Would you open now to Isaiah
chapter 9? We are going to be looking at
scriptures in chapters 7, 8, and 9, and also in Matthew chapter
1. Wrath unending and wrath ended. That's this morning's topic. I can't remember if it was Friday
morning or yesterday morning, but I was sitting in my recliner
reading and I came upon these scriptures and was moved by them. And I'm
glad when the scriptures move me. I realize that God's truth is
the truth whether or not it's moved me, that God's grace is
grace whether or not I am moved by the knowledge of it. But I
certainly like it, enjoy it, when the truth of God burrows
its way into my mind and has an effect on me. Now to understand what's being
said here in a historical context, after Solomon died, the nation
of Israel was split in two because there was warfare among his sons
over who would be the next king. And eventually it became that
the Northern Ten Tribes separated from the Southern Two Tribes.
And the Northern Ten Tribes continued to use the national name of Israel. And the Southern Two Tribes,
which those two tribes were Judah and Benjamin, those two tribes
eventually assumed the national name of Judah. And when we read
in the New Testament of Judea, That's what they're talking about.
Now, those two nations, though they were made up of the descendants
of twelve brothers, yet they were enemies one to another much
of the time. And in the days of King Ahaz
of Judah, the king of Aram, whose name was Rezan, and the king
of Israel, the northern 10 tribes, decided that they would mount
warfare against Judah. And, of course, that made King
Ahaz frightened. A larger nation in league with
another sizable nation was going to attack the small nation of
Judah. And God told Ahaz, don't worry. Don't worry, I'm going to take
care of it." And the way he was going to take
care of it was to destroy Israel and the army of Aram. And he was going to do this by
sending an even larger army to destroy them. The army of the
king of Assyria would sweep down and destroy Israel and the land
of Aram. And thus Judah would be saved.
Now Israel, in the years since Solomon, did not have one king,
not one that feared the Lord. Every one of the kings of Israel
introduced false gods and false worship. And for this, Even though
God sent them prophets, God sent them warnings, they would not
listen. And so God sent in the Assyrian
army to take them away. And God has never brought them
back home again. Never. And here is God's description
in Isaiah chapter 9 of His wrath against Israel. Now you young
people, you children, do you know what the word wrath means?
Sometimes we use words that are found in the Bible and they tend
to be sometimes old-fashioned words because they've gone out
of fashion in our day. We don't even think it's appropriate
for anyone to have wrath anymore. But wrath is more than anger.
You know what anger is. You get angry at people when
they do things that you don't like. them to do. But that anger
is not necessarily provoked or stirred up to the point of wrath.
You might just, you know, do like that and then go on about
your business and let it go. What is wrath? Wrath is when
your anger is stirred up to the point that you're going to exact
revenge against the ones who have angered you. Somebody You're walking home
from school and somebody comes up behind you and pushes you
from behind, just being obnoxious. Now sometimes your anger comes
up and you say, oh, cut it out, and you move on. But imagine
he comes up behind you right after that and does it again,
and just keeps doing it, and your anger keeps boiling up and
boiling over until you turn around, ball up your fist, and show him
how you feel about it, and exact your revenge. Now, I know that
you're being told not to do that. And I also know that as often
as people are told not to do that, still it happens. And we
exhibit our wrath in one way or another. Now, God has wrath. Usually, our wrath is unfounded.
In fact, God says, vengeance is mine, I will repay. And He
instructs His people, don't express wrath. Let it go, I'll take care
of it, God says. But God does show wrath. There's
not only anger with God, there is wrath. There is provoking
Him to the point that He's going to do something about it. That
He's going to take action against those who have provoked Him to
wrath. And that's what happened to that nation of the ten tribes
called Israel. And beginning in verse 8, It
says, the Lord has sent a message, now this is Isaiah 9, 8. The
Lord has sent a message against Jacob, and it will fall on Israel. And all the people will know
it. Ephraim, that's one of the tribes up there. And the inhabitants
of Samaria, that's kind of a region up there. Who say with pride
and arrogance of heart, the bricks have fallen down. Now what's
he saying? We've already suffered some destruction.
