Isaiah 54-55
Y’all will remember over the
last bunches of weeks, really once we got to chapter 40, one
of the things that we’ve heard over and over is Israel or God’s
people have two predicaments. One predicament is they’re stuck
in Babylon. So there’s a geographical problem.
Then the other predicament, a bigger, worse one, is they are exiled
from God because of their sin. So God is going to repair their
exile problem geographically through Cyrus. Cyrus will issue
a decree and the people of God will begin a kind of a three
wave, three generation return that’s told to us in the books
of Ezra and Nehemiah, also Haggai and Zechariah are the prophets
during those times. And so through decree of Cyrus
with funding and infrastructure and all the rest, Israel will
go back to Judah and Jerusalem. But then the second problem,
the sin problem, is something we’ve looked at more in recent
weeks with all the servant songs. And so Jesus Christ, the servant
of God, Jesus Christ, the suffering servant of Yahweh, is the one
who opens up the fountain where people can be cleansed and washed
from all their sin. And so the promised land problem
and the sin problem will be fixed through Cyrus and through Jesus. Another way to think of this
is kind of the creation, fall and redemption cycle that we
generally use to understand the whole of scriptures. God made
the world and everything in it. Adam and Eve fell into sin. They
were exiled from the garden, the promised land. They were
exiled from God, their faithful husband, the lover of their souls.
And so the whole of human history, as is unfolded in the Bible,
is how do people get back to the garden? That’s now the new
heavens and the new earth. And what’s the means by which
they can have salvation or righteousness? That’s through Jesus Christ.
So all the stories of the scripture are generally seen as little
pictures of the big picture. And so this exile problem is
much like the greater, bigger exile picture. We’re not home. We’re strangers in exiles. We’re
pilgrims. We’re marching to Zion. This is not our home. We’re singing
the Lord songs in a foreign land. And the way we get back home
is through the decree of God and through the salvation of
God through Jesus Christ. And so we’ve talked a little
bit about Osiris. We’ve talked a good bit about
Jesus. And so now we want to think about how the people of
God who’ve lost fellowship with God, how the people of God who
are alienated from him because of sin, How the people of God
who are living shamefully in another land, people know that
their God was the God who saved them and planted them in the
promised land. But now you’re over here, you’re foreigners,
you’re prisoners. That’s a big shame, a big reproach. So one
of the questions that probably comes to the exiles’ minds is
the question, is there hope? And so what we’ll hear is by
faith, by repentance, we will see God at work. We will, in
due time, as Paul says to the Galatian church, reap a harvest,
so don’t weary in doing good. And so we’ll think about that
for a few moments. Look, if you will, at chapter
54. We wanna think in chapter 54
of what God promises to Israel, and there’s five things. And
then we’ll look in chapter 55 at what God promises to the whole
world or all the nations. And there’s also five things
there. We’ll kind of zip through these. Still got to do penance
for this morning. I was supposed to laugh. This
is painfully long, even for me. I was filling in the Bs and the
Ds and the zeros too. All right, verses one through
three speak of the barren woman’s family. And so we’ve not read
yet Isaiah 54 and 55, we’ll pick our way along. And so look at
54, one to three. It says, sing O barren one who
did not bear, break forth into singing and cry aloud you who
have not been in labor for the children of the desolate one
will be more than the children of her who is married, says the
Lord. Enlarge the place of your tent
and let the curtains of your habitations be stretched out.
Do not hold back. Lengthen your cords and strengthen
your stakes. For you will spread abroad to
the right and to the left and your offspring will possess the
nations and will people the desolate cities. I think people there
is a verb, like put more people in. All right, so the barren
woman’s family grows. They need to add on to their
tent. You get that picture. But what ought to echo in their
mind is all the promises of God. In the garden, be fruitful and
multiply and fill the earth. After the flood and Noah, what
does God tell Noah’s three boys? Be fruitful and multiply and
fill the earth. What does God tell his disciples
at the Great Commission? in a sense, be fruitful, multiply,
and fill the earth. And so here it is. They’ve been
not fruitful, not multiplying. In fact, they’ve been barren.
