Chapter 17, we'll look at this
entire chapter this evening, Isaiah 17. Let's read the chapter together
first. The burden of Damascus. We've seen in Isaiah 13, the
burden of Babylon. These enemies of God, these kingdoms
and cities that were Notoriously and openly Opposed
to God and his people the burden of Moab in chapter 15 and now
in chapter 17 the burden of Damascus behold Damascus is taken away
from being a city and it shall be a ruinous heap The cities
of Aurora or forsaken, they shall be for flocks which shall lie
down and none shall make them afraid. The fortress also shall cease
from Ephraim and the kingdom from Damascus and the remnant
of Syria. They shall be as the glory of
the children of Israel, saith the Lord of hosts. And in that
day it shall come to pass that the glory of Jacob shall be made
thin and the fatness of his flesh shall wax lean And it shall be
as when the harvest man gathereth the corn and reapeth the ears
with his arm. And it shall be as he that gathereth
ears in the valley of Rephian. Yet, gleaning grapes shall be
left in it. This is that turning point. This
is that yet, but in spite of that exception that
we always see. Book of Isaiah. book of anything,
anywhere we go in the word of God. We were all children of
wrath, even as others, but God. Yet gleaning grapes shall be
left in it as the shaking of an olive tree, two or three berries
in the top of the uppermost bough, four or five in the outmost fruitful
branches thereof, saith the Lord God of Israel. At that day shall a man look
to his maker, And his eyes shall have respect to the Holy One
of Israel. Well, we look for Christ in God's
Word because we know this is a book concerning His Son, Jesus
Christ. There He is. There He is. And He shall not look to the
altars, the work of His hands, neither shall respect that which
His fingers have made, either the groves or the images. We
said this morning, once you see Him, once you hear Him, you'll
never hear anything else. You're not going to look to what
you do anymore. In that day, verse 9, shall His strong cities
be as a forsaken bough, and an uppermost branch which they left
because of the children of Israel. And there shall be desolation,
because thou hast forgotten the God of thy salvation, and has
not been mindful of the rock of that strength. Therefore,
shalt thou plant pleasant plants, and they shall set it with strange
slips. That just means they won't last
long. In the day thou shalt make thy plant to grow, and in the
morning shalt thou make thy seed to flourish, but the harvest
shall be a heap in the day of grief and desperate sorrow. That's
what that's saying in that verse previous. Strange slips, it just
means It's not going to last. Woe to the multitude of many
people which make a noise like the noise of the seas and to
the rushing of nations that make a rushing like the rushing of
mighty waters. The nations shall rush like the
rushing of many waters, but God shall rebuke them and they shall
flee far off and shall be chased as the chap of the mountains
before the wind and like a rolling thing before a whirlwind. And
behold, it even tides trouble. And before the morning, he is
not. This is the portion of them that
spoil us. And the lot of them that rob
us. So this is the third time, as
we said, we have the burden of one of these kingdoms or cities.
Damascus was the chief city of Syria. And the word burden means
a very heavy and grievous judgment. It signifies something that's
too heavy to bear, just too heavy to bear. And you can imagine
if this was God declaring what was about to happen to this country,
we have signs, very, I believe, convincing evidence that God
is forsaking this country. But wouldn't you say? But what
if he came right out and said it? You're done. That'd be heavy
to bear, wouldn't it? Do you care about your country? I know there are super spiritual
people that say, oh, you shouldn't care about that. God's on the
throne. If God being on the throne makes you not care about your
country, I think you might have a misunderstanding of some kind
there. I'm thankful God's on the throne
and he's running things. And he's going to put a president.
in that office up there, he's going to do that. I sure would like to see our
country not defy God, wouldn't you? Not despise him and not
refuse to even let God decide what gender we are. That's how
far we've come. We're going to make up our own
mind about that. I don't want to get off on that, but This
would be grievous to bear, wouldn't it? If God just came out and
said, it's not going to be good. You know, I'm still hoping that
we can kind of, as they say, turn things around. What if God
said, no, that's not going to happen. It's over. Your country's
going to be a desolate heap, just a ruins. That'd be tough,
wouldn't it? The chief city of Syria and the
Assyrians would be the instrument of their destruction. But when
it says that it is taken away in verse one, I want us to understand
something here right off the bat. Behold, Damascus is taken
away from being a city. Who taken it away? Not the Assyrians. They're just the instrument.
