Let me pray for us, and then we'll start. Heavenly Father, we thank you so much for this evening. We pray that your Holy Spirit would give us understanding that things that we've studied, things that may be confusing, things that are important for us, Lord God, that would convict us, challenge us, cause us to think more deeply upon your character, what that means for us, the promises that you've given that are relevant, and we pray Father God that you would continue to guide and lead us so that our thinking, our emotions, our will, all of it, Lord, may submit to your living word.

And so we pray for your grace this evening, in Jesus' name we pray, amen. Okay. I know that some of you guys, if not most of you guys, are probably a bit confused, okay? And there's no guarantee that the deeper we get into Isaiah that it's going to get any better.

So I, you know, Isaiah is one of those books that is kind of hard to grasp in totality. Remember we said in the very beginning, it is not written chronologically, it's not written like, okay, this happens in this year, and the next, this happens, next happens. It's written kind of thematically, so it'll jump around from, you know, it'll go from prophecy a hundred years later, which we're going to get into today, and then it'll jump back to the current situation, and then it jumps forward to the end times, and then it jumps backwards.

So you kind of have to figure out what they're referring to by the text that you're looking at, okay? So, just kind of a larger, broader picture, just as a reminder, up to this point, God is basically giving an indictment to the nation of Israel, right? And then He transitioned from that to how He's going to judge Assyria.

The primary agent of judgment was coming through the nation of Assyria, right? So it begins with, judgment is coming upon Israel for this reason, and then the Assyrians were the ones that God was using as an agent of judgment, and then He turns the table and says, the Assyrians, they're going to be judged, because they're going to, again, God is not pleased with the nation of Assyria.

The only reason why He's allowing them to do that is because He's only using them as an agent. And then, again, what I'm talking about in broad picture, okay, what's going on here? Okay. And then, right before we went into break, basically, He begins to say, here's the judgment that's coming, here's the judgment that's coming upon Israel, but God is not going to be angry with Israel forever.

And then remember we looked at, if you turn to chapter 10, starting from verse 20, He begins to talk about how God is going to remain faithful to the remnant of the nation of Israel. And then, in chapter 11, like how is He going to do that? How will He restore Israel?

Right? And so chapter 11 He goes into the specifics of how this restoration is going to come, and specific prophecy to the nation of, to the Messiah, about the coming of the Messiah. And then, starting from chapter 12 and on, to all the way to chapter 23-24, He's going to be indicting all the nations.

So, if you've kind of flipped ahead in the book of Isaiah, you'll see that chapter 12 all the way to chapter 23-24, it's going to be the same theme. That theme is, He's going to be saying, here's the Midianites, the Philistines, the Babylonians. One by one, He's going to have an indictment against them.

Right? So, we're talking about for the next maybe 10 chapters, you're going to see a similar theme going over and over. So, by the time, you're already probably thinking, like, man, it's judgment after judgment after judgment. But, for the next 10 chapters, you're going to see something very similar.

So, my encouragement to you is, I want you to pay attention, not the broad strokes of, what is going on here? Not the broad strokes of, here's judgment. If you read it superficially, I guarantee you, you're going to get lost. So, the way that I designed the question, is that you basically summarize each section.

What is the main judgment on the Midianites? What is the main judgment on the Philistines? What is the main judgment upon the Assyrians and the Babylonians? So that when you think about the 10 verses, you have at least one theme. This is what's emphasized. And that's what we'll talk about when we get to those chapters.

We're not going to go by verse by verse. We're going to go by what is happening with, what is the historical background behind these nations, and why the judgment is specific, and what are emphasized in these. So that you can get a broad picture for the next 10 to 12 chapters.

Okay? You have no idea what I'm saying. Alright. So basically that's where we are. Where we left off, before we went on a break, and I know, you know, we're going to have to kind of re-gear back up into this. That we left off with God saying, He's going to restore Israel back.

So if you go back to chapter 10, verse 20, the title of that section is, "The remnant of Israel will return." Right? And then we leave off in chapter 11. So basically, He described the judgment that's coming upon the nation as a tree where all the fruits and everything in it is going to die.

It's going to be all chopped off. And only what is going to remain? Stump. Right? Only a stump is going to remain. But He says, "But from that stump is going to come the hope of the Messiah." And so if you look at chapter 11, verse 1, it starts out by saying, "There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse." In other words, this judgment is going to come, and it's going to be so thorough that the only thing that's going to remain is the stump.

But even though there seems to be no hope, but from that stump, God is going to bring the Messiah. And then He goes into chapter 11 about the description of the Messiah. And that's where we're beginning. So one thing I want you guys to be aware of as we're talking about this is whenever we talk about prophecies, there's you kind of have to think of it in three different levels when we talk about prophecies.

