Immanuel Sermon Audio
Isaiah (23:66)
Put in two Isaiah, if you day, yeah. At the end. >> What happened? >> Yes. [ Laughter ] >> Okay, so we are going to sing at the end. If you've got something you're dying to sing, Miss Joe will play it. So last week, if you were not here, we did the song of Solomon. And if you were not here, you missed. We had mannequins and we had visual -- No, we didn't have any of that. I'm just kidding. But we did talk about the book. And so, hopefully you were here for that. We finished up the wisdom literature in the Old Testament. Tonight, we are on, what is it, number 23 of 66? Book of Isaiah, first book in a section of books known as the Major Prophets. Major Prophets are Isaiah, Jeremiah, Lamentations, Ezekiel and Daniel. They're not major because they're more important as if the Major Prophets are really important and the Minor Prophets are less important. They're major mostly in the sense that they are longer. Now, there is an exception to that, Lamentations written by Jeremiah is not very long at all. And truth be told, Daniel is not all that long. But Isaiah and Jeremiah and Ezekiel are long books. I've noticed just being honest in my personal Bible reading when I go from the beginning of the Bible to the end. When I get to those books, those are books you feel like you're in for a long time. You get going through Isaiah and you kind of think, "Oh my goodness, this is a long book, 60-some chapters." And then here comes Jeremiah, a long book. And then Ezekiel's coming up, another long book. So, they're not major in the sense that they're more important but major in that, generally speaking, they are longer than the Minor Prophets. Also, work distinction that in the Hebrew canon, they don't call it the Old Testament, they just call it the Hebrew Scriptures. They combine all the Minor Prophets into one book. That's a book. And then the major Prophets are split out. So, major Prophets, Isaiah is the first one. Now, I just told you it's not major in the sense that it's more important than anything else. Now, I'm going to talk out of the other side of my mouth. And I'm going to say to you that Isaiah is a really important book in the Bible. And obviously, we would say all of the books of the Bible are important. There are no unimportant books, agreed. But Isaiah is really, really important. And so, just as an example, I taught an online Old Testament class for Oklahoma Baptist University. And they had a page limit on how many page we could make the students read. You can't make them read so much. And they told us they have to read this textbook. They gave us a book, we didn't get to pick it. They said you got to use this book and it was a long book. And so, when I said, okay, what do I want them to read in addition to the book, I didn't have enough pages to say read the whole Old Testament. That's what I wanted to say. Read the book and the whole Old Testament. That made sense to me. But that was over my page limit. So, I picked three books from the Old Testament for them to read. What did I pick? Isaiah, easy, no, not Jeremiah. Genesis, Genesis, Isaiah and Psalms, easy. Genesis, Isaiah and Psalms were the three that they needed to read. I read some quotes this afternoon after I had finished preparing and everything about the book of Isaiah. And one of the early church fathers, Jerome, the guy that translated the Bible into Latin for the first time. Jerome wrote about the book of Isaiah. And he said the book of Isaiah is almost the fifth gospel. It's so clear in talking about the gospel of Jesus and what happened. It's almost like he's looking back and describing what happened instead of looking forward and prophesying about what was gonna happen. And so, we're gonna talk about that in the book of Isaiah tonight, but it's an important book. So, let's talk about the history of Israel. Just so you know where this fits in the story. We've talked about this throughout our time together on Wednesday nights in the Old Testament. There's the conquest with Joshua, right? They go in, they fight for the land. Moses is dead and they take possession of the land. There's the period of the judges and that covers the book of judges and the book of Ruth. Both fall into the period of the judges. Then there is the monarchy, initially under Saul, and then under David, and then under Solomon. And then there is division, the kingdom splits. Rehoboam and Jeroboam split the kingdom and you have Israel and the North Judah in the South. And then there is the period of rebellion, which is when Isaiah takes place. Both kingdoms to one degree or another just completely turning their back on the Lord. And then there's exile. First Israel gets sent into exile by Assyria and then Judah gets sent into exile by Babylon. And then finally they both come back. That's Ezra and Nehemiah. We've talked about all of those books. So we've covered this whole storyline. And then we moved through the wisdom literature, which we talked about where some of those books fit. And now the prophets, the prophets that we're gonna look at fit anywhere from, you could say, the monarchy to the return. They're just sort of in that big period and they're not in chronological order. They're just sort of slapped in there. And so when you read one of the prophets, major or minor, you really need to know what's happening in the storyline. You need to know where you're at in the history of Israel. And so we're here right in the period of rebellion. If you want a year date for Isaiah, we're between 750 and 700 B.C., 750 and 700 B.C., roughly. One of the cool things about Isaiah, just the person in his ministry as a prophet, is that he was a prophet for a long time, a really, really long time. In fact, his ministry as a prophet covered five different kings. And I'll put these, I think, on your outline. Are they on your outline, right? So you got Uzziah, who was king for 52 years. That's an incredibly long time for one person to be king, by the way. You think about how tired we get of any president after four years, or especially eight years. 