But what are we going to do? We will rebuild with dressed
stone. We will rebuild. The fig trees have been felled,
but we will replace them with cedars. We'll do something even
better. But the Lord has strengthened
resin's foes against them and has spurned their enemies on.
Arameans from the east and Philistines from the west have devoured Israel
with open mouth. Now I want to point out something.
that Isaiah said all of this long before it ever happened.
Long before it happened. And yet so certain is the prophecy,
he speaks of it in past tense. Now, here's the statement I want
us to look at. Talking about God sending the
Arameans and the Philistines. to devour Israel. Yet, for all
this, His anger, His wrath is not turned away. His, whose hand,
God's hand is still upraised. But the people have not returned
to Him who struck them, nor have they sought Jehovah Almighty. So Jehovah will cut off from
Israel both head and tail, both palm branch and reed in a single
day. The elders and prominent men
who are the head, the prophets who teach lies are the tail.
Those who guide this people mislead them and those who are guided
are led astray. Therefore, the Lord will take no pleasure in
the young men. He's speaking of them as soldiers
and also the young men who will rise up to be the fathers and
sire the next generation. So, I'll take no pleasure in
them, nor will he pity the fatherless and widows, for everyone is ungodly
and wicked, every mouth speaks vileness. God has raised the ante, so to
speak. He's judging even more. He's
wiped out, shall we say, the infrastructure. And now He goes
after the leaders. And He goes after the young men,
those who will be the progenitors of the next generation. And He
wipes them out. Yet for all this, His anger is
not turned away. His hand is still upraised. Surely wickedness burns like
a fire. It consumes briars and thorns. It sets the forest thickets ablaze
so that it rolls upward in a column of smoke. By the wrath of Jehovah
Almighty, the land will be scorched and the people will be fuel for
the fire. No one will spare his brother." Now what's the Lord
doing? He has brought in The Arameans and the Philistines.
He's brought in the Assyrians. They were enemies of Israel.
Now he works in the people and they turn on one another. No one will spare his brother. On the right, they will devour,
but still be hungry. On the left, they will eat, but
not be satisfied. Oh, the next sentence. And this
came to pass, by the way. It's hard to read out loud. Each
will feed on the flesh of his own offspring. I'm reminded of that story in
which in this time of trouble, two women who had children And
like I say, this is almost so horrible you can't talk about
it. They agreed, today we'll eat your child, tomorrow we'll
eat mine. And they actually went to the
prophet, I believe, or some judge, because once they had eaten the
child of one of the women, the other one wouldn't give her child
up. And so the first one is demanding that it be turned over. Oh, what a wretched state Israel
was in. Manasseh will feed on Ephraim
and Ephraim on Manasseh. Together, they will turn against
Judah. Yet, for all this, his anger
is not turned away. His hand is still raised. What I want to impress on us,
no, what I want the Lord to impress on us, is that there is no level
of suffering that can be exacted upon us which
will ever cause God's wrath to be put away. His hand is forever
upraised against the wicked. Now, this life, and this is true
whether you believe God or not, this life has much trouble in
it. We all go through various levels
of trouble. There are troubles outside of
us, circumstances of our lives, There are troubles which just
well up within us, but there's trouble. And all of this trouble,
whatever form it takes, however awful it is, is never sufficient
to appease the wrath of God for our sin. I want you to think
now. of all the suffering that humankind
has endured since Adam ate the fruit which was forbidden. All
of the illnesses, all of the death, all of the wars, the diseases that have ravaged
the human race, diseases that You and I now may
count not so serious because medicine has advanced to the
point they can handle them, but there were times when diseases
would come and spread across continents. The plague, I can't
remember the exact, I can't remember if it was one-third or two-thirds
of Europe was wiped out in the Black Plague. Had no idea what
was causing it or how to fix it. People got diseases and had to
be cast out of society. People have suffered unimaginable
pain. But for all that medicine's been
able to do, there are always diseases we can't handle and
suffering we cannot control. I think about those who live
in the Middle East. Now, I don't know what all of
them are like. I've never been over there. But I imagine that
most of them are like you and me. We pretty much just want
to be able to live our lives and be left alone. Have our friends,
have enough to eat, have a place to live. The possibility of maybe
trying to improve our station in life. But there is sweeping
through that region some barbarians, butchers. And even though I do not agree
with the dominant religion in that area, I feel sorry for those