Okay? One is the immediate application. What is the prophet saying about the historical context at that time? Right? So when he talks about the judgment of the nation of Israel, what is happening with Israel at that time, and how is God judging them? Right? The second application is, what is the application that is fulfilled in Christ?

Okay? That's the second application. What is, okay, one is the application is the immediate context. What is the application that has to do with Christ? And then the third application is what does that have to do with the end times? Okay? Let me say that again. Three different levels that you have to think whenever you see prophecies in the Old Testament.

What is the immediate historical context? How is that fulfilled in Christ? And how is it fulfilled at the end times? Okay? Yes? Okay. So keep that in mind while you are reading through the prophecy of Isaiah. It's not just kind of like, oh, what's going on in history, but how is it being fulfilled in those other levels as well?

Okay? Alright. So I'm just going to go down by the questions that I gave you. My gosh, technology. Okay. Brian, is this connection missing there? It is there? Oh, you just put it in. Oh, there you go. Okay. Thank you. Alright. So we're going to go by question by question.

Number one was describe the promise of hope given to Israel through the roots of Jesse. Alright. The promise of a descendant, you can see it, right? Of Jesse is not simply a promise of an ordinary man, but a king from a kingly line of David. So when he says that from this stump, from the shoot of Jesse is going to come this man, right?

He's not describing just any man. He's talking about the kingly line. In other words, the description that he's giving is the true king of Israel that's going to come. He's not just talking about a person or a prophet who's going to come. He's talking about your king. So in everything that he describes of this particular king that's coming is in contrast to the other kings that Israel had.

In other words, the invitement against the nation of Israel is that you had all these prophets and kings who led you astray. And the reason why you're in the situation that you're in now is because they worshipped idols, you worshipped idols. They forsook God, you forsook God. They were selfish, so you ended up being selfish.

Right? But now, the Messiah is going to come. The real king is going to come, and this is what his kingship is going to look like. Right? The first thing that's going to differ is that his reign will be a reign of the Spirit of God. Unlike the reign of the previous kings.

Specifically, he says, "The Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding." Let me ask you a question. Obviously, this is in reference to who? To Jesus, right? This is clearly in reference to the promise of the coming Messiah, Jesus. Jesus is fully God.

Why does he have to have the Holy Spirit upon him? If he's fully God? Do you understand the question? Why even mention that? He's God. Hm? I want you to keep thinking. I'm not saying it's wrong. You know, sometimes when we talk about Jesus, we kind of mesh his humanity and his deity in such a clear way that we kind of see him.

He is God-man, obviously, and he, in every way he was like us. But in every way he was not like us, because he had deity, right? But Jesus Christ in his humanity was not this superhuman mixture of God and man. It was, that's why we say he was 100% God and he was 100% man.

In his humanity, right, because he took on the form of man, when he describes all of these things that he's describing are a description of his humanity, who in the Spirit is leading. You understand what I'm saying? Because when he became a human being, when he was born of a virgin, he took on full humanity.

So, remember years ago we had Dr. Proud, he came and he gave a series about Jesus and his identity and how we look at the New Testament and we automatically say, you know, everything that Jesus did, we can't relate because that was God. Right? But remember what Jesus said to his disciples, "After I leave, when the Holy Spirit comes, you're going to do even greater miracles." He says, "Not only was it possible for you to do, you're going to be doing it even greater because the Holy Spirit is going to be indwelling in you." Right?

So, the description of Jesus that we see in 11, yes, he is God-man. But he's going to come fully as a man and he's going to be just like a man, he's going to set an example of what all the other kings should have done. But because of their fallen nature, because of their selfishness and rebellion and idolatry that they couldn't do, Jesus is going to come in his humanity and he's going to take on, like this is what a true king, a righteous king, should have done.

And that's what Jesus is going to fulfill. Right? So, unlike the other reign of the other kings, he will reign and his character will be characterized by wisdom, understanding, counsel, might, knowledge, and the fear of the Lord, which all the other kings lacked. Right? And this is part of the reason why the Judgment was coming.

And all these attributes are all descriptions of his reign. Right? I mean, you could talk about all different kinds of attributes, but all of these things are related to his reign because that's who he is and that's what his kingdom is going to look like. Right? And so, because he's going to be a king who's going to reign this way, who benefits from all of this?

All of us. All of that applies to us. Right? It says in verse 3 to 5, his rule will be fair and just. Right? And his delight shall be in the fear of the Lord. He shall not judge by what his eyes see. Why would he not judge by what he sees?

