back to index03-30-16 - Wed Bible Study
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Okay, start recording? Okay. All right, we're looking at Isaiah chapter 32 and 33. Isaiah 00:00:14.040 |
chapter 32 is prophecy of the coming of the second coming of Jesus Christ and the first 00:00:20.680 |
section of it is in reference to his nature and the kind of king he would be. Not only 00:00:27.040 |
will he be a king that he rules, but it says that when he comes that he would be our hiding 00:00:31.240 |
place and our refuge. So he, again, is presented to us as a savior. Chapter 33 mainly is about 00:00:38.060 |
Assyria. And again, it's not 100%, but most people believe that the historical context 00:00:45.600 |
behind chapter 33 is in reference to Assyria's domination over that area. And again, if that's 00:00:53.560 |
the case, King Hezekiah is the king behind it. And it gives a description about his wrath 00:00:59.040 |
against Assyria once the judgment is finished. So let's go into the text. Okay. So Thursday's 00:01:08.240 |
first question is in verse 3, write it in your own words. In verse 3 it says, "Then 00:01:14.760 |
the eyes of those who see will not be closed and the ears of those who hear will give attention." 00:01:21.160 |
So the first thing, again, it says, "Once our eyes have been enlightened, we can never 00:01:27.160 |
go back." Meaning, closely related to the second doctrine, the perseverance of the saints. 00:01:33.840 |
And to clarify, the perseverance of the saints is not in reference to that if you work hard 00:01:39.080 |
and if you persevere, then you're going to somehow earn your salvation. The doctrine 00:01:43.300 |
of perseverance of saints means that once your eyes have been opened, you can't choose 00:01:49.040 |
to close your eyes. Kind of like a child, when he grows up and he recognizes that he's 00:01:54.480 |
naked, you can never go back once those eyes are open. So in the same way, those people 00:01:59.160 |
who have seen the glory of the gospel of Jesus Christ, if they genuinely have seen it, they 00:02:04.560 |
won't go back. And that's basically what that means. And in 1 John it also says that those 00:02:09.920 |
people who backslide left because they were never really of us. And if they were really 00:02:14.100 |
of us, they would have never left. So leaving proved that their eyes were never truly open. 00:02:19.480 |
So that's what he's saying in verse 3. And then along with that, the third part of it 00:02:23.920 |
says, "Truth will clearly be understood and be clearly spoken." So again, everything that 00:02:30.200 |
we know about God was from a distance according to Corinthians. But when the true King comes, 00:02:36.240 |
that His truth is going to be clearly understood. And because we clearly understand it, we're 00:02:40.760 |
able to clearly communicate it. The second section, all of it, we'll just put it up all 00:02:48.600 |
at once. "Who are the fools and scoundrels?" referring to in verse 5 through 8. "A, the 00:02:56.160 |
fool is a nation of the false leaders that people ran to in times of trouble." So during 00:03:01.720 |
this period where there was a lot of foolish counsel toward Hezekiah and to the nation 00:03:05.800 |
of Israel, saying that just give in to Assyria or make amends with other nations. And so 00:03:11.880 |
basically what it's saying is God's going to prove them all wrong. "B, they will no 00:03:16.120 |
longer be honored when the true King is revealed and His princes rule." So when Jesus finally 00:03:22.360 |
shows up, they're going to be able to distinguish between who is right and who is wrong. So 00:03:26.760 |
those people who are honored, the false prophets, the false leaders, they're going to be proven 00:03:31.240 |
to be wrong and they will no longer be honored. "C, the fool only speaks folly because his 00:03:37.320 |
heart is filled with folly." And okay, so how do we get here? "And his foolishness is 00:03:42.840 |
not by chance but by plan." See in verse 6 it says, "For the fool speaks folly and his 00:03:48.200 |
heart is busy with iniquity to practice ungodliness." So it's not something that he just kind of 00:03:54.000 |
does instinctively, it just, it says that he's actually planning, he devises it in his 00:03:58.160 |
heart. "They practice ungodliness." "D, E, they utter error concerning the Lord." In 00:04:05.160 |
other words, they are false teachers. "F, because they're false teachers, the truth 00:04:12.000 |
that they're disseminating does not feed the people. And they do not provide drink for 00:04:16.920 |
the thirsty." And the ultimate reason why is because their motive is false. They're 00:04:23.520 |
not leading because they're trying to shepherd the people and really care for the people. 00:04:27.400 |
Ultimately, their motive is selfishly motivated. And that's exactly what Paul says in the New 00:04:31.720 |
Testament. He says, "When they come, they will devour you." Because their goal is ultimately 00:04:36.880 |
