Isaiah chapter 34, reading from
verse 1. 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. For the indignation of the Lord
is upon all nations, and his fury upon all their armies. He hath utterly destroyed them,
he hath delivered them to the slaughter. Their slain also shall
be cast out, and their stink shall come up out of their carcasses,
and the mountains shall be melted with their blood. and all the
host of heaven shall be dissolved, and the heavens shall be rolled
together as a scroll, and all their hosts shall fall down,
as the leaf falleth off from the vine, and as a falling fig
from the fig tree. For my sword shall be bathed
in heaven. Behold, it shall come down upon
Edomia, and upon the people of my curse, to judgment. The sword
of the Lord is filled with blood. It is 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 Bozra, and a great slaughter in the land of Edomia. and the
unicorns shall 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. For it is the day of the Lord's
vengeance, and the year of recompenses for the controversy of Zion. 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. 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, and it shall be an habitation
of dragons and a court of four owls. The wild beasts of the
desert shall also meet with the wild beasts of the island, and
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, everyone with her mate. Seek ye out 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 he shall cast the lot
for them, and his hand hath divided it unto them by line, they shall
possess it for ever. From generation to generation
shall they dwell therein. Amen, the Lord bless this reading
to us also. From the opening chapters of
the Bible, and the fall of man in the Garden of Eden, it has
been clearly revealed how God hates sin and God will judge
sin. Adam broke trust with God. Adam chose Eve above God. Adam sinned against his maker. In rejecting God, he shattered
the peace and perfection God had created on earth. and thereby
set all of Adam's posterity in rebellion against God. We did not have to wait long
to see the consequences of that fall. The firstborn man slew
his young brother in jealousy, pride and rage. and sin took
hold in the world. It exploded with viciousness,
filling the earth as Satan led men and women captive according
to his will. Then within a mere 10 generations,
we find these words. And God saw that the wickedness
of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of
the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And it
repented the Lord that he had made man on the earth, and it
grieved him at his heart And the Lord said, I will destroy
man whom I have created from the face of the earth, both man
and beast and creeping thing, and the fowls of the air, for
it repenteth me that I have made them. But Noah found grace in the eyes
of the Lord. Now I've mentioned these verses
because I want to make the following points to you by way of introduction. God detests sin. It grieves God at his heart. Now, that is a form of speaking,
a way of speaking. that enables us to understand
the intensity of God's hatred against sin. But these verses also remind
us that God is determined to destroy man and this cursed world
because of sin. We're told in these early chapters
of Genesis that God once did indeed destroy mankind by means
of a worldwide flood, a fact surely intended to emphasise
how rigorous divine justice is. The Lord looked upon the face
of this earth, he saw the wickedness of man's deeds and how it filled
the earth and God was determined to destroy man and the earth
that was cursed. And we also learn that at the
very moment when God passed sentence on this rebellious people that
one sinner found grace in the sight of God. Now fast forward
to Isaiah. It was about 1600 years perhaps
from the fall to the flood and maybe another 1800 years, from
the flood to the time of Isaiah. But what we discover is simply
this, that history is repeating itself. Again, just as the Lord
declared at the time of the flood, the nations of the world are
in full rebellion against God. Again, The wickedness of man
was great in the earth and every imagination of the thoughts of
his heart was only evil continually. And again, in this chapter, we find God promising destruction
on mankind and the nations of the world. Verse 1 tells us,
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. For the indignation of the Lord
is upon all nations, and his fury upon all their armies. He
hath utterly destroyed them, he hath delivered them to the
slaughter. I want us to realise that this
is God's attitude and approach toward the wickedness of this
world. And the fact that God is patient,
the fact that God is long-suffering, the fact that God does not bring
judgement immediately upon this earth, the very fact that we
are here at all today is not because the world has got any
better. The world was the same in Isaiah's
day as it was in the day of the flood and it is the same today
as it was in the day of Isaiah. The world is still full of wickedness
and there is evil imaginations in the heart of man. and God's
indignation is still poised to take its toll upon this earth. These chapters that we read here
