Let's open our Bibles again to
Isaiah chapter 34. The title of the message is The
Sword Bathed in Heaven. And we have in our text this
evening a sure word of prophecy to all men. It's sure because
God said it. In verse 16, he says, Seek ye
out of the book of the Lord and read. No one of these shall fail. None shall want her mate, for
my mouth it hath commanded. and His Spirit, it hath gathered
them. And this sure word of prophecy is to all men. It's not just
to a few people, it's to all men. Verse one, come near ye
nations to hear and hearken ye people, let the earth hear and
all that is therein, the world and all things that come forth
of it. Now it's worthwhile for us to
take time to listen to this message. It's worthwhile to listen because
this is God's message to all men, and God commands men to
hear what He says. And I'll give you just quickly
a summary of the next 14 verses. God says He's angry with sin.
Sin is rebellion against God, and it's made Him angry. It's
His holy wrath against sin and the rebellion that's against
Him. And God Almighty Himself is going to punish every sin
Without exception, there'll be no sin accepted outside of his
judgment and justice. God Almighty is going to punish
every sin with eternal death in hell, separation from him. Now that's what he's to see.
Let's see if we don't see that in these verses. Verse two, for
the indignation of the Lord is upon all nations and his fury
upon all their armies. He has utterly destroyed them.
He had delivered them to the slaughter. Their slain also should
be cast out, and their stink shall come up out of their carcasses,
and the mountains shall be melted with their blood. He says here
about their stink coming up out of their carcasses. This is after
death. If you want to know what we are,
just let somebody die and nobody treat the body for a short time.
That smell, that's what we are. And that's offensive to us, you
know. That's what God says we are, offensive to him. And what
Isaiah is prophesying here is about hell. Now, hell is a real
place. This is where God's eternal punishment
for sin will happen. And he describes some of it,
verse nine. And the streams thereof shall be turned into pitch, and
the dust thereof into brimstone, and the land thereof shall become
burning pitch. It shall not be quenched night
nor day. The smoke thereof shall go up forever. From generation
to generation it shall lie waste. None shall pass through it forever
and ever. These are the never ending fires,
the never ending punishment of hell that no one can escape or
survive. But now here's the question.
What has made God so angry with all men? This prophecy is to
all men, to all nations. What has made God so angry? What
would make God so angry that he would utterly destroy men
like this? What would make God so angry
that he would send men to hell for eternity? I mean, you think,
you know, giving somebody a life sentence in Sing Sing is tough.
This is eternal punishment. What would make God so angry?
Well, you know, the answer is sin. God is angry because all
men sinned in Adam. And when Adam sinned, all of
us sinned in him. He's our representative, and
God's angry because that sin is against him. It's contrary
to his holy nature. It's contrary to his commandment.
Now it seems to us that this world's been here a long time,
doesn't it? And it seems like, well, it's just been here forever.
This is the way it's always been. And it seems to us like this
world's gonna keep going on forever. It just seems like there'll never
be any end to it. But that's not so. God is going to destroy
this earth because sin has entered into his creation. Verse four,
he says, all the host of heaven should be dissolved. The heavens
should be rolled together as a scroll and all their hosts
shall fall down as a leaf falleth off from the vine and as a falling
fig from the fig tree. Now look over to Hebrews chapter
one. The apostle Paul gives us some more insight into this. The day is coming. That seems
like it's, you know, the scoffers that Peter talked about, so all
things continue as they've been, you know. Well, they haven't,
have they? All things haven't continued
as they've been from the creation. One day, God is gonna wrap this
thing up. He's gonna destroy this earth
because sin has entered into it. Hebrews 1, verse 10. And
thou, Lord, in the beginning, hast laid the foundation of the
earth, and the heavens are the works of thine hands. They shall
perish, but thou remainest And they all shall wax old as doth
a garment. And as a vesture, thou shalt
fold them up. That's the rolling up that Isaiah
talked about. As a vesture, God's just gonna
fold his creation up, and they shall be changed. But thou art
the same, and thy years shall not fail. One day, God is gonna
be done with his purpose, with his creation, and he's gonna
fold it up. He's gonna put it away, he's
gonna destroy it, and he's gonna make a new one. Wherein dwelleth
righteousness, and no sin will ever enter into that new creation.