52 years, the same guy is in charge. So 52 years for Uzziah, Jotham, 16 years, A has 16 years, Hezekiah, 29 years, Manasseh, 55 years. An incredibly long time. Okay, so you got your thumbs ready? Pop quiz, everybody has to play. You got your thumb ready? Okay, you're on neutral, right here, okay? Neutral. Uzziah, good king, bad king. What do you say? Uzziah, for the most part, good. Not perfect, made some really bad decisions. At one point, Uzziah decided he didn't just want to be king. He wanted to be priest, and he went into the temple, and he took on some of the priestly things, and you can read about it. God did not like that. He was not amused, okay? Jotham, Jotham, you pick how you want to say it. It doesn't matter. Good or bad, what do you say? Lots of bads. For the most part, the Bible says he was a good king. Not perfect, but a good king. A has, down. I hope you're down. A has was not a good guy. Hezekiah, good. And Manasseh, how about double for Manasseh? Two thumbs down. He was really bad. In fact, when you read about Manasseh, it continually and repeatedly says he did more to provoke the Lord to anger. He was worse than anybody that came before him. And part of that, honestly, was that he was a bad guy, and part of it was that he did it for a long time. Some of these guys were bad kings, but they were just sort of like a shooting star in and out. Manasseh was in there for a long time, and so he had a lot of opportunity to do bad things. All of these guys were kings of Israel or Judah. Judah, okay? And I'm putting them up here in reference to Isaiah, so that's telling you, Isaiah's focus was in Judah, okay? Uzziah, Jotham, A has Hezekiah, Manasseh. Now look, if you add all those years up, it's like what, 160, 170, something like that? Isaiah was not around for all of that, right? But he was around at the end of Uzziah, all of Jotham, all of A has all of Hezekiah, and then the beginning of Manasseh. So that's where he fits in. About 60 years he served as a prophet. Now, I didn't put this on your outline 'cause what I'm about to tell you is not Bible, it's Jewish tradition, okay? So you're turning off your Bible ears, you're turning on your tradition ears. Jewish tradition says that during the reign of Manasseh, go back one more real quick, during the reign of Manasseh, Isaiah was thrown in prison and eventually killed and killed by being sawn in half. And so, Hebrews chapter 11 lists all the heroes of the faith and it goes through all these guys and lists them. And then at the end, it just sort of doesn't talk specifically about anyone, but it just describes some of the suffering of God's heroes throughout the years. And somewhere in there in Hebrews 11, I think verse 37, you can jot that down, Hebrews 11, 37. It mentions that some of God's people were sawn in two. And Jewish tradition is that Isaiah was sawn in two, but you take that for what it's worth, okay? Back to Bible, put your Bible ears back on, okay? Here is the outline for the book of Isaiah is really a straightforward book. First 35 chapters are about the relationship between God and his people, okay? That's the first half, the relationship between God and his people. The middle there, 36, 37, 38, 39 are about Assyria attacking Jerusalem. And then the last section is about the relationship between God and his people, chapter 40 to 66. Now obviously that's very general and we're leaving out some of the specifics and you could break it down much further than that. But that gives you a general idea of the book. The first part is poetry, okay? Mostly poetry. And then in the middle there, it's history. And you notice this in your Bible, when you're looking at Isaiah, just you're looking on Isaiah chapter one, two. And it sort of looks like the book of Psalms in a lot of these sections. And then you get to 36, 37, 38, 39, it's just sort of solid paragraphs all the way to the margins. Then it's poetry at the end. Now, roughly, generally, this is not completely true for the first and the last section, but generally you can say the first half of the book tends to be more negative in saying the relationship between God and his people is not good because God's people are rebellious. That's the emphasis. The emphasis on that third section, the last section, 40 to 66, is that God is a gracious God and he's gonna do some amazing things for his people despite their sin to restore and repair the relationship between them. So that gives you a general overview of the book, okay? Now, as a whole, Isaiah deals with really one question from beginning to end. And the question is who are you going to trust or what are you going to put your trust in? Where is your confidence gonna lie? Where is your hope gonna rest, okay? And so I'm gonna tell you tonight a couple of things that you should not trust in. And then we're gonna talk about who you should trust in. So here we go, really simple. Number one, do not trust yourself. Do not trust yourself. (audience chuckles) Every time I think about the book of Isaiah, I think about a Sunday