Let me just read verse 4 again.
That thou shalt take up this proverb against the king of Babylon
and say, How hath the oppressor ceased, the golden city ceased? The Lord hath broken the staff
of the wicked and the sceptre of the rulers. He who smote the
people in wrath with a continual stroke, he that ruled the nations
in anger, is persecuted, and none hindereth. The whole earth
is at rest, and is quiet. They break forth into singing. Yea, the fir trees rejoice at
thee, and the cedars of Lebanon, saying, Since thou art laid down,
no feller is come up against us. Hell from beneath is moved
for thee to meet thee at thy coming. It stirreth up the dead
for thee, even all the chief ones of the earth. It hath raised
up from their thrones all the kings of the nations. All they
shall speak and say unto thee, Art thou also become weak as
we? Art thou become like unto us?
Thy pomp is brought down to the grave, and the noise of thy vials,
the worm is spread under thee, and the worms cover thee. How
art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning? How art thou cut down to the
ground, which didst weaken the nations? For thou hast said in
thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne
above the stars of God, I will sit also upon the mount of the
congregation in the sides of the north, I will ascend above
the heights of the clouds, I will be like the Most High. Yet thou
shalt be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit. They
that see thee shall narrowly look upon thee, and consider
thee, saying, Is this the man that made the earth to tremble,
that did shake kingdoms, that made the world as a wilderness,
and destroyed the cities thereof, that opened not the house of
his prisoners? All the kings of the nations,
even all of them, lie in glory, even every one in his own house. But thou art cast out of thy
grave like an abominable branch, and as the raiment of those that
are slain, thrust through with a sword that go down to the stones
of the pit as a carcass trodden under feet. Thou shalt not be
joined with them in burial, because thou hast destroyed thy land
and slain thy people. The seed of evildoers shall never
be renowned. Prepare slaughter for his children,
for the iniquity of their fathers, that they do not rise, nor possess
the land, nor fill the face of the world with cities. For I
will rise up against them, saith the Lord of hosts, and cut off
from Babylon the name, and remnant, and son, and nephew, saith the
Lord. I will also make it a possession
for the bittern and pools of water, and I will sweep it with
the besom of destruction, saith the Lord of hosts. The Lord of
hosts hath sworn, saying, Surely, as I have thought, so shall it
come to pass, and as I have purposed, so shall it stand, that I will
break the Assyrian in my land, and upon my mountains tread him
underfoot. Then shall his yoke depart from
off them, and his burden depart from off their shoulders. This
is the purpose that is purposed upon the whole earth, and this
is the hand that is stretched out upon all the nations. For
the Lord of hosts hath purposed, and who shall disannul it? And
his hand is stretched out, and who shall turn it back? In the
year that King Ahaz died was this burden. Rejoice not thou
whole Palestina, because the rod of him that smote thee is
broken. For out of the serpent's root
shall come forth a cockatrice, and his fruit shall be a fiery
flying serpent. and the firstborn of the poor
shall feed, and the needy shall lie down in safety, and I will
kill thy root with famine, and he shall slay thy remnant. Howl, O gate! Cry, O city! Thou whole Palestina art dissolved,
for there shall come from the north a smoke, and none shall
be alone in his appointed times. What shall one then answer the
messengers of the nation? That the Lord hath founded Zion,
and the poor of his people shall trust in it. Amen. May the Lord bless to us this
reading from his word. When we read the prophets such
as Isaiah, we do well to remember that these men were being inspired
by God the Holy Spirit to write the things that they recorded. These prophecies are not wishful
thinking. They're not propaganda to encourage
the population when times get difficult. They're rooted in
the purposes of God. And the prophet explains very
clearly towards the end of the chapter that as God had purposed,
so he would perform. So these are a foretelling of
what is going to happen. This is the word of God. This
word is true. and faithful and reliable, it
is infallible and trustworthy, and it is absolutely certain. So when Isaiah writes, the Lord
will have mercy on Jacob, he's not just giving a statement of
fact, but he is delivering a promise for the people to hold onto. Actually, It's even more than
that. He's giving a reason for hope
when everything seems hopeless. When the Babylonians conquered
Israel and deported its people, they generated a thousand personal