people. What suffering! To not know if
at any moment some of these guys will show up at your door, kill
your children right before your eyes, or your wife, or your husband. That's what's going on. Yet for all of this, the Lord's
wrath is not turned away. Earth has not suffered enough
for God to relent. Wave after wave of suffering
comes. We have it so good in the United
States of America We have it so good that when we can't have
it wonderful, we think it's horrible judgment. But I don't know that
anybody in this room has ever had to wonder what you're going
to eat for your next meal. Has ever been in any real serious
threat of abject poverty, of starving to death, And yet, for all the suffering we've seen,
and all the personal suffering that individuals go through,
yet for all of this, the Lord's wrath is not turned away. In our country, I think of the
things that have gone on since it was set up. And while this
country has been extremely blessed, we've also been pretty arrogant. We have acted as though our blessings
were deserved, as though we are a favored nation because we are
a better people. That's simply not true. And I think of what has happened
to our nation 150 years ago. God turned brother against brother
in this nation. And 600,000 men died, butchered
on battlefields across the eastern portion of the United States. And both sides thought they were
right. But I recall that President Lincoln
said this after it was over. He says, both sides thought that
it would not last nearly so long. nor cost nearly so much, and
neither side gained what it wanted. But we must say, or what can
we say but this, that the judge of all is righteous, and he has
done what he pleased and accomplished what he desired. Whatever side you take on the
Civil War, I'll tell you what it was sent for. It was a judgment
against this nation. Yet for all of that, the Lord's
wrath was not turned away. And other wars have come up.
World War I, World War II. How many perished? All the slaughter. The 20th century was the most
violent century known to man. In recorded history, millions
upon millions upon millions of people died at the hands of ruthless
men. Yet for all this, the Lord's
wrath was not turned away. But it gets more serious than
this, much more serious. Because you know, whether wars
come, whether famine comes, whether there's pestilence, plagues,
or whatever, sooner or later, every one of us dies. It's the
nature of this life. And when you die, when that greatest of this life's
troubles comes upon you, If you are in your sins, this will be
the truth regarding you. Yet for all this, all the suffering
that's been in your life, and the suffering of the death of
your body, for all this, the Lord's wrath will not be turned
away. His hand will still be upraised
against you. You will stand before Him, and
He will judge you. If you are in your sins, He will
find your sins. It will be known. And He will
judge you for those sins. God is not that sweet grandfatherly
figure that modern religion is trying to peddle onto this world.
He is not a doting grandfather who simply ignores the sinfulness
of his grandchildren. I know what that's like, I've
done it. But God's not like that. He is of purer eyes than to behold
iniquity. And so long as there is sin upon
you, His wrath will be upon you, His hand will be upraised. And
no matter how long you suffer in that place called hell, and
if you say, well, what's hell like? I don't know. I don't know. I tend to believe that the Bible's
descriptions of hell are symbolic, just like its descriptions of
heaven. And the descriptions of both of those places are symbolic
because we simply wouldn't be able to understand any literal
description of them anyway. But the descriptions of hell
given in the Scriptures are horrifying. And if those are merely symbolic
representations of the kind of suffering that is visited upon
the rebels against God, what must the reality of it be? And
it won't matter how long you are there. At any point, it might
be said, yet for all this, the wrath was not turned away. His hand was still upraised.
Why does hell go on forever? Because there is no amount of
suffering that can be endured by one of the sons of Adam that
can ever satisfy the wrath of an eternal God. I do not do this
often, but I'm going to read you a lengthy quote from another
preacher, simply because I do not think I could say it as well,
certainly not better, than he has. Charles Spurgeon, from the
very first message of his that was published way back in 1855. And he was speaking from that
text of scripture that says, I am the Lord, I do not change. And he was going through how
God is unchanging in his essence, and he's unchanging in his purposes,
and he says he's unchanging in his promises. And now he comes
to this point, he says, but now comes one jarring note to spoil
the theme. To some of you, God is unchanging
in His threatenings. If every promise stands fast
and every oath of the covenant is fulfilled, heart thee sinner,
mark the word, hear the death knell of thy carnal hopes, see
the funeral of fleshly trustings. Every threatening of God, as
well as every promise, shall be fulfilled. Talk of decrees? I will tell you of a decree.