school class I taught in Kentucky at our church in Kentucky. I taught the high school Sunday school class. And one Sunday I was teaching and there was a kid in the class named Caleb. And Caleb, his father was a deacon and they were very involved. He came every week, he was a good kid. And we were talking about something and he sort of interrupted, you know how high school kids interrupt and they ask a question that has nothing to do with anything that you're talking about in the lesson. And Caleb interrupts and he says, do you know what's in every chapter of the Bible? And I said, what? And he said, like if I just picked a chapter in the Bible, would you know what it's about? And obviously the answer is no, but he kind of made me mad 'cause he interrupted. So I said, yes, of course. (audience laughs) And he said, so like right now, if I just picked a chapter in the Bible and asked you what it's about, without looking, you could tell me. I said, absolutely I could tell you, pick one. And he picked Isaiah chapter one, one that I know. I said, it's easy. God calls the heavens and the earth to be witnesses and judgment against his people who are rebellious, they're stiff neck, they're sinful. And he looks at Isaiah and one, how'd you know that? And I said, be quiet and let me finish the Sunday school lesson now. But I never let him in on the reality. To this day, he thinks I have every chapter in the Bible memorized, which is fine by me, okay? But look at Isaiah one. We're just gonna read a few verses as we go through these ideas. Isaiah one, verse one, the vision of Isaiah, the son of Amaz, which he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, Hezekiah, the kings of Judah. Here, O heavens, and give ear, O earth, 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 evil doers. Children who deal corruptly, they have forsaken the Lord, they have despised the holy one of Israel, they are utterly estranged and on and on it goes, saying, you're sinners. And is not just talking about Jerusalem in Judah, it's talking about us, people. We have separated ourselves from God because of our sin. You even see the same thing about Isaiah. Look at Isaiah chapter six. These verses will be familiar to some of you. Isaiah six, verse one, in the year that King Uzziah died. I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne high and lifted up. You can see why that would be encouraging for Isaiah. You remember Uzziah was king for 52 years. So he says, in the year that the king died who had been sitting on the throne for 52 years, Uzziah had been there for five decades. When that happened, when he died, what did I see? God, and what's God doing, sitting on a throne, right? Everything is okay. He's sitting on a throne high and lifted up. The train of his robe filled the temple. Above him stood the seraphim. Each had six wings, two he covered his face with two he covered his feet with two he flew and one called to another and said, holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of hosts, the whole earth is full of his glory. The foundations of the threshold shook at the voice of him who called and the house was filled with smoke. And I, Isaiah said, woe is me, for I am lost, for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips, for my eyes have seen the king, the Lord of hosts. So Isaiah understood personally. It's not just a problem in Israel, but it's a problem in all of us. Do not trust yourself, okay? Number two, don't trust stuff, stuff. And by stuff, I mean money, possessions, accolades, titles, barns, buildings, homes, cars, toys, stuff. Don't trust your stuff, okay? We're not gonna read all of this, but I want you to look at Isaiah 37. Isaiah 37 and even 36. Isaiah 36 begins like this. We'll just read one verse. In the 14th year of Hezekiah, the nakarib king of Assyria came up against all the fortified cities of Judah, and he took them. So in Hezekiah's reign, Assyria, the king of Assyria comes and he is attacking Judah, where Isaiah lives and where Hezekiah is the king, right? Foreign superpower is coming and attacking you. And if you look in chapter 37, it says as soon as king Hezekiah heard it, he tore his clothes, he covered himself with sackcloth, he went into the house of the Lord, and you read on it, it says he sent for Isaiah, he knew. I need the prophet here, I need Isaiah to pray for us, we're in big trouble, we cannot defeat Assyria, we need God's help, and as you keep reading, in chapter 37, God saves Hezekiah, and he saves Judah from Assyria. And you should read it, it's an amazing story. We talked about it a couple of weeks ago when we went through some of the history books, but it's a great story, God saves them. Then look at chapter 38, verse one, it says in those days, Hezekiah became sick, and he was at the point of death. And Isaiah showed up, and Isaiah said, "Thus says the Lord set your house in order, "you will die, you will not recover." He prays, God extends his life, and God spares him from this illness. You can read that for yourself in chapter 38, okay? And then you come to chapter 39. Chapter 39 is one of the, I remember as a kid, hearing this story and thinking, that's a weird story. It's so weird to me, the story in Isaiah 39. As a kid as the king, and a bunch of guys come from Babylon to visit him, Assyria is gone, forget about them. The illness that almost took his life, God spared him from that, forget about that. He's the king, guys from Babylon come, and the guys from Babylon, it says in the text that they come because they heard what God did to Assyria