They're just the instrument of their destruction. It's not speaking
of the Assyrians there. They were just the tool that
God used, like you might use a pair of channel locks to take
something off or put something on. That's all they are. The
Sabians and the Chaldeans attacked and killed Job's servants and
stole all of his goods, all of his livestock, that which was
comprised his wealth. And a tornado came and killed
all of his children, all in one day. And Job didn't curse the
Sabians or the Chaldeans. He didn't try to get up, you
know, some kind of a group to go get revenge on them. He didn't
blame Mother Nature. He arose and rent his mantle
and shaved his head and fell down upon the ground and worshipped. A burden too heavy to bear. And so what did he do? He fell
down under it and worshipped God. And said, naked came I out of
my mother's womb, and naked shall I return thither. The Lord gave,
and the Lord hath taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord.
In all this, Job sinned not, nor charged God foolishly. He acknowledged that God had
done it, but he didn't charge God. He didn't blame God. And
we know that God did that in order to teach Job and to bring
him close. Isn't that what happened? Was
that the result of it? Brought him close. I've heard of you,
Lord, before now, but now mine eyes see of thee. And here I
am in the dust, and I repent of myself. I'm sorry for what
I am. I'm sorry for what I've said.
I'm gonna shut up now and listen to you. This is why the Lord does these
things now. He's going to destroy His enemies, but His people,
He's teaching them. He's bringing them close. He's
blessing them. Blessing them by these means. We'll see that in our text tonight,
too. All these declarations of judgment upon these enemies of
God and His people And even upon the nation of Israel also. And
that's a lesson too. You know, when we say God destroys
our enemy, we talked about that this morning. You know what enemy
I'm glad he destroyed? Me. I was my biggest enemy and
he brought me down. He subdued me. He ambushed me. And conquered me. I'm glad and that's that's a
picture here. I believe don't you that Israel
itself was its own worst enemy God brought him down But always
with a remnant preserved and blessed of God objects of God's
mercy You remember that we saw all that desolation and destruction
and judgment of God and it said because the Lord will have mercy
on Jacob That's why he does that Remnant according to his grace
the election of his grace That's a picture of the spiritual nature
of things always in this world. God is judging Has judged will
judge this whole world, but there's still what Paul called in Romans
11 5 that remnant According to the election of God's grace and
this is the way that it shall be as long as this world stand
He said it then in Romans 11 thousands of years after this
and there they are here in Those little grapes, those little olives
way up in the tree, a remnant. Leftovers, the gleaning of grapes,
the gleaning grapes. In other words, the one when
the harvesters came through and got all the grapes. Oh, but not quite
all of them. There's still some gleaning grapes
laying there on the ground or maybe up under the bush hidden
somewhere. We've seen in every case of God's
wrath against these kingdoms and cities some common factors,
too. They always richly deserve it. Richly deserve it. God gives warning, after warning,
after warning. The sins that are always identified
and condemned in all these cases are pride and idolatry. Those are really every other
sin pretty much falls under those headings, doesn't it? What happened
in the garden? Listening to somebody else besides
God, which is idolatry. Even in the nation of Israel,
as we saw in chapter one, he scathingly rebuked because of
their idolatrous religion. God despised that the most. Their
religion was most repulsive to God. And their refusal of God,
their rebellion against him was pride in action. And also in
every case, God gives space to repent. That's what we have right
now. That's what we have. Space to
repent. Warning after warning and space
to repent. He warns, he knows us. He knows
us. And he tells us what's going
to happen. Tells us what's going to happen.