He that believeth not shall be damned. That's scripture. That
is a decree and a statute that can never change. Be as good
as you please, be as moral as you can, be as honest as you
will, walk as uprightly as you may. There stands the unchanging
threatening, he that believeth not shall be damned. What sayest
thou to that moralist? O thou wishest thou couldst alter
it and say, he that does not live a holy life shall be damned.
That will be true, but it does not say so. It says, he that
believeth not. Here is the stone of stumbling
and the rock of offense, but you cannot alter it. You believe
or be damned, saith the Bible. And mark that threat of God is
as unchangeable as God himself. And when a thousand years of
hell's torment shall have passed away, you shall look on high
and see written in burning letters of fire, he that believeth not
shall be damned. But Lord, I am damned, nevertheless
it says, shall be still. And when a million years have
rolled away, and you are exhausted by your pains and agonies, you
shall turn up your eye and still read, shall be damned, unchanged,
unaltered. when you shall have thought that
eternity must have spun out its last thread, that every particle
of that which we call eternity must have run out, you shall
still see it written up there, shall be damned. O terrifying
thought, how dare I utter it, but I must. Ye must be warned,
sirs, lest ye also come into this place of torment. He must
be told rough things, for if God's gospel is not a rough thing,
the law is a rough thing, Mount Sinai is a rough thing. Woe unto
the watchman that warns not the ungodly. God is unchanging in
his threatenings. Beware, O sinner, for it is a
fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God." It
is my joy always to preach the grace of God. I love to speak
of His tenderness, His mercy, His forgiveness. But brethren,
do not forget for a minute His holiness, His justice, and His
wrath. It does not matter how long you
spend in eternity. It shall be an everlasting decree.
Yet for all this, The Lord's wrath was not turned away. His hand was still upraised. I always think of you young people,
when I speak of things like this, and when I speak of anything
of the gospel, I think of you because my heart is for you.
I seriously want you to believe the gospel of the Lord Jesus
Christ. And I feel compelled to speak directly to you because
I know the deceitfulness of youth. I know what youth itself tells
you. And I know what false religion
tells you while you're in your youth. But your youth is going
to fade away shortly. It won't take nearly as long
as you think. And your life will unravel. And
you will face God. And no matter what anyone has
ever told you about God, know this, He will by no means
clear the guilty. He will visit wrath upon every
sin. Start there in your understanding
of God. Because nothing of the good news
of Christ means anything. until you understand the justice,
righteousness, and wrath of God. It is a fearful thing to fall
into the hands of God. Now I want you to turn back to
Isaiah 7. Wrath unending. Now let us look
at wrath ended. There is such a thing as wrath
unending. God help us never to experience
that. Thank God there is such a thing
as wrath ended. Ahaz hears of the conspiracy
between Aram and Israel to attack Judah and he is rightfully frightened. And so the prophet is sent with
this message, verse 7, yet this is what the sovereign Jehovah
says. Oh, I love how plain our God is to us when he speaks to
us in grace and mercy. It will not take place. It will
not happen. Before he explains how, he goes
directly to the issue that concerns the heart and he says it will
not happen. Oh, there is written in our heart,
is there not, the seal of God's judgment upon us? It is appointed
unto man once to die, and after this to judgment. And we know
it. And we know that if we appear before Him in our sins, that
certainly judgment must fall upon us, an unending, unbearable
judgment. And it shakes us. And even we
who believe have times, maybe it's the majority
of the time, when we feel under that sense of dread of impending
judgment. And here is what God says to
His people, it will not take place, it will not happen. Whatever
else your conscience may be telling you right now, whatever else
false religion may be telling you right now, understand this,
for my people, judgment will not take place, it will not happen.