in saving his people, and they heard how the king had been sick and recovered, okay? Babylon comes, hey, we heard that God did some great things here, he saved you from Assyria, and he saved you from this illness, and they come, and they want to know about it. And you read in the story, and Hezekiah greets these guys, and he says, oh, we're so glad you've come, and he says, let me take you to storehouse one, and show you all the stuff I got here. Let me take you to storehouse two, show you all the stuff I got here. Let me take you over here and show you this barn, look at all my gold, and look at my treasury, and he shows them all of his stuff, and then you read the story, and without knowing the context, it's weird, Isaiah comes, and he says, hey, would you show those guys? I showed them all my stuff, and Isaiah says, they're gonna take it all away, everything they saw they're taking away. And as a kid, I remember hearing that thinking, oh, it seems like he kind of got set up. How is he supposed to know that whatever he showed them, they're gonna get taken away, that's kind of goofy. But when you read the first couple chapters there, 36, 37, 38, you realize the people had come, not to see his stuff, but to hear what God had done. And the story says, well, he showed 'em his money, and he showed 'em his silos, and he showed 'em his barns, and he showed 'em his armor, and he showed 'em all this stuff, never took 'em to the temple, never. Ultimately, his trust was in all the stuff he showed these guys that revealed his heart. And when you read in the history books about this account in Kings and Chronicles, it says that God sent these guys to test and see what was in his heart. And what was in Hezekiah's heart at this period of his life was not trusting God for saving him from Assyria, and not trusting God from saving him from illness, but trust in how much stuff he had. And you read this story and you realize, I don't need to trust in stuff. Number three, don't trust in idols. Do not trust in idols. I think I listed a couple of verses there. We're just gonna look at chapter 44. You can look at the others. Isaiah 44. I'm just gonna read the chapter. I don't really need to say anything about it. It's a great chapter. Here now, O Jacob, my servant, Israel, whom I have chosen, thus says the Lord who made you, who formed you from the womb and who will help you. Fear not, Jacob, my servant. Jesher, run, whom I have chosen. I will pour water on the thirsty land and streams on the dry ground. I will pour my spirit upon your offspring and my blessing on your descendants. They shall spring up among the grass like willows by flowing streams. This one will say, I'm the Lord's. Another will call on the name of Jacob. Another will write on his hand, the Lord's. And name himself by the name of Israel. Thus says the Lord, the king of Israel. His redeemer, the Lord of hosts. I am the first and the last. Beside me, there is no God. Who is like me? Let him proclaim it. Let him declare and set it before me. Since I appointed an ancient people, let them declare what is to come and what will happen. Fear not, nor be afraid, have I not told you from of old and declared it, and you are my witness. Is there a God beside me? There is no rock. I know not any. All who fashion idols are nothing. And the things that they delight in do not profit. Their witnesses neither see nor know that they may be put to shame. Who fashions a God or cast an idol that is profitable for nothing? Behold, all his companions shall be put to shame and the craftsmen are only human. Let them all assemble, let them stand forth. They shall be terrified. They shall be put to shame together. Listen to this, the ironsmith takes a cutting tool and he works it over the coals. He fashions it with hammers and works it with a strong arm. He becomes hungry. His strength fails. He drinks no water and he's faint. The carpenter stretches a line. He marks it out with the pencil. He shapes it with planes and marks it with the compass. He shapes it into the figure of a man with the beauty of a man to dwell in a house. He cuts down cedars or he chooses a cypress tree or an oak and he lets it grow strong among the trees of the forest. He plants a cedar and the rain nourishes it. Then it becomes fuel for a man. He takes part of it and he warms himself. He kindles a fire and bakes bread. Also he makes a God and worships it. He makes an idol and falls down before of it. Half of it he burns in the fire. Over half of it he eats meat. He roasts and he's satisfied and he also warms himself and says, ah, I'm warm, I have seen the fire. And the rest of it he makes into a God, his idol. And he falls down to it and he worships it. He prays to it and he says, deliver me for you or my God. They know not nor do they discern for he has shut their eyes so that they cannot see in their hearts so that they cannot understand. No one considers nor is their knowledge or discernment to say half of it are burned in the fire. I also baked bread on its coals. I roasted meat and have eaten. Shall I make the rest of it into an abomination? Shall I fall down before a block of wood? He feeds on ashes. A deluded heart has led him astray and he cannot deliver himself or say, is there not a lie in my right hand? Remember these things, O Jacob, in Israel, for you are my servant. I formed you. You see the difference there? The other guy forms his God. God says to his people, I formed you. You didn't make me, I made you. You're my servant, O Israel. You will not be forgotten by me. I've blotted out