What does he mean by that? And then it says, he would not decide disputes by what he hears. Right? Wouldn't you be, wouldn't you need to hear and see to be able to make right judgments? What does he mean by that he would not judge by what he sees or hears?

Hmm? He's not going to be deceived by just presentation. He's going to see reality. That's why you know, everything that we see, right? Everything that we see, everything we do, we talked about this before. We're all biased. Right? Every single one of us. I'm biased. I'm tainted by my personality.

I'm tainted by my experience. I'm tainted by my pride. And so everything that I judge, it comes through a sinful screen. But he says when he makes a judgment as a king, when he rules, he's not going to simply be tricked by what someone's presentation. Right? He's not going to believe everything that he hears.

He's going to see the truth as it is. He's going to be fair and he's going to be just. Right? And so who benefits from this? Verse 4. "But with the righteousness he shall judge the poor and decide with equity for the meek of the earth and he shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth and with the breath of his lips he shall kill the wicked." So, who benefits the most when the king is righteous and his judgment is fair?

People who are being oppressed. Right? People who don't have the ability to have proper justice. Right? And we say it all the time. The first person I think about who benefited from his money at least in my lifetime was O.J. Simpson. I remember when O.J. Simpson got off, everybody said, "Oh, it's because he had spent millions of dollars getting the right attorneys to represent him." He said, "Oh, poor man, we'll never have that kind of representation." Right?

Which is true. So, basically what he's saying is in a corrupt kingdom where it's run by sinful men, if you don't have power, you're not going to get fair judgment. If you go to court, the people who have influence, people who have power, who have connection, they're the ones who are going to benefit.

But the ones who are poor, who don't have a voice, he said, "The king is going to come and he's going to be fair." Right? So, when he says he's not going to judge by what he sees, well, not because you have good clothes, or because you have education, or you have connection, or you have money.

He's going to judge fairly. Right? That's what his kingdom is going to be characterized by. Right? Right? Oh, sorry. Okay. For this one, I want you to take a few minutes. Remember I asked you, when you guys are going through this, the description of the Messiah, how much of this do you see actually fulfilled in Christ?

Right? And so, I hope you took some time to discuss that. So, I want you guys to take maybe just another two, three minutes in your group, just to discuss what you found. What are some things that you found that was fulfilled in the life of Christ? Right? In the Gospels.

What are some descriptions of Jesus in this text, in chapter 11, that you see fulfilled in Christ? Character, what he said, how he lived. Okay? Then after a few minutes of discussion in your group, I'll ask some of you guys to kind of give us your input. Okay. Let's get some input.

So, what are some of the things that you found that would apply to Christ that you see? Just raise your hand and... Okay. Okay. When Jesus was baptized, the Holy Spirit comes and rests upon him, just like it says, right? Okay, good. Uh-huh? Uh-huh? Uh-huh. Okay. Good. What else?

Okay. Right. Okay. The physical descendant of David. Yes. Okay. What else? That he was righteous. And he was faithful. Uh-huh. Okay. Uh-huh? Good. He was able to discern beyond what the other people were seeing. Right? I think about the widow who was giving the offering. Right? He sees through, and that was a true offering.

Okay. What else? A couple more. Okay. Sorry, I couldn't hear. The airplane. Okay. So, the way he carried out. Okay. All right. Good. Anything else? If you notice here, the promise of deliverance for the nation of Israel was not freedom from reign. Right? He didn't say, you had all these kings and they reigned you, now you don't have to live under suppression.

You're going to be free. He says, no, a good king is going to come. The problem that you had, you had bad kings. You had bad kings from other nations who came and they suppressed you, and then your kings led you astray, but here comes a true king. So, the promise of deliverance is good reign.

Does that make sense? The promise of deliverance isn't freedom for us to do whatever we want. It's to have the right king to serve. Right? So, in reality, for Christians, true freedom, the way that God created us, is for us to worship the right person to worship, to serve the right king.

Right? To submit. God created us as beings who were created for the purpose of worship and service. You know what I mean? We were never meant to be the focus of attention. God didn't create us so that he could put us on a pedestal and glorify us. We are creatures to glorify, and when we glorify, that's when we feel life.

You understand what I'm saying? So, deliverance, salvation for Christians is in, you know, we deliver you so that you can be free and so you can be glorified. Right? When we feel the most alive is when we're in the act of worship. I mean, think about it. Think about your life.

Do you feel, I mean, think about the things that you are the most attracted to. There's a reason why we get caught up in adoring stuff. Whether it's cars, I mean, think about hobbies, or sports, or, and the more spectacular it is, the more alive we feel. Right? Whether it's sports or whatever it is.