Turn to Deuteronomy 31 real quick. Let's look at this. I think this
is very constructive. Deuteronomy. Chapter 31 You know the judgment that God
pronounces upon Israel in chapter 1 of Isaiah listen, he told him
it was gonna happen look at Deuteronomy 31 16 Way back way back when God spoke
to Moses and Moses interceded for the people God said I'm just
gonna kill him now Let's just get it over with Moses said no
and we know that we know in what? The way God does that. He knew
he was going to have mercy on them before they ever sinned. In Christ, the eternal Lamb,
God's mercy is upon his people from the beginning. So God said,
let's just get this over with because it's just going to happen.
And listen to what he said. The Lord said unto Moses, Behold,
thou shalt sleep with our fathers, and this people will rise up.
You're not going into the promised land because of your sin, because
he represented the law. Now Moses was God's Child. But in an earthly sense, he couldn't
go into the promised land because he represents the law. The law
is not going to take you there. Not going to take God's people
to the promised land. Joshua will. Jesus. Jehovah Savior. And so Moses,
you're going to sleep with your father. You're not getting there.
And the people will rise up and they're going to go whoring after
other gods of the strangers of the land. They're going to get
there, but they're going to worship idols when they get there. Whether
they go to be among them. That's a prophecy of Isaiah chapter
one. God told him before he knows
us. And he warns us over and over. They will forsake me. They will break my covenant which
I have made with them. Then verse 17, my anger shall
be kindled against them in that day and I will forsake them and
I will hide my face from them and they shall be devoured. And
many evils and troubles shall befall them so that they will
say in that day, Are not these evil, evils come
upon us because our God is not among us. And I will surely hide
my face in that day for all the evils which they have wrought
in that they are turned unto other gods. Now therefore write
you this song for you and teach it to children of Israel. Put
it in their mouths. Taught them a song about how
foolish they are and how weak they are. And now their only
hope, their only hope is in their God. This song may be a witness for
me against the children of Israel, for when I shall have brought
them into the land, which I swear unto their fathers that floweth
with milk and honey, and they shall have eaten and filled their
selves in wax and fat, then will they turn unto other gods and
serve them and provoke me and break my covenant. Aren't you
glad salvation is not up to you? We're not going to cut it. We're
going to break his covenant. But he won't. He won't. He's always got that remnant.
No matter how vile they are, no matter how rebellious they
are, no matter how foolish they are, no matter how predictably
idolatrous and proud and rebellious they are. He said, you're mine. You're a worm, Jacob, but you're
mine. It sounds kind of hopeless, doesn't
it? When you read that prophecy and then you see it come to pass.
What about us? If your hope is in yourself, it's hopeless. If you're looking for any hope
in yourself, let me save you the trouble. You're not going
to find it. We are failures. God has told us beforehand we're
going to fail, and we're going to fail. But He didn't, and He
will not. And it doesn't say everybody's
gonna do this except the elect. No, the elect were just as wretched
as everybody else. Children of wrath, even as others.
If they don't bow, if God's children, his elect, don't bow to a false
god, it'll be because God reserves them, as he told Elijah. I've
reserved 7,000. He'll prevent them from doing
so. The only difference between the
elect and everybody else is God's purpose of grace toward them,
his love for them, his distinguishing infinite love for them, his determination
to bless them in spite of their idolatry and pride. Abraham, God called him out of
idolatry. And then when he went to that
wicked city with that wicked king, you know what he said about
Sarah and went in there sinning. It was a total disaster. And
God brought him out smelling like a rose anyway, because he's
he's God's. He's God's a precious elect.