And barrenness or being barren is a shameful
picture in the Bible. Remember Hannah crying out to
God? Remember Ruth? And Naomi and the other daughter-in-law,
they left Bethlehem because there was no food. The land was barren.
And so they go off to a far land. All their husbands die. They’re
barren again. And then they come back to the promised land. Ruth
marries Boaz and she is not barren. She produces a child who in a
generation will produce David, the King of Israel. And so here,
the promise to Israel in a foreign land that the barren one will
have to add on to their tent. They’ll have to enlarge the place
of their tent. They’ll have to drive in more stakes. They’ll
have to spread out more curtains in their tent. That is a wonderful
picture to them, the church of God growing because God is now
restoring them. The second image, the second
promise to Israel comes in four through eight. Fear not, for
you will not be ashamed. Fear not, for you will not be
confounded, for you will not be disgraced, for you will not
forget the shame of your youth and the reproach of your widowhood.
You will remember no more. So speaking of a deserted one
who is loved, verse five, for your maker is your husband. The
Lord of hosts is his name. The Holy one of Israel is your
redeemer. The God of the whole earth, he is called. For the
Lord has called you like a wife deserted and grieved in spirit,
like a wife of youth when she is cast off, says your God. For a brief moment, I deserted
you, but with great compassion, I will gather you in an overflowing
anger. For a moment, I hid my face from
you, but with everlasting love, I will have compassion on you,
says the Lord, your Redeemer. So there’s a lot of relationships
in the Bible that describe the picture of God and his people.
Sheep and shepherd, there’s bride and groom. You can go through
the vine and the branches, the body, the head, all the parts. But very often in the Old Testament,
God is the husband and the people are the spouse. And God ultimately
gives us that picture through Jesus, the bride and the church
as the groom. But there’s little hints of it
in Hosea, who goes and marries Gomer, an unfaithful wife. And
it’s a picture, a living picture, a living parable of God’s relationship
with his people. And so here he says, I’ve forgotten
you for a bit. I was angry with you for a bit,
but now your maker is your husband. The Lord of hosts is his name. The Holy one of Israel is your
redeemer, the God of the whole earth. And he’s not going to
leave you. He’s not going to forsake you.
So yes, you have been deserted. Yes, because of your sin. But
now, because of the work of the suffering servant, that marriage
can be repaired. And so there’s the ruined relationship
with the nation. There’s the ruined appearance
of the city and the temple and the surrounding countryside of
Judah. But there’s also the ruined marriage.
And God is saying, I’m going to fix that. I’m going to repair
it. Deserted and grieved, but no more. I love you with an everlasting
love. I’ll have compassion on you.
And the third promise comes in verses nine and 10. It makes
a reference to Noah. This is like the days of Noah
to me. I swore that the waters of Noah
should no more go over the earth. So I have sworn that I will not
be angry with you and I will not rebuke you. For the mountains
may depart, the hills be removed, but my steadfast love shall not
depart from you. My covenant of peace shall not
be removed, says the Lord who has compassion on you.” So remember
in the days of Noah, God flooded the earth, the earth gave forth
water, the rains came down from heavens, the water covered the
earth, the ark kept the family of God safe. And at the end,
when Noah made his offering, when they came out of the ark,
And that pleasing aroma rose up to God. God said, I will never
again destroy the earth by water. And he put his rainbow. And so
as you see the rainbow this month, pride month started today. You
remember what that is really for, that they stole it, but
God promises never to flood or destroy the earth again by water.
But did he promise not to ever judge? Not ultimately, no, he’ll
come and destroy the earth by fire and make a new heavens and
a new earth. But there will be little judgments
all over the earth in all times and in all history. And this
exile to Babylon is one of those judgments. And he likens it to
the temporary rains. That was a year. That was a year
of rain, a year and a month or so. A year and a month of rain
and floods and floating and angry waters over the face of the earth.
