back to index12-16-15 Wed Bible Study
00:00:00.000 |
But if you look at chapter 11, chapter 11 verse 1 through 9 is basically about the Messiah 00:00:10.040 |
coming. The child's going to be born, what it's going to be like. So the question that 00:00:13.680 |
I ask is, "Describe the promise of hope given to Israel through the roots of Jesse in verses 00:00:17.760 |
1 through 5." So what I would like you to do is, because you have three weeks, you don't 00:00:23.560 |
need to do Thursday just Thursday. You can take Thursday and Friday just to meditate 00:00:30.080 |
this chapter, chapter 11, 1 through 9. And if you look at the second question, it says, 00:00:34.720 |
"Name specific things that you remember in the life and person of Jesus that fulfills 00:00:39.160 |
these promises specifically." So if you took time and actually went through this, you could 00:00:44.600 |
probably find about 10 to 15 things that are actually fulfilled in Christ. And I'm not 00:00:49.120 |
talking about like, "Okay, he's going to bring peace." Yes, he was peaceful. You know what 00:00:53.760 |
I mean? Like Jesus came and he didn't go to war. You can do that off the top of your head. 00:00:58.240 |
Or what I really encourage you to do is take the opportunity that you have as we are headed 00:01:03.600 |
toward Christmas and preparing for the Christmas day and to get your heart ready. I know some 00:01:08.720 |
of you moms have been copying the Advent texts every day. But what I really want you guys 00:01:15.320 |
to do is take that opportunity from now until Christmas and really meditate on, in particular, 00:01:21.880 |
this text, chapter 11, and go through each detail. So give me an example. "There shall 00:01:27.040 |
come forth shoot from the stump of Jesse, the branch from his roots shall bear fruit." 00:01:31.960 |
So, okay, so in what way did he come? Okay, take some time to look through the genealogy 00:01:38.220 |
of Matthew chapter 1 and what are some highlights. "And the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon 00:01:43.880 |
him, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding." So in what part of Jesus' life do you recognize 00:01:50.840 |
that in the Gospels, right? Where was it clearly evident of his wisdom? Where was it clearly 00:01:56.240 |
evident of the Spirit being upon him that he was a great counselor? Knowledge and fear 00:02:02.800 |
of the Lord was upon him. Where is that fulfilled in Jesus' life? "His light shall be in the 00:02:07.680 |
fear of the Lord. He shall not judge by what his eyes sees." So in other words, that he 00:02:11.560 |
didn't just consider what was right and wrong based upon what everybody else saw, he saw 00:02:15.800 |
beyond that, right? So where are these examples? So some of you guys, or a lot of you guys 00:02:20.920 |
may know just off the top of your head and say, you could probably think of an example, 00:02:25.240 |
and you say, "Oh, he did this, and this is an example." But what I want you guys to do 00:02:29.320 |
is take time to comb through the Gospels and see how much of this you can find in the New 00:02:35.440 |
Testament. Do you get my question? Okay? Now if I ask you to do this on a normal week, 00:02:40.320 |
obviously that would be way too much for you to do, but because this is really three weeks, 00:02:45.840 |
right? You can take a whole week just doing this, right? So you don't have to follow Thursday, 00:02:51.200 |
Friday, Saturday, I just labeled it like that, but I really want you guys to take some time 00:02:55.480 |
to really wrestle through Chapter 11. So even if it takes you a week and a half to two weeks 00:02:59.580 |
just to do Chapter 11. But by the time you get to Chapter 12, Chapter 12, 13, will go 00:03:06.640 |
by pretty quick. More Chapter 13. So by the time you get to Tuesday, Wednesday, those 00:03:13.200 |
questions are a lot like the other questions that you have. It's pretty straightforward. 00:03:18.480 |
If you read it and you put some thought into it, you can answer it pretty quick. But Chapter 00:03:23.120 |
11 and Chapter 12 require some meditation. Okay? You get it? Okay. So, again, I'm going 00:03:31.560 |
to say it again. The memory verse, please jot it down if you don't have it, the memory 00:03:35.200 |
verse for the next three weeks is Isaiah Chapter 11, verses 1 through 5. Okay? So I made it 00:03:41.760 |
short on purpose. Because it's three weeks worth. It should have been like six verses, 00:03:47.600 |
but I gave you five. So you're welcome. Okay? Yeah. So just, I think, you know, obviously, 00:03:56.560 |
it just kind of, I didn't plan that way. It's like, oh, we're going to land on Chapter 11 00:03:59.640 |
when we take Christmas break. But God sovereignly planned it that way, right? We believe in 00:04:03.800 |
predestination. So it's been predestined. So take some time to do that. Okay? All right. 00:04:12.080 |
All the papers have been handed out. So if you didn't get one to fill out, just raise 00:04:17.400 |
your hand and there's plenty left over on the tables. And then if you ask for an electronic 00:04:25.000 |
copy and you didn't get one, that means for whatever reason, I didn't, you're not on the 00:04:29.000 |
list. So you need to ask, you need to tell me. Okay? Did you ask? Okay. Anyway, whoever 00:04:37.200 |
asked and you didn't get it, let me know. When I'm done with the teaching, I'll go back 00:04:41.040 |
and I'll add you and I'll send it to you. Okay. All right. So we're in Chapter 9 and 00:04:49.440 |
11. All right, let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you for this evening. We thank you, 00:05:03.680 |
Lord God, for your graciousness. We thank you, Lord God, for your love that sustains 00:05:09.120 |
and guides us that despite our shortcomings, we thank you that you motivate us and inspire 00:05:16.080 |
us by your humility, by your grace. And we ask Lord God that as we study your word, help 00:05:22.680 |