For the head of Aram is Damascus, and the head of Damascus is only
Rezin. Within sixty-five years Ephraim will be too shattered
to be a people. The head of Ephraim is Samaria,
and the head of Samaria is only Remeliah's son. If you do not
stand firm in your faith, you will not stand at all." What
is he saying here? He's saying, these that have
come against you, they're nothing in my sight. They threaten you,
I can handle them easily. Trust me. Trust me. Stand firm in faith or you will
not stand at all. Now, he doesn't mean by that
that somehow our faith feels strong. What he means is in faith,
stand firm and don't trust to anything else because that's
what they were always tempted to do. If there was a conspiracy
against them, a conspiracy of nations, they were tempted to
find some other nations to join them to fight. And God says,
no, don't do that. You trust me. Stand in this. My promise, as Moses said to
the Israelites there at the Red Sea, stand still and see the
salvation of God. And again the Lord spoke to Ahaz,
verse 10. Ask the Lord your God for a sign
whether in the deepest depths or the highest heights. God knows
our feeble faith. And he says to Ahaz, I'm going
to prove to you that my word is good and these are not just
the idle words of some false prophet. Ask me for a sign. I don't care if it's in the depths
of the ocean or up in the heights. Just any kind of sign you want.
But Ahaz said, I will not ask, I will not put the Lord to the
test. Now there is in this both virtue and vice. We shouldn't
put the Lord to the test by asking for signs. We should simply believe
his word, that's enough. Yet, God had said, ask for a
sign. Then Isaiah said, Here now, you
house of David, is it not enough to try the patience of men? Will
you try the patience of my God also? Therefore, the Lord Himself
will give you a sign. He called on you to ask for one
and you wouldn't, so He's going to give you one of His own choosing. And even when the Lord is, shall
we say, angered at our lack of response, His response is always
better than anything we could have asked for. Because notice
the sign. The virgin will be with child
and will give birth to a son and will call him Immanuel. You ever hear that name before?
Immanuel. Made up of Hebrew words which
mean God is with us. Later on, Paul would say, if
God be for us, who can be against us? And so, the sign that God
would give to Ahaz, that this alliance of enemies would not
prove destructive, was this. A child would be born, and his name would be Emmanuel. Now, the historical or the immediate
fulfillment of that was nothing particularly miraculous. For that word, virgin, in the
Hebrew can simply mean a young woman. And evidently, some young
woman conceived, probably in a very natural way. and gave
birth to a child and she named him Emmanuel. And that was the
sign that God sent Ahaz in that day about that situation. But let's go on and see how that
works out and then see how it applies to us. Beginning in verse 6 of chapter
8. Because this people has rejected
the gently flowing waters of Shiloh, and rejoices over Rezan
the son of Remeliah. Therefore the Lord is about to
bring against them the mighty floodwaters of the river, the
king of Assyria, with all his pomp. It will overflow all its
channels, run over all its banks, and sweep on into Judah, swirling
over it, passing through it and reaching up to the neck." Now
what's the Lord saying here? He's going to call the king of
Assyria with his armies to come down and take care of Israel,
eliminate those northern ten tribes and the threat they pose
to Judah, and the other nations that pose a threat to Judah.
But the king of Assyria is not going to be satisfied with that.
The king of Assyria is sweeping down through there, intending
to take the whole region to himself. And thus it says that it will
sweep into Judah, this overflowing, just like overflowing water overflowing
the banks, overflowing its own banks. It just keeps going. And so it'll sweep into Judah,
swirling over it, passing through it, and reaching up to the neck.
Its outspread wings will cover the breadth of your land, O Emmanuel. Now I want you to hear this.
Here's the sign. A child is going to be born.
It's going to be called Emmanuel. Signifying God is with us. Here
comes the Assyrian army. It's going to destroy Israel.
That part's good. But Assyria is not satisfied.