your transgressions like a cloud and your sins like a mist. Return to me for I have redeemed you. Sing, O heavens, for the Lord has done it. Shout, O depths of the earth. Break forth into singing, O mountains, O forest, and every tree in it. For the Lord has redeemed Jacob and he will be glorified in Israel. Thus says the Lord, your redeemer, who formed you from the womb. I am the Lord who made all things, who alone stretched out the heavens, who spread out the earth by myself. Do you see the difference? The foolish man stretches out his line on the wood to make the idol. God says, I stretched out and made the heavens. There's a difference between the idols and me. I am the Lord who made all things, who stretched out the heavens, who spread out the earth by myself, who frustrates the signs of liars, who makes full of diviners, who turns wise men back and makes their knowledge foolish, who confirms the word of his servant and fulfills the counsel of his messengers, who says of Jerusalem, she shall be inhabited. And of the cities of Judah, they shall be built, and I will raise up their ruins. Who says to the deep be dry, I will cover your rivers. Who says of Cyrus, we'll come back to this verse. Who says of Cyrus, he is my shepherd, and he shall fulfill all my purpose. Saying of Jerusalem, she shall be built, and of the temple your foundation shall be laid, okay? That's a great chapter. And it contrasts people who make their gods and worship their gods foolishly, and the God who makes his people so that they can in turn worship him. And the point is basically to make an idol is the dumbest thing you could ever do. Whether you're making it in a statue physically, whether you're making it in your heart or in your mind, it's folly, don't trust in idols. Don't trust yourself, don't trust your stuff, don't trust in idols, okay? What do you trust in? Number one, do trust the Bible. Okay, I'm gonna tell you a sad story. Look at Isaiah 44, excuse me, Isaiah 44, verse 28, and then we're gonna look at 45, verse one, the very next verse, okay? God says of Cyrus, he is my shepherd, and he shall fulfill all my purpose. Saying of Jerusalem, she shall be built, and of the temple your foundation shall be laid. Thus says the Lord, he is anointed to Cyrus. Thus says the Lord, to his anointed to Cyrus, whose right hand I have grasped to subdue nations before him and to loose the belts of kings to open doors before him that gates may not be closed. And it goes on to talk about what God is going to do for and through this guy named Cyrus, okay? Here's what you need to know. Remember, I told you that Isaiah was in the 700's ish BC, 750 to 700, this guy named Cyrus was the king of a nation called Persia that was still one world superpower away, right? First Assyria comes and they attack Hezekiah, and after Assyria comes the Babylonians and then comes the Persians. So we're talking hundreds of years down the road is this king named Cyrus, he's not born yet, his mom is not born yet, his grandma is not born yet, his great-grandma may not be born yet. He is way, way, way down the road. And God is saying right here in the book of Isaiah, I'm going to pick a guy named Cyrus and that's going to be the guy that I use to rebuild the city of Jerusalem, to rebuild the temple, to rebuild the city. Babylonians are going to flatten it, their empire is going to go away, the Persians are going to take over and the king named Cyrus is going to send my people back. When you get there, to that point in the story, guess who the king was who sent some of these guys back, Cyrus, okay? So here's the sad story, you have a bunch of, and you know what I'm saying is, I'm not talking about politics, but a bunch of liberal Bible scholars who open their Bible to Isaiah and they look at Isaiah 44, 28, and 45, 1, and they say, hmm, it's strange. It sounds like God is predicting the future about how he's going to use this guy named Cyrus a couple of hundred years down the road and then it really happened. That's what it sounds like is happening, but we know that that kind of thing can't happen. You can't do that, you can't predict the future. How could you know somebody's name when they're grandma, they're great grandma, that's not possible, we know that's not possible. So these guys say, how do we explain this? And here's their explanation, they say, look, this book that we call Isaiah, it's really two, or sometimes they say three, two or three different books crammed together. And the first parts of Isaiah were written by Isaiah, the guy way back in the 700 BCs. And then there was another guy, they call him Deuterot Isaiah, second Isaiah, really wasn't Isaiah, it was just some guy writing down, not predicting, but writing history and he tacked his book onto the end of Isaiah's book and he mashed it on there. So I looked at this just so I would be confident if you get on Wikipedia, the authoritative Wikipedia, you get on, the very first thing it says on there is most Bible scholars think that Isaiah is really a couple of books crammed together. Really wasn't written by Isaiah, it's written by two or maybe three people that crammed it together. And this part you're reading here in Isaiah 4428 and 451, it's not predictive prophecy, looking into the future, God's saying what's gonna happen, it's Deuterot or the third Isaiah, looking back saying this is what did happen, putting words into their mouth in the past, do you understand? And this goes on and they come up with all sorts of arguments that will bore you to death for why that's the case. But that's