So, God created us to be worshippers, not to be worshipped. Right? And so, when we, and we're going to look at that next week when there's a description of Lucifer in I think it's chapter 14, and again, you know, I'm not going to spoil it for you, but you take some time to look into that.

And his, his whole rebellion against God is he wants to be in the position of worship. He's trying to get attention so that the glory that belongs to God is going to come to him. Right? So, the whole description of deliverance for the nation of Israel is not about how you're going to be free to do this, you're going to have all the food that you want, you're going to be able to wake up, you never have to work, it's not all that.

Right? The deliverance and the promise of salvation is you're going to have the right king to rule over you. You're going to have the right person to worship. Right? To adore. Okay? So how would you summarize in verses 6-9? 6-9 it talks about the wolf shall dwell and the lamb and the leopard shall lie down.

So, if you look at verse 6-9, what is the what is the general description if you were to summarize it in one word or a few words? What did all of this say in the show? I mean, is it literally the lion and the sheep, are they going to lie down and frolic around?

Maybe. But what are all these descriptions generally saying? That when this kingdom comes... That good and evil are going to be together? Good and evil will be together? Good and evil? No, I'm trying to... I think it would be more harmony. Harmony? Okay. Yeah, I think that's what you mean, right?

There will be harmony. Oh, okay. I was trying to help you, man. Okay. Harmony, peace, right. Right, right, right. With humanity and with species, because it's all... Right, right. But I think when it comes to that point, that time, it will be what? Harmony. Right. Harmony, there's peace, there's strife.

The tension is going to be gone, right? That's what you meant. Right, now I get it. Okay. So basically it's described as a period of peace. So all this, you know, judgment, all this war, you know, famine, all this stuff is coming because we live in a fallen world.

So when the sin is taken away, all of that is gone, right? And that's basically a description of the Millennial Kingdom that is described in Scripture. Now, whenever we talk about the Millennial Kingdom, I mean, some of you guys may know, may not know, there's like a Amillennialism, Postmillennialism, there's Premillennialism.

I'm not going to get into any of that. I'm just going to tell you the right view. Okay. You are at a Baptist church, so I'm going to give you our view, okay? The Biblical view, alright? So, the Millennial Kingdom is talking about the end times. Remember we talked about there's a promise of restoration coming, there's a promise of restoration that Jesus brought when He came and He was crucified on the cross.

And then the ultimate fulfillment of all of this is at the Millennial Kingdom. Now, the Millennial Kingdom is when He comes a second time. And the dead in Christ rises up. And Israel is restored. And Jesus is the rightful King of this world. And what God intended in the Garden of Eden is going to be restored.

And it's going to be a physical kingdom. Now, is that going to be a literally thousand years or is that just a figurative number, a long period of time? So, that's what we call the Pre-Millennial view. Post-Millennial. Amillennial basically means there is no Millennial. We're in the Millennial. It's all, you know, it's all allegorical.

But I'm not going to get into all of this stuff. But again, I believe because the Bible says that at the end times when Christ comes He's going to establish a period of rule where all the promises that He made to the Church and to the nation of Israel is going to be fulfilled at this period.

So, when we talk about Jesus' reign that He's talking about He, what we call the "Here and Not Yet" where He introduces the fulfillment of that through the Church. Right? But it's just an introduction. The actual fulfillment of that is going to come at His Second Coming. So He started it.

Right? He started it by being crucified and renewing, regenerating, establishing the Church. But all of that is going to lead to the final product of the Millennial Kingdom. Okay? Just file that. If that's going over your head, just file that in your mind. That the fulfillment of all of this is going to be at the end times.

Okay? Now where is this described in the Scripture? There's bits and pieces of it everywhere. But if you go to the end part of the Book of Revelation, especially Revelation Chapter 20 and on, there is a detailed description of what that Millennial Kingdom is going to look like and what God's going to do at the end time.

Okay? Again, we're not going to get into that because we're not studying Revelation, but again, that's what, for your reference, like where is this going to be applied? That's when it's going to be applied. At the Second Coming of Christ. Okay? So, Chapter 11, 10-16 is a description of that Millennial Kingdom.

Okay? Who's going to come? This Kingdom is going to be worldwide. It's not just going to be Jews. It's not going to be just a group. He says, what did I say? In Verse 10, "In that day, root of Jesse, who shall stand at the signal of the peoples of him shall the nations inquire, and his resting place shall be glorious." Right?

He said Israel is going to be restored, and people from all nations are going to come and seek counsel. What does it mean? That God will restore the remnant a second time? Why is it called the second time? Now, I don't have this here, but when does the first restoration of Israel take place?

