The World Aflame Compared to Zion’s Fame • 06.23.24
The World Aflame Compared to Zion’s Fame
Taking God’s warnings to heart
- Praise God for His salvation AND His judgment
- Trust the Father’s discipline
- Forsake your former rulers and self-reliance
- Prepare yourself for the day of the Lord
Good morning, church family! What an amazing privilege to worship the Lord this morning! I’m excited to have the opportunity to continue to worship through the proclamation and study of God’s Word!
Dismiss the 4th & 5th Graders
Also, I would like to ask the ushers to come forward with Bibles. If you don’t have a Bible with you today, please put your hand in the air, and we will get one to you.
If you are new here this morning, Welcome! My name is Frasier Dew, and I have the privilege of sharing God’s Word with you today. You are joining us part-way through our study of the book of Isaiah. Today, our particular text will be Isaiah chapters 25 and 26.
If you haven’t listened to the past few sermons, I want to encourage you to go back and listen to those on our website this week so that you can further understand the context leading up to this passage. This section of Isaiah is intertwined and builds upon itself.
As a quick review, consider with me the focus of Isaiah’s writings thus far:
In chapters 1-12, Isaiah prophesied concerning Judah and Jerusalem.
In chapters 13-23, Isaiah prophesied about particular nations: Babylon, Assyria, Philistia, Moab, Egypt, and so on.
But as we entered into chapter 24 last week, the particular nations fade into the background while a clear vision comes into focus of God’s righteous judgment pouring out upon the entire earth. And at the same time, His redeeming Love displayed in His dwelling with His people forever.
Keep this all-encompassing, worldwide perspective in your mind as we read today.
Lastly, before we read our passage, I want to point out the title I have chosen for this sermon: The World Aflame Compared to Zion’s Fame. As the title implies, God deals very differently with these two groups of people – the world on one hand and His people on the other. Do you know why? Would you agree that it is vitally important for us to figure it out? I don’t know about you, but if God has told us the way to escape destruction, then I want to know and follow it!
With that in mind, please open your Bibles and turn to Isaiah chapter 25 to hear the Word of the Lord. (page 696 in the black Bibles that are being handed out)
Isaiah 25:1–26:6 ESV
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. 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. 1 In that day this song will be sung in the land of Judah: “We have a strong city; he sets up salvation as walls and bulwarks. 2 Open the gates, that the righteous nation that keeps faith may enter in. 3 You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in you. 4 Trust in the Lord forever, for the Lord God is an everlasting rock. 5 For he has humbled the inhabitants of the height, the lofty city. He lays it low, lays it low to the ground, casts it to the dust. 6 The foot tramples it, the feet of the poor, the steps of the needy.”
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Who can tell me what the chief end of man is??
[Man’s chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy Him forever.]
(The Westminster Shorter Catechism)
Look back at the passage we just read. Isaiah is praising God for His “wonderful things, plans formed of old, faithful and sure.”
Isaiah 25:1 ESV
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.
If we had read this verse in its isolation, it would seem to us that the next sentence should be something like: “For you have allowed man to realize his chief end!” or what he waits until verse 9 to say,
Isaiah 25:9 ESV
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.”
Oddly enough, to our sensibilities, that isn’t what Isaiah immediately says, is it? He does say it eventually, of course, but what is the full reason Isaiah is praising God here?
He is praising God for His salvation AND His judgment! This is our first and primary takeaway for today:
1. Praise God for His salvation AND His judgment
Isaiah realizes and exalts God for a reality that I think we too often forget:
Man’s chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy Him forever. BUT that is not the ONLY end of man!
Think about eternity for a second. Think about Heaven. Think about Hell. Think about the countless number of people who will be present in both.
What do they still have in common?
They are both glorifying God! The people of Heaven will glorify God, and enjoy Him forever. The people of Hell will glorify God, and suffer Him forever. The people of Heaven will be a testimony to the glory of His grace, while the people of Hell will bear witness to the glory of His justice, but everybody will bring glory to God!
Isaiah shows us that we are to praise God for both outcomes.
Look again at Isaiah 25:1
Isaiah 25:1 ESV
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.