Now in that day, God's judgment against sinners is gonna be just
and right. This is not gonna be something
that, well, he shouldn't really do this. No, it's gonna be just
and right and everybody's gonna see it. Verse five back in our
text. For my sword shall be bathed
in heaven. Behold, it shall come down upon
Idumea and upon the people of my curse to judgment. Now, this
judgment is God's judgment. It's prepared in heaven. Well,
if it's prepared in heaven, it's right and just, isn't it? Because
God's holy. Now, the writers say what Isaiah
is referring to here is soldiers at this time, before they'd go
to battle, they would bathe their swords. They'd bathe their sword
in some sort of liquid they thought may make their sword harder,
would make it shine brighter and make it more scary in battle.
And so they bathe their sword. Once they bathe their sword,
now they're ready to go to battle. Well, that's what Isaiah said.
God's prepared his sword in heaven. He's bathed it, he's prepared
it, and it's just and right. And God's coming to do battle
with that sword. And God will be just and right
to destroy all sinners with that sword, verse seven. And the unicorns
will come down with them. and the bullocks with the bulls,
and their land shall be soaked with blood, and their dust made
fat with fatness. Now unicorns, he talks about
here, are rhinoceros. Now a rhinoceros is an enormous
animal. I mean, just so enormous. And
I just wouldn't like my chances too much trying to take on a
rhinoceros with a sword. I mean, I just don't think I'd
fare too well. It seems like I'd be outmatched. Those rhinoceros
and the bulls he talks about here represent the most mighty,
strong men we know. And Isaiah speaks of them in
verse 12. These are the best we got, the most mighty, strong
ones. In verse 12, they shall call
the nobles thereof. These mighty rhinoceros and bulls,
they'll call them to the kingdom, but none shall be there. And
all her princes shall be nothing. God's sword of justice will destroy
the strong and mighty just as easily as he does a weak man.
This is God's sword. Now, you know what? When we read
this, this is human nature. You know what we think? We think
that doesn't mean us. We think, well, that doesn't
mean me. We're too good for that. Now, we've got the right religion.
We've got the right doctrine. Brethren, this means all of us.
This is the nature of all men. This is the eternal destiny of
all men left in our flesh, left outside of Christ. This sword
is what we all deserve, the sword of God's justice. And if it falls
on us, we've got nobody to blame but ourselves. Look at verse
eight. For it's the day of the Lord's vengeance and the year
of recompenses for the controversy of Zion. God's judgment is coming
because there's a controversy between God and man and man created
this controversy. God didn't do it, man created
it. The word controversy means strife and adversary. We've made
God our adversary by rebelling against his crown rights and
this strife is severe between God and man and man's the one
who's created it with our sin. It's a bitter conflict against
God. Our carnal minds are enmity.
They're hatred against God. Well, it's only right that God
come with this sort of justice and destroy that rebellion by
sending it to hell for eternity. And it's just right that God
punished sin. And like I said a minute ago, it seems like that
day is never coming, doesn't it? God's never done that before. God's never destroyed earth with
fire before. So it just seems like, well,
that's not going to happen. But this is true. This is the
day of God's vengeance. And one day in God's time, it'll
come. And when that day comes, there'll
be no escaping it for any man. Look at verse 11. But the cormorant
and the bittern shall possess it, the owl also and the raven
shall dwell in it, and he shall stretch out upon it the line
of confusion and the stones of emptiness. They shall call the
nobles thereof to the kingdom, but none shall be there, and
all her princes shall be nothing. And thorns shall come up in her
palaces, nettles and brambles in the fortresses thereof, for
it shall be an habitation of dragons and a court for owls. The wild beasts of the desert
shall also meet with the wild beasts of the island, The satyr
shall cry to his fellow, the screech-owl also shall rest there,
and find for herself a place of rest. There shall the great
owl make her nest, and lay, and hatch, and gather under her shadow. There shall the vultures also
be gathered, every one with her mate." Now these birds it's mentioned
here, and the animals. These are birds that they only
live in uninhabited places. You don't see them in your neighborhoods
and things. They live in uninhabited places
where men are not, so that they're not disturbed. And the picture
here is these birds are going to have plenty of places to dwell
in peace because no men are going to live there. There'll be no
men there. Even the vultures are going to just thrive because
of all the dead flesh that they have to eat on. And this is just
the natural result of the curse of sin. In verse 13, we talked
about the thorns being in our palaces and the nettles and brambles
in the fortresses. That's the curse of sin. There
never was any thorns or thistles or brambles in God's creation
in Eden, not till Adam fell. And that's the curse of Adam
that the ground brought forth those thorns and thistles. This
is just the natural end of the curse of sin. And this word,
this word is a promise of God's justice and judgment. It cannot
fail. It shall come true. Verse 16. Seek ye out of the book of the
Lord and read. No one of these shall fail. Not one of these
words will fail. Now that holds true for this
chapter, this chapter 34. It holds true for the whole book
of Isaiah, the whole gospel of Isaiah. Not one word of it will
fail. It holds true for this entire
book. Every word is truth. Every word shall come to pass.