us Lord that whatever thoughts that we have of who you are, how you view your people, 00:05:29.360 |
your righteousness, holiness, your judgment, that all of these things, Lord God, would 00:05:34.600 |
not be based upon our own prejudice or things that we may have heard or imagined, but that 00:05:39.920 |
our thoughts may be renewed by your living word, that whether it is your grace or your 00:05:45.680 |
severity, that all of it would be founded and washed according to your word. And so 00:05:51.320 |
for that end, we pray for your blessing. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. All right. So we're 00:05:58.640 |
looking at Chapter 10, 9 and 10. And not all the chapters break out in this kind of neat 00:06:03.800 |
order, but Chapter 9 and 10 happens to work out that way. All right. Can you check in 00:06:34.440 |
All right. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. 00:07:24.800 |
That's good. That's good. That's good. That's good. That's good. That's good. That's good. 00:07:54.480 |
Thank you. Okay. Hey, you know what? I forgot. Did you guys check up on your memory? All 00:08:14.840 |
right. You're going to have to do that at the end. All right. When you guys get together 00:08:19.840 |
in your group, you guys can check up on your memory. All right. So Matthew 10, 28, Jesus 00:08:26.680 |
says, "And do not fear those who kill the body, but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear 00:08:30.560 |
him who can destroy both soul and body in hell." And this probably summarizes verse 00:08:36.280 |
Chapter 9 and 10, where Chapter 9 is again, a judgment upon the nation of Israel, even 00:08:43.920 |
though the beginning of it, we talk about his promise of the coming Messiah. But Chapter 00:08:49.040 |
9, after that, it pretty much to Chapter 10, verse 4, is judgment coming upon the nation 00:08:54.720 |
of Israel. Right? And basically what does he say? In the end, the judgment that came, 00:08:59.560 |
the Assyrians came and they conquered you. But who is the ultimate judge? Who is he telling 00:09:05.920 |
them to fear? God, right? It's not the Assyrians that you should fear. You should fear God. 00:09:10.560 |
And then Chapter 10 talks about to the Assyrians, how even though they conquered, ultimately 00:09:15.520 |
judgment is coming upon them because they didn't recognize who the real God was. Right? 00:09:20.680 |
So in the end, I think Chapter 10, 28, Matthew 10, 28, pretty much summarizes what the teaching 00:09:26.260 |
that he's about to teach in Chapter 9 and 10. Okay. So again, just like last week, we're 00:09:31.600 |
going to go down the questions and some of the questions are going to be obviously pretty 00:09:35.080 |
easy. Some of them I'm going to spend a little bit more time. The first one is, "What change 00:09:40.480 |
from their present condition does Isaiah predict in 9, 1, and 2?" And so again, if you look 00:09:46.120 |
at it, Chapter 9, "But there will be no gloom for who was in anguish in the former time 00:09:52.340 |
he brought into contempt the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali. But in the latter 00:09:56.760 |
time he has made glorious the way of the sea and land beyond Jordan, Galilee of the nations. 00:10:01.800 |
The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light. Those who dwelt in the land, 00:10:05.520 |
deep darkness on them has light shine." So if you look at it, the territories that are 00:10:11.840 |
mentioned Zebulun and Naphtali was the starting point of a serious conquest of Israel. So 00:10:17.320 |
in other words, he's saying that these lands that were conquered, right, in former time 00:10:26.480 |
he brought into contempt the land of Zebulun, but in latter time he made it glorious. So 00:10:30.880 |
he's going to turn it around, right? So he's about to introduce the solution to their problem. 00:10:37.240 |
So "Though Israel has experienced gloom and anguish, God will defeat their enemies and 00:10:41.200 |
turn gloom into joy, darkness will turn into great light." So he's, again, he's setting 00:10:45.800 |
it up for the coming of the Messiah. "So in what ways is the coming of the kingdom of 00:10:55.960 |
justice and righteousness mentioned in 9.7?" So again, you know, the whole point of all 00:11:01.280 |
of this is he's bringing relief, right, for the judgment that came upon the nation of 00:11:07.320 |
Israel. That the poor and the helpless, they were widowed, and again, because it was institutional 00:11:13.680 |
oppression, when the Messiah comes, he says the government is going to be ruling, God's 00:11:18.760 |
going to be ruling in fairness and justice and righteousness, right? So again, you think 00:11:28.960 |
about the Messiah, the Messiah's going to come and he's going to not only affect individually, 00:11:33.800 |
but he's going to affect the society, right? So God's solution to a violent nation's conquest 00:11:40.040 |
is not greater army. So he's saying, is it hard to see? There's nothing I can do about 00:11:50.680 |
it now. Can you, are you going to? Huh? If you change the background to like white? No, 00:12:01.480 |
no, no, then the text will turn, because there's no color in the text, it'll just turn to black, 00:12:09.920 |
I think. Really, you can't see? No, but you can't see? You can see it? Sang, can you see 00:12:22.960 |
it? No. Actually, that's a young, fresh group on this side. Can you guys see it? Oh, you 00:12:32.880 |
can't see it either? Okay. Just switch the background to white or beige. All right, I'll 00:12:39.560 |
never use that again. I used black before, you guys had no problem. Black was okay, but 00:12:45.840 |
blue and red is no good? Okay. Note to self. Is that better? Did you just turn it black 00:12:54.280 |
or did you turn it white? Okay. All right. So that's better. Yeah? Okay, very good. So 00:13:16.800 |
what I want you to notice is, God basically tells the nation of Israel that a superpower 00:13:22.120 |