His child. He's determined to bless us in
spite of our idolatry and pride. The difference when it comes
right down to it is the precious blood of Christ. the blood of
the everlasting covenant. Now in the first three verses
we have these words regarding Damascus and these other cities,
Aror, cities of Syria and the ten tribes of the divided kingdom
of Israel. You know Ephraim is those ten
tribes. Ephraim and Judah. Ten and two. The tribes of the
original tribes of Israel were divided. Ephraim represents those
ten who were now in confederacy with Syria which There's another
lesson for us. You know, these were here. So
here's how they're described a ruinous heap forsaken. Not going to be anything left
in the cities of Aurora, but some sheep and nobody there to
even trouble them. The sheep are just going to lay
around with nobody there to even scare. And no one there, desolate,
ruinous heap forsaken. And as I said, Ephraim, these
10 tribes are mentioned along with Damascus and Syria as being
devoid of any glory. Their glory shall be as the glory
of Israel, which God has already said it's over for you. No glory. And the lesson here
is pretty clear. When you align yourself with
the enemy of God, what does that make you? You're the enemy of
God. And these 10 tribes had done
that, and so they're right there with them, desolate, forsaken,
done for. Once blessed, these 10 tribes
once were blessed of God, enjoying God's word, enjoying His presence,
His direction, but now forsaken with the enemy. How tragic that
is. I know some people that have
lived that. Tragic, deeply tragic. And in verse four, Jacob is mentioned
as opposed to Israel or Ephraim. And this seems to represent the
church, the elect already here. We know that the grapes and the
olives are God's remnant, no question about that. This seems
to already begin to represent the church though. Jacob, Jacob,
always Jacob is used to represent God's people. Jacob, his name was changed to
Israel, the prince with God. But God still called him Jacob
to remind him what he was in himself sometimes. But also Israel,
God's true Israel. It says their glory is going
to be lean. But not like the rest of Israel,
not clean God. Lean. Glory is going to be lean. This
has often been true in the church over the centuries, over time. There have been fat years and
lean ones. That's true of individual churches,
that's true of the church as a whole. Whether fat or lean,
God's little flock, God's little leftovers are the reason for
the whole thing. As we saw before in Isaiah, he did all of that
that he did because he would have mercy on Jacob. That's why
he's doing all of this too. That's why all of this is here.
That's why this world goes on. Because God is not willing that
a single one of his sheep should perish. And when that's been
assured by him, it's over. The whole thing is over. He's
going to burn it up. God uses His church, whether weak or strong,
to call out His sheep who are not yet in the fold. He uses
His church to comfort those who are in the fold and teach them. It is in His church that God
is glorified. And only there. Now God Himself
is glorified in the destruction of His enemies. But He's not
glorified by them. Only in His church is His name
lifted up. And he worshipped and loved and
adored. The church doesn't seem like
a whole lot in this world right now, does it? If you think about
it. Here, just a few. The enemy had come through and
just stripped the tree clean. Except, wait, it's not complete.
Well, yeah, it's stripped. There's nothing. But God saw
a few little olives up there, still hanging on the branches. That's the church in this world
now, isn't it? There's not much to it. Let's
face it. The true church, relatively speaking,
very little influence in this world, if any. Hardly noticed,
if at all. But to God, His church is everything. I'm not overstepping my bounds
to say that. As far as His dealings with this
world are concerned, His church, He does it for His church. for
his sheep. And I'll tell you this, he's
everything to us too. When God's sheep are all gone
from this world, as I said, he's going to burn this world up. And we're defenseless in ourselves.
Like it says there, the stalks of corn, it's just like somebody
with one hand holding up the stalk and with the other, down
we go. And we can't do anything about
it. Our enemies can, and they may very well cut us down physically.
Even Jacob was helpless against these enemies in our text, but
God is our defender. And even though God is with us
and our defender and has blessed us eternally, that doesn't mean
we won't be cut down physically. Stephen in Acts chapter seven
was cut down. Some might say, well, if God
defends his sheep, why didn't he defend Stephen, who was stoned
to death by God's enemy? Oh, God was defending him. Stephen's
body was cut down, but our Lord Jesus Christ stood up from his
throne to welcome his little sheep into his glory. Because he was precious to him.
Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints.