On the King Cyrus, right? The Persians come into power later on, years later, and King Cyrus allows them to go back, right, under Zerubbabel, and they build the wall, they build the second temple, which later on gets destroyed again. That's the first coming. But he says, in the second restoration of Israel, and when is that taking place?

The Millennial Kingdom. Now, again, the other view of that is, I'm not even going to get into it because I don't want to confuse you. That Israel's restoration, the promises that God has made to the nation of Israel. Some say that the Church fulfilled all of these promises, but if you look at the details, I think it makes more sense that He is referring to the nation of Israel more literally.

One of these days, I'm going to get into more details of that, but not today, okay? Because once we start getting off-tangent, that's all we're going to be talking about. If you have questions of that, I'm more than willing to talk about it with you afterwards. The second restoration of Israel will be all over the earth.

In other words, the Kingdom of Christ, He's going to be ruling through the nation of Israel, but it's going to be a rule that's not going to be limited to the nation of Israel. It's going to be worldwide. Will the gathering of Israel be literal or spiritual? There is a spiritual fulfillment in Christ, which includes the Church and the Gentiles, but the literal fulfillment is going to be in the Millennial Kingdom.

That God is going to bring Israel back, and He's going to restore them, and then eventually He's going to come a second time, and He's going to rule through them. Okay? Now, this view was not a popular view for a long period of time, because when did the physical nation of Israel disappear in history?

Anybody know? AD 70. AD 70. At AD 70, after Jesus is crucified, He's resurrected, and He ascended, the Church is going out, and at AD 70, the Zealots, the Jews, right, they decide to finally rebel against the Roman government, say, "You know, we're going to, we're not going to wait for the Messiah anymore.

Jesus came and He disappointed us. Now we're going to do it ourselves." So they go and they start having terrorist attacks against the Romans. They finally had it with the Jews, and they send the guards in, and they completely annihilate Israel. They go after, they even go after the people in the caves, to the Essenes.

They completely wipe out the Temple, all of it. Jesus prophesied that when He comes into, you know, when He comes into Jerusalem riding on a donkey. Right? See, utter destruction of Israel. So from AD 70, the physical nation of Israel disappears. When did they come back? 19, I think it's 1943.

I could be off, or is it 43? It's 43 or 44, somewhere around there. Right? So, now, is He referring to that Israel now? Is He going to rule over that? Obviously, He's not saying that if you are born a Jew that you are God's chosen people. So even if you don't believe in Christ, you are going to have a special place in the Kingdom of God.

What He is saying is a remnant of the nation of Israel is going to experience a revival. And they are going to be turned into Christ. Right? And so, this view of the literal application of the Millennial Kingdom and Jews coming back, I mean, obviously if a nation disappeared for over 1,000 years they are going to say, "Ah, you know, He probably meant that allegorically." But the fact that a nation that disappeared in AD 70 and then reappeared.

So, when they first, when the Allies first gave that land back to the Jews, after the Second World War, they initially, I was reading up on this, and they said, "Initially, they thought only a very small number of people would actually come." Because they've been spread out for over 1,600, 1,700 years.

Was it more than that? Yeah, 1,900 years. Right? They've been spread out. So how are these people who've been spread out for 1,900 years all of a sudden going to make their way back? But we have Israel now. I mean, all the news, like Israel is on the news all the time.

So since that period, this view has been revived. That maybe this actually is going to be fulfilled literally. OK? And, again, in my opinion, you know, I wrestled with this for a long time, even in seminary. But as I'm studying through the Old Testament, especially when I understand about how the Jews understood the Kingdom, and how even as Jesus is being, He's ascending.

Remember the last question the disciples ask Him? If you go to Acts chapter 1, He says, "Are you now going to restore the Kingdom?" The Jews, their idea of the Kingdom is the nation of Israel being restored, because this is all they've been reading. Right? Every prophet ends with, "God's judging you, but the Kingdom is going to be restored when the Messiah comes." So that's all they're thinking.

So when Jesus is about to go up, they're asking, "Well, we thought you were going to establish the Kingdom. When are you going to do it?" Jesus says, "It is not for you to know." Right? And then He says, "When the Holy Spirit comes upon you, you shall receive power." So if Jesus is referring to the Church being inaugurated as the Kingdom, He would have answered that question by saying, "Oh, wait a few days.

He's coming. The Kingdom is coming. The Church is going to fulfill that." Right? But He says, "No, you're not going to know." Meaning that the real fulfillment of it is not until later. And you're not going to know. And I can't tell you. Right? And then if you look at Romans chapter 9 through 11, if you study the book of Romans, again I'm kind of sidetracking, if I already lost you, I apologize.