stories of hardship and loss. of grief and bereavement, about a husband murdered, about
sons forced into the army, about daughters abused, Children taken
away. Violence suffered and endured. And all this time you are 700
miles from your home. You're alone. And there you wonder
what on earth is going to happen. You're without a friend in the
world. and the things that have happened
are enough to break your heart. Where now, the covenant that
God made to Abraham? What about the inheritance that
was promised to Jacob? What about the promises given
to Moses? What about the Messiah? But then you remember, what Isaiah
said. The Lord will have mercy on Jacob. The Lord will yet choose Israel
and set them in their own land. Then you remember that he said,
The Lord shall give thee rest from thy sorrow and from thy
fear and from the hard bondage wherein thou wast made to serve. And when you've not got any reason
to believe that these things can possibly ever happen, except
that Isaiah said it, except that this is God's word, then you
begin to understand a little about what faith and hope and
trusting in the Lord is really about. When your son is being
taken away by the army, And you press a little piece
of paper into his hand as he leaves, which says, the Lord
will have mercy on Jacob and will yet choose Israel and set
them in their own land. When your daughter lies sobbing
in the night and you put your arm around her and say, the Lord
will give rest from thy sorrow and from thy fear and from the
hard bondage wherein thou wast made to serve, you are saying
that you believe that despite all the troubles and all the
sorrows and all the hardships, that someday This will all be
over. The Messiah will come. God will
be faithful to his word and we must not give up hope. That's what Isaiah was giving
to the people when he wrote this prophecy. Isaiah's message gave
hope to the generations of believers to trust the Lord despite the
apparent impossibility of redemption and recovery and restoration. so that the Holy Spirit was not
only revealing the fact of mercy, he was embedding the promise
within the most extraordinary circumstances of these people's
lives and he was telling them to have faith and to trust in
the promises of God. And what is amazing, actually,
in this chapter, as we read it, is the nature of the way in which
Isaiah writes this passage. We've spoken about this before,
how that Isaiah said to the people, this is the song to sing. It's
not only that he's telling them that they will be delivered,
but he's telling them the words of the songs that they shall
sing when they are delivered. What encouragement, what kindness,
what goodness the Lord showed to his elect people even so many
years ago when he blessed them with the words of this faithful
prophet and delivered these things into their hand that they might
know even before the events overtook them. that they would have their
end and that the promises of God and the faithfulness of God
would be demonstrated. This chapter is quite amazing
because of the proverb or the parable that it contains, speaking
about the desolation of Babylon and the death of its king. Here
we have a parable about the death and descent of the king of Babylon. He's called Lucifer in this passage. Into the pit of hell. And again, this is what the people
would read, even as this king of Babylon was coming into his
ascendancy, even as he was enacting his conquests upon them, they
were given these words of Isaiah to remind them that this too
would pass. It is foretold in a graphic,
powerful manner that must indeed have astonished God's remnant
people. It's almost astonishing to read
it today, the way in which Isaiah, by the inspiration of the Holy
Spirit, sets in place the way in which this King of Babylon,
this Lucifer, would aspire to set himself up and then be brought
down into the grave and indeed brought down into hell. So what I'm going to do today,
if the Lord will enable, is take three headings from this chapter
and remind us all why we trust the Lord, even in the face of
all the opposition and the trouble and the difficulties that we
encounter in our lives. The three headings I want to
take are these. Number one is to think about
Lucifer, son of the morning. Number two, Christ, the light
of the world. And number three, Jehovah, the
Lord, our salvation. And I'm going to collect some
of my thoughts or most of my thoughts from this chapter in
its entirety. That's why I hope that in a sense
you're a little bit prepared by having thought about the things
that we've already said. But I hope that these thoughts
today will encourage us and comfort us and teach us that we shall
ourselves be helped. to trust the Lord more in those
dark times, in those difficult times, and be strengthened under
the temptations that will come. So here's our first point today.