And he likens their exile, their 70 years, to just a period of
rain, just a stretch of time where he exercised his wrath. In verse 10, verse 10 ought to
give us a ton of comfort. We put a lot of stock in politics.
We put a lot of weight on our money. We think a lot about our
health. We look at the saber rattling
across the globe. We look at culture and how it’s
rotting. We look at the generation that’s come up now and realize
we’ve got a bunch of TikTok brainers. It’s kind of sad when you look
around the world and you think, well, woe is me. Why do I have
to live during these times? And this is a really good promise,
that there’s something more ultimate than the stock market, something
more ultimate than culture, something more ultimate than our health,
something more ultimate. And God could really take away
everything. He could take away everything
from you and you would still have him. He could take away
the mountains. There could be great disruption.
He could take away world peace. He could take away our money.
You know, he did some strange things during COVID. But the
steadfast love of God, his covenant love never never ceases. And I think COVID was a pretty
good test of that, but it’s good to remember whatever comes our
way, God’s covenant of peace is never, never removed. Well, in the fourth promise,
verses 11 to 14, it speaks of the city of God. And he talks
about stones and talks about mortar, a couple of things like
that. He says, Oh, afflicted one, storm
tossed and not comforted. Behold, I will set your stones
in antimony, and I will lay your foundations with sapphires. I
will make your pinnacles of agate, your gates of carbuncles, and
all your wall of precious stones. All your children shall be taught
by the Lord. Great shall be the peace of your
children, and righteousness you shall be established, and you
shall be far from oppression, for you shall not fear. and from terror for it shall
not come near you.” There’s something about the city of God being rebuilt,
the walls, the fortifications, but also the place where the
people are taught, the place where people are able to worship.
And it’ll, again, be a place of beauty. And I think here you
have to get a little, I don’t know, a little twinkle in your
eye for heaven when it starts talking about carbuncles and
precious stones walls and all the rest, you really get a picture,
not of Jerusalem, but of the new Jerusalem, the heavenly city. And so God makes a place of peace. He makes a place where he dwells
with his people. You jump to Revelation 21 and
22, talks about a river of life, talks about trees of life, talks
about in that place, there are no wicked people. The gates are
locked tight. The walls are high. all the rest. And so that’s another picture
of the promises of God. And then 15 to 17 gives us something about protection.
People are making swords against the people of God. And he says,
if anyone stirs up strife, it is not from me. They already
kind of know he deals with kings. He’s raised up Cyrus to bring
him home. So if there’s any troublemakers, it is not from me. Whoever stirs
up strife with you shall fall because of you. Behold, I have
created the smith who blows the fire of coals and produces a
weapon for its purpose. I’ve also created the ravager
to destroy. No weapon that is fashioned against
you shall succeed and you shall confute every tongue that rises
against you in judgment. This is the heritage of the servants
of the Lord and their vindication from me, declares God. We get
pictures of this. When Jesus, remember, he sends
out the 70. You know, you go preach, don’t take anything with
you, just share the gospel. We get this in Paul’s letters
where he tells us to take every thought captive to make it obedient
to Christ. We get this in the life and ministry
of Paul, where he goes into enemy territory. but the gates of hell
do not prevail. They cannot withstand the preaching
of the gospel. And so we ought to remember always,
no argument can make the cross not true. No argument can take
Jesus away from us. No lofty, worldly systems or
views or power or whatever can take the truth of the gospel
away. Now they can take everything
else away from you, Uh, my mom’s mother, my grandmother used to
say something like they can kill you, but they can’t eat you.
Right. And I always thought that meant
something like they can take away your life. What did Jesus
say that don’t, don’t fear the one that can take away your body.