But if we are to praise God for His plans, we should ask ‘what specifically are the two outcomes spoken of here?’, what exactly are the “wonderful things, plans formed of old, faithful and sure.”
- Let’s begin with the Lord’s judgment for which he is to be praised.
- Firstly, what does Isaiah say happens to these people?
Go backward in your Bible and follow along starting in chapter 24, we read that they will be scorched (v.6), they will be broken down (v.10), their joy will grow dark, and gladness escape them (v.11), they will have terror (v.17), they will be trapped in the snare and pit (v.17-18), and they will be punished as prisoners (v.21-22).
Moving ahead to chapter 25, they will be made a heap and ruin (v.2), they will glorify God in fear (v.3), their song will be put down (v.5), they will be trampled (v.10), they will be laid low (v.11), their defenses will be demolished (v.12).
Continuing right on to chapter 26, they will be humbled against their will (v.5), they will be cast to the dust (v.5), they will again be trampled (v.6), they will be ashamed (v.11), they will be consumed with fire (v.11), they will suffer the very fury of the Lord when he punishes them (v.21).
Wow. What an outcome! And this is just a survey of three chapters of the Bible!
When we combine this with God’s warnings from the rest of the Bible, we learn that there are judgments such as being trodden like a grape in the “winepress of the wrath of God” (Rev 14:19-20) and being cast into the eternal lake of fire, where the people of Hell will experience eternal, conscious torment. (Matt. 25, Rev 14:9-11, Rev 18-21) To name only a few.
God will cause these people to drink the cup of His wrath for all eternity (Rev 14:10, Ps 75)
- Secondly, this severe of a judgment prompts the question, ‘Why do these people deserve this judgment?’
Let’s turn to the text, going back again to chapter 24, we read that they have defiled the earth (v.5), they have transgressed God’s laws, violated His statutes, broken the everlasting covenant (v.5), and they will suffer for their own guilt (v.6).
Move forward again to chapter 25, they have set up their own fortifications to attempt to save themselves (v.2+12), they have been foreigners to God and do not know Him (v.2), they have been a ruthless nation (v.3), they have been as useless as drought in a desert (v.4-5), they have carried a reproach against God’s people (v.8), and they have exalted themselves in their pompous pride (v.11).
Moving into chapter 26, they have made themselves lofty in their own eyes (v.5), they have spurned God’s blessings and refuse to learn righteousness (v.10), they have dealt corruptly in the land and refused to see the majesty of the Lord (v.10), they have engaged in every sort of iniquity and have even covered the earth with bloodshed (v.21)
If we move to some other portions of the Bible, we read:
1 Corinthians 6:9–10 ESV
9 Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, 10 nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.
Ephesians 4:18–19 ESV
18 They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart. 19 They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity.
Revelation 21:8 ESV
8 But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, as for murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death.”
God repeatedly warns us in His Word that this great judgment – facing the infinite wrath of an angry God – is well deserved by all of us! You might say, “How so?! I heard a few things on that list that I may have been guilty of before, but for the most part, I am a good person!”
Do you truly grasp the sinfulness of your sin? Do any of us comprehend just how disgusting of a crime we have committed against the Lord? He is the Holy One! He cannot look upon ANY sin with anything but righteous anger!
One sin – One lie, one impure thought, one lustful look, one moment of idolatry, one fit of covetousness, whatever it is, just one sin is enough to earn us eternal wrath because it is against the Most Holy One, the King of Kings, the highest authority in the Universe. We are undone and DESERVE every ounce of divine wrath! (James 2:10-11) I deserve it, and so do you.
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So what are you to do? What hope can there be? What must you do to be saved from this eternal torment?
Repent and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and you WILL be saved!
Jesus himself made this very clear:
John 5:24 ESV
24 Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life.
Mark 16:16 ESV
16 Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned.
Do not continue in the lusts of this world, but turn and cling to the Lord for His salvation. That is what it means to repent and believe.
- So, let’s consider the other outcome. What is this salvation for which God is to be praised?
- Firstly, what does Isaiah say happens to the saved?
