Isaiah 18, this evening, Isaiah chapter
18. That first word, woe, we've seen a lot of woe in the book
of Isaiah. A lot of joy, too. Woe to the
land shadowing with wings which is beyond the rivers of Ethiopia. that sendeth ambassadors by the
sea, even in vessels of bulrushes upon the waters, saying, Go,
ye swift messengers, to a nation scattered and peeled,
to a people terrible from their beginning, hitherto. A nation
meted out and trodden down, whose land the rivers have spoiled.
All ye inhabitants of the world and dwellers on the earth, see
ye, when he lifteth up an incense on the mountains, and when he
bloweth a trumpet, hear ye. For so the Lord said unto me,
I will take my rest, and I will consider in my dwelling place
like a clear heat upon herbs, and like a cloud of dew in the
heat of harvest. For afore the harvest, when the
bud is perfect, and the sour grape is ripening in the flower,
he shall both cut off the sprigs with pruning hooks, and take
away and cut down the branches, They shall be left together unto
the fowls of the mountains and to the beasts of the earth. And the fowls shall summer upon
them, and all the beasts of the earth shall winter upon them.
In that time shall the present be brought unto the Lord of hosts
of a people. Scattered and peeled, and from
a people terrible from their beginning hitherto, a nation
meted out and trodden underfoot. whose land the rivers have spoiled,
to the place of the name of the Lord of hosts, the Mount Zion. Woe is pronounced again as upon
the people of Israel in the beginning, as upon Moab and Damascus and
Babylon and others. We've seen in this book so far
a lot of woe, and as we've seen, The woe that God pronounces and
brings upon the peoples of this earth is always the consequences
of their pride and their idolatry. We see the same gospel message
in this chapter that we've seen in every chapter of Isaiah and
every chapter we've looked in this book over the years. And
it begins with a pronouncement of woe. This time upon Ethiopia. And again, we see that God sends
a warning. He sends messengers, he gives
space to repent. Swift messengers, verse 2, are
sent. You notice the word saying, it's
not there. It's not the ambassadors by the
sea that come from Ethiopia that are saying this. It's God saying
it. It's God sending these messengers,
as he always does, and thank God for his messengers. Even
if the message is one of woe, and it is. God sent a messenger
to me for the same reason he sent one to Ethiopia, to Babylon,
and to Moab, and all of these. He sent a messenger to me. You
know why? To pronounce woe upon me. That's exactly what he did. He pronounced woe upon me. The
gospel begins with woe. Isaiah himself, when he saw the
Lord high and lifted up, in this book that we're looking at, in
chapter 6, in the very context of our chapter, when he saw the
Lord, he said, Woe is me. Woe is me. Have you ever said
that? I think I can pretty safely say
that if you've never said, Woe is me, in some form or another,
you've never seen God. Because that's the message he
sends. Woe unto you. I'm cut off. But then the good
news comes. You're unclean. You're vile.
You're sure enough worthless and miserable and wretched and
naked and blind and destitute. And you're proud and you're idolatrous. But I'm going to have mercy.
The good news comes that there's hope for sinners. God condemns
our personal pride, just like He condemned the pride of Israel.
He condemns our personal idolatry, just like He said to them, your
religion makes me sick. And when He sends a messenger
with the Gospel, and we understand this is what
causes us to flee to Christ. This is what causes us to flee
to the refuge. Our Lord Jesus Christ, because
we do see ourself naked and destitute before him. You've got to be
stripped before you can be clothed. You've heard that before. It's
true. Cast off your filthy rags, Barnabas. If you're going to
follow Christ, you've got to cast them off. Follow the Lord,
but cast off your rags. He has something for you to wear.
Get down in the dust, Saul. Get down in the dust on that
road to Damascus and then get up and preach Christ. Got to
get down first. Zacchaeus got to come down before
the Lord can go live in his house. Nebuchadnezzar had to do some
time in the fields, didn't he, as a beast, as a brute, before
his kingdom could be restored and he could praise Almighty
God. In the armies of heaven and among
the inhabitants of the earth, God reigns. And none can stay
his hand or say unto him, what doest thou? Blessed be his name,
Nebuchadnezzar said, but first he had to come down. That thief's
life, the thief on the cross, he has forever hence been known,
since and hence has and will be known as the thief on the
cross, the thief, the thief. His life was ending before real
life ever began. That's a picture. Your life has to end. If you
love your life, you'll lose it. If you lose your life, you'll
find out what life is. We all must see ourselves as
we are, diseased and dead and trespasses and sin, blind and
lame and cut off, and every picture this book shows us of our Terrible
condition before God. And God pronounces woe upon us
as we are. Ethiopia was doomed. God said
you're doomed and they were doomed. But the Lord had a people even
there. Even there. As we'll see. Many
of the Israelites have fled there. During these times of war. And no doubt an Ethiopian or
two was likely among the number of God's elect. I know one Ethiopian
that was, don't you? Much later. So I'm sure then
there was a few, a handful of the Ethiopians that were included
among God's sheep. Look who the Lord's messengers
are sent to in this chapter, a people scattered and peeled,
terrible and terrible from their beginning, hitherto. They were terrible from the start
and they still are. That's who God sends his preachers
to. He sent Ezekiel to a field of exceeding dead, dry, worthless,
abandoned bones and said prophesy to them. That's who He sends His messengers
to. A people scattered, trodden down, and spoiled. The Lord didn't
come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. That's
who He sends His preachers to. The sick, the lame, the blind. That's who He came to. His messengers are sent to sinners.