has come and they destroyed you, and here are the cities, and at one point they were 00:13:25.760 |
destroyed, but God's going to turn it into joy, and then all of this is a setup for the 00:13:30.880 |
Messiah is going to come. Messiah is going to come and do this, right? He says His name 00:13:35.280 |
is going to be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of 00:13:40.440 |
Peace. Now, what's unique about this is that obviously, you know, oftentimes names in the 00:13:46.480 |
Bible are used to kind of characterize what God's going to do, or it would say, you know, 00:13:53.080 |
God will save, God will provide, and so God's name is in a lot of people's names. But the 00:13:58.920 |
title that is given to the Messiah that's coming is not just about God is going to come 00:14:03.760 |
and do this, or God's going to judge, or God's going to deliver. It actually is just a name 00:14:08.940 |
of God. Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. So obviously, you 00:14:15.840 |
know, us in the covenant on this side, we look at this, and this is not just a title 00:14:19.600 |
of Jesus. This is Jesus. This is who He is, right? And part of the reason why we believe 00:14:24.640 |
that He's the second person of the Trinity. This title cannot be given to just anybody, 00:14:31.120 |
right? And so the hope that He's going to bring to the Messiah is not freedom. He doesn't 00:14:37.400 |
simply say that here's the oppressor, He came and He's ruling over you. He said, but the 00:14:42.400 |
Messiah is going to come, and He's going to rule over you, right? So the answer to oppression 00:14:49.000 |
is not another king that's going to conquer, I mean, is going to come and conquer, get 00:14:53.400 |
rid of them, and so you can be free to do whatever you want, right? He says the answer 00:14:58.120 |
to the oppressor is to bring a good king. Not no king, but a good king, right? And that's, 00:15:06.480 |
again, oftentimes as Christians, what we miss, you know, concerning our sanctification, the 00:15:11.960 |
second aspect about our salvation is not, we're not just freed from sin. What does the 00:15:17.360 |
Bible say? We're freed from sin. We were once slaves of sin, and we've been freed from that, 00:15:22.840 |
and now we're slaves of what? Slaves of righteousness. So we were once under the dominion of darkness, 00:15:29.320 |
now we're under the dominion of the light. We were once under Satanic kingdom, but now 00:15:35.120 |
we're under the kingdom of Jesus, right? So the answer to the oppression isn't freedom 00:15:41.560 |
to do whatever you want. It is to be, to have a ruler that is good and just, right? And 00:15:49.080 |
that's how the Messiah is described for us. Why is the judgment coming upon the nation 00:15:57.660 |
of Israel? So from this point on, basically God is describing to Israel, here's what has 00:16:04.160 |
happened. There's four reasons are given, between chapter 9, 8 to chapter 10, verse 00:16:09.440 |
4. How would you describe the first section, verses 8 through 12? Now how do we know there's 00:16:24.960 |
four separate ones? At the end of each one of these four, how does it end? Okay, so if 00:16:38.160 |
you've read it through, you should have noticed that that phrase is repeated at the end of 00:16:43.080 |
every one of these judgments, right? So the first section is in verse 8 through 12. So 00:16:49.020 |
what is the sin, first sin that's mentioned? Pride, right? Or arrogance. And how was their 00:16:59.520 |
pride and arrogance described? How was their pride manifested in verses 8 through 12? Right. 00:17:28.560 |
So, the first one is pride. Pride is the wisdom of this world. So, the first one is pride. 00:17:35.560 |
Pride is the wisdom of this world. So, the first one is pride. Pride is the wisdom of 00:17:40.600 |
this world. So, the first one is pride. Pride is the wisdom of this world. So, the second 00:17:46.400 |
one is pride. Pride is the wisdom of this world. So, the second one is pride. Pride 00:17:51.520 |
is the wisdom of this world. So, the third one is pride. Pride is the wisdom of this 00:17:57.640 |
world. So, the third one is pride. Pride is the wisdom of this world. So, the fourth one 00:18:04.640 |
is pride. Pride is the wisdom of this world. So, the fifth one is pride. Pride is the wisdom 00:18:11.640 |
of this world. So, the sixth one is pride. Pride is the wisdom of this world. So, the 00:18:16.800 |
seventh one is pride. Pride is the wisdom of this world. So, the eighth one is pride. 00:18:21.640 |
Pride is the wisdom of this world. So, the ninth one is pride. Pride is the wisdom of 00:18:26.640 |
this world. So, the ninth one is pride. Pride is the wisdom of this world. So, the tenth 00:18:31.640 |
one is pride. Pride is the wisdom of this world. So, the eleventh one is pride. Pride 00:18:36.640 |
is the wisdom of this world. So, the twelfth one is pride. Pride is the wisdom of this 00:18:41.640 |
world. So, the twelfth one is pride. Pride is the wisdom of this world. So, the twelfth 00:18:46.640 |
one is pride. Pride is the wisdom of this world. So, the twelfth one is pride. Pride 00:18:51.640 |
is the wisdom of this world. So, the twelfth one is pride. Pride is the wisdom of this 00:18:56.640 |
world. So, the twelfth one is pride. Pride is the wisdom of this world. So, the twelfth 00:19:01.640 |
one is pride. Pride is the wisdom of this world. So, the twelfth one is pride. Pride 00:19:06.640 |
is the wisdom of this world. So, the twelfth one is pride. Pride is the wisdom of this 00:19:11.640 |
world. So, the twelfth one is pride. Pride is the wisdom of this world. So, the twelfth 00:19:16.640 |
one is pride. Pride is the wisdom of this world. So, the twelfth one is pride. Pride 00:19:21.640 |
is the wisdom of this world. So, the twelfth one is pride. Pride is the wisdom of this 00:19:26.640 |
world. So, the twelfth one is pride. Pride is the wisdom of this world. So, the twelfth 00:19:31.640 |