Let’s walk through the text again, this time starting with chapter 25, we read that the LORD is their God (v.1), God will protect them from the enemies (v.4), God will give them an inheritance in Zion – the New Jerusalem (v.6), the Lord Himself will feast with them on that mountain (v.6), God will remove their cursed covering (v.7), God will swallow up death on their behalf (v.8), the Lord will wipe from their face every tear (v.8), God will take away their reproach (v.8), these people will rejoice in his salvation (v.9), For they will rest with the Right Hand of God on His mountain (v.10).
Chapter 26 shows us that they will sing praises unto God (v.1-6), God will build them a strong city, kept safe by the salvation that he has set up (v.1), God has allowed them to enter into Zion (v.2), The Lord keeps them in perfect peace FOREVER (v.3-4, 12), and God has guaranteed that their dead shall live; their bodies shall rise; they will awake and sing for joy! (v.19)
This is the hope of the Gospel! Isaiah shared many amazing truths about the hope of heaven, but perhaps the sweetest is that we can be reconciled and have the Lord as our God! We will be His people! We will be allowed to dwell in peace with the King Himself! What an amazing honor awaiting the redeemed! All of the other benefits of heaven would be a Hell to us if we could not enjoy the Lord forever!
- With this being such a stark difference compared to the judgment we just studied, we should ask, ‘Why do these people deserve this salvation?’
The astonishing answer is that we don’t! Not a single Israelite in Isaiah’s day nor a single Christian in this room DESERVES an ounce of this mercy and grace. The very concepts of mercy and grace require the recipients to be undeserving! And just as we are undeserving, the Bible also reveals that we cannot earn these blessings either. God provides no system whereby we can work our way to heaven. Every one of us, myself included, deserves nothing but wrath for our treason against the King.
So, what does this salvation mean? If I do not deserve it and cannot earn it, where is hope to be found?
In Jesus alone!
John 14:6 “Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”
1 Timothy 1:15 “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost.”
Acts 4:12 “there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.””
He is the ONLY one who is worthy! He lived sinlessly, fulfilling the Covenant of Works. More than that, he voluntarily went to the cross and died a sinner’s death on our behalf! Not only a physically painful death, but he endured the entire wrath of God for His people. The pains of Hell that we described a short while ago – Jesus endured every misery for His chosen ones!
Jesus physically and spiritually felt the pain of being broken down, being scorched, having His joy grow dark and gladness escape Him, experiencing terror, and being regarded as one trapped in the snare and pit. Jesus was punished as a prisoner, made into a heap and ruin, glorifying God in His fear, trampled, laid low, bare against the wrath, humbled, cast to the dust, ashamed, consumed with fire. Jesus suffered the very fury of the Lord, all so that a sinner like me would be redeemed! All so that a sinner like you would be redeemed if you trust in Him!
What kind of love is this? He died! He died my death! He died your death! What else can we do but worship Him?! How could we not offer Him a life of joyful worship and service? Our very lives are His, and we live in and through Him!
This overwhelming love and appreciation for the Lord is what Isaiah captures in the saying of the redeemed in verse 9:
Isaiah 25:9 “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.”
Not everyone can truly say this, though. The unbelieving can only look at Jesus and say, “Behold the man!”
John 19:5 ESV
5 So Jesus came out, wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe. Pilate said to them, “Behold the man!”
The difference between these sayings is profound. One recognizes their God and worships him. The other is blind to the reality of Jesus’ identity and continues in sin.
Which saying can you say? Do you recognize Jesus as God, your Savior, or do you only view him as a good man with no authority over your life? Do you have His salvation?
Here’s the beautiful thing. Look with me at Is 26:2
Isaiah 26:2 ESV
2 Open the gates, that the righteous nation that keeps faith may enter in.
God’s kingdom is not shut up so that none can enter! The gates of the New Jerusalem stand wide open because of the finished work of Christ on the cross. (Rev. 21:25) Through faith in Jesus, you can walk right in, get down on your knees and get real with God, and receive a new life in His presence.
What grace He offers us undeserving sinners! He is worthy of our daily, unending praise!
Will you humble yourself and worship Him?