Is anybody here tonight trodden down? I'm here to tell you about somebody
that lifts beggars from the downhill. That's what he does. And he sets
them among princes. Have you been spoiled? Stripped
of all worth? Has Satan had his way with you?
Did you lose everything in the fall? Are you spiritually bankrupt? The Savior restores all. All
that's lost and much more. And this is a message to everybody,
everywhere. Did you notice verse three? The
whole world. Listen up, whole world. Listen
up, everybody. Ho, everyone that thirsts. Come and buy without money, without
price, whosoever will. Let him come and take of the
water of life freely. Now I know that if you're not
thirsty, then the message is not going to mean anything to
you. But I'm still going to tell you anyway, because one of these
days you might find yourself thirsty. I've heard people say this, and
I've probably said this myself, the message is only to thirsty
people. If I've ever said that, I take it back. Because it's
to people who one of these days might be thirsty too. Isn't that
right? It's to everybody, everybody. Blessed are they who hunger and
thirst after righteousness. You may not have an appetite
tonight. I didn't for a while either. But God sent a messenger to me
with a question. Are you thirsty? And I found
that I was that day. So here in verse three, the whole
world is called upon to gather and look, you see what it says? See ye, open your eyes, look,
look at what? An ensign is raised up. You see
that word ensign? We've seen that word before.
An ensign is raised up and a trumpet is sounded. And this declaration
goes forth, see ye and hear ye. What is the ensign? Look at Isaiah
11, turn back a few pages. We saw this several weeks ago,
I guess months ago. Isaiah 11, 10. Isaiah 11, 10, in that day, there
shall be a root of Jesse. We know who that is, don't we? Which shall stand for an ensign
of the people. an instant is a banner the word
means banner but this banner is a person look at it to it
shall the Gentiles seek and his rest shall be glorious whose
rest the incense the root of Jesse God's banner And it shall
come to pass in that day, verse 11, that the Lord shall set his
hand again the second time to recover the remnant of his people. That's the business that God
is in. He's an ensign for the people. You see that in verse
10 again, an ensign of the people, a banner lifted up for the people,
his people, his remnant that he shall recover, which shall
be left from Assyria, even in Assyria, and from Egypt and from
Petros and from Cush and from Elam and from Shinar and from
Haman and from the islands of the sea. And he shall set up
an ensign for the nations, the nations, but the people of the
nations, the remnant among the nations, and shall assemble the
outcasts of Israel and gather together to disperse of Judah
from the four corners of the earth. We know what's happening
here. This is God calling out his people, the remnant from
Israel and from Egypt and from Cush and from Elam and from every
corner of the earth. He says to the north, give them
up and to the south, hold not back. He's calling his people
from the four corners of the earth. And how does he do that?
He raises a banner and says, look and come and see and listen. Our Lord said in John 12 32 and
I if I be lifted up from the earth, I will draw all men unto
myself That's what's happening in Isaiah chapter 11 right there
where we read the Lord Jesus Christ is lifted up and everybody
all the people all the remnants from every corner of the earth
are drawn by him to him He is called in Exodus 17, 15,
Jehovah Nisi, the Lord, our banner. That's what this incident is
in chapter 18. The Lord Jesus Christ is raised up and a trumpet
is sounded, a trumpet. The word of God is compared to
a trumpet all through the scriptures. What is the trumpet saying? The
banner is raised and God says, see ye. And the trumpet sounds and God
says, hear ye. This is my beloved son, hear
ye him. What is the trumpet saying? Listen
to Isaiah 45, 22. Look unto me and be ye saved,
all the ends of the earth. It don't matter what corner of
the earth you're in. Look unto me. And I'll save you,
for I am God, and there is none else. The Lord Jesus Christ is the
one Savior. There's none other name under
heaven given among men whereby we must be saved. Who were they preaching when
they quoted that in the book of Acts? This Jesus whom you
crucified. There is none else. Look unto
me and be saved. I have sworn by myself, the word
is gone out of my mouth in righteousness and shall not return. He says,
come to me and I'll save you. And he don't go back on that.