Uh, but fear the one who can take away your soul and cast
it into outer darkness. So God here promises, uh, protection. He promises in the gospel to
give us the words to say when it’s time for us to give witness
or to profess our faith before the world. And so these promises
of God through the suffering servants work are made to Judah
and Jerusalem and to Israel and to the church. But then when
you move to the next chapter, to chapter 55, this set of promises
expands to the nations. God formed Israel to be a nation
for himself, a people for his own glory, and they built They
built the city of Jerusalem, the palace and the temple. They
stretched its borders through David and Solomon as far as they
could, north, south, east and west. People came to see the
goodness of God and the people of God. And they were always
to be a light to the nations. And we saw a few Gentiles sneak
in like Rahab and Ruth and some others along the way. But when
we come to the gospel and we come to Pentecost, we see a worldwide
gospel advance where the command to be fruitful and to multiply
and to fill the earth with the glory of God, we see that open
up in the gospel. But here’s five promises, five
predictions, five things to consider in the international campaign
of God. First of all, there’s a provision
for the nations. 55, one and two says, come everyone
who thirst, come to the waters. He who has no money, come buy
and eat, come buy wine and milk without money and without price.
Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread? And
why do you spend your labor for that which does not satisfy?
Listen diligently to me and eat what is good and delight yourselves
in rich food. mentioned this morning that,
you know, it kind of stinks not to be in the sanctuary, but I
think the worst part is not having our hymnal, our Psalter hymnal. And, um, Monday, when I was looking through
for this passage, I was thinking of James Montgomery Boyce’s,
uh, Come to the Waters, uh, that’s in our other book and thought,
what a, what a wonderful, perfect biblical song we, we could have
sung tonight if we had those books at our disposal. I suppose
we could have made copies or something like that. Killed a
tree or two. But this is a gospel promise,
isn’t it? Come to the waters. Come all you who thirst. Jesus says other things like
this. Come to me all you who are weary and heavy laden and
I will give you rest. We just read in John chapter
six. If you’re hungry, come and eat bread. But don’t eat bread
that will perish. Eat everlasting bread that if
you eat, you will never have hunger. What do you think the
world thinks when they hear stuff like this? Are you thirsty? Come
drink some living water. Didn’t Jesus give that puzzling
message to the woman at the well? He asked a woman he wasn’t supposed
to be speaking to, to draw some water for him. I can’t do that. And then what does he turn right
around and do? I can give you water that if you drink, you
will never, ever thirst again. And so the provision of God is
there. No longer broke, no longer hungry,
no longer poor, no longer belly button touching the backbone,
as we say. The second promise is that Non-Israelites get to
be citizens of the kingdom of David. That’s a pretty big offer,
isn’t it? We don’t have Andre here. So
all of us are Gentiles. All of us are grafted in. I think
he’s our only person of Jewish descent. He’s the only one that
has a true right and claim to Yahweh, right? But through faith
in Jesus, we are grafted in. We have been brought into the
branch of God’s people. And so what a sweet thing that
is. And you see it in verses three, four, and five. He says,
incline your ear and come to me here that your soul may live. And I will make with you an everlasting
covenant, my steadfast, sure love for David. He’s saying David
and Israel covenant promises are for the entire world. That’s
a big shift, isn’t it? That’s a big thing. And all of
us Gentiles, we ought to say, my goodness, we got in. We were on the wait list as it
were, and we’ve gotten in. He says, I’ll make an everlasting
covenant with you. He says, I made David a witness
to the peoples. I made David a leader and commander. Behold,
you shall call a nation that you do not know and a nation
you did not know It shall run to you because of the Lord your
God and the Holy One of Israel, for He has glorified you. Don’t you think most people,
even if they’re good reform folks, and they would say, no way, Jose,
am I Arminian. Don’t you think most of us still
think a little bit in our minds, I’m really glad I chose God.
See, yeah, admit it, we do. And the dumbfounding thing about
God’s love in his gospel is you don’t deserve it. He didn’t have
to offer it. And even if he did offer it,
you never in your right mind would have taken it. I mean,
sure, you’d take an ice cream cone that was free. Or you go
to one of those free steak dinners. you know, get suckered into a
financial plan or a condo at Myrtle Beach or a time show.