their starting ground. This verse can't mean what we think it means. So let's explain it away with some cockamamie theory about a bunch of people cramming together a book and we have this book called Isaiah. So that gets very popular in scholarly circles, very, very popular. And this story gets told over and over. Now here's a good story. That's a sad story. Here's a good story. Okay. A couple of decades ago, there is a shepherd boy out in the middle of Palestine by some caves. And he's bored. If you've ever seen pictures of where these people live, it's boring. There's nothing to do. He's looking at the sheep. He's looking at the rocks, the sheep, the rocks, the sheep, the rocks. He's bored. And he does what any... a young boy would do. He says, "I could throw those rocks." So he starts picking up rocks. He starts throwing these rocks. And he sees some caves over there. He says, "I wonder if I can throw a rock in that cave." He starts trying to throw these rocks in a cave. And he's throwing rocks, and he's throwing rocks. And he lets loose a rock, and it goes, and he's watching and he's saying, "Oh, it's going in the cave. It's going in the cave." It goes right in the cave. And then he hears something crash. Rocks don't crash on sand and dirt. That broke something. So they go over this cave, and they dig around in this cave. And just by chance, this rock sails right in this cave, breaks a pot, and the pot is holding a scroll. So they start digging around in this cave. They find all kinds of pots holding all kinds of scrolls. And the scrolls are almost completely copies of Old Testament books. Here's one of them that they found. This is called the Great Isaiah Scroll. The technological name is 1Q ISA-A. 1, because it was cave 1. Q, because the cave was in the Qumran community, ISA for Isaiah, and then A. This is the first one they catalogued out of there. That's the book of Isaiah, beginning to end. That thing is old. When they found this scroll, it was way, way older than any other copy of Isaiah that they had. The first thing that was cool about it is it was accurate, right? It was what we had of Isaiah. It's way older than any other copy of the manuscript we have. And when they read it, they said, "Oh, that's kind of cool. It's the exact same of what we have." Very neat. But then they start dating it, and they're trying to figure out how old this thing is. Here's the coolest part. You remember the sad story about the different Isaiah's coming together? And they said, "No, this stuff here in chapter 44," they wrote it way, way, way after, right? And they've got this elaborate theory. That's older than their theory. It beats their theory. There is physical proof that their theory cannot be true. And yet when you open the scholarly books and when you go to Wikipedia, what does it still say? It's not one book. It's crammed together. And so when you get on Wikipedia, you just smile and you say, "You foolish people." It's so sad. I feel so sorry for you. And you say, "I know about the great Isaiah scroll. You can't fool me." That's a bunch of baloney, right? This is older than your cockamamie theory. Isaiah wrote it from beginning to end. It is a prophecy, and it is amazing. And so I tell you that sad story and that happy story to tell you, you can trust the Bible, okay? This thing, just so you know, is, and it's chopped up like that just to fit it on one picture. It's about 11 inches tall, okay? It's about 24 feet long. And it has 50-some columns of Isaiah. And there it is. And I know that when you look at that, it looks a lot shorter than our Isaiah. They use less words than we do Hebrew crams words together. And so they use one word for what takes us forwards to say. So there you go. That's the book of Isaiah. It's right. It's true. It's accurate. It's real. You can trust the Bible, okay? Number two, what do you trust? You trust in the God who forgives and who sins. The God who forgives and who sins. You can go back to Isaiah chapter six. We left off in Isaiah six where Isaiah says, "Woe is me. I am lost. I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips." My eyes have seen the king, the Lord of hosts. Don't trust yourself. You keep reading number six and it says, "One of the seraphim flew to me, having in his hand a burning cold that he had taken with tongs from the altar, and he touched my mouth, and he said, "Behold, this has touched your lips. Your guilt is taken away, and your sin is atoned for." God is the God who forgives. Verse eight, I heard the voice of the Lord saying, "Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?" Then I, that's Isaiah, said, "Here I am. Send me." So God sends him on this mission. He says, "Go, and here's what I want you to tell my people." When you keep reading, it's not entirely encouraging because God says, "Here's what I want you to go say to the people, and oh, by the way, no one is going to listen to you. No one." And you and me would say, "Well, why do I need to go do it?" It's not the point. You just go and you say it, but no one's going to listen. What was that first song we sang? Is it this one? No, what was the second song we sang? Two, two eighty-five. Okay, so we just sang, "Wherever he leads, I'll go." That's kind of like Isaiah, right? "Who's going to go for me? Wherever you lead, I'll go." And I think most of you, I kind of turned my ear and I was listening. I think most of you sang the third verse, most of you. "It may be through shadows dim. What if it's over the stormy sea?" Well, I'll take my cross and I'll follow him, wherever