- Thirdly, do not miss that both God’s salvation and His judgment are included within His “plans formed of old” referenced in verse 25:1.
In theology, we call this election and reprobation.
“Just as God chose whom he would save, so also he therefore chose whom he would condemn.”
Fred G. Zaspel, “Reprobation,” in Lexham Survey of Theology, ed. Mark Ward et al. (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2018).
Isaiah is affirming that God not only foreknew who would be saved or condemned- He planned and determined it before time began.
In our day and age, some people scoff at such an idea. Others don’t scoff but genuinely wrestle with the implications of this predestination. Some of you in this room may wrestle with this yourselves.
This doctrine can be hard to accept at first, I know that! And unfortunately time does not allow us to study this doctrine thoroughly this morning. But before you dismiss such an aspect of God’s sovereignty, would you put in the work of studying the biblical data so that your theology is based on God’s word and not your emotions? There is a list of passages on the screen behind me right now; please read through those sometime this week if you would like to learn more about this topic. Also, you can always send me an email or a text, and I’d be happy to discuss this further with you over a cup of coffee sometime.
Passages for study: Romans 8:28-30; Romans 9 (especially verses 10-28); Ephesians 1-2:10; John 17; John 6:37-40; Acts 13:48; 2 Timothy 1:9; 1 Thessalonians 1:4–5; 2 Thessalonians 2:13–14; Romans 11:5; 1 Corinthians 1:18-31; 1 Peter 2:8; 2 Peter 2:3; Jude 4; Matthew 11:25-27; John 10:22-30; Matthew 22:14; Revelation 13:8, Revelation 17:8, Revelation 20:15
For our text in Isaiah today, the main point is that we are to praise God for all of this! His predetermining, His salvation, and His judgment. Praise His predetermining because it assures us that He is faithful in bringing His plans to fruition! Praise His judgment, which reminds us that He does not let the guilty and unrepentant go unpunished, but He will ensure true justice in the end! And praise His salvation because we who once walked in darkness have now seen the great light of His sacrificed and resurrected Son and can be reconciled with God through faith in Him!
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For now, let us continue on with our chapters in Isaiah. In the rest of Isaiah chapter 26 (verses 7-21), I see three main divisions in the text.
With the rest of our time, let us consider each as a lesson of application for believers.
Let’s first read Isaiah 26:7-12
Isaiah 26:7–12 ESV
7 The path of the righteous is level; you make level the way of the righteous. 8 In the path of your judgments, O Lord, we wait for you; your name and remembrance are the desire of our soul. 9 My soul yearns for you in the night; my spirit within me earnestly seeks you. For when your judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world learn righteousness. 10 If favor is shown to the wicked, he does not learn righteousness; in the land of uprightness he deals corruptly and does not see the majesty of the Lord. 11 O Lord, your hand is lifted up, but they do not see it. Let them see your zeal for your people, and be ashamed. Let the fire for your adversaries consume them. 12 O Lord, you will ordain peace for us, for you have indeed done for us all our works.
This portion of the text gives us our second takeaway for today:
2. Trust the Father’s discipline
God, through His word, makes the path of the righteous level, but he often has to correct us when we stray from the path.
He tells us:
Revelation 3:19 ESV
19 Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline, so be zealous and repent.
Isaiah saw this firsthand among the Israelites. They had strayed far from the Lord’s covenant and were being judged for their actions. Yet, for the elect remnant, this judgment was the means by which they would learn righteousness. The same is true for trials in the life of Christians today.
Take a look at Hebrews 12:5-13
Hebrews 12:5–13 ESV
5 And have you forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons? “My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor be weary when reproved by him. 6 For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives.” 7 It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline? 8 If you are left without discipline, in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. 9 Besides this, we have had earthly fathers who disciplined us and we respected them. Shall we not much more be subject to the Father of spirits and live? 10 For they disciplined us for a short time as it seemed best to them, but he disciplines us for our good, that we may share his holiness. 11 For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it. 12 Therefore lift your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees, 13 and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be put out of joint but rather be healed.
This discipline may seem painful for a moment, but it is much better to be corrected by the Lord today than to suffer His wrath for eternity.