one is pride. Pride is the wisdom of this world. So, the twelfth one is pride. Pride 00:19:36.640 |
is the wisdom of this world. So, the twelfth one is pride. Pride is the wisdom of this 00:19:41.640 |
world. So, the twelfth one is pride. Pride is the wisdom of this world. So, the twelfth 00:19:46.640 |
one is pride. Pride is the wisdom of this world. So, the twelfth one is pride. Pride 00:19:51.640 |
is the wisdom of this world. So, the twelfth one is pride. Pride is the wisdom of this 00:19:56.640 |
world. So, the twelfth one is pride. Pride is the wisdom of this world. So, the twelfth 00:20:01.640 |
one is pride. Pride is the wisdom of this world. So, the twelfth one is pride. Pride 00:20:06.640 |
is the wisdom of this world. So, the twelfth one is pride. Pride is the wisdom of this 00:20:11.640 |
world. So, the twelfth one is pride. Pride is the wisdom of this world. So, the twelfth 00:20:16.640 |
one is pride. Pride is the wisdom of this world. So, the twelfth one is pride. Pride 00:20:21.640 |
is the wisdom of this world. So, the twelfth one is pride. Pride is the wisdom of this 00:20:26.640 |
world. So, the twelfth one is pride. Pride is the wisdom of this world. So, the twelfth 00:20:31.640 |
one is pride. Pride is the wisdom of this world. So, the twelfth one is pride. Pride 00:20:36.640 |
is the wisdom of this world. So, the twelfth one is pride. Pride is the wisdom of this 00:20:41.640 |
world. So, the twelfth one is pride. Pride is the wisdom of this world. So, the twelfth 00:20:46.640 |
one is pride. Pride is the wisdom of this world. So, the twelfth one is pride. Pride 00:20:51.640 |
is the wisdom of this world. So, the twelfth one is pride. Pride is the wisdom of this 00:20:56.640 |
world. So, the twelfth one is pride. Pride is the wisdom of this world. So, the twelfth 00:21:01.640 |
one is pride. Pride is the wisdom of this world. So, the twelfth one is pride. Pride 00:21:06.640 |
is the wisdom of this world. So, the twelfth one is pride. Pride is the wisdom of this 00:21:11.640 |
world. So, the twelfth one is pride. Pride is the wisdom of this world. So, the twelfth 00:21:16.640 |
one is pride. Pride is the wisdom of this world. So, the twelfth one is pride. Pride 00:21:21.640 |
is the wisdom of this world. So, the twelfth one is pride. Pride is the wisdom of this 00:21:26.640 |
world. So, the twelfth one is pride. Pride is the wisdom of this world. So, the twelfth 00:21:31.640 |
one is pride. Pride is the wisdom of this world. So, the twelfth one is pride. Pride 00:21:36.640 |
is the wisdom of this world. So, the twelfth one is pride. Pride is the wisdom of this 00:21:41.640 |
world. So, the twelfth one is pride. Pride is the wisdom of this world. So, the twelfth 00:21:46.640 |
one is pride. Well, the first round came, the Assyrians came and they basically come 00:21:53.640 |
to destroy them. They're not completely destroyed, but Assyria comes and they conquer 00:21:57.640 |
them in some sense. Not completely, not Judah, right? But the northern kingdom is gone, and 00:22:03.640 |
they're coming, and now they're going to turn on the southern kingdom. They're 00:22:06.640 |
attacking them. So, that's the first round, right? And instead of humbling them, they 00:22:11.640 |
become proud and say, "No, we're going to do it right this time." Right? But 00:22:16.640 |
instead of Assyria, who else is coming? Well, that's later, in the text. Look in 00:22:24.640 |
the text. Okay? What are the nations that are mentioned? Right? Look at the verses. 00:22:35.640 |
Philistines, all the other adversaries, the ones who are enemies of Assyria will 00:22:43.640 |
become your enemies as well. So, not only Assyria, but the other smaller nations, 00:22:48.640 |
right? At some point, they were superpowers. They're going to come and get you now. 00:22:51.640 |
Right? In other words, God is saying, remember how it ends? Right? For this is, 00:22:59.640 |
for all this, His anger has not turned away, and His hand is stretched out still. 00:23:04.640 |
In other words, judgment is, the period of judgment is not over. The Assyrian 00:23:08.640 |
period is over, but now the Philistines and the other nations are going to come. 00:23:12.640 |
Right? And then ultimately, when you have a nation that is divided and sinful, 00:23:20.640 |
they're devouring each other. Right? And that typically is right before any 00:23:32.640 |
organization, any family, any group, any friendship that ends, it usually starts 00:23:37.640 |
with something, you know, and it causes turmoil, and then they infight, and then 00:23:42.640 |
infighting is what unravels. And that's how God describes the nation of Israel. 00:23:46.640 |
Right? And in the end, who's doing all of this? What's God's point? Who's doing all 00:23:56.640 |
of this? God. Right? God is saying, He's using these adversaries to come and do 00:24:04.640 |
that, but in the end, part of the reason why judgment is coming is because you 00:24:08.640 |
don't recognize, I'm behind all of this. Right? Remember how they first responded 00:24:13.640 |
when judgment started coming, when the other nations started coming? Remember in 00:24:17.640 |
the very beginning of Isaiah? How did they initially respond? Yes? But think 00:24:24.640 |
about the text. Think about the text that we're looking at in Chapter 1, the 00:24:27.640 |
beginning. Remember? Look at Chapter 1. You only have to flip three pages, and 00:24:36.640 |
what happens? What was their response to the initial judgment that came? What is 00:24:45.640 |
he angry about? I hate superficial religion, like activity at the temple. 00:24:57.640 |
And he said, what is all of that to me? So the initial response was, hey, maybe go 00:25:02.640 |
to the temple and offer sacrifices and give prayer, and he says, what is all of 00:25:06.640 |
that to me when your heart is still filthy and dirty? Right? Your prayers are 00:25:10.640 |