He says, look to me and live. And he don't go back on that.
I have sworn by myself, my word has gone out of my mouth in righteousness.
And here's what he says, that unto me, every knee shall bow
and every tongue shall swear. Now there's two truths there.
The knee of every remnant, every one of his people, every one
of his sheep from the four corners of the earth, every one of their
knees is gonna bow to him, is gonna swear, confess. If thou
shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in
thine heart that God raised him from the dead, I'll save you,
he said. And we will. And not only that,
but every knee shall bow. Someday And every tongue will
confess then that Jesus Christ is Lord What did Paul say if
thou shalt confess with our mouth the Lord Jesus if you do that
now God will save you That's what he said now, that's
what he said if you do that now he's already saved you If you do that then, it's going to be too late then. Surely shall one say in the Lord
have our righteousness and strength. When we were yet without strength,
Christ died for the ungodly. And now I have strength. I can
do all things through Christ, which strengtheneth me. And he
is my righteousness. The righteousness without the
law, without me keeping God's law, is mine. Because God set
Him forth to be a perpetuation for my sins. He declared His
right. He raised the banner and said to me, look. And just like
when He said, let there be light, I looked. He said, look, and
I looked. There was light. And I live because
of Him. Even to him shall men come, it
says Isaiah 45, 24, even to him shall men come. They're not coming
to an altar, they're not coming to a denomination, they're not
coming to a religion, they're gonna come to him. And all that
are incensed against him shall be ashamed. In the Lord shall
all the seed of Israel be justified and shall glory. All the seed
of Israel. Wait a minute. I thought he said
in Egypt. Kush. That's not Israel. Yeah, it's his spiritual Israel
from every nation in this world. This thing wasn't done in a corner,
was it? God raised his banner high, his ensign for the people
and sounded a trumpet now, sounded a trumpet. This is my son. Verse four, for so the Lord said
unto me, I will take my rest. And I will consider. You see
the picture here? God's going to sit back and think
about things. Have you ever done that on your
front porch? You sit back in your, I just did that, I think
yesterday, just sat on my, in my rocking chair on my front
porch and just considered things. I will consider in my dwelling
place. And it'll be like a clear heat upon herbs and like a cloud
of dew in the heat of harvest. He's thinking about a harvest.
He's thinking about his garden. He's thinking about his fields,
his farm. He's the husbandman now in this
picture. He's sitting back thinking about
it. When Christ is lifted up, when the banner is raised and
the trumpet is sounded, God said, I'll take my rest. We know that Christ is the Sabbath
of his people, but we don't normally think of God resting in Christ,
but he does. God cannot rest in this sense now, in this picture.
God cannot rest until you are punished or Christ is punished in your
place. God's justice must be satisfied. He pronounces woe, and that woe
is going to come. And God's not going to sit down
until it does. Our Lord Jesus Christ was lifted
up between heaven and earth, the banner of his people. And
the trumpet of God was sounded. That's the word of God. The message,
the trumpet of God, the word of God is Christ crucified. When that instant is raised,
that's when the trumpet goes forth. We're still preaching. That's the trumpet is still being
sounded. Christ crucified. And what did he do? When he had
satisfied the justice of God for his people, when he had obtained
eternal redemption for us, when our high priest went into the
holy place, not made with hands, with something to offer, not
with the blood of bulls and goats, but with his own precious blood.
What did he do? He sat down. That's God rested. God rested. And it's in Christ,
and God is satisfied. And here I am sitting on my front
porch, and this is a picture. The work of creation was completed. What did God do? Says He rested.
When the work of salvation was finished, God rested and said
it was good. Creation is a picture. of our
Lord Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Everything is. God rested. And He is resting. He shall consider. I sat there on my porch thinking
about life, thinking about plans that I have and how I'm going
to accomplish them. Well, my thoughts and plans are such as
they are, but God worketh all things after the counsel of His
own will. And what He purposes, He does.
What He plans, and I don't like that word with regard to God,
because plans is just too weak of a word, isn't it? When He
purposes, He accomplishes. I like purposes better. He worketh
all things. He worketh His will. That's what
Nebuchadnezzar said. He doeth his will in the armies
of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth. Whatever he's sitting
there thinking about, it's fixing to happen, or it already has. And what he considers right,
he performs. What is God thinking about? What
does God consider? Have you ever thought about that?