he leads me. That was Isaiah, right? It was not all roses and buttercups and butterflies and bunnies for Isaiah. It was, "You go, say this, no one's going to listen to you. They're going to hate you, but I want you to go say it." And he went and he did it. So we trust the God who forgives and who sends. Number three, we trust the God who promises the miraculous. Promises the miraculous. Flip over to chapter seven. You're right there close to it. Isaiah 7, 14, "Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and you shall call his name a manual." Typically, virgins don't conceive. God says, "I'm going to do it. I know it's a miracle, but I'm capable of pulling this off." Look at chapter nine, verse six. If you make notes in your Bible, you just draw a line from 7, 14 over to 9, 6. It says, "To us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace." And you read that and you say, "How is a child going to be Mighty God?" Well, it's a miracle. The incarnation of God and human flesh, Jesus being born and being really God and really human, is a miracle. And God's promising it here. The virgin will conceive and it's going to be God and human flesh. It's miraculous, but I'm going to do it. So we trust the God who promises the miraculous. And if you wanted to list a verse under that number three, you could list Isaiah 44 and 45, right, with Cyrus. It's just another example of God saying, "I know we're a couple of empires away right now, but here's what's going to happen. See, he's going to get torn down. Cyrus is going to be the king way, way down the line, and he's going to send you back, and he's going to pay for the whole thing. You don't have to worry about it. So we trust the God who promises the miraculous. Number four, this is a big one. We trust the God who came to serve, the God who came to serve. And I hope we can flip a switch in your mind on this one to say, this is the biggest difference between the little G gods that Judah was chasing after, and the big G God, the Lord Yahweh. This is the biggest contrast that you can set up. And we read chapter 44 that contrasted idols in the Lord, but you think about this. These people are chasing after bales and asher and molek and all these gods, and their job is to serve that God. Some of those gods wanted to be served by bringing offerings. Some of those gods wanted to be served by human sacrifices. Some of those gods wanted to be served by burning your children in the fire. Some of those gods wanted to be served all sorts of different ways. But ultimately those gods really don't do anything for anybody. They just want you to serve them. And the people serve them so that things don't go bad for themselves. And you contrast that with the God who says, you know what? I made everything. And I own everything. And I need nothing from you. And in fact, not only do I not need you to serve me, but I'm going to serve you. And so you can look at this. In Isaiah 42 and 49 it talks about in quotes you say, the servant of the Lord, who is going to be sent on a mission. And this mission is for all the nations, not just Israel, for all the nations. You can look at Isaiah 50, says the servant will be persecuted. People will believe in him. And then look at Isaiah 52. This is why our old buddy Jerome, way, way, way back, early church fathers said that Isaiah is almost like the fifth gospel. Okay? Isaiah 52, look at verse 13. "Behold my servant, my servant," right? We're trusting the God who serves. "My servant shall act wisely. He shall be high and lifted up and shall be exalted." As many were as astonished at you, his appearance was so marred beyond human semblance and his form beyond that of the children of mankind. So shall he sprinkle many nations, kings shall shut their mouths because of him. For that which has not been told they see, and that which they have not heard they understand. Who has believed what he has heard from us? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? For he grew up before him like a young plant, like a root out of dry ground. He had no form or majesty that we should look at him, no beauty that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And as one from whom men hide their faces, he was despised and we esteemed him not. Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows, yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. Upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray. We've turned everyone to his own way, and the Lord has laid on him, the servant, the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed, he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth, like a lamb that has led to the slaughter, and like sheep, that before it shearers a silent, so he opened not his mouth. By oppression and judgment he was taken away and asked for his generation, who considered that he was cut off out of the land of the living, stricken for the transgression of my people. They made his grave with the wicked and with the rich man in his death, although he had done no violence, and there was no deceit in his mouth, yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him. He has put him to grief. When his soul makes an offering for guilt he shall see his offspring, he shall prolong his days. The will of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied. By his knowledge shall the righteous one my servant make many to be accounted righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities. Therefore I'll divide him a portion with the many, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong, because