meaningless, because what he wants is repentance. Right? You don't repent, and 00:25:16.640 |
you do more religious activity. All it does is anger God even further. Right? So 00:25:21.640 |
that was their initial response, and so one of the things that they did is, let's 00:25:25.640 |
be more religious. And that's part of that pride. We're going to do it right this 00:25:28.640 |
time. Let's establish the right leaders this time. Let's do it right this time. 00:25:32.640 |
Right? Instead, God's saying, you don't realize that I'm the one behind this. 00:25:36.640 |
Right? And part of the reason why he's not done with his judgment is because it 00:25:43.640 |
didn't lead you to where God wanted you to go, which is to be broken and 00:25:47.640 |
recognize that God is God. Right? Again, we talked about that, right? And that's 00:25:56.640 |
the theme of basically Chapter 10. That's the theme of his judgment. It's not 00:26:00.640 |
like he's not just poking. Remember we talked about that? Just as his grace and 00:26:05.640 |
mercy is thorough, so is his judgment. The purpose of judgment wasn't just slap 00:26:10.640 |
on the hand. Right? The rebellion of Israel was so deep, and their hearts were 00:26:17.640 |
so hardened, that God had to come and hit them over and over and over again. 00:26:22.640 |
Right? So that's how hardened they were. So when the judgment first came, they 00:26:27.640 |
didn't even see it as judgment. They said, maybe if we strategize. Maybe if we, 00:26:31.640 |
you know, connect it with Assyria or Egypt or whatever. And they were trying to 00:26:35.640 |
strategize, using every resource that they had to think that if they were just 00:26:39.640 |
smart enough, we can get out of this. And they went to religiousness. They aligned 00:26:43.640 |
themselves with other people. They got, you know, they tried to establish the 00:26:47.640 |
right leaders. And none of that works. Right? Because in the end, the point that 00:26:51.640 |
God's trying to make is, you don't recognize that I'm the one. Until you 00:26:55.640 |
come before me, humble yourself, and repent. Right? God's judgment will be, 00:26:59.640 |
will remain. Chapter 11, he transitions now, not only is Israel wrong, now the 00:27:11.640 |
Assyrians are now getting arrogant. Right? Not recognizing that God is allowing 00:27:17.640 |
them to become a power. And how does God describe the Assyrians? As is what? 00:27:27.640 |
As a tool. It's just an axe that God is wielding to do his work. But the tool 00:27:33.640 |
begins to think, right? That they're sovereign. Say, hey, we conquered Israel, 00:27:39.640 |
so we're more powerful than your God. So, basically what God is saying to the 00:27:43.640 |
nation of Israel is, God's going to humble you. And you see that the only 00:27:47.640 |
reason why you were powerful is because God was using you as an axe. Right? Now 00:27:51.640 |
God's going to turn his anger toward you. Right? So again, the wrath of God is now 00:27:57.640 |
directed to Assyrians, who became proud that they were above God of Israel since 00:28:01.640 |
they conquered them. Right? Not realizing, right, that God is not done with 00:28:09.640 |
Israel. God still favors Israel over Assyria. But even though there's 00:28:15.640 |
judgment upon them, God uses Assyria to bring judgment. Right? But that's still 00:28:20.640 |
his child. It's kind of like, you know, if I took my kid to daycare or something 00:28:26.640 |
and he's acting up and I tell the teacher, I say, "Hey, spank him if he gets out of 00:28:30.640 |
line." And the teacher starts to spank him. He's like, "Dude, this is fun." You 00:28:34.640 |
know what I mean? And he goes out of line and he starts spanking him and spanking 00:28:38.640 |
him. You know what I mean? He said, "Well, I told you not to do this." And then 00:28:41.640 |
the dad shows up. He's like, "What are you doing?" Right? He said, "You told me 00:28:46.640 |
to spank him." He said, "No, to discipline him. What you're doing is beating him 00:28:50.640 |
up. Now you're abusing him." Right? And so basically that's the picture here. 00:28:54.640 |
Assyria comes in, spanking a nation of Israel, not recognizing it's because God 00:28:59.640 |
is allowing him to do that. And then these guys start becoming arrogant, thinking 00:29:03.640 |
like, "Now these guys are all under me." And then he starts abusing them. And the 00:29:06.640 |
father shows up. He's like, "No." Right? "Now you're going to be judged." And 00:29:11.640 |
that's chapter 11, or chapter 10. Two conclusions are given through this 00:29:16.640 |
passage. The judgment God allowed to the Assyrians was temporary. It wasn't 00:29:21.640 |
permanent. Right? God wasn't done with the nation of Israel. And that's what 00:29:26.640 |
he's trying to, he's going to remind Assyria, "Those are still my people." 00:29:29.640 |
Even though, because of their sin, they're being disciplined. Right? Assyria 00:29:34.640 |
was not operating independently of God's sovereign plan. They were serving God's 00:29:38.640 |
ultimate purpose. Right? So again, if you read 5 and 6, it says, "Ah, Assyria, the rod of my 00:29:47.640 |
anger, the staff in their hands is my fury. Against godless nation I send him, 00:29:52.640 |
and against the people of my wrath I command him to take spoil and seize 00:29:55.640 |
plunder, and to tread them down like the mire of the street." In other words, 00:29:58.640 |
everything that you were able to do is because I allowed you. Right? But he does 00:30:04.640 |
not so intend, and his heart does not so think, but it is in his heart to destroy, 00:30:08.640 |
and to cut off nations, not a few. In other words, God allowed you to do this, but now 00:30:13.640 |
you're getting carried away. You're being abusive with your power. Right? That's 00:30:16.640 |
basically what he's saying. So what would God do? What is the judgment that he's 00:30:24.640 |
going to bring to the nation of Israel, or Assyria? Again, the first four cities, 00:30:30.640 |