in Isaiah is full of the talk of judgment, of the talk of slaughter,
of the talk of the sword of the Lord. And having destroyed the
world once before with water, God now promises destruction
by bloody slaughter, by fire and by dissolution. The people of this world mocked
God in Noah's day when he sent a preacher of righteousness warning
them about the judgment to come. They mocked God in Isaiah's day
And things have not changed much, because still today men laugh
at the prospect of judgment. But it is coming, and it is coming
soon, either individually or for this world in its entirety. This judgment that Isaiah speaks
of goes by the name, the sword of the Lord. That's what Isaiah,
that's what the Lord is calling judgment, the sword of the Lord. It bears this title first because
it originates with the Lord. This is the sword of the Lord. Second, it bears the title because
it is executed by the Lord, even if it is carried out by another
means. Sometimes God uses angels to
wield the sword of the Lord. Sometimes he uses men to wield
the sword of the Lord. For example, we have heard and
we will learn more of a man called Cyrus. Cyrus brought judgment
on Babylon by which the children of Israel were able to return
from their captivity. But Cyrus was simply a tool in
God's hand to dispense judgment and do his will. Cyrus himself
had no interest in the Lord's people per se. He had no interest
in the great event that he was appointed to accomplish. He personally did not know the
Lord. But Cyrus was the sword of the
Lord for the accomplishment of his purpose. And the third reason
it's called the sword of the Lord is because judgment is a
violent, tormenting experience. What do I mean by that? Well,
I mean this. Every sinner who dies outside
of Christ dies violently, even if they die peacefully in
their sleep, because death is an enemy and hell is immediate
conscious torment. I often think what horror must
flood the souls of men and women in the moment of death. What
horror must flood the souls of men and women in the moment of
death? That's the sword of the Lord.
The rich man died in all his luxury, but he opened up his
eyes in hell being in torments, we are told. And in Psalm 9,
verse 17, David says, This is God's righteous act. This is
the sword of the Lord. And there is no peaceful death
for the unforgiven. I want to leave three points,
quick points, with you concerning this passage today. The first point is the longest,
so don't worry when you hear me saying point two and think
to yourself, oh, he's going to go way over his time. I'm not
going to do that. But here's the first point that
I want to make. Holiness requires judgment. justice cries out for retribution
and God's holy law marks and records iniquity. It measures and itemises every
transgression and patiently waits for satisfaction. It won't be
denied And this is true for all. Ezekiel, the prophet, writes,
The soul that sinneth, it shall die. The son shall not bear the
iniquity of the father, neither shall the father bear the iniquity
of the son. The righteousness of the righteous
shall be upon him, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon him. That just means that every man
and every woman is going to be answerable before God for the
sin that they have committed. The Apostle Paul puts it somewhat
more straightforward when he says, the wages of sin is death. And this is true of final judgment. but it also has an impact and
a significance in temporal judgement as well. Judgements that happen
in this world happen in people's experiences. Let us not imagine
just because the wicked appear to prosper, people who have no
concern for God, people who laugh and mock and reject the things
of God, people who lust after the values of the world and after
the satisfaction of the flesh and pursue after their own ends
and maintain their own self-righteousnesses and their good works and claim
that they're as good as the next person. Let's not imagine that
these wicked who appear to prosper will not have to give recompense
for the evil that they commit even in this world. We may not see a direct one-for-one
correlation between a wicked act and its judgment but that
does not mean that God is mocked or that justice is denied. On
the contrary, Paul writes in Galatians chapter 6, be not deceived,
God is not mocked. For whatsoever a man soweth,
that shall he also reap. For he that soweth to his flesh
shall of the flesh reap corruption. There is a judgment happening
constantly in the lives and the experience of men and women who
turn their backs on God. Let us remember the context of
this chapter and I just draw this to your mind again. Remember
that Isaiah is speaking to God's elect remnant amongst the Jews. In order to comfort them, in
a world that is about to collapse in apparent chaos. The people
of Judah, as the people of Israel before them, would soon be overwhelmed
by the nations that were greater than they were. They would be
brought into captivity. They would be deported to a faraway
land. In such ways, nations disappear. And there was that concern amongst
the remnant people of God that they too were about to disappear.