And many of the true believers may have well died in this terrible
desolation. But they didn't really die. He
that liveth and believeth in me shall never die. And verse
six, whether cut down or left standing in a physical sense,
God's remnant is always preserved and precious to him. Everybody
else forsaken a ruinous heap It says in the scripture to a
thousand will fall at your right hand and ten thousand on your
other hand But it won't come near you a Ruinous heap the glory departed
and yet you see that word yet. We saw that well ago didn't yet
That's a big word verse 6 yet gleaning grapes You take away
that yet right there and this world ends when there's no longer
a yet, there's no longer a world. Not like this, not as we know
it. Paul said in Romans 11, five,
even so then at this present time also there is a remnant
according to the election of grace. And I can say that right
now this morning. You know how I know that? Because
there's still a yet. It's not over yet. If there wasn't still in this
present time also a remnant, according to the election agreement,
we wouldn't be sitting here looking at one another right now. There
is a yet even now, the world now proud, idolatrous, desolate,
even our own country. A spiritual wasteland. Yet. Yet. And when there's no more
yet, no more earth, not this one. Second Peter chapter three,
we won't turn there tonight, but you read that about what
happens when God comes for his last sheep. He's going to burn
it up. In verse six, the picture here
is of the leftovers. As I said, the gleaming grape
is one that the harvesters left behind. The enemy came through
and just Spoiled everything, almost. A gleaning, what's a
gleaning grape? Well, gleaners were those who
were allowed to come behind the harvesters and take what was
left, what was missed. And so a gleaning grape is one
of those. These are God's people. They are the exceptions. Except
you repent, you're all gonna perish, except. If you have repented of your
sins, and turned to and believed on the Lord Jesus Christ, you
are an exception. God pronounces judgment on all.
All of you are going to perish. Except. Except. There's that little grape. There's
those 7,000 out of how many thousands that have not bowed their knee
to the false god Baal. Why not? I have reserved him
unto myself. The ones that escape the notice
of this world, they will not be touched when the desolation,
when the destruction comes. Not even touched. And again,
this is spiritually, not physically. We may well be harmed physically
by this world, by the evil, but not spiritually. And when we're
If they kill us, are they doing us a favor? Is that too strong? I don't think so. To die is gain. To live is Christ and to die
is gain. The world says life stinks and
then you die. The believer says to live is
Christ. And to die is even better because
it's more Christ. It's Christ with no dark glass
in between. Christ with no sin to hinder
me from worshiping Him, from seeing Him as He is. The only
thing that can be gained, when you're talking about to live
as Christ, how can anything be gained? Christ face to face,
that's what. Christ like you've never seen
Him before. To go and be with Him, which
is far better. But these are the exceptions,
not touched, left alone. God doesn't always preserve his
people from violent death physically, but this is a picture of their
spiritual safety. No weapon formed against them
can prosper. Not a dog shall move its tongue
against them, so that all may know how that the Lord doth put
a difference between this world and his sheep. Exodus 11 7. When the enemies of God shake
the olive tree, just about all the olives are going to fall.
But not all of them. There are going to be a few,
it says, up in the highest, outmost branches, it says. Reserved for
God Himself. And Christ Himself, as He came
to that fig tree. You remember when He came to
that fig tree, when He was on this earth? He's with His disciples. He comes up to that fig tree,
and He's going to get something to eat. He was hungry, it says. What a marvel. The Son of God
was hungry. But there was nothing on that
tree, and he cursed it. But this tree, there's a little
something there. There's a little something there. There's gonna
be a few little olives up there that nobody even noticed. And
you'd think that they wouldn't be worth the effort. Don't even
bother shaking that tree. Oh, the Lord's coming, and he's
gonna shake that tree until every one of those little olives is
in his hand. You remember Zacchaeus? Where
was he? Up in a tree. You know who Zacchaeus
was? He was one of God's little olives.
And the Lord Jesus Christ came and shook that tree. And Zacchaeus,
what happened to him? He came down. Our Lord walked
that day through a multitude that had forgotten God, as our
text described, and were under his judgment. And he harvested
one of his little olives that day. He said, you come down here,
or I must have bited your house today. At that day, verse seven
says a man shall look to his maker. You know who that is?