His intention is to sweep all through Judah and destroy that
too. And the cry goes out. Not to King Ahaz. Not to whatever
king may be king over Judah in that day. Who is stirred up? Its outspread wings will cover
the breadth of your land, O Immanuel. What is the hope of Judah in
that day? Immanuel. It's as though what
God is saying, I wouldn't say as though, this is what He's
saying. Here comes Assyria, with all its marching hordes, and
they were the most powerful army in the day. No one could stand
against them. And they get, or they're coming
up to Judah's border, and the cry goes out, O Emmanuel, your
people! And the whole defense against
that army is Emmanuel. And what's the result? Verse
9, raise the war cry, you nations, and be shattered. Listen, all
you distant lands, prepare for battle and be shattered. Prepare
for battle and be shattered. Devise your strategy, but it
will be thwarted. Propose your plan, but it will
not stand, for God is with us. That phrase, God is with us,
you know what that is in Hebrew? Emmanuel. God challenges that Assyrian
army. In fact, He gives to His people the right to, in boldness,
trusting upon the Lord, to say to Assyria, bring it on, raise
the war cry, you will be shattered. Prepare for battle. You will
be shattered. Devise your strategy. It will
come to nothing. Propose your plan. It will not
stand. Why? Immanuel. Not just a concept. A person. Imagine standing there at that
border. One named Immanuel. and his mere
presence turns away the Assyrian army. Now turn with me to Matthew
chapter 1. beginning in verse 18. This is
how the birth of Jesus Christ came about. His mother Mary was
pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together
she was found to be with child through the Holy Spirit. Because
Joseph, her husband, was a righteous man and did not want to expose
her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly. But after he had considered this,
an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, Joseph,
son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife,
because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son,
and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his
people from their sins. All this took place to fulfill
what the Lord had said through the prophet, the virgin will
be with child and will give birth to a son
and they will call him Emmanuel because he will save his people
from their sins. The fulfillment of the name Emmanuel. is the name Jesus and the one
who bore that name. There was an Immanuel back in
Isaiah's day or shortly thereafter, who served as a sign that God
would be with the land of Judah and protect them. But there came
one who truly fulfilled that name, for he was not just God
on our side, He was actually God with us, among us. And the way He fulfilled that
name for us was by taking to Himself the name Jesus, which
means Jehovah is my salvation. And under that name, He bore
our sins in His body on the tree. He took up our transgressions
and bore them before the Lord. He stood between us and the wrath
of God, and absorbed it, so that it never
touches us. There are some for whom troubles
will come, and the testimony for this shall be for all this,
the Lord's hand, where the Lord's anger was not turned away, nor
was his hand turned, his hand was still upraised. But for some, for every trouble
that has sent your way, you can stand and say, Emmanuel. You can stare in the face of
the most serious troubles known to man and know that while they
may take away your joy, while they may take away this life,
they can never touch your soul. Why? Emmanuel. That's the answer. Jesus. Men suffer. And it's amazing, men will suffer
and they say, why did God let this happen to me? not realizing
that what they're suffering is nothing compared to what shall
come upon them later. And they raise their fist against
God, and God says, yet for all this my wrath is not turned away,
my hand is still upraised against you. And yet we stand in faith,
trusting in the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, and we say,
Jesus! We trust Him. He stands between
us and whatever can harm us. And someday we will stand at
the grave. Our lives will have played out
their years. And oh, it's going to look like
it's going to take us. It's going to seem like wrath
will finally sweep us away. But we may say in faith, Emmanuel,
Jesus, this far, no farther. Our Emmanuel went to death for
us. Therefore, death has no mastery
over him and it has no mastery over us. And for eternity, While the wicked must forever
read, for all this, his wrath was not turned away, his hand
was upraised. For eternity, we can look upon
that horrible, horrible scene and say, Jesus, Jesus, this far,
no farther. You cannot pass Immanuel to get
to one of Immanuel's people. It has overflowed your people. O Immanuel, rise up. Rise up. And O Immanuel, rise
up within us to give us strength in the day of trouble. Not to
fear that that horrible inscription is against us. Yet for all this,
his wrath was not turned away. Rather, rise up in us to cry
out, it shall not succeed for Emmanuel. There is our hope. We don't even have to understand
everything about Emmanuel. We don't have to be able to unravel
how it is he gets it all done. It's just Him. And until you can overthrow God,
you can't touch His people. And that makes them pretty safe. Heavenly Father, we never are able to preach like
we want to. The word is bigger than the one
that preaches it. But Lord, you're able to make
it powerful. Oh, Emmanuel, thank you. Thank
you that you stood between us in judgment and said this far
and no farther. Oh, God with us. Be with us now
in Christ's name. Amen.