And then what would happen, what would transpire concerning the
promises of God? Isaiah's prophecy is to encourage
and reassure that people that God is still upon his throne. Isaiah's message is, while turmoil
and disorder seem to reign, God is still in charge. He is still
marking time and soon the day of the Lord's vengeance and the
year of recompenses for the controversy of Zion will become apparent. This was true then, it is still
true today. The king of Assyria, Sennacherib,
lifted his hand against the Lord's people and in time he paid with
his life. The king of Babylon lifted his
hand against Jerusalem and in time he too paid with his life. No sin goes unnoticed. No act
against the Lord's church goes unpunished. And concerning Zion,
the church, the Lord says, vengeance is mine. I will repay. We can read. about that more
fully in Deuteronomy chapter 32 and verse 35. And I'm going
to read the whole verse because I think if we think about the
words, it's very significant what is said there even back
in the book of Deuteronomy. Here's what it says. Paul, when
he's speaking and saying, vengeance is mine, I will repay, is paraphrasing
this verse from Deuteronomy 32. To me, says the Lord, to me belongeth
vengeance and recompense. Their foot shall slide in due
time, for the day of their calamity is at hand, and the things that
shall come upon them make haste. This is payback. This is retribution. and it hasn't changed. The Lord
says, touch not mine anointed, touch not my people, touch not
my church, touch not my little ones. A husband is jealous for
his wife, a father is jealous for his child, and the Lord Jesus
Christ is jealous for the safety, protection and well-being of
his church. Woe betides the man or the woman
or the nation that lays a hand on the elect people of God. Isaiah
speaks about indignation. He uses words like fury and slaughter
and destruction. He speaks about wrath flowing
from God's holiness and revealing thereby his response to sin. The language is frightening. burning pitch, fiery brimstone. The descriptions here, as we
have seen, are re-employed as descriptions of hell in the Gospels
by the Lord and in the Book of Revelation by the Apostle John. The Lord speaks of a great division. He says, depart from me ye cursed
into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels.
Jude speaks of suffering the vengeance of eternal fire. John
writes, the fearful and unbelieving and abominable and murderers
and whoremongers and sorcerers and idolaters and all liars shall
have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone,
which is the second death. Well might the writer to the
Hebrews declare, it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands
of the living God. Here's the second point that
I want to touch upon. One might wonder in all of this
judgment and punishment for sin, where is love and mercy and forgiveness
to be found? How can God, who, as we have
seen, showed grace to Noah, uphold justice, as we have described
in our first point, he must, and yet show mercy? How can he
be both just and yet justify sinners, make sinners righteous? The answer is by finding a substitute
to suffer in the place of those whom he has chosen to salvation
and everlasting life. In Job, the book of Job chapter
33 and verse 24, we have a description of a sick man, a man who is sick
unto death, but one who is redeemed and delivered by the grace of
God. Here's what we read in that verse. Then he is gracious unto him
and saith deliver him from going down to the pit I have found
a ransom. That's the gospel right there
in the book of Job, perhaps one of the earliest books of the
Bible written. There is the gospel right before
our eyes. The reason otherwise condemned
sinners find grace in God's sight is because a ransom has been
found to pay their debt to sin, to bear their guilt and to deliver
them from death. The words in Job are spoken to
the law and to justice. We've already said that the law
demands, the holiness of God demands, justice demands retribution. But here, the word goes forth
from the Lord, let the redeemed of the Lord go free. Let them
not be condemned to the bottomless pit of everlasting ruin and destruction. Why? I have found a ransom and
that ransom is no other than Christ the Son of God. whom Jehovah in his infinite
wisdom found and settled upon to be the ransomer and the redeemer
of his people. And Christ agreed to fulfil that
role and in the fullness of time came to give his life a ransom
for many. This ransom is for all the elect
of God, all who find grace in the sight of God. And it releases
them from sin, and Satan, and the law, and hell, and death,
and judgment. And I want you to note this,
it was God who found the ransom. People say, oh, I've found God,
or I've found forgiveness, or I've found everlasting life.