I'll give you a hint. Without him was not anything
made that was made. You're going to look to Christ,
the one who made you and breathed into your body the breath of
life. And I pray, I trust, I hope, breathe into your soul the breath
of his spiritual eternal life. You're going to look to him in
his eyes that your eyes shall have respect to the Holy One
of Israel, a man in that day. When the Lord shakes your tree,
you are going to look to him alone. The Lord Jesus Christ,
when the enemy has done everything that he can do. And this world
is through with you and you with it. You're going to look to the
Lord Jesus Christ. He's gonna come right where you
are to the very tree that you are in and say to you, make haste
and come down. Has that ever happened to you? That's why we preach, so that
that'll happen to you. In His good grace and providence.
Not gonna happen unless He willed it from eternity. Not gonna happen
until the Lord actually comes where you are. This is not just
a story. Not just an illustration. He
got to come where you are. And I pray that he will. He said
he'd do it when the gospels preached. And so we preach. And he'll say, I must, I'm gonna
come live with you now. Got to. Got to. And you'll never hear anything
better than that. And once you look to Him, verse 8, you'll
never look at anything you did ever again. Isn't that beautiful? Is that your testimony? We make
lots of idols, you see. Everything that we do, that we
trust in, is an idol. It's a work of our hands. The
authors of man-made, free-will religion picture everything that
is done by man's hands. When God said to make an altar,
didn't he say, Marvin, don't even, don't, don't chisel it
out to the shape that you, don't even raise your tulip on it because
you'll spoil it. You'll ruin it. Don't touch it.
But these man-made altars, they picture what man fashions, man's
idea of how things ought to be, how God can be pleased, how there
can be acceptance with God, how God can be worshiped. It's not
that way. It's by Christ alone and what
he did. His precious blood. Nothing that
we can produce can be accepted by God. Not your works, not your
will, not even your religion, especially your religion. Those are the filthy rags that
we cast off like Bartimaeus had to cast off his rags and follow
the Lord Jesus Christ. We do not work righteousness
with our hands. Christ is now our righteousness.
When we do not will our way to God, Christ comes where we are. It's by His will that we're saved.
He said, you've not chosen me, I've chosen you. We can't pay
for our sins, for we've nothing to pay. What's God going to accept
from you? What does He need from you? Only
His Son can render unto Him what satisfies Him for sin. Christ
is our atonement, our propitiation, our redemption, our justification.
Don't even lift your hand up on it. In closing, I want you to know
this verse 9. In that day shall his strong
cities be as a broken bough and an uppermost branch, which they
left because of the children of Israel. There shall be desolation. This is a resumption of the burden
of the enemy. Okay. But also, it almost sounds
like a continuation of what was being said about the remnant,
doesn't it? You know why? Because like we said, we are
the enemy. We are the enemy. Within us,
within the believer, within God's sheep, there are strongholds
against God that must be torn down. And he knows how to do
it. They must be laid desolate. The
Lord Jesus Christ came to Saul of Tarsus in his prime and laid
him desolate, wrung him out and left him in
the dust. Everything that was meaningful
to him, he had to let it go. And when he realized who he was
dealing with, he realized what he had to let go. And he didn't
just let it go, he cast it from him and said, it's done. I count it but loss for Christ. In verse 14, we won't have time
to look at all these verses, but it's a resumption, as I said,
of the burden of Damascus. But also remember, in verse 14,
it says, this is the portion of them that spoil us. And of
course that refers to all of our enemies without, but it also
refers to our enemy within. Is there not that old man within
you now, believer, that robs you, that spoils you of the ability
to do what you would? That spoils your very worship
and ruins your very joy? That robs from you the enjoyment
of your Savior? That's sad. But you know what? That enemy's doomed also. Bless
God. He's doomed too. He's got to
go. Blessed day, when every enemy
shall be put down, even this one, and the Lord alone shall
be exalted in that day. Let's pray.