for their own benefit. And so that's how Isaiah describes these false leaders as people who 00:04:42.000 |
are being honored because the true king has not come. But when the true king comes, he 00:04:47.480 |
said, "The truth is going to be revealed who is and who is not." What is the spiritual 00:04:57.040 |
condition of the woman judged in verse 9? He said, "They are at ease and are complacent." 00:05:05.080 |
And this is a description of the condition of the nation of Israel. Again, we mentioned 00:05:10.020 |
this before, that the judgment of Israel is coming in a period of time when there was 00:05:15.920 |
a lot of temple worship. For the most part, they were enjoying peace. They had money. 00:05:21.940 |
So it's not that everything was perfect, but they had freedom to worship. But they became 00:05:28.920 |
complacent over and over again. God wars the nation of Israel. That period of danger in 00:05:36.040 |
the nation of Israel is not when they're being attacked, is not when they're being judged. 00:05:40.600 |
It's when things seem to be going okay. There's no sense of urgency. There's no persecution 00:05:45.220 |
going on. That they become complacent and satisfied. And you'll notice that their complacency 00:05:51.420 |
is the beginning of all this folly. So the scripture says that once God fed them, they 00:05:56.580 |
became proud. And once they became proud, they forgot God. And once they forget God 00:06:02.400 |
and become complacent, that's when all this other trouble comes into the nation of Israel. 00:06:06.940 |
So the other stuff that we're going to be looking at is directly linked to the complacency 00:06:11.820 |
of the nation of Israel. They're called in verse 11 to strip and to make themselves bare, 00:06:19.980 |
meaning to put away the superficial adorning that they are proud of. And again, this is 00:06:25.780 |
indicative of a period in Israel's history, and it's also relevant to any culture where 00:06:31.860 |
they have excess money, they have excess time, excess freedom. And instead of using that 00:06:37.940 |
to pursue God, they're spending a lot of time in frivolous stuff. So what God is calling 00:06:43.740 |
the nation of Israel to do in their complacency is to strip away, to bear, to take all these 00:06:49.100 |
things out so that they may put their priorities straight. So what resulted in the exultant 00:06:57.520 |
city because of their complacency, and again, all related to a lukewarmness toward God. 00:07:05.580 |
God calls them to beat your breasts for the pleasant fields. Now, on the surface, what 00:07:09.620 |
does that mean? You may just read that and just kind of, you know, one of those things 00:07:12.680 |
that we don't understand. But the meaning is to give attention to giving of life. It 00:07:21.780 |
means to give attention to the giving of life. To give life to the people who are growing 00:07:27.100 |
up in Thorn's empire. So in other words, the imagery is of a mother who is breastfeeding, 00:07:32.540 |
and instead of using her breasts and the breast milk to feed the nation, she again, is not 00:07:39.700 |
using it properly. So basically, this imagery is, again, it's not just a rebuke to women, 00:07:45.340 |
even though it says to complacent women, it is to the whole nation of Israel. That the 00:07:50.180 |
resources that God has given for the purpose of life is being squandered for other things. 00:07:54.940 |
And so, as a result of that, He says the city has been forsaken. So all of this happens 00:08:03.140 |
simply because of complacency. And so, this is what's happening in the nation of Israel. 00:08:09.980 |
Again, this is a warning to all generations that, you know, we may think in comparison 00:08:17.220 |
to all the other vices and sins, that complacency just kind of seems like maybe even a part 00:08:22.980 |
of what it means to be a Christian. You know, we all have a tendency to kind of not to be 00:08:27.420 |
serious at certain points, but there's a reason why in the book of Revelation, the harshest 00:08:32.580 |
criticism and judgment is to the church of Laodicea. Because complacency is the beginning 00:08:38.900 |
of all other sins. Because once we become proud, and once we begin to think that we're 00:08:45.460 |
not desperate for God, all the other sins begin to creep in. And that's basically what 00:08:49.620 |
He's saying to the nation of Israel. And what would call the wilderness to become fruitful? 00:08:57.100 |
Eventually, if this is going to be turned around, what has to happen? He says, when 00:09:03.260 |
the Spirit comes, when the Spirit is poured out on high, He says the revival is going 00:09:07.900 |
to come. And that's exactly what the Scripture says. In the end times, God's going to pour 00:09:12.100 |
out His Spirit, the young men will see visions, and old men will prophesy. So in other words, 00:09:20.340 |
revival is not simply an effort of man. Revival comes when God answers our prayers, and the 00:09:26.380 |
Holy Spirit begins to work in the hearts of men and women. So when we sense complacency, 00:09:34.020 |