We have a few little glimpses of that in the Word of God. You
know what the Lord Jesus Christ prayed for when He went up into
the mountain of part? Have you ever wished you could
be hiding in a bush and listen and hear Him? Somebody said one
time, if we could hear the Son of God in the next room praying
for us, we never would worry about anything ever again. He is. He is. And you know what? I know one
thing He was praying when He was up in that mountain of part.
as his custom was, prayed all night. You know what he was saying?
He came down from that mountain and he said to the Apostle Peter,
I've been praying for you. He's thinking about us, isn't
he? He's thinking about what glorifies him. And bless his
holy name, what glorifies him is saving sinners like me. What
glorifies him is what his son came and did on the cross. Isn't
that what he said? Father, the hour has come. Glorify
thou me that thy son may also glorify thee. Boy, did he. It was interesting to see in
the commentary that I looked at that addressed this. And some that didn't even talk
about this part, about that heat, the clear heat upon the herbs
and that cloud of dew. And of course, again, he's the
husbandman now. He's thinking about his harvest.
God has planted some good seed and he's gonna reap a harvest
now. He's gonna have a harvest. There's gonna be pruning and
cutting and burning, but there's also gonna be a harvest. And
in the commentary that I read, that address this, this could
be talking about beneficiary heat. Like the sun, the terminology
here seems to indicate the sun coming out after a rain, after
the clouds had been raining and then the sun comes out and there's
a clear heat. And that heat is life to the
plants, life to the crops. Or it could be talking about
a scorching heat. Destroying heat It could be the
life-giving heat of the Sun after a rain that causes the herbs
to grow Or it could be the heat like the Lord talked about he
said some seeders Sown on stony ground and they spring up, but
then the heat of the Sun comes and they're scorched. I Believe
that nothing is more consistent with the Word of God than to
say that both are true the same Sun is that causes his good seed
to grow, scorches the seed that are cast by the wayside. The
same sun and the same rain that waters the good seed, washes
away the seed that are on stony ground. And God makes the difference. And God brings about the result.
And God's word is like that rain that falls. And he said, it will
not return unto me void. It will accomplish the purpose
whereunto I sent it. Those tender herbs are going
to grow. And they're going to flourish. They're going to be
like a tree planted by the rivers of water. And they're going to
bear all manner of fruit. And God's going to be glorified.
The Lord Jesus said, that's how my father's glorified, that you
bear fruit. And we are the fruit. We are the fruit of his harvest.
And look at the remaining verses. Verses five through seven. Let's
look at them together because listen think about this Illustration
of a harvest of a husbandman in a crop. We saw that in the
New Testament The good seed or his elect and Satan planted some
tears And he said you leave it you let him grow together. I'll
deal with that You don't know a tear from a wheat and sure
enough. We don't do it But he does And he's going to reap,
he's going to send his angels, didn't he say, to reap the harvest. And listen to it here, for before
the harvest, this is not the harvest, this is before the harvest.
When the bud is perfect, and the sour grape is ripening in
the flower, he's going to do some cutting. Before the harvest,
there's going to be some pruning, some cutting away. He shall both
cut off the sprigs with pruning hooks and take away and cut down
the branches. Every branch that bears not fruit,
he said, my heavenly father will cut off and cast away. Now that's people. That's the
reprobate. And that's parts of me too. He's
going to cut off some dead parts of me too. The body of this death
has got to be cut away eventually in its entirety. So he prunes
his elect, and he also cuts away the dead, the reprobate. And he said, they're not good
for anything but burning. They're not bearing any fruit.
That fig tree that had no figs on it. What good is a fig tree
without any figs on it? That's us without Christ. Just
fit for burning. He cursed it, and rightly so. Oh, but bless God, he doesn't
curse every Fig tree that don't have any figs on it. Some of
them he blesses, doesn't he? Causes them to bear fruit. He's gonna take away and cut
down the branches and they shall be left together unto the fowls
of the mountains and to the beasts of the earth. The fowls shall
summer on them. The birds will come and get what
they want from them. God's got no use for them. And all the beasts of the earth
shall winter upon them. They may find a little something
to chew on in the winter time from those cut off parts. And in that time, when that's
accomplished, when that's done, then comes the harvest. A present
is brought. Unto the Lord of hosts, the harvest
is reaped. The reason God planted a vineyard
is fulfilled. His people What's the present? What's the prize? What's the
reward unto him? A people. You, it's hard to believe,
isn't it? Hard to believe. Me, can you
believe that? A present for the Lord. How many times in John 17 did
our great high priest say, Lord, those that you've given me, The
gift that you gave me, the present that you gave me, people, keep
them, bless them. May they be one with us, even
as we're one. Here's my will, that they might
be with me forever, where I am. We are the father's gift to his
son now. Psalm 2-8. Father says, ask of
me. He's speaking to his son here.