you know how we talked about the beginning of the judgment upon Israel 00:30:34.640 |
mentions the cities. The beginning of the judgment upon Assyria mentions the cities. 00:30:38.640 |
These are the cities, 9 were mentioned in verse 9, were all fortresses, cities in 00:30:44.640 |
the northwestern Syria, the outpost of Damascus. These cities were trophies of 00:30:49.640 |
boast for the king of Assyria. Okay, that's why all the cities are mentioned. 00:30:53.640 |
And God says, "God will humble the arrogance of Syria, Syria's king, and 00:30:59.640 |
wipe out the pride look in their eyes." Okay, and God's going to humble you now. 00:31:10.640 |
In what way was he deluded in his conquest of Judah? So all of these things, 00:31:18.640 |
verse 13 to 15, let's look at that. He said, "For he says, 'By the strength of my 00:31:25.640 |
hand I have done it.'" In other words, this is Assyria talking about himself. 00:31:29.640 |
The nation is saying, or the king, "By the strength of my hand I have done it, 00:31:34.640 |
and by my wisdom I have understanding. I remove the boundaries of peoples and 00:31:38.640 |
plunder their treasures. Like a bull I bring down those who sit on thrones. 00:31:43.640 |
My hand has found like a nest the wealth of the peoples, and as one gathers eggs 00:31:49.640 |
that have been forsaken. So I have gathered all the earth, and there was 00:31:52.640 |
none that moved a wing, or opened a mouth, or chirped." Right? So, again, that's 00:31:57.640 |
a description of Assyria. Because he experiences all the success, basically 00:32:01.640 |
he's saying, "I did this. I can move boundaries. I can get these people. 00:32:05.640 |
I can basically do whatever I want." Right? And so, therefore, God comes and he 00:32:09.640 |
says he's going to humble them. So, again, we see parallels even in the New 00:32:15.640 |
Testament. The temptation is when, you know, the temptation for the nation of 00:32:21.640 |
Israel was even when they were being judged, not recognizing that God's hand 00:32:26.640 |
is upon the judgment. Right? And then the way that he tries to get out of the 00:32:30.640 |
judgment is by working harder, being smarter. Right? And so, in that way, 00:32:35.640 |
they're being judged even more because God's not done. So, because my discipline 00:32:39.640 |
isn't working, you're not submitting, so more judgment is coming. Assyria, 00:32:43.640 |
judgment is coming for the exact opposite reason. They enjoy all this success, 00:32:48.640 |
not recognizing your success is because God was behind you. Right? So, you see 00:32:53.640 |
the opposite? And the same thing with us. Right? When we don't succeed in 00:32:59.640 |
something, I mean, we have a tendency to be humble, but a lot of times, what does 00:33:04.640 |
that happen? You know, what happens? We're going to work harder. You know? 00:33:09.640 |
We're going to make some adjustments. We're going to be wiser. We're going to, 00:33:12.640 |
you know, seek better counsel. And we do everything except humble ourselves 00:33:17.640 |
before God. And as a result of that, more judgment comes. Or, you're very 00:33:23.640 |
successful at something. Right? And I think that can happen, like, I think it's 00:33:27.640 |
the arrogance of man, which is every time, and this could be true as a church. 00:33:33.640 |
It can be true as an individual. This can be true as a family. If you've 00:33:37.640 |
succeeded in anything, right, there's always a danger to think that it was you. 00:33:44.640 |
There's always a danger to think that it was you. God says, all you are is an 00:33:48.640 |
instrument in His hands. Think about whatever you've succeeded in, how much of 00:33:54.640 |
that is based upon you are at the right place at the right time, with the right 00:34:00.640 |
people. No matter how smart you are, no matter how successful you were as a 00:34:06.640 |
businessman, if the economy happened to tank, your business is going to tank, 00:34:10.640 |
too. Right? Anyway, you know what I'm saying, right? I think sometimes success 00:34:19.640 |
has more damage, has more damaging effect than even when we fail. Right? 00:34:25.640 |
Because it makes us proud. And once we're proud, God's out. You can say God, you 00:34:30.640 |
can pray, you can do all these religious things, but in your heart, you don't need 00:34:33.640 |
God. Right? And that's why when you go to poor countries, like, people are so 00:34:39.640 |
hung up on prayer. And we can just kind of write that off, oh, it's because they're 00:34:44.640 |
mystical. You know, they're mystical. We're not mystical. We're Western. We're 00:34:47.640 |
all about logic and study and all of that. That's not it. It's because they 00:34:52.640 |
recognize, right, they recognize that they can't without God. Because they don't have 00:34:58.640 |
other stuff to be proud of. So sometimes they see more clearly. But I think, you 00:35:02.640 |
know, what makes us proud is, the number one thing that makes us proud is money. 00:35:08.640 |
Right? Because money can solve a lot of problems. Money can, you know, get you 00:35:15.640 |
what you want. Safety, security, friendship, whatever it is. Like, you can 00:35:20.640 |
get it. So people, that's why Jesus says it's hard for a rich man to enter into 00:35:25.640 |
the kingdom than camel eye of a needle. Something like that. Right? 00:35:32.640 |
And again, that's a temptation, is when we're successful. And again, like, when 00:35:36.640 |
the church is small, you know, we pray to God and say, God, help us. And as soon as 00:35:40.640 |
it gets big, you're going around telling people, like, this is how you should do 00:35:43.640 |
church. You know what I mean? Because isn't that part of, partly, like, what 00:35:48.640 |
makes a church, how is that any different than a small church? I don't know any 00:35:53.640 |
small church pastor who says, you know, we should pray. You know, it's because we 00:35:58.640 |