Notice in verses 7-12 the two different responses to the Lord’s discipline:
The believer waits for the Lord during judgments, desiring to trust and please the Lord (v.8). When life gets black as night, they earnestly seek the Lord (v.9). They remember the Lord’s faithfulness and hope in the peace He has promised to provide (v.8+12). The believer remembers the hope of Psalm 138:7-8
Psalm 138:7–8 ESV
7 Though I walk in the midst of trouble, you preserve my life; you stretch out your hand against the wrath of my enemies, and your right hand delivers me. 8 The Lord will fulfill his purpose for me; your steadfast love, O Lord, endures forever. Do not forsake the work of your hands.
Contrast this with the wicked, represented in verses 10-11: The unbeliever doesn’t learn righteousness even from blessings, let alone discipline (v.10)! They willingly refuse to see and acknowledge the majesty of the Lord (v.10), and they ignore the reality that He is the one ready to strike with His sword-hand if they do not repent (v.11) (Is 66:16)
If the difference is so clear between these two responses, what is the purpose of the discipline? I believe it is twofold:
First, as this passage makes plainly clear, discipline is so that we would learn the Lord’s righteousness.
Secondly, the Lord uses trials to separate the wheat from the chaff. To walk, as it were, through His flock of sheep with a rod of discipline and scare away the wolves. Calvin worded it this way in His commentary:
Commentary on the Book of the Prophet Isaiah (Chapter 26)
Here is a mark which distinguishes the godly from hypocrites; for in prosperity hypocrites bless God, and speak highly of him; but in adversity they murmur, and curse God himself, and plainly shew that they had no confidence in him, and thus judge of God according as their prosperity lasts. The godly, on the other hand, when they are tried by afflictions and calamities, are more and more excited to trust in God.
Which response characterizes your life? Do you yearn for God in the darkness of life, or do you spurn the Father’s discipline like an unbeliever?
Christian friend, draw closer to Him in those seasons of trial rather than pulling away from Him. Let us not allow our flesh’s short-term objections to rule over us, but instead, find our comfort in Him. If you are currently in a season of adversity, let me offer some practical counsel. Dig into His Word, personally and through preaching, cry out to Him in prayer, partake of His ordinances of Baptism and Communion, and regularly gather with His people. These are simple things, ordinary means of grace, and probably nothing you haven’t heard before, but trust Him. To an outside observer, they do not seem special at all. But by faith and the work of the Spirit, these common elements are used to do an uncommon work — the confirmation of our trust in Jesus and the strengthening of our faith to rest in Christ alone. Only His grace will sustain and strengthen you in this time of need.
Trust the Father’s discipline, He knows what He is doing.
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Let us continue on and discover our next lesson of application for believers. Picking up in the text at verse 13:
Isaiah 26:13–18 ESV
13 O Lord our God, other lords besides you have ruled over us, but your name alone we bring to remembrance. 14 They are dead, they will not live; they are shades, they will not arise; to that end you have visited them with destruction and wiped out all remembrance of them. 15 But you have increased the nation, O Lord, you have increased the nation; you are glorified; you have enlarged all the borders of the land. 16 O Lord, in distress they sought you; they poured out a whispered prayer when your discipline was upon them. 17 Like a pregnant woman who writhes and cries out in her pangs when she is near to giving birth, so were we because of you, O Lord; 18 we were pregnant, we writhed, but we have given birth to wind. We have accomplished no deliverance in the earth, and the inhabitants of the world have not fallen.
Here we find our third takeaway for today:
3. Forsake your former rulers and self-reliance
Verses 13-15 contrast the uselessness of “other lords” compared to the one true Lord. In the immediate context, this was true for Israel in terms of foreign kings, in terms of their idolatrous idol worship, and in terms of their being ruled by sinful lusts.
Verses 16-18 capture the confession that they only remembered to seek the true Lord when their own plans failed. They tried to accomplish their own deliverance, and it was utterly disastrous.
All of these verses aim at confessing the futility of hoping to find salvation anywhere other than the One, True God. Will you confess this in your life?