He says, ask of me and I shall give thee the heathen for thine
inheritance and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession.
You remember where we read a while ago in Isaiah 11? Four quarters
of the earth. This whole earth is his garden.
That's why he said, God so loved the world. He said later, the
world is my field, my harvest, my garden. The world. is his garden. And he's got his
good seed planted everywhere in this thing. And he said. Ask of me and I'll give you the
he and the uttermost parts for that inheritance. Just ask. Just ask. And our Lord did, didn't
he? He did ask. He prayed in John 17, 24, Father,
I will, but they also who now has given me The ones that you
promised me, you said ask and I'll give them to you. I want
them with me, where I am. That they may behold my glory, which thou hast given me. For
thou lovest me before the foundation of the world. And in that context,
he said, you love them as you've loved me. Have you ever heard anything
more wonderful than that? Notice the word from in verse
7. And notice this. This present that's given to
the Lord is described just exactly as the same as the ones that
woe is pronounced upon. Did you notice that? These are
a present brought to the Lord of hosts. Who are they, a people? What are they like? Well, they're
scattered and peeled and terrible from their beginning. They've
always been terrible. And they still are. They still
are. Well, we were yet sinners he
died for. Hitherto, that's what that word
hitherto means. They're still terrible. They didn't get any
better. He didn't choose them and love
them and die for them because they got better, because they
were better. There are terrible people scattered and peeled and
meted out and trodden underfoot, whose land the rivers have spoiled.
That's the this land of Ethiopia, the rivers of people. It's just
like it was. The devastation was like a river
of flooding through there and just wiping out everything in
its wake. That's us, destitute, spoiled. Like that man laying there bleeding
to death in the ditch. He was beset by thieves. That's
a picture of us by nature. Our own sin and Satan had robbed
us of every good thing. Of all hope. Everything of value. And there we are, dead and worthless
and poor. And here comes the Good Samaritan. And notice that word from there.
That's the one word that's not up there in the other part. You
see, he's not going to save the nations. He's going to save the
people from the nations. You see that? From, and from
a people terrible. Peeled and scattered and all
those other things. We were, by nature, the children
of wrath, even as others. But God, who is rich in mercy,
for his great love wherewith he loved us, God will take us
from them. We are them, but we're going
to be taken from them. He has not purpose to save the
nations, but a people from the nation. Revelation 5 9 and they
sung a new song saying thou art worthy to take the book and to
open the seals thereof for thou was slain And has redeemed us
to God by thy blood. Do you remember the next two
words out of? Every kindred and tongue people
and nation Out of from and brought to and At the last fret, two,
the place of the name of the Lord of hosts. From Mount Zion. Brought from
that place of woe. That man that was beset by thieves,
that the good Samaritan, he was traveling from where? From Jericho. A cursed place. That's where we're from. My curse place from Jerusalem
to Jericho. I believe that's where he was
going to go from Jerusalem to Jericho. That's where we went.
We went back to the city of peace, didn't we? By his grace, he brought us there.
Paid our way. and said to the keeper of the
inn, if they owe anything more, put it on my count. We're brought to Zion, the city
of God. This is the church we're already
brought, aren't we? He's already brought us, even
as we sit here tonight, from the place of woe to his place, his house. The church, not a building, but
a place, a person. The Sheep Bowl, the New Jerusalem. This is the church now and then. This, of course, is heaven too.
This is the New Jerusalem. All of these, but it means one
thing. We're brought to Him. We're brought to Him. Isn't that
what it said when we read, they're coming to Him? From every corner
of the earth, they're coming to Him. And we see this playing out all
around us. This is what we're living right
now. This world is doomed. Woe to this whole stinking world. But God has sent messengers into
this world to do what? See, God has raised a banner,
and he has sounded for the trumpet. Can you not see? Can you not
hear? See ye, hear ye. Look to him and live. By his
grace, we come here tonight to look to him. That's what we do.
To look to him as our hope, to look to Him as our representative,
the last Adam, man, God in human flesh, to look to Him as our
sin offering, the propitiation for our sins we talked about
this morning, that defines what love is, His precious, sin-atoning
blood, wherewith He obtained eternal redemption for us. We're
still looking and we're still hearing about His grace. If you
ever look and hear, you'll never stop. May God reveal His Son to us
and cause us to hear His Word and come to Him. Let's pray together.