didn't pray like that big church. You know, it's because we didn't think 00:36:02.640 |
evangelism was important like that big church. That big church really thinks 00:36:07.640 |
evangelism is important. I don't know any small church that didn't know that. 00:36:13.640 |
Right? So, again, that's a temptation. Church gets big, write a book, what they 00:36:19.640 |
did, how they preached, how it was organized, and what it is, and say, and you 00:36:23.640 |
start copying that in Jesus' name. But in the end, it kind of takes us off of what 00:36:28.640 |
God, what God really wants, is for us to kind of take a step back and say, I'm 00:36:32.640 |
just an instrument. Right? And you could be an instrument. I mean, look at our 00:36:37.640 |
church. We do the exact same thing for 18 years. First eight years, no fruit. 00:36:44.640 |
Right? As far as humanly you can speak, right, there was no fruit whatsoever. 00:36:50.640 |
You do the exact same thing for the next 10 years, and all of a sudden, people 00:36:54.640 |
are gathering. So what are we doing right? And what did we do wrong the first eight 00:36:59.640 |
years? Right? If there's anything, I think what God was doing for the first eight 00:37:04.640 |
years is to teach one thing. It ain't you. Right? It ain't you. And if God's going to 00:37:12.640 |
bless anything, He's going to bless something, bless people, bless ministries, 00:37:16.640 |
and bless families. That's not going to touch His glory. Right? If there's 00:37:21.640 |
anything. Because ultimately, the best place for a church and individual to be 00:37:25.640 |
is to be humbled and recognize that we're just instruments. Right? I'm just a 00:37:30.640 |
mouthpiece. Right? And so if God gets the glory, that's where God wants to work. 00:37:34.640 |
That's where the fruit He wants. You know, it doesn't mean it's going to work that 00:37:38.640 |
way. He may say, oh, I'm going to bear fruit by humbling Him and making Him a 00:37:42.640 |
Jeremiah. Right? But if we want God to pay attention, we have to get out of the way. 00:37:47.640 |
Right? So that's the lesson that we see with Him. How is He going to bring 00:37:53.640 |
judgment? Very specific. He's going to bring sickness upon them. Right? That all 00:37:58.640 |
these stout warriors that they have, that they're relying on. Right? And I like the 00:38:03.640 |
way ESV translated that stout warriors. Like, in my mind, I picture very stocky 00:38:09.640 |
people. Right? Stocky warriors that you have, that you're so proud of, that you 00:38:14.640 |
think they're strong. God's going to humble all of them. Right? There's actually 00:38:18.640 |
in chapter 37, 36 to 38, Isaiah actually describes an event, historically took 00:38:25.640 |
place in 701 BC, where the king of Assyria comes to attack Hezekiah. And 00:38:30.640 |
overnight, God brings sickness upon them. And over 185,000 of them die. And then 00:38:36.640 |
they basically, just like Isaiah says here in chapter 10, they have their tail 00:38:40.640 |
behind their legs. And here's this gigantic superpower that comes and can't 00:38:44.640 |
conquer this tiny little nation. And Hezekiah, you know, Hezekiah the king, and 00:38:49.640 |
God humbles them and they come back. So Assyria never is able to completely 00:38:53.640 |
conquer Judah. And it's not because of Hezekiah. It's not because of their army, 00:38:59.640 |
just like God said. Because God answered their prayers. Right? God was with them. 00:39:03.640 |
Right? What will be the end result of God's use of Assyria? Right? No matter 00:39:16.640 |
how strong the enemies of Israel may be, may get, it will never completely 00:39:20.640 |
overthrow God's covenant people. Then that's the final lesson. Right? 00:39:34.640 |
Again, the flip side of that, to the nation of Israel, is however, God will not 00:39:38.640 |
simply overlook the sins of His people. Even though God is faithful to the 00:39:41.640 |
nation of Israel, remember we talked about that, that word for, that was 00:39:46.640 |
translated remnant. Right? One sense it's like God is going to be faithful to the 00:39:50.640 |
remnant. He's going to return them. But it's also, there's emphasis is only, 00:39:55.640 |
right? Only a small remnant is going to come. That's one thing again, as I was 00:39:59.640 |
studying through this last week and this week, what it really reminded me of was 00:40:04.640 |
when God chooses to work, He always seems to choose a remnant. Right? He doesn't 00:40:10.640 |
just, you know, we use that term all the time and I think it's misapplied. 00:40:15.640 |
We're saying, "Hey, God can use donkeys." Right? God can use donkeys. Yes, God can 00:40:21.640 |
use donkeys. God can use walls. God can use rocks. But God's not looking for 00:40:26.640 |
donkeys. Right? God's not looking for donkeys. God can use it, but God calls us 00:40:33.640 |
to be faithful. Because when revival comes, look at the book of Judges. When 00:40:38.640 |
revival comes, does it come to the nation? No, He raises up a judge, a judge. 00:40:43.640 |
Right? And He answers his or her prayer. And revival comes. Right? And so, same 00:40:49.640 |
thing with the nation of Israel. When He chooses to restore them, He said He's 00:40:52.640 |
going to restore them through the remnant. A few. Right? And I think again, 00:40:57.640 |
what that reminds me of is, we're always looking for movements. You know, revival, 00:41:03.640 |
movements in our generation, movements in our generation. But the way God typically 00:41:07.640 |
works is remnants. That despite how everybody else responds, that a few who 00:41:14.640 |
just stubbornly refuse to give in. That I'm not going to go with the flow. I'm 00:41:18.640 |
going to remain faithful to the end. He said those are the people that God uses. 00:41:25.640 |
What does the Lord tell His people who live in Zion or Jerusalem? Right? The 00:41:30.640 |