It's not you know, you can still study the book of Isaiah if you don't understand this. If you study the book of Romans, the whole book of Romans tries to answer one question. What about the Jews? Right? All the way through, they're asking, "What about the Jews?" If we're all condemned, whether we have the law or without the law, what about the Jews?

And so He keeps asking the question, "Then is God done with Israel? Is God done with Israel? Has God because of the unfaithfulness of some, has God been unfaithful to His promises? Has God forgotten Israel?" And He answers that question repeatedly over and over again by no means. And then in chapter 9 through 11, He answers that question, all three chapters, "They've experienced a temporary hardening of their heart until the fullness of time has come," and then He's going to regraft them back in.

Meaning He's going to fulfill the promises that He made. And then if you go way back in the book of Revelation, where there's a vision given to John, and he sees a vision of the nations worshipping, he says he sees the 12 tribes of Israel, and behind them are all the Gentiles.

So he separates. So if it's the church, why are they separated at the end times, and the vision at the end? So there's other reasons, but to me that was compelling enough where, one, if you look at the prophecies that God makes about Jesus, it is fulfilled literally in Jesus.

Virgin birth, riding on a donkey, and all the stuff. So why do we think that His Second Coming and His promises are all going to be allegorical? I think it makes more sense that if His prophecies of His First Coming was going to be literal, the prophecies of the Second Coming is also going to be literal.

Right? Alright, that's all I'm going to say. Okay? That's all in reference to the Millennial Kingdom. So, it begins, the fulfillment begins with Christ, and it will end with the Second Coming of Christ. Okay? - What does that mean, 48? - 48. Okay, we're off by five. That's acceptable to me, five years.

Alright. So, why was Ephraim, Northern Kingdom, jealous of Judah, the Southern Kingdom? Right, he said, "When that time comes, the tension is going to disappear, because ever since the two kingdoms split, even though the Northern Kingdom had ten tribes, and the Southern Kingdom only had two, the ten tribes was never blessed.

They were never acknowledged by God as a legitimate nation, because they broke off. Right? Because the promised fulfillment was going to come through the line of Judah. And so, even though that the Southern Kingdom, the Kingdom of Judah, and Benjamin, even though they had evil kings, God still blessed them.

His promise was coming through that line. And the Northern Kingdom clearly saw the blessing was upon the Southern Kingdom. And so when he comes, he's going to restore Israel. So the tension, again, all that description of peace and harmony, that even within the tribes, God's going to restore all of them back.

Okay. I ask you to consider the content of worship, instead of giving you time to discuss, right, in verses one and six, what are some insights that you found? In light of this, in light of his faithfulness and his fulfillment, basically there's a worship that breaks out in chapter 12.

Right? You will see in that day, right, when that day comes, he's not going to command worship. Worship is going to happen. You're going to be so overwhelmed by the presence of Christ that worship is going to just come out of you. And he says, "I will give thanks to you, O Lord, for though you are angry with me, your anger turned away, that you might comfort me.

Behold, God is my salvation. I will trust and will not be afraid, for the Lord God is my strength and my song, and he has become my salvation." So, this praise and worship that he's talking about, is not just at the end times. It's about when Christ comes, this is going to happen.

And that's the church, right? The nature of the church is to respond to what Christ has done, and to give worship. So, the question here was, what are some things that you can observe about worship here? Okay? Let me just take a couple insights from you guys, whatever you guys have for that.

So, for cry time for that day, what are some insights that you gained? I'll start you off, okay? Where he says, "The Lord is my salvation." Right? "That our salvation and God are not two separate things." Right? So, if we celebrate the work of the cross, without celebrating an affection for Christ, I think we missed the point.

Right? Jesus is our salvation. So, to say that I'm a believer of Jesus Christ because he died for me on the cross, but I'm not a good follower of Jesus, or, it's an oxymoron. Right? We are saved because we are followers of Christ. We are saved because we know him.

So, God is our salvation. So, the gospel and Jesus cannot be separated. Right? Okay. I stirred the pot. So, your turn. Hmm? Right. So, it doesn't separate like, oh, we worship and evangelism. Often times we separate these two things, but worship and evangelism are all part of one pot.

Right? Because what is really worship? Worship is adoring what we see. Right? And so, if you are actually worshiping something, the first thing that we want to do is tell people about it. Right? If you saw a great movie, those of you guys who went to see Star Wars, and you really liked it, and you came back, I guarantee you, you told somebody about that movie.

Right? Because we have a tendency to proclaim the things that we adore. Right? We just naturally, that's who we are. We are people who worship. Right? So, he talks about how in that day, when that happens, when you are in the presence of his glory, you are going to make known his deeds among the people.

Proclaim that his name is exalted. And again, I think you know, it's a shame when we get so caught up and we differentiate between worship and evangelism. Evangelism really ought to be an overflow of worship. So, when evangelism is not happening, there is something defected in our worship. Right?