when we sense that maybe we're going down the wrong path, first and foremost, God calls 00:09:39.380 |
us to Himself. That we need to pray and to cry out, because only when the Holy Spirit 00:09:45.060 |
is engaged is there true revival. So when the Holy Spirit comes and says the wilderness 00:09:51.300 |
will become fruitful again, again when you think of wilderness, you think of barrenness 00:09:56.900 |
or judgment, and you say, but God is going to turn that around, that there may be more 00:10:01.220 |
fruit, and there may be peace, quietness, and righteousness. In other words, God's going 00:10:08.060 |
to intervene, and all the judgment of God that was coming because of complacency is 00:10:13.120 |
going to be returned. So chapter 33, who are the destroyers and what will happen to them? 00:10:23.300 |
We could think of the different nations, whether it's Assyria or Syria or Egypt or Babylonians. 00:10:29.380 |
This particular context, there's enough historical hints that it is most likely referring to 00:10:34.180 |
Assyria, and especially as we get to the next chapters, chapter 34 through chapter 39, it's 00:10:39.900 |
clear that he's referring to the period when Assyrians were trying to attack Hezekiah. 00:10:47.580 |
So again, but we have to remember whenever we study the book of Isaiah, that the primary 00:10:52.900 |
application is not ultimately historically at that particular time. Isaiah's prophecy 00:10:59.940 |
is, uses the particular historical event as a springboard to talk about and prophesy about 00:11:07.020 |
the last days, about the coming of Christ. So even though there's enough evidence for 00:11:11.580 |
us to say, "Hey, this is talking about Assyria," ultimately, it is talking about the end times. 00:11:18.620 |
He says, "Those who destroy will be destroyed." And he says, "Those who betray will betray." 00:11:25.060 |
In other words, God's going to turn the tables around. And over and over again, we see that 00:11:30.140 |
in the New Testament, he says, "The rich should be ashamed," not to say that you can't have 00:11:36.620 |
money, but he's talking about how in our cultural system, in the God of this age, has it so 00:11:43.780 |
that the rich are honored and the poor are ashamed. But he said when Christ comes and 00:11:48.080 |
He restores His kingdom, in His kingdom, he says that the poor actually are the ones who 00:11:53.100 |
are blessed. He says, "God is going to dumbfound the wise, and He's going to make the foolish 00:11:59.980 |
seem wise in the Gospel." And that's exactly what He does. He deliberately chose Paul because 00:12:06.460 |
he was the worst of sinners. Not because he was the smartest, not because he was the most 00:12:11.180 |
righteous. So when God's judgment comes, He says He's going to reverse everything that 00:12:16.780 |
this world has valued and honored and pursued, that He's going to turn it upside down, and 00:12:21.900 |
realizing not only did they get it wrong, they got it absolutely wrong. 00:12:29.900 |
What will Zion be filled with? The primary characteristics of Zion is that the Lord will 00:12:40.620 |
be exalted. So if we think about heaven, we think about the last times, like what is the 00:12:46.220 |
main characteristic about that time? We could think about how all this other stuff that 00:12:51.540 |
we'll be talking about, no disease, no crying, there's going to be better communication, 00:12:56.140 |
we're going to have better physical bodies. But the primary characteristics of Zion is 00:13:01.580 |
a place where God is exalted. So all the blessings that we think about, all the great things 00:13:07.420 |
that we think heaven is going to be like, He says the primary, at the center of that, 00:13:11.940 |
is because God is exalted. It's when He is exalted, all this other stuff happens. And 00:13:19.340 |
He says, "The fear of the Lord will be their treasure." When was the last time you thought 00:13:24.620 |
of fearing something as a treasure? And yet the scripture over and over again tells us 00:13:30.140 |
the chief end of man is to fear God, and here, He actually says it's actually a treasure 00:13:35.580 |
from God, it's a gift. Fear of the Lord is not only a command, but a gift. Recognizing 00:13:43.740 |
the gift of righteousness and obedience is like falling in love with what is good for 00:13:47.740 |
us. People who love to run can reap the benefits of running while enjoying the process as well. 00:13:54.300 |
It is only when we do not see the gift of fearing God that fear becomes a dread rather 00:13:59.260 |
than our treasure. So, you know, oftentimes we think about God's commandments, maybe even 00:14:04.780 |
His warnings, that we become burdened by it because we think that that's somehow a way 00:14:10.180 |
to appease God. Not realizing that the very commandments of God is a source of joy. That's 00:14:17.140 |
a source of our treasure. Just like when we're raising our kids and we tell our children, 00:14:21.860 |
