to the neck and its outspread wings will fill the breadth of your land, O Emmanuel." So there's the Assyrian crisis. There's this coming enemy army of Assyria. And that's really going to be what's going on in the time of Isaiah. And then the second half of the book, chapters 40 and following, deal with what might be called the Babylonian crisis. Would somebody please read Isaiah 39, five to seven, and you'll see the setting up of this Babylonian crisis. Isaiah 39, five to seven. Mr. Leathers? In Isaiah said to Hezekiah, Hear the word of the Lord of hosts. Behold, the days are coming when all that is in your house, which your fathers have accumulated, until this day shall be carried to Babylon. Nothing shall be left, says the Lord, and they shall take away some of your sons who will descend from you, whom you will beget, and they shall be eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon. Thank you very much, Mr. Leather. So you see, uh, Isaiah is being told at this turning point in the book of the coming days. They're in the future. They're a long way out, but Babylon is coming and judgment is coming. And so, uh, chapters one to 39 dealing with the Syrian crisis, we might think of this way is dealing generally more with judgment. It's more judgment oriented. But I have to caveat that for when you go back to read this later, you will see there's lots of glimmers of hope within that section. So it's not 39 chapters of nothing but aggressive judgment, but it is, that's what's emphasized there, okay? And then chapters 40 to 66 are going to be more comfort-oriented, but with echoes of judgment mixed with that. There's pronouncements of judgment specifically against the enemies of God and his people. So with all that said, Here is that very loose and stripped down three-part outline that we're going to work through this morning. The problem and the punishment, chapters 1 to 35. The problem personified, 36 to 39. and the promise of peace 40 to the end of the book. So first we're going to deal with the promise and the pun or excuse me the problem and the punishment. Chapters one to two serve as almost a table of contents for the whole book as they lay out the problem of God's people and what will happen as a result. Just to get our minds oriented with what these people are supposed to be, would somebody please read Genesis 12, 1-3, and then I need somebody else for Deuteronomy 4, 5-8. So Genesis 12, 1-3, who's my brave volunteer? Mr. Liang, and somebody else, Deuteronomy 4, 5-8. Mr. Gamble. Alright, Mr. Liang, whenever you're ready. Uh, you may, you don't have to. That's great. Genesis chapter 12 beginning in verse one and going through verse three. Now the Lord had said unto Abraham, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy country, and from thy father's house, unto a land which I will show thee. And I'll make thee a great nation, and I'll bless thee. And make thy name great, and thou shalt be a blessing. And I'll bless thee, and I'll bless thee, and I'll bless thee, and I'll bless thee, and I'll bless thee, and I'll bless thee, and I'll bless thee, and I'll bless thee, and I'll bless thee, and I'll bless thee, and I'll bless thee, and I'll bless thee, and I'll bless thee, and I'll bless thee, and I'll bless thee, and I'll bless thee, and I'll bless thee, and I'll bless thee, and I'll bless thee, and I'll bless thee, and I'll bless thee, and I'll bless thee, and I'll bless thee, and I'll bless thee, and I'll bless thee, and I'll bless thee, and I'll bless thee, and I'll bless thee See, I have taught you statutes and rules, as the Lord my God commanded me, that you should do them in the land that you are entering to take possession of it. Keep them and do them, for that will be your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the peoples, who, when they hear of all these statutes, will say, Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people. For what great nation is there that has a God so near to it as the Lord our God is to us, whenever we call upon Him? And what great nation is there that has statutes and rules so righteous as all this law that I set before you today? Thank you very much, Mr. Gamble. So we see from those two passages, God has one particular design for the descendants of Abram. They would be a blessing. That all the nations of the earth would be blessed through them. Genesis 12, 1-3. How are they to be a blessing? by observing the statutes that God commanded them, in such a way that the other nations would look on Israel and say, how great is their God? What holy God is there like this one that has such righteous decrees? In a lot of ways, this is a reset on the mission that God gave to Adam in the garden. Adam was to take dominion, to rule and to reign amongst creation for the glory of God. In the same way, the people of Israel were to live out their lives ruling and reigning over the land for the glory of God amongst the nations. And just like Adam in the garden, Israel also failed. And what we see then in the opening section of Isaiah's prophecy is God's case against Israel. And a lot of the prophets will employ this formula of a covenant lawsuit Against the people and so now with all of that out of the way, we'll finally begin with the text of Isaiah We see this initial part of Isaiah of the lawsuit in the beginning of chapter 1 verse 2 Hear O heavens and give ear O earth God is assembling the witnesses he's calling all of the created order to to bear witness to this testimony and Then he gives the charges For the Lord has spoken, children have I reared and brought up, but they have rebelled against me. The ox knows its owner and the donkey its master's crib, but Israel does not know. My people do not understand. Ah, sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, offspring of evildoers, children who deal corruptly. They have forsaken the Lord. They have despised the Holy One of Israel. They