We would get suckered into that stuff, but we would never hear
the gospel and accept it. And we as outsiders never would
say, oh, I’m grafted in. But that’s what God has offered.
And that’s what he’s given. And I think that’s such a wonderful
thing to think about. We deserve no place in his kingdom. We deserve no inch. in his book
of life, but he’s given it. Now, the third promise to the
nations is the big one. I think it’s the one you know
well. It comes up in verses six through eight. Seek the Lord
while he may be found. Call upon him while he is near. Let the wicked forsake his way,
the unrighteous man his thoughts. Let him return to the Lord that
he may have compassion on him and to our God for he will abundantly
pardon. My thoughts, God says, are not
your thoughts. Neither are your ways my ways. There’s a lot of language in
here of repentance. There’s a lot of language in
here of turning from something to something better. And so while Noah is building the ark
and hammering nails and cutting woods and preaching the gospel
of salvation through a boat that’s being built in a desert, We always
must preach with urgency, don’t we? We must share the gospel
with urgency. Because there is a time where
the rain starts, the judgment comes, the door is shut. And there ought to be an urgency
to our gospel sharing, our gospel preaching. Because there is a
time, while the Lord may be found, there is a window of opportunity.
My brain has been on space travel lately. I think the men on Tuesday,
we discussed Elon Musk desire for there to be a colony of humans
on Mars. And so, you know, that and something
else brought it to my mind this week. I think it was the lunar
module, something like that. But, you know, when there’s a
return from space, they have a window to get back in the atmosphere.
You know, there’s a timing, there’s a speed and a trajectory and
all the rest. You know, you’ve seen the Apollo
movie where they missed the window, or were about to, or their thrusters
broke, or whatever, however the story goes. We can get pretty
urgent, can’t we, about being late for something, but is there
an urgency in our gospel message? While there’s still time, while
Jesus tarries, while the Lord is patient and holds back his
wrath, The opportunity for people to find God is still found. And
so they should call on him. They should forsake their wicked
ways. They should forsake their unrighteous
thoughts. And they should return to the
Lord and then he’ll have compassion. Those things ought to be in our
language and in our thought process as we share the gospel. Well,
a big promise comes in verses 9 through 11. God’s Word does
not return void. I know a number of y’all have
taught Sunday school in your lifetime. A couple of us in the
room have preached sermon after sermon, and you wonder, beating
your head against the wall, did anybody hear it? Did it have
any value for anybody? Maybe you clean up the church. count the money at church or
you, you know, you, you, you keep the nursery, all the things
we do. And we wonder, does it, do I
have anything to show for all my church church work? Right. And here’s the answer. Verse
nine is the heavens are higher than the earth. My ways are higher
than your ways, my thoughts than your thoughts. For as the rain
and the snow come down from heaven and do not return there but water
the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the
sower and bread to the eater, so shall my word that goes out
from my mouth, it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish
that which I purpose and it shall succeed in the thing for which
I sent it. Again, we think about all the
time we pour into people Maybe it’s your children, you poured
the gospel into them. Maybe it’s your grandkids, you poured the
gospel into them. Maybe it’s church folks, you poured the
gospel in. And you wonder, is there any fruit? And maybe never
in this life do you hear of it. But just the fact you heard the
call of God and did it, I think is important and valuable. I
used to think, oh, this was about 15 years ago, I used to think,
oh, there’s only one young family in my church ministry. I was
in a church for eight or nine years as a student and then intern,
and then as an associate pastor, did young adult ministry. And
I think, did I have an effect on anybody? I did a lot of work.
I did a lot of Bible spade work. And I thought, well, there’s
one couple. I saw fruit in their lives. Well, about a month ago,
I get a text message And it’s from a guy whose life was in
absolute shambles. And he and his wife have reconciled. They have three or four kids,
I can’t remember. And he’s a deacon in the church
now. And it’s just neat and amazing,
but it took 15, 20 years to hear that. And you never know what
God is up to. Maybe your kids, when they’re
about 24, they come back and finally say thank you, right?