if you want to have, you know, we're going to go to Disneyland tomorrow or whatever, 00:14:26.220 |
that you need to have a good night's sleep. And He may be kicking and fighting and resisting, 00:14:30.820 |
but in the end, we're telling them so that they can have enough energy to enjoy what's 00:14:35.780 |
coming the next day. But if He kicks and screams, "You know what, I'm going to do whatever 00:14:40.460 |
I want," and He doesn't go to sleep until 5 in the morning, and then they wake up at 00:14:44.180 |
7 in the morning, they're going to be miserable the whole time. So the command of God, the 00:14:48.700 |
fear of God, is not simply to measure us and to see who's going to be righteous and 00:14:53.900 |
who's not going to be righteous. In the end, it is a gift. That's why the scripture says, 00:14:58.740 |
"Righteousness with contentment is great gain." When we realize that fearing God is the beginning 00:15:05.740 |
of wisdom. See, obedience is not a burden. Obedience actually is a source of joy. So 00:15:17.140 |
what does it mean to conceive chaff and give birth to stubble? Again, in God's judgment, 00:15:22.660 |
the chaff and stubble are worthless things. Again, so we don't live in an agricultural 00:15:27.780 |
context, so this needs a little bit of explaining. So the Bible talks about separating the wheat 00:15:34.420 |
and the chaff. During that time, the chaff basically were the coverings of the wheat, 00:15:40.620 |
and they need to separate that so that they can get to the wheat, and they would throw 00:15:43.260 |
away the chaff. The stubble was basically what the stem that the chaff and the wheat 00:15:49.060 |
was on. So once you remove the wheat, the chaff and the stubble basically is trash. 00:15:54.400 |
So what it's saying is, these Assyrians or these conquerors who were coming in and they 00:15:59.260 |
were suppressing God's people, once their work is done, once God's period of allowing 00:16:05.580 |
judgment to come to Israel, whether it's Assyria, whether it is Egypt or the Babylonians, they 00:16:11.500 |
will become worthless and be thrown out. So as the nations are judged and brought low, 00:16:18.100 |
the Lord will be exalted at the same time. So even in His judgment, ultimate end result 00:16:23.500 |
is that God is going to be glorified. So to describe the characteristics of those who 00:16:32.500 |
are able to dwell in Zion, so in contrast to those who are being judged, those remnants 00:16:39.140 |
that God will restore, He said, one, they will walk righteously and speak uprightly. 00:16:45.620 |
You notice that whenever we talk about righteousness, that speech always comes along with it, and 00:16:51.180 |
as we mentioned before, it's because Jesus said it's what comes out of a man. So when 00:16:56.540 |
we talk about righteous walk and upright speech, He's talking about a man who's not only righteous 00:17:01.700 |
externally, but someone who's righteous internally, that the Holy Spirit has genuinely regenerated 00:17:07.600 |
that person. He despises the gain of oppression. In other words, His selfish desire to advance 00:17:16.220 |
Himself and to use any means, He said He despises that. To shake His hand lest they hold a bribe. 00:17:24.500 |
In other words, what He holds, He holds loosely. A bribe is something that you are willing 00:17:30.700 |
to have and cut corners and cheat because you want something so desperately that you're 00:17:35.580 |
willing to cheat, lie, and do whatever you need to do. So to say that He shakes His hand 00:17:41.700 |
lest they hold a bribe, in other words, He's always shaking it. He's not holding onto anything 00:17:46.000 |
too tightly. He stops His ear from hearing bloodshed, that He refuses to engage even 00:17:54.140 |
the planning and talk of evil, and then He shuts His eyes from looking on evil. He actively 00:18:00.180 |
avoids what is wrong. So He said, these are the characteristics of an individual, not 00:18:06.220 |
simply somebody who's achieved righteousness, but somebody who's been regenerated. There's 00:18:11.300 |
not a description of an A student in the church. This is a description of somebody who's been 00:18:17.380 |
deeply affected by the cross. And so His righteousness is not simply externally, it is internally. 00:18:24.860 |
That His glory and His self-gain is not something that He seeks. He doesn't want bribes. He 00:18:32.660 |
avoids evil. He actively pursues righteousness. What will the righteous see? Again, that term 00:18:42.300 |
see is repeated over and over again when restoration happens, when salvation happens, as we see 00:18:49.300 |
the glory of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. When Christ comes and all that God intended is 00:18:54.580 |
restored, we see, just like we were talking about on Sunday, that our life comes when 00:18:58.980 |
we see Zoe in Christ, and that we want that and we follow Him. And so we trade our life 00:19:05.140 |
for His life, right? And so, first thing they see is that we will be whole. We will see 00:19:10.860 |