are utterly estranged. Why will you be struck down? Why will you continue to rebel? The whole head is sick and the whole heart faint. From the sole of the foot, even to the head, there is no soundness in it. But bruises and sores and raw wounds, they are not pressed out or bound up or softened with oil. Your country lies desolate. Your cities are burned with fire. In your very presence, foreigners devour your land. It is desolate as overthrown by foreigners. And the daughter of Zion is left like a booth in a vineyard, like a lodge in a cucumber field, like a besieged city. If the Lord of hosts had not left us a few survivors, we should have been like Sodom and become like Gomorrah. Hear the word of the Lord, you rulers of Sodom. Give ear to the teaching of our God, you people of Gomorrah. And then he begins to run through additional charges, but we'll stop right there. And we see that God is laying the case against his people, that they are rebellious people, verse two. that they are ungrateful people, verse three. The ox knows its owner, the donkey its master's crib, but Israel doesn't know. They don't understand who has blessed them, who has provided for them. In fact, they are the very opposite of who they were called to be. The very opposite of who they were called to be. Instead of being a light shining amongst the nations, they have become like them. Notice the regression in how he addresses them in chapter one. What's he called them in verse three? My people. Start of verse four, how does he refer to the very same people? Anybody? Mr. Leann. As a people, laden with iniquity and a seed of evildoers, and forbearing children of corruptors, So they've gone from my people to a sinful nation laden with iniquity. And then in verse 10, he refers to them as the people of Gomorrah, the city that's destroyed along with Sodom in the early chapters of Genesis. And what happens is instead of being an influence on the world, they've been corrupted by the world. They have taken on all of the behaviors and the mannerisms that they ought not to have done. And the results of this act on their part are staggering. Verses 12 to 14, we see that God rejects their worship. He won't have it. When you come to appear before me, who is required of you this trampling of my courts? Bring no more vain offerings. Incense is an abomination to me. God has told them to bring offerings, but they're not bringing them with worshipful, repentant hearts. They're going through the motions, and God says, I don't want it. I don't want anything to do with that. Verse 15 says, he will not hear their prayers. Even though you make many prayers, I will not listen. Imagine, if you will, that this past Tuesday, was Valentine's Day. I came home from work and I brought Mrs. Early flowers and chocolates and I took her out to a nice dinner and I'm doing the right things and yet the whole time I'm on my phone checking news updates I'm following the progression of bringing back the greatest of all cinematic Batman to the big screen, Michael Keaton, I'm distracted by a great many things that are not her. She would be right to be displeased with me. Now let's make it worse. Let's say I come home from work, I bring her the flowers, I bring her the chocolates, I take her out to dinner. But now this time I'm distracted the entire time on my phone, texting another woman. That's far worse. And what happens in that moment is all of those flowers become nothing but thorns. And all of those chocolates, instead of being sweet, are bitter. And that dinner becomes un, uh, becomes the source of great poison. Uh, it's, it's disgusting because I am not being faithful. And because I'm not faithful in my heart, then my outward acts of that faith are repulsive. Does that make sense? That's what's going on with Israel and God. That's what he is, that is what he is saying has happened here. They're supposed to have this close personal relationship and trust in Yahweh. And instead they're not engaged. At all. Worse, they're actually pursuing other gods within that relationship. You guys that were at the early service heard about the people of Judah pursuing the Queen of Heaven. And those of you who were not there will be there at the 11. They are pursuing other gods alongside the true and living God that has blessed them and provided for them. It's spiritual adultery. Now what does God tell his wayward people to do? in verses 16 and 17. Wash your hands. Make yourselves clean. Remove the evil of your deeds from before my eyes. Cease to do evil. Learn to do good. Seek justice. Correct oppression. Bring justice to the fatherless. Plead the widow's cause. Stop doing the wrong thing. Start doing the right thing. But that's a lot easier said than done. That is a lot easier said than done. I want you to notice the kindness of God in this because he doesn't just tell them, stop doing the wrong thing and start doing the right thing. What's he say immediately after that in verse 18 come now, let us reason together. Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be white as snow. Though they are red like crimson, they will become wool. If you are willing and obedient, you shall eat the good of the land. But if you refuse and rebel, you shall be eaten by the sword, for the mouth of the Lord is spoken. Stop doing the wrong thing, start doing the right thing, and I will help you. Come, let us reason together. Let's work this out. It's not that God sets this unbelievably high bar and says, good luck. He sets that bar and then he trains you and helps you and gets you over it. That is the kindness of our God. But unfortunately, in the time of Isaiah, they do not heed. And the king does not turn. And you see that in verses 21 to 23. I won't take the time to read it because we're running up against the clock. And we see the whole challenge of the book then becomes who are you going to trust? Are you going to trust and pursue these