judgment at the hands of Assyrians will soon pass, so do not fear. Remember we 00:41:34.640 |
talked about that in the very beginning? Right? Do not fear. Where should your fear 00:41:39.640 |
be? Right? Yes, humanly speaking, it's the Assyrians. Humanly speaking, it's the 00:41:45.640 |
Babylonians. But never forget that there is a God behind that. Right? That no 00:41:51.640 |
matter how terrible things get. And again, I think that in our generation, the 00:41:55.640 |
practical application of that is, you know, my friend who's working in, with 00:42:01.640 |
the Muslims, he said, "Yeah, the Christians are not coming. The Muslims are 00:42:06.640 |
dropping out of their faith left and right because of ISIS. As much as they're 00:42:11.640 |
scaring Christians and people out, the modern Muslims are tired of it and 00:42:15.640 |
they're stepping out. But there aren't enough churches out there receiving 00:42:19.640 |
them." So he was basically saying, "We need Christians to step up." And so even in the 00:42:24.640 |
midst of that, I think a practical application is that there is a, no matter 00:42:28.640 |
how fearsome and no matter how much terror they try to put in, that in the 00:42:32.640 |
end, the same thing God's telling these people. Right? It's not the Assyrians that 00:42:36.640 |
you need to fear. It's interesting that it's coming out of the same area. Right? 00:42:40.640 |
It's not the Assyrians. It's not Syrians. It's not ISIS that you need to fear. 00:42:45.640 |
It's God behind them. Right? When the king of Assyria made his way near 00:42:53.640 |
Jerusalem, he said, "They're going to come in arrogance." So all the cities that he 00:42:57.640 |
mentions, right? You know how he just kind of lists off one city after city? 00:43:02.640 |
Basically, that's the path to come to Jerusalem. So in other words, these 00:43:06.640 |
Assyrians and their arrogance are coming and conquering city after city after 00:43:09.640 |
city. But what does this say? But when they come, right, God's going to stop them at 00:43:15.640 |
their tracks in verse 32. Right? No matter how many cities they conquer, it's in 00:43:21.640 |
verse 32, this very day he will halt at Nob. Right? When God says stop, they're 00:43:27.640 |
going to stop. Because you're not going to touch my people. Right? The only way 00:43:34.640 |
he's going to allow them to be touched is if God says yes. Right? If God says yes, 00:43:40.640 |
I have a purpose behind this. But as long as God says these are my people, the 00:43:46.640 |
Assyrians have no power. So they may have come and marched all their way up to 00:43:51.640 |
their point, but right before they get to Jerusalem, basically God says you're 00:43:54.640 |
going to stop right here at Nob. Right? And that's what he's saying. Verse 32, 00:43:59.640 |
"This very day he will halt at Nob. He will shake his fist at the Mount of 00:44:03.640 |
Daughter of Zion, the hill of Jerusalem." In other words, in anger, because he 00:44:07.640 |
couldn't conquer it. Right? That's exactly what happens later on. They come 00:44:12.640 |
marching all the way to Jerusalem, and they can't get past the wall. Right? 00:44:17.640 |
"Behold, the Lord God hosts will lop the bows with terrifying power. The great in 00:44:23.640 |
height will be hewn down, and the lofty will be brought low. He will cut down the 00:44:28.640 |
thickets of the forest with an axe, and Lebanon will fall by the majestic one." 00:44:32.640 |
Okay? And so he mentions the majestic ones can come. So the answer isn't another 00:44:37.640 |
great nation. Right? He says the answer to all of this is the one. Right? The one 00:44:44.640 |
is coming. That's interesting that he would say here's the Assyrians. I mean, 00:44:50.640 |
they're probably just as terrifying or more terrifying than when you see these 00:44:54.640 |
ISIS people are afraid to go to the Middle East and all that. So these guys are 00:44:58.640 |
actually coming to you by army. We have the US Army to kind of like protect. We 00:45:04.640 |
have our government and all that. But these Assyrians are coming, and that's 00:45:07.640 |
exactly what they're beheading people. They're putting their enemies that 00:45:10.640 |
they've conquered on sticks, and they're making their children watch their 00:45:13.640 |
parents crucified. That's what the Assyrians did. That's why the people at 00:45:18.640 |
that time hated the Assyrians, because they were so brutal. Right? And all of 00:45:22.640 |
that was done to bring terror upon their enemies. So when they come, they would be 00:45:27.640 |
so frightened they wouldn't even fight. That's what the Assyrians were known for 00:45:30.640 |
at that time. Right? So he's saying that, no, if they're going to come right up to 00:45:34.640 |
there, and when God says no, it's going to stop. And the answer to that, he 00:45:38.640 |
doesn't say, "These mighty angels are going to come from heaven." He says, "No. 00:45:42.640 |
The sign that I'm going to give you, that God's going to deliver you from this, is 00:45:46.640 |
Emmanuel. A child. A child is going to come, and he's going to conquer them." 00:45:53.640 |
Right? So it's amazing. Like, you know, obviously when you read that, you 00:45:57.640 |
wouldn't understand, not knowing that he's referring to a literal child. Right? 00:46:02.640 |
A literal child is going to come, and then he goes through chapter 11, like when he 00:46:06.640 |
comes. When he comes. He's not talking about an army. He's talking about one 00:46:09.640 |
person. When he comes, all this is going to happen. Chapter 11. Right? So that's 00:46:15.640 |
Christmas. Right? That leads us right to Christmas. Perfect. Predestined. 00:46:22.640 |
Alright, so, as I let you guys go to your small group, we can now send it back to 00:46:28.640 |
our memory verse for those of you who came a little bit late. 00:46:42.640 |
Okay. So those of you guys that came late, the memory verse for the next three