Because those two things are connected. You know? So, I mean, I guess in application it could be different. But the source behind worship is the source behind evangelism. Right? But when there is true worship, proclamation tends to follow. Okay. Um... How about one more? Okay. To never cease in worship, because I specifically like the part that says, "The Lord God is my strength and my song, and my salvation." So, no matter what kind of circumstances you may be in your life, in the lowest or even the highest point of your life, you should always worship the whole heart of the Holy Spirit.

Right. You know, I think we talked about that with Job. Right? We talked about with all...as messed up as his life was, when God showed up, he just worshipped. And he was okay. Right? So, his source of life shows up and he worships. So, our object of worship, he says it in verse 3, "With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation." Water representing life.

Right? So, where does the water of joy come from? It's from our salvation. Right? When we recognize what it is that we have in Christ, and when we are beholden His glory, worship happens. And when true worship happens, evangelism happens. Right? And then when you're surrounded with people who are worshipping evangelism, fellowship happens.

Right? And the church is built. So, at the end, it's worship. Right? And that's why the first vision of our church is to worship God, the God-centered worship and not man-centered. Because when God is glorified, when we behold Him, evangelism, the fuel for evangelism happens. And then when...without those two things, you can call it fellowship, but it's not fellowship.

You can gather together and call it fellowship and do whatever, but it's not fellowship. Fellowship is in the context when those two things are happening when fellowship happens. Okay? Okay. So, from here, from chapter 13 and on, He's going to be focusing His energy on the judgment of all the nations.

So, He starts with judgment of Israel, chapter 1. And then He moves on to judgment of Assyria, because they're the ones that God uses. He says, "No, you're going to be humbled." And then He says...He takes a break and says, "But God is not going to be angry with you forever." And then He says, "Israel is going to be restored." And then He turns His attention upon the Babylonians, the Assyrians, the Midianites, the Philistines.

One by one, all these people who suppressed His people. Even though God allowed it, He said, "Judgment is going to come upon them." Okay? And that's going to take us all the way to chapter 23. So He begins with the Babylonians. When He refers to the Babylonians, did that already happen?

At the time of this prophecy, were the Babylonians already in the superpower? No. They were not. They're almost 100 years away. Right? The Babylonians exist, but they're not the superpower that they're going to be eventually. Right? It's about another 100 years before they become superpower, and they come attack the southern kingdom and then take them captive.

So a lot of people who are what they call critical scholarship of the New Testament say, "See, Isaiah could not have been written during the period that the Jews said, because there's no way he could have written this about Babylonia, because historically he's talking about stuff that didn't happen yet." Right?

I remember the first time I ran into this is I took a Western Civilization class at Fullerton JC while I was at Biola, because I wanted to save some money. And I went to Fullerton, and one of the things that she said was how the dating of Moses was incorrect.

That all these hundreds of years that Moses could not have written the Bible in the period that the Bible was written. So I was like, "Why do you say that?" And she said, "Because there's things that Moses writes about the dietary laws that Moses could not have known." Because she's completely taken out the supernatural aspect of it.

She said, "The things that he mentions in the dietary law, he couldn't have known. Mankind did not know until almost 700-800 years later. So therefore, Moses is dated way later. So if Moses came way later, and then they start backtracking. So Judaism, as far as they're concerned, was started with Moses.

Right? They don't believe all that other stuff before, because Moses was the one who wrote it. So therefore, she started saying, teaching like a fact, Zoroastrianism was the first religion. And then Moses came about 700 years later, and started copying that religion. And then the Mithraism started coming in, and they started copying about the Messiah.

And then Christianity came off of that. And piggybacked off of that. And so they were drawing this timeline. And how Judaism and Christianity was just a copy of all these other stuff. But the reason why secular scholars, if you ever took a religion class in secular university, that's the timeline that they're going to give you.

And the reason why they give you that timeline is because there's no way they could have known that at that period. If you take out the supernatural. Right? So, same thing with Isaiah. They refused to date Isaiah at the time that the Bible dates him, because there's no way he could have known this.

Right? So he's prophesying. God is prophesying about something that's going to happen 70 to 100 years later. Right? And it's detailed. He actually even names names. Okay? So he goes and he says, "Okay, this prophecy was given many years before Babylonians came into power." Again, consider how laughable this must have been.

That Isaiah is a prophet of this tiny little nation that's been kicked around by the Midianites, by the Philistines, by Egyptians, by the Assyrians. And then Babylonians, Babylonians were a superpower. So, it could be equivalent to where the U.S. has been for the last 100 years. Right? U.S. has been a superpower, especially the last 50 to 60 years.