false gods and these false hopes and these false comforts, or are you going to trust the true and living God who has redeemed you and called you by name? We see one very clear illustration of this in chapter seven, and there are several examples of this in Isaiah, but chapter seven, verses one to two says, in the days of Ahaz, who by the way is a horrible king, I do know that, and you'll hear about him next Sunday morning when Pastor Brennigan preaches. Ahaz, the son of Jotham, the son of Uzziah, the king of Judah, Rezan, the king of Syria, and Pekah, the son of Ramaliah, the king of Israel, came up to Jerusalem to wage war against it, but could not yet mount an attack against it. When the house of David, that's Judah, was told that Syria is in league with Ephraim, the heart of Ahaz and the heart of his people shook as the trees of the forest shake before the wind. When the word comes of the Assyrian invasion and the people hear of it and the king, they are petrified and they begin to scramble to make worldly alliances. They even actually pursue allegiance with Egypt and Isaiah comes to King Ahaz and he says, You need to trust the Lord. That is the right choice to make here. Now I wanna say that when we talk about that and we don't leave that qualified, what tends to happen is people hear, I can either do all I can to protect myself or I can trust the Lord and sit here and do nothing and just wait. That's not the idea. The idea of trusting the Lord does not mean we're not supposed to do anything. It means we're supposed to do the best we can with what we've got and then trust Him to make it sufficient. Okay? This is a much less life or death situation, but I'll share with you guys this. My personal prayer every time before I preach is, Lord, make me confident in your preparation of me this week that I can preach this text faithfully. My confidence is not in my own preparation. because there's always another book I could have read. There's always more time I could have spent in the original language. There's always more I could do, more, more, more, more, more, more. No, Lord, make effective what you have allowed me to do this week. Does that make sense? Think of maybe Jesus in the feeding of the 5,000. He sends the disciples out, and he gathers all the resources that they can, and then he trusts the Lord to make that sufficient for the task. We want to, in trusting the Lord, we steward our worldly resources to the best of our ability, but then we trust him to bless it and provide the result. We want to do what we can, but we don't trust our acts. We trust him to make more out of those acts than is reasonable, is normal. So in chapter seven, God, through Isaiah, tells Ahaz what to do, and if Ahaz does it, the Lord will provide, but God's goal, Excuse me, because God's goal is not the destruction of his people, it's their flourishing, which he lays out earlier in the book. And in chapter 7, God offers Ahaz a sign of this blessing, that he will do this very thing. And Ahaz wickedly declines the sign. He says, I don't need it. Which sounds pious. but really he's avoiding having to trust the Lord. He says, I don't need the sign because I'm still going to do all this other stuff over here. God gives him the sign anyway. And, um, I think for the first time, we're actually going to have to break this book up into two lessons. So I'm going to end on, on this point. Um, the sign is in Isaiah chapter seven, verse 14. It's the verse I quoted to you earlier. Therefore, the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and you shall call his name Immanuel. The sign of the hope of the deliverance is the coming Messiah, is the Lord Jesus. And I wanna throw in one apologetic thing in here. Some of you have probably heard, and if you haven't, Your first semester in college, if you take a religion 101 class, you will hear that this word that's translated virgin here probably actually means young woman. Has anyone heard this? Okay. I want to say two things. Technically, that is true. The word could very well mean young woman. It could also mean virgin. Context dictates what the word means. If I tell you that the Lord is going to give you a miraculous sign, a young girl is going to have a child, is that a miraculous sign? Or is that very normal and kind of the way it works? It's a miraculous sign when an old woman has a child, but this is a virgin. And further, it's worth noting, just because we have this silly thing where we believe the Bible, when Matthew, quotes this passage in the New Testament, he uses a Greek word that could only mean virgin. It's not possible to understand the Greek rendering of this any other way. So how do we get from this impending judgment to the blessing that's promised at the end of the book is we trust in the Lord and we trust his provision of this one who at that time was to come and in our time has come. And unfortunately, time fails me. So we'll actually, we'll pick it back up in here with Isaiah next week. I did well in the challenge to cover one book a week. but thus far I have come and no further. Let me pray for us. God in heaven, I give thanks to you for the prophet Isaiah and the wonderful good news he brings to us of the Lord Jesus and that Lord, if we will, but trust your provisions for us, especially as they come in him, that we will not perish, but that rather we will have everlasting life as your word promises. And father, I know that there are a great many worldly concerns and promises that we face and Sometimes we are called to bear those trials for a long time. I pray, though, that you would comfort my dear friends here with the knowledge that this life is fleeting and that the world to come is forever. And that as we study next week, the hope that comes in Isaiah 40 and following, that we would live lives of hope and encouragement from the promises that are yea and amen in Christ. We ask in his name, through his glory.