Are you trusting in another god or a false depiction of god? Is your hope in the god of the Quran? Are you deceived by the Jesus portrayed in The Book of Mormon? Are you hoping in the intercession of Mary as taught by the Roman Catholic Church? Are you calling out to Vishnu in your hour of need? Are you presuming upon the grace of a god of your own making? Are you trusting in the strength of your nation or favorite politician? Have you made yourself your own deliverer?
Do you know what these false hopes have in common? They are impotent idols and nothing more! No matter how much you bow down to them, they will not produce the salvation you are hoping for, and you will give birth to nothing but wind (v.18).
To revisit some verses from earlier:
John 14:6 “Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”
Acts 4:12 “there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.””
Forsake these other so-called “lords” and cling to the Living God!
For the Christians here today, I urge you to steadfastly keep your eyes fixed on Jesus!
Run the race well, knowing who it is, cheering you on from the finish line! Run away from your former rulers, leave behind any lusts of the flesh, flee from any self-reliance, and take that next step of obedience toward glory!
A recent example from my own life: As I began studying for this sermon a month or so ago, the Lord quickly convicted me of my self-reliance. Rather than beginning with prayer and continuing throughout to ask for His will to be made clear, I found myself halfway into a sermon outline that sounded really cool but wasn’t even based directly on the text. Even in attempting to interpret and apply the very Word of God, my sin nature was tempting me back to trusting in my former ruler, named Pride, rather than my Lord Jesus Christ. Learn the lesson with me – Forsake your former rulers and self-reliance.
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Much more could be said about this. However, for the sake of our focus today, let us identify our final lesson of application for believers. Picking up in the text at verse 19:
Isaiah 26:19–21 ESV
19 Your dead shall live; their bodies shall rise. You who dwell in the dust, awake and sing for joy! For your dew is a dew of light, and the earth will give birth to the dead. 20 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.
Here we find our final takeaway for today:
4. Prepare yourself for the day of the Lord
This day is coming at the appointed time. It draws nearer with each tick of the clock.
Matthew 24:36–44 ESV
36 “But concerning that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only. 37 For as were the days of Noah, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. 38 For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day when Noah entered the ark, 39 and they were unaware until the flood came and swept them all away, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. 40 Then two men will be in the field; one will be taken and one left. 41 Two women will be grinding at the mill; one will be taken and one left. 42 Therefore, stay awake, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming. 43 But know this, that if the master of the house had known in what part of the night the thief was coming, he would have stayed awake and would not have let his house be broken into. 44 Therefore you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.
Be ready. “The Christian should always be ready for this by watching and waiting in prayer… Let us ensure that we are walking in the ways of the Lord and that we are bearing fruit that is pleasing in His sight. For then that day will be filled with joy, and we shall join the heavenly host in praising our blessed Redeemer who loves us and washed us from our sins with His [own] blood (Rev. 1:5). However, if we are not saved by Christ’s blood, His coming will cause us to wail in terror (Rev. 1:7). If Christ were to come today, how would you greet Him, with praise or in horror?”
(Quoted from Beeke, Joel R., Michael P.V. Barrett, Gerald M. Bilkes, and Paul M. Smalley, eds. Family Worship Bible Guide. Grand Rapids, MI: Reformation Heritage Books, 2016.)
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I also do not want us to miss the allusion that Isaiah is making here to the Passover recorded in Exodus 12.
The Lord’s people were only kept safe from the judgment if they were found to be hidden behind the blood of the lamb. The Lord told them beforehand:
Exodus 12:13 ESV
13 The blood shall be a sign for you, on the houses where you are. And when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and no plague will befall you to destroy you, when I strike the land of Egypt.
“Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed” (1 Cor 5:7).
Will you be found without His blood protecting you? Or will you be prepared?
I especially love that the Lord providentially gave us this reference in the text today, as we will be celebrating communion here in a few minutes. What a beautiful way to remember our Lord, sacrificed on behalf of sinners such as us!
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But, before we worship through the Lord’s table, let us revisit our lessons learned today.
- Praise God for His salvation AND His judgment
- Trust the Father’s discipline
- Forsake your former rulers and self-reliance
- Prepare yourself for the day of the Lord
Let’s pray.