the King in His full beauty. And that's what's going to change us in the end. That we're 00:19:18.180 |
not going to be in heaven thinking like, "Ah, I don't want this, the worship is boring." 00:19:21.340 |
So once we see His true beauty, we will be changed. They will see a land that stretches 00:19:30.220 |
afar. In other words, he's talking about peace, right? When you see a land just kind of going 00:19:34.980 |
on and on and on, there's no turmoil there. They will not see the insolent people and 00:19:40.620 |
strange speech. In other words, these enemies will not be in their land and there will not 00:19:46.100 |
be war. There will be peace in the land. How is Zion described in verses 20-24? It is an 00:20:02.860 |
untroubled habitation, an immovable tent. In other words, it is permanent. But this 00:20:09.020 |
is not just a temporary period. When Christ comes and He establishes His Kingdom, that 00:20:13.460 |
there is nothing beyond that. That once He comes, that habitation is going to be permanent. 00:20:19.580 |
That when the Lord comes, it will be like a broad river for us by His presence. So, 00:20:24.100 |
Scripture describes river as a place of life, right? A blessed man is like a tree planted 00:20:30.460 |
by the rivers of waters because there is resource of life constantly sustaining and causing 00:20:35.820 |
this tree to bear fruit. And so the description of the end times when Christ comes and establishes 00:20:41.620 |
His Kingdom is like He Himself is going to be like a broad river that we're all going 00:20:46.660 |
to feed off of. And so just like He said to the Samaritan woman that He is the river, 00:20:52.820 |
He is the living water that whoever drinks of Him will never go thirst again and again. 00:20:56.620 |
So it's related to how this describes when He comes. That He will be the ultimate… 00:21:04.060 |
It's not working. Can you just press the button? Okay. He will be the ultimate judge 00:21:20.220 |
and the lawgiver. There will be no injustice in the land. Next D, no one will be sick. 00:21:27.160 |
And then E, the people will be forgiven of their sins. Now if you notice that all the 00:21:33.720 |
promises that are made about the restoration of Zion, that there's going to be peace, 00:21:39.560 |
that we're going to have life, that there's not going to be any sickness, we're going 00:21:42.800 |
to be forgiven of sins. All of this because God is exalted. That we're going to see 00:21:49.080 |
His beauty, right? So again, as we wrap up at least this section of it, the focal point 00:21:57.140 |
of salvation is God, is Jesus, is the Holy Spirit. John Piper wrote a book saying God 00:22:04.400 |
is the gospel. He is the gospel. The gift of salvation isn't that through Him that 00:22:10.200 |
He answers our prayers, that through Him we're going to have health, that through Him we're 00:22:13.800 |
going to have eternity and peace and safety. He said the ultimate gift is when we recognize 00:22:19.840 |
that true beauty, true life is Christ Himself. And so we'll see again all these descriptions. 00:22:28.500 |
And that's why complacency is so dangerous. Complacency basically means that we don't 00:22:34.840 |
necessarily need Him. There's no sense of urgency to be with Him, to have intimacy with 00:22:39.120 |
Him. So if everything that we desire is centered upon knowing Christ, seeing Christ, beholding 00:22:47.540 |
His beauty, beholding His glory, complacency basically is to hear that and say, "Eh, I 00:22:54.980 |
don't know if that's that important to you. Maybe for you, not for me." So again, we may 00:22:59.940 |
not think of complacency as such a dangerous sin, but it is the beginning of the slippage 00:23:05.060 |
where we're no longer beholding the things of God. Complacency basically is not seeing 00:23:10.980 |
God, not being near God. And everything else that the scripture says happens as a result 00:23:17.140 |
of a proud heart that has become complacent. Okay. All right. So that's it for the study. 00:23:23.460 |
You can take the rest of the time to discuss with your group. And there are instructions 00:23:28.260 |
about what to do for the next couple of weeks. Next week, we don't have Bible study. And 00:23:31.940 |
then the week after that, I will come back. And you're actually going to be studying or 00:23:37.620 |
reading all the way through chapter 39. So we're going to be covering all of that, at 00:23:42.500 |
least bits and pieces of it. You'll notice that the last four chapters, 39, 38, 37, 36, 00:23:49.540 |
they're all very historical. So I'm having you guys read each chapter for each day. But 00:23:55.620 |
then there's instructions there. There's only memory verses for one week. And then for the 00:24:00.580 |
second week, I'm asking you to review all the other verses. Okay. So I've given some 00:24:06.420 |
instructions to Brian about that. And then I've asked James Hong to kind of just oversee 00:24:14.020 |
the locking up and all this stuff. So again, we'll see you guys in a few weeks. Okay. Bye.