Look at Joshua 23. We're told this several times in God's
word. Not one word of this shall fail. Joshua 23 verse 14. These are
Joshua's dying words. This is his last words to Israel. In verse 14, and behold, this
day I'm going the way of all the earth. And you know in all
your hearts and in all your souls that not one thing failed of
all the good things which the Lord your God spake concerning
you, all are come to pass unto you. Not one thing hath failed
thereof. Not one of those good things
failed to come to pass, but read on verse 14 or 15. Therefore
it shall come to pass That is, all the good things are come
unto you, which the Lord your God promised you. So shall the
Lord bring upon you all evil things, until he hath destroyed
you from off this good land, which the Lord your God hath
given you, when you have transgressed the covenant of the Lord. See,
this is going to be your fault. You've transgressed the covenant
of the Lord your God, which he commanded you. and have gone
and served other gods, you've gone into idolatry and bowed
yourselves to them. Then shall the Lord be kindled
against you, and you shall perish quickly from off the good land
which he hath given you." And Joshua said, not one of those
promises will fail to come to pass either. Look at 1 Kings
8. First Kings 8, this is when Solomon
is dedicating the temple. First Kings 8, verse 54. And it was so that when Solomon
had made an end of praying all this prayer and supplication
unto the Lord, he rose from before the altar of the Lord from kneeling
on his knees with his hands spread up to heaven. And he stood and
blessed all the congregation of Israel with a loud voice.
saying, Blessed be the Lord, that hath given rest unto his
people Israel, according to all that he promised. There hath
not failed one word of all his good promise, which he promised
by the hand of Moses his servant. And we could go on and on and
on. This book is full of God's promise that shall not fail,
his promise to punish sin. Because God's holy, he will punish
sin. God's God, his character is truth.
He's going to keep his word. And you don't turn to these.
I've got them in my notes. Let me just read you a few of
them. Joshua 24 verse 19. Joshua said unto the people,
you cannot serve the Lord for he's an holy God. He's a jealous
God. He will not forgive your transgressions
nor your sins. Not one word of that prophecy
will fail. In Job 8 verse 3, Does God pervert judgment? Or
does the Almighty pervert justice? No, he does not. So not one word
of this will fail. David said, Psalm 96, verse 13,
for he cometh to judge the earth, he shall judge the world with
righteousness and the people with his truth. Not one word
of that shall fail. Nahum 1, verse 1, God is jealous
and the Lord revengeth. The Lord revengeth and is furious. The Lord will take vengeance
on his adversaries, he reserveth wrath for his enemies. The Lord
is slow to anger, and great in power, and will not at all acquit
the wicked. Nahum went on in verse 6, Who
shall stand before his indignation? And who can abide the fierceness
of his anger? His fury is poured out like fire, and the rocks
are thrown down by him. Who is going to stand before
his indignation? David said there's only one who can stand in God's
presence. It's the man who has clean hands
and a pure heart. Not one word of this is going
to fail. Not one of these words of God's judgment will fail.