Well, okay, let's give them the benefit of the doubt and hear
what they have to say, but it's God who found the ransom. It
is God who settled upon Jesus Christ. It is God who formed
this plan of salvation, and it was the persons of the Godhead
who covenanted together to bring redemption to his people. The
covenant of grace and peace, the plan of propitiation, peace
and reconciliation by Christ is the effect of infinite wisdom. It's a scheme drawn up in the
eternal mind formed in and upon Christ from everlasting. We spoke about what is the providence
of God. This is the essence of God's
providential care for the people of his choice. This is God's
blessing upon the people that he loves. And here's my third
point and with this we'll wrap it up. The ransom price is the blood
of Christ. So before we close, I just want
to return briefly to the sword of the Lord and think about what
that means and what it said to us in our first point. I want
us to do so just so that we realise the nature and the extent of
our ransom by Christ, what it means and what it cost. We're
told in Revelation chapter five, verse nine, Thou wast slain and
hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred and
tongue and people and nation. The ransom price was Christ's
innocent blood. It is the blood of Jesus Christ
that cleanseth us from all sin. Because the sword of the Lord
was unsheathed in heaven. That's what the reference to
bathed in heaven means. The sword of the Lord was unsheathed
in heaven and it was plunged into the soul of Christ as he
hung upon the cross. Zechariah writes, Awake, O sword,
against my shepherd, and against the man that is my fellow, saith
the Lord of hosts. This sword of the Lord, this
judgment of God, it was roused and awakened against God's own
fellow, the shepherd of the sheep, and the sword was used against
our Saviour. The justice of God never overlooks
sin. The justice of God, the law of
God, counts the cost, exacts the price, and only when it is
fully satisfied, withdraws and rests completed. On the cross, the Lord Jesus
Christ paid the whole debt of every elect child of God. Not one sin remains outstanding
or unpaid. Not one shadow of guilt darkens
our view in God's sight. Not a single accusation can legitimately
be levied against us. Our Lord Jesus Christ has borne
our sin and carried our sorrow. We are free in Him from guilt,
sin, death, hell and Satan's rule. For us, for us who believe,
for us who are safe, for us who are saved and cleansed in the
blood of Jesus Christ, the Lord's sword is returned to its sheath,
the ransom is paid, and we have peace with God. And if you believe that, you
have nothing to fear in life, nothing to fear in death, and
nothing to fear in judgment. There is no condemnation to them
which are in Christ Jesus. I mentioned yesterday in the
little introduction that I sent out that the closing reference
to the book of the Lord in this chapter seems to direct the remnant
people, the Lord's elect, you and me, those who believe It seems to
direct us to be always watching for when these predictions will
be verified. Comparing, as it were, events
in time with the prophecies of old to see how everything will
be exactly accomplished as promised by God. This exercise of taking the prophecies
and finding their fulfilment was designed to comfort God's
Old Testament people as they watched and waited for the coming
Messiah. And it should comfort us still.
No matter what chaos seems to reign in this world, or what
chaos seems to reign in our own lives, God is still on his throne. Judgment on the wicked is certain
and salvation for the elect is assured. John tells us in Revelation,
the words of God shall be fulfilled and we trust and believe it is
so. Amen. May the Lord bless these
thoughts to us as well.