U.S. is, you don't mess with U.S. Right? It's kind of like a little tiny country, maybe Burma. I don't know. I don't know any other small countries. You know what I mean? A prophet coming off of there saying, "We're going to get you." You know? "One of these days we are going to overthrow all of you, and your king is going to be," you know.

And basically imagine when this prophecy went out. And here is this prophet from this tiny little nation that is being kicked around by Assyria. You know all their kings are gone. And you know they are experiencing famine and all this stuff. And Isaiah comes and he says, "One of these days, you know the Babylonians are going to disappear, the Assyrians, you know our God is going to destroy the Assyrians." Right?

But it happened. Right? 2,000 years later, I mean, we're what? 2,700 years later. Right? More than 2,700 years later. We look at now the influence of Isaiah we're talking about today. Right? What Christ has done, the fulfillment that he talks about, comes and actually gets fulfilled. But imagine how laughable it must have been at that time.

Right? And he says, "What God says, He will do." You know? So at this time, we look at it and say, "Wow, yes!" Because we were able to be on this side and see it all fulfilled and say, "Wow, our God is awesome!" But imagine how that must have sounded looking forward.

Right? Think about how crazy some of these things that the prophecy is about the coming of Christ and the end time sounds to us now. Right? He's going to come and all the things, the description of the Millennial Kingdom, all this. Oh, it's crazy! You know? But I bet you it didn't sound as crazy as what Isaiah is saying at this time.

The people who heard it. I actually have that here somewhere. I forgot where I have it. Okay, that's actually the next one. Okay. Babylon is also used figuratively to describe the world's rebellion against God. So, Babylon, again, the physical nation, but all over the scriptures, we're talking about Babylon and using figuratively as a nation or the world that rebels against God.

Right? What's another city that whenever it talks about debauchery that keeps coming up? Sodom and Gomorrah. You always say, "Oh, Sodom and Gomorrah." God would have to apologize to Sodom and Gomorrah. You know? So, when we talk about wickedness, we talk about Sodom and Gomorrah. In a larger scale of the world, it usually uses the term Babylon.

Okay. Verse 8, chapter 13, verse 8, "They will be dismayed. Pangs and agony will seize them. They will be in anguish like a woman in labor." Where have you read that before? Can you think of a... You've read that before in the New Testament, right? At the end times?

I think it's Matthew 24, verse 8. I might be off by 10 verses. But look at Matthew 24, verse 8. Right? Somebody read it out loud for us. Just so that we can confirm that that's the right passage. Oh, I have it here. Yeah. Matthew 24, 8. Okay. So it talks about at the end time it's going to be like birth pains.

And that's what he's referring to, the end times. Right? In describing Babylon's judgment, so from here on I'm going to go pretty quickly. How is it figuratively depicted? There's utter destruction and wrath like never seen before. So all the judgment that God has prescribed in the past is going to be nothing like what's coming.

Right? And the primary sin of mankind is described in verse 11 as pride and arrogance. Right? God's going to humble the world. Right? With all this technology and all this stuff that we're achieving that in the end all the arrogance and pride is actually a rebellion against God. And God's going to deal with that.

And then finally, whom will God stir up against the Babylonians? Okay. He says, what is that, in verse 17? Okay. "Behold, I am stirring up Medes against them who have no regard for silver." In other words, no amount of money is going to buy you peace. What will be the end of the city of Babylon?

The judgment of Babylon will be thorough and complete, verses 19 and 20. Okay. So in other words, when that final day comes, the restoration is going to be complete, but also the judgment is going to be complete. Alright. Everything that we see now is partial. God's anger is partial.

His wrath is partial. Right? His, even His grace, right, is partial. The full application of it is going to come when He comes a second time. Okay. Alright. So, if you look at the questions for next week, just to kind of give you a reference, I want you to focus your attention.

This is the passage, if you look at passage, chapter 14, verse 12 and on, it is a description of Satan, Lucifer. Okay. So some of your Bibles, I think, actually translates a section here, and translates the name Lucifer. Does the NASB do that? Anybody have the NASB, verse 12?

Nobody uses NASB anymore. Well, anyway, whether you have it or not, this is talking about Lucifer's fall and his rebellion and God's judgment against him. So, I want you guys to pay more attention to that. And look at his rebellion because his rebellion is what epitomizes the rebellion of mankind.

Okay. And so, the way he rebelled is the way that he is trying to get his disciples to rebel as well. So, try to pay more attention to that. Okay. Alright. So, if you have any questions, again, you know, I'll come around and I'll try to answer them. Otherwise, take some time with your small group and we'll finish with that.