What is it Mark Twain said? When I was a boy of 18, my parents
weren’t that smart, but by the time I got 21, it’s amazing how
much they had learned, right? Isn’t that how it goes? But you
see the fruit of our Sunday school class with a couple little ones
that sit in church now, and I’ve heard that those of y’all who
sit over there can hear them reciting the creeds. Right? You hear them singing the doxology.
They don’t know what it means, but they’re learning to say it.
And at some point it will mean something to them. And I think
all those are wonderful things. God’s word does not return void
and whatever errand he sends it on, it is, it is accomplished. Well, the last promise is a really
big one and it’s of a greater exodus, a new exodus. And it’s not an exodus out of
Egypt. It’s not an exodus out of Babylon
and back. It’s really an exodus out of
this broken down earth and an exodus into the new heavens.
And verse 12 says, you shall go out in joy. You shall be led
forth in peace. The mountains and the hills before
you shall break forth into singing. All the trees of the field shall
clap their hands. Instead of the thorn, remember
that’s a curse, right? Thorns and thistles shall come
up the cypress. Instead of the briar shall come
up the myrtle and it shall make a name for the Lord, an everlasting
sign that shall not be cut off. So we have our hope in the big
picture, the new heavens and the new earth. Well, just a couple
of things. I think I’ve already rambled
about these, but they’re still on my list, at least at this
point on my paper. Big picture, we need to preach
the gospel. Big picture, we need to share the gospel. We need
to have confidence in God’s word. We need to have zeal for the
good news. And we need to just chip away at it. You know, I
think this world wants instant success. They want us to break
sales records. Isn’t that kind of how it goes?
Whatever the business world says, that’s what the church should
use as a metric to measure itself. And we need to simply remember
we present the gospel, we present the word, God convinces and converts
sinners. We present the word, God comforts
and builds up saints. And it’s an upside down world
that man cannot change. We cannot persuade people out
of their foolishness. But presenting the word and the
gospel can give people the opportunity to be part of that redemption.
Yes, they’re fallen. And yes, they’re made in God’s
image and all the rest. But in order for redemption to
be theirs, they must lay hold of Jesus Christ. But they’ve
also got to know of their sin and to know that they need to
turn from it and seek help in the one who has paid for it. And so that’s the work of the
church. We’ve got good hope, don’t we,
that all the sin of the world, all the curses of the world will
be fixed. Everything will be made right
in heaven. God will make all things new. And so there’s an
aspect of all this where it’s personal. Seek the Lord and return
to him. But there’s also a cosmic aspect
of this redemption. God will make all things new
once again. And so let me just end by encouraging
you this way. Seek the Lord while he may be
found. and call on him while he is near. And I’m pretty sure
everybody in this room knows the Lord and knows him in a saving
way. But I’m also pretty sure every
one of us in this room gets a little cold in our relationship with
God and we microwave our leftovers and give it to him and say, surely
he’ll take this. And so perhaps there’s a seeking
of the Lord that you need to rekindle that fire and to enjoy
him and love him more. Whatever the case may be, seek
the Lord. And he promises all these blessings.
Let’s do give him thanks. Pray with me. Lord, we thank
you for these 10 promises, five to your People Israel, five to
the world, we see now in Christ, these are meshed together. These
are 10 wonderful promises to all your children worldwide from
age to age. We pray that the gospel would
be. richly loved by each of us, zealously
proclaimed by all of us, and that we might put one foot in
front of the other for the rest of our lives just faithfully
stepping towards heaven, speaking of Christ when we can, and that
in heaven we might see the fruit of that as we see faces that
we knew on this earth and who needed you. Lord, do not let
your return void tonight. but also let every word that
comes from your mouth this day in all churches around the world
bring glory to your name. We pray in Christ’s mighty and
gracious name. Amen. We want to