God, in His judgment, will give every man exactly what he deserves. No more, no less. That's the
message of this book. God's holy and just, and He will
punish every sin. Every one of these words will
come to pass because God cannot change. But you know, I've been blessed
in my 50 years to have grown up in a home from the time I
could remember language. I have heard about God who forgives
sin. I've heard about God who's merciful
to sinners. I've heard about God who's gracious
to sinners. And the more time I spend in
this book, the more I see it. Psalm 32, verse one. Blessed
is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man unto whom
the Lord imputeth not iniquity. Now there's somebody the Lord's
not gonna impute iniquity to. That word shall not fail. Psalm
85. Thou hast forgiven the iniquity
of thy people. Thou has covered all their sin.
Thou has taken away all thy wrath. All that wrath we read about,
David says, you've taken it all away. You've turned yourself
from the fierceness of thine anger. Not one word of that's
going to fail. God's going to turn away his
anger from somebody. Psalm 130, verse three. If thou, Lord, shouldest mark
iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand? But there is forgiveness
with thee that thou mayest be feared. Jeremiah 33 verse eight,
God says, I will pardon all their iniquities whereby they've sinned
and whereby they've transgressed against me. I will pardon all
their iniquities. Hebrews eight verse 12, I will
be merciful to their unrighteousness and their sins and iniquities
will I remember no more. Now, none of those words can
fail either. Just like none of those words of God's justice
can fail. None of these words of promise, promise of God's
forgiveness of sins, none of those can fail either. Now, how
can that be? How can both of those always
be true? How can neither word fail? How? If you find the answer to
that, you know the gospel, you found the gospel. Look in Genesis
chapter 18. In verse 23, this is Abraham
interceding for Sodom before the Lord went down to destroy
Sodom. And in verse 23, Abraham drew near and said, will thou
also destroy the righteous with the wicked? Perventure there
be 50 righteous within the city. Will thou also destroy and not
spare the place for the 50 righteous that are therein? That be far
from thee to do after this manner, to slay the righteous with the
wicked, and that the righteous should be as the wicked, that
be far from thee, shall not the judge of all the earth do right? Well, yes, he will. Well, how
can the judge of all the earth do right and not destroy every
son of Adam? Look in Exodus chapter 34. In verse 6, and the Lord passed by before
him and proclaimed, the Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious,
long suffering and abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy
for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and
that will by no means clear the guilty. Now, how can that be? How can God be so rich, keeping
mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and
sins, and still by no means clearing the guilty? How can that be? When our scripture is clear,
the sin is forgiven through the blood of the sacrifice. The Levitical
law gave us a picture of how sin is put away through the blood.
The Levitical law said that you've got to bring a trespass offering.
You've got to bring a lamb. You've got to bring a goat. If
you're too poor to bring a lamb or a goat, bring two turtle doves.
But there's got to be a trespass offering for sin. Somebody's
got to die. There's got to be bloodshed for
the trespass offering. And you've got to have a sin
offering. You've got to bring a lamb. If you're too poor to
bring a lamb, you bring two turtle doves. You've got to have an
offering, a burnt offering for the sin offering. There must
be bloodshed. There must be death in order
for sin to be forgiven. And the Old Testament is full
of a river of blood, of animal blood, that the Old Testament
sacrifice is required. And that teaches us God's going
to forgive sin through the blood of the sacrifice. He's going
to forgive sin because the blood of the substitute is going to
pay the sin debt. But it can't be an animal dying
for you and me as our sin offering. It can't be animal blood offered
as a trespass offering for human beings. It's the blood of God's
Son. Only the blood of God's Son,
the Lord Jesus Christ, can cleanse from sin. Look at Hebrews chapter
9. Pardon for sin. is only found
in the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, the sinner substitute. That's how God is gonna pardon
sin. Hebrews 9 verse 22. And almost all things are by
the law purged with blood, and without shedding of blood is
no remission. It was necessary therefore that the patterns of
things in the heavens should be purified with these. but the
heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these,
better than these animal sacrifices. For Christ is not entered into
the holy place made with hands, which are the figures of the
true, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence
of God for us. Nor yet that he should offer
himself often, as the high priest entereth into the holy place
every year with the blood of others. For then must he often
have suffered since the foundation of the world. But now, once in
the end of the world, hath he appeared to put away sin by the
sacrifice of himself. As it is appointed unto men once
to die, but after this the judgment, so Christ was once offered to
bear the sins of many, and unto them that look for him. So he
appeared the second time without sin unto salvation. Now here's
how both the justice of God And God's forgiveness of sin can
both be true. Neither one can fail. God will either punish our sin
by our eternal damnation, or he'll punish our sin by killing
Christ in our stead. By killing Christ as our substitute. That's how God punishes every
sin. They're not a sin that man has
ever committed that will go unpunished. We'll either be punished for
it in eternity or Christ was punished for it in our stead.