he poured out his soul to death, and he was numbered with the transgressors. Yet he bore the sins of many, and he makes intercession for the transgressors. That's the ultimate picture of how God came to serve his people. Lots of small pictures in Isaiah of what God says he's going to do for them. This is the big one, and you see, I hope clearly, how that points you straight to Jesus, and how you understand why Jerome would call this the fifth gospel account. Because it's describing Jesus, the servant of the Lord, who came to die for your sins, for my sins, to be crushed so that we could be accounted as righteous. That's the difference between these options you have. You can worship one of the idols, and what they want you to do is serve them so that they don't do bad things to you. Or you can worship the Lord who has served you even though you have done bad things to him. It's completely different. Works based, grace based. We serve, we trust the God who came to serve us. Lastly, number five, we trust the God who restores and who recreates. You can read, we're not going to read it for the sake of time, but you can just look through Isaiah 65. And Isaiah 66 and Isaiah, these last couple chapters of Isaiah, they talk about God restoring and recreating. And we'll just read one little section. And when you read Isaiah, look at Isaiah 65, beginning in verse 17. When you read this, if you've ever read the ending to the book of Revelation, you're saying, "Ah, John wasn't as creative as I thought he was. He's just talking about what Isaiah wrote down. He just saw a glimpse of what Isaiah saw. They're talking about the exact same thing. Isaiah 65, 17, "Behold, I create new heavens and a new earth, and the former things shall not be remembered or come into mind, but be glad and rejoice forever in that which I create. Behold, I create Jerusalem to be a joy and are people to be a gladness. I will rejoice in Jerusalem and be glad in my people. No more shall be heard in it the sound of weeping and the cry of distress. No more shall there be in it an infant who lives but a few days, or an old man who does not fill out his days. For the young man shall die a hundred years and the sinner a hundred years old shall be accursed. They shall build houses and inhabit them, plant vineyards and eat their fruit. They shall not build in another inhabit, they shall not plant in another eat. Like the days of the tree shall the days of my people be, and my chosen shall long enjoy the work of their hands. They shall not labor in vain, you think back to Genesis 3 and the fall, and God cursing the ground and saying thorns and thistles and the sweat of your brow and dust to dust. Work is going to be hard and he says it's not going to be like that. They won't labor in vain. They won't bear children for calamity. They shall be offspring of the blessed of the Lord and their descendants with them. Before they call I will answer while they're yet speaking I will hear the wolf and the lamb shall graze together and the lion shall eat straw like the ox and dust shall be the serpent's food. They shall not hurt or destroy in all my holy mountains as the Lord. And you can read more in the last few chapters of Isaiah but it talks about God restoring and God creating. So there you go that's Isaiah, it's a simple book, it's a long book and we certainly didn't cover every small detail but that gives you a big picture of the book. The question is who will you trust? Are you going to trust in yourself? Are you going to trust in your stuff? Are you going to trust in idols? Are you going to trust God and trust in his word? And hopefully that is your heart tonight. So I'll pray and then we'll wrap up Isaiah. Father we're grateful for your word and we pray tonight that you would strengthen our faith in your word. And we know that there are many among us where we live who laugh at your word and mock your word and try to explain away your word, try to change your word. And Father we want to be people who simply believe it. And we may not be able to answer every question or win every debate but we want to trust your word and rest on it. And Father when we come to your word ultimately it points us to you. We don't see a call to try to be good enough for you, we don't see a call to try to serve you and earn your favor but we see amazing grace. In the Old Testament and the New Testament from beginning to end we see your grace and your love and your mercy. And we are amazed that despite our sin and our stubbornness that you sent your son to serve us by giving his life as a ransom for ours, by being crushed for our iniquities, by being wounded for our transgressions. Father our hope is in you. Our hope is in what you are doing in our lives as individuals in forgiving us and sending us out to speak for you. Father our hope is ultimately in what you are doing and what you promised to do in restoring and recreating what has gone wrong because of our sin. And we read in Isaiah about the New Heavens and the New Earth and we read in Revelation about the New Heavens and the New Earth Father and we long for that city. We read the descriptions and we remember that this is not our home, that we were not made for a place that is in this kind of condition and we long to be with you and to walk with you and to enjoy creation as you intended it to be. So until you are ready to bring these last things about we pray for faith in you and faith in your word and we pray in the name of our servant Jesus who died our death and paid the penalty for our sin. Amen.