Last week, there was an article in the bulletin about the pardon
of sin. You know, when the president
pardons someone at the end of his term, we all know that's
a guilty man. He's guilty. He wouldn't need
a presidential pardon if he wasn't guilty. Now, he's gonna go free.
If the president signs that paper, he's going free. But society
knows that's a guilty man. That's not the way God pardoned
sin. If God pardoned your sin, he pardoned your sin by putting
your sin on his blessed, holy son. And all this wrath that
we read about in Isaiah, he poured every bit of it out upon his
son. So God's wrath is satisfied. Sin has been punished. That's
how God saves a sinner, not by overlooking their sin, not by
bypassing their sin, but by punishing their sin, by punishing Christ
our substitute in our stead. That's how not one word of God's
word can fail. That's how God can save sinners
and remain God, by punishing Christ in our stead. That's how
God can remain true to his character, by punishing the substitute so
his people can go free. God forgives sinners by taking
their sin away. He takes away what's made, what's
brought his wrath out and put it on his son and his son blotted
it out with the blood of his sacrifice. And God is fully satisfied. That's how his, he can forgive
sin. And that's what we have pictured
in our text. The sword that we read about
is the sword of God's justice. This is the sword that keeps
men from coming into the presence of God as we are. Remember when
God cast Adam out of the garden? He put some cherubims there with
a flaming sword that turned every way to keep man from coming back
to the tree of life. That sword has to fall. It has to fall on somebody. We
can never come to that tree of life. Well, how can that sword
not fall on sinful men and women like us? How can we come back
to God without that sword killing us? Only because Christ took
that sword into himself. You don't have to turn there,
but in Zechariah chapter 13, God gave us a promise of this.
This is the prophecy. It cannot fail. Not one word
of it will fail. This is how God's going to take
the sword away from his people. He says in Zechariah 13 verse
seven, a Waco sword against my shepherd. And against the man
that is my fellow, saith the Lord of hosts, smite the shepherd
and the sheep shall be scattered. And I'll turn my hand on the
little ones." The Lord Jesus Christ fell on that sword of
God's justice, that flaming sword that turns every way. He fell
on that sword of justice. So that sword can never fall
on his people. The sword of God's justice can
never fall on you. if it's already fallen on Christ,
your substitute. Now that flaming sword that's
keeping men from coming back to the tree of life has to stay
there until that justice, until that sword is satisfied. Well,
once Christ has removed the sword by taking the sword into his
own soul, now men can come back to God because the sword has
been removed. And that's the promise of our
text. Look back at this word bathed. The word bathed here
in verse five, for my sword shall be bathed in heaven. That word
doesn't mean dipped. That word bathed means satisfied. God's sword of justice is satisfied
by blood from heaven. That's how that sword is satisfied. In other places of scripture,
this exact same word bathed is translated abundantly satisfied. God is abundantly satisfied with
the sacrifice of Christ. God's justice is abundantly satisfied
by the death of Christ, our substitute. So now, true to his character,
God can freely show grace and mercy and forgive the sin of
his elect because their sin has already been punished with the
sword of God's justice. His sword's satisfied. He's not
looking for you if Christ died for you. The sword is satisfied. And because that sword is satisfied,
sinners like us can come right to the throne of grace, boldly,
knowing that we'll be accepted in the person of our Lord Jesus
Christ. We come there without any fear
of the sword of the Almighty, because His sword's already satisfied
by the death of Christ. But now this sword of God's justice,
it's gonna fall on somebody. It's gonna fall on everyone outside
of Christ. He says in verse 5, For my sword
shall be bathed in heaven. Behold, it shall come down upon
Idumea and upon the people of my curse to judgment. Now the
people of Idumea are the people of Edom. These are the people
who descended from Esau. The sword of God's justice is
going to fall on people who are like Esau. Esau rejected the
birthright. The people he's speaking of here
are people who reject Christ. God's sword will fall on them.
Because they're people under the curse. They're under God's
curse. But God also has a people of mercy. He has a people of
the curse, but he also has a people of his mercy. Verse six. For
the sword of the Lord is filled with blood. This is how the sword
of the Lord is satisfied. It's filled with blood. It's
made fat with fatness and with the blood of lambs and goats,
with the fat of the kidneys of rams. For the Lord hath a sacrifice
in Basra and a great slaughter in the land of Idumea. The Lord
hath a sacrifice in Basra. That word Basra means sheepfold.
There's a sacrifice in the sheepfold. There's a sacrifice for everyone
who's in God's sheepfold. And everyone in that sheepfold
lives without any fear of this sword of justice because their
sin has been paid for. There's a sacrifice for their
sin. It's been paid for by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Now I'm interested in that. Are you interested in that sheepfold?
I'm interested in the forgiveness of my sin. How did these get
into the sheepfold? How'd they get there? Was it
by accident? Did they take the first step and then God met them
the rest of the way? Did they make a decision to enter
the sheepfold? How did they get in the sheepfold? God chose them. That's how they got in the sheepfold.
They're God's elect. God made them His and put them
in His sheepfold. When he speaks here in the rest
of the chapter about these birds, you know, they're gonna have
a place to live. These birds, they tend to be birds that are
mourning and solitary. They're pictures of God's people.
Look at verse 17. How'd they get there? The same
way the sheep got in the sheepfold in Basra. And he hath cast a
lot for them, and his hand hath divided it unto them by line,
and they shall possess it forever. From generation to generation
shall they dwell therein. God's the one who divided the
sheep from the goats. And God's word to the sheep and
God's word to the goat, neither one shall fail. The goats are
the people under God's curse and they'll suffer this wrath
of the sword of God's justice. And by nature, by what we've
done, by who we are, that's what every one of us deserve. So thank
God for his electing love. Thank God there's a people of
God's mercy, of God's choosing. God didn't wait for anybody to
choose him. If God would have waited for anybody to choose
him, none of us would have chosen, not one person. So God chose
his people and he set his love upon them. He sent his son to
die for them and he gave them this word of the promise of God
almighty. If Christ died for you, my sword
of justice will never fall on you because it's already fallen
on Christ your substitute. My sword has already been bathed
in heaven. It's been satisfied with the
blood of God's son from heaven. And God's promise to you, to
you who believe, is you're gonna enjoy the inheritance that God
has for you. You're gonna enjoy it forever. That word of promise cannot fail. You can't lose your inheritance.
Now this gospel message, it's a message for all men. God's
wrath is upon all nations. So all men should listen. And
thankfully, this ought to perk up our ears. God's mercy is upon
all nations. God has a people from every nation. He's determined to be merciful
to them. The sword of his justice has
already fell on his son for people from every nation. So all men
ought to listen, shouldn't they? And more than listen, all men
ought to worship. Ought to listen and worship. Only God would do something like
this. for wretches like you and me,
only God, his mercy and his grace. That can't make us worship, nothing
will. God help us to worship you. All
right, let's bow in prayer. Our Father, how we thank you for your word.
How we thank you that you've given us your promise, not one
of these prophecies, not one word of God shall ever fail. You shall accomplish your purpose. Father, how thankful we are that
it is your purpose to forgive sin. It is your purpose to be
merciful to your people. We freely admit what we are in
Adam, what we are our own thoughts and actions and deeds, we freely
admit we deserve your justice. We deserve for this sword of
your justice to fall upon us. But how thankful we are that
in your purpose, beyond human comprehension, that
you would thrust that sword into the very soul of your son, as
he made his soul an offering for the sin of his people, that
you might put away through his sacrifice, through the blood
of his sacrifice, that you'd put away forever the sin of your
people, so that now you're merciful, that you call us out through
the preaching of your gospel, that one day not one will hurt
shall fail. You will gather together in one,
everyone in Christ Jesus. We may enjoy eternity in thy
presence. Father, we're thankful, and I
pray that you'd give us faith to believe this gospel. What
a gospel, the gospel of forgiveness of sin in your son. It's in his
matchless name we pray and give thanks.