I want us to think about Lucifer, son of the morning. Now, Lucifer
is a name that has long been associated with Satan. And yet, truth be told, in scripture
it is not expressly stated to be a legitimate connection. Some commentators in times past
made a connection between what they perceived happened to Satan
and what they perceive is happening to this King of Babylon. They've
put them both together and kind of implied that the one speaks
about the other. But I don't think that that's
necessarily so. It's true that the devil was
once among the bright creatures of heaven until he was lifted
up by pride and cast out. and the name Lucifer has stuck
to the devil ever since. But really, this is about the
King of Babylon. It's the King of Babylon that
we have before us here. It's the King of Babylon that
the people would know about. It was the King of Babylon that
Isaiah was writing about. And he is intended in this passage
And I think that properly identifying him to be so, without applying
the name outside of this context, actually helps us to open up
an avenue of thought that will bear fruit. This was a wicked
man. A wicked man with a fearsome
reputation. The words of the song or the
words of the proverb make this clear, especially when we read
together, for example, verses 6 to 8. He smote the people in
wrath with a continual stroke. It was incessant, the way in
which he dominated and grieved the people, that he ruled the
nations in anger. There was constantly this venom
about the way in which he dominated the people and the nations around
about him. He never stopped. He drove his
armies with a vigour, with a passion. that they might destroy all of
the nations round about one by one by one and as soon as he
had finished in one land he simply turned around and marched into
the next. Such were his conquests, such
was his insatiable lust for power. But equally, it is just as clear
that there was a religious element to Babylon's wickedness and a
spiritual dimension, a spiritual component to this king's ambition. He projected himself as more
than a man. And hence, when we hear him being
spoken to by these inhabitants of hell, they speak to him, mocking
him, saying, are thou also become weak as we? As if to say, you
lifted yourself up so grandly, you lifted yourself up so high,
and now look at you, you've become as weak as we are. Thou art become
like unto us. Because in pride, the King of
Babylon wanted to make himself God. Or perhaps more specifically,
what we should say is that he wanted to make himself the God-Man. He even took the name morning
star, which is what that reference Lucifer alludes to. It is the
light bringer, the morning star. It's probably a reference to
Venus, the star that, well, it sets brightly late at night,
but it also sets, rises brightly in the morning sometimes just
before sunrise. And it's that allusion that is
being made here to Lucifer, the morning star. In fact, the reality
is that it's a title of the Lord Jesus Christ given to him, taken
by him, spoken by him. He says that I am the bright
and morning star. But this King of Babylon aspired
to that title as well. Here's the reason why I'm endeavouring
to stress this point. Look at what this man says in
verse 13 and 14 of the chapter. It says this... For thou hast
said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven. I will exalt my
throne above the stars of God. I will sit also upon the mount
of the congregation in the sides of the north. I will ascend above
the heights of the cloud. I will be like the Most High. How blasphemous! Were these ambitions,
was this man's aspirations? And what I want to suggest to
you today is that this ambition that is being spoken of here
was not exclusive to this king, this individual. Because what
rather is being reflected here is an attitude that exists in
the nature of fallen man. It's pride, pride that makes
a man or a woman, imagine that they are better than they are.
And indeed, it is a lust and it is a pride which exalts men
and women even above God. That our attitude is that we
would have God displaced from his throne and us to sit upon
that throne and us to reign in our own glory, in our own reputation,
in our own greatness, imagining ourselves to be better than we
are. It's the same pride, the pride
of nature, the pride of heart that snared Adam and Eve in the
Garden of Eden when Satan came tempting and offered them the
knowledge of good and evil and said to them, you'll be like
God. And that was what snagged them. That was what snared them. They wished to be like God, knowing
good and evil. It's the same attitude that provoked
Cain to slay Abel. Cain had aspirations that he
was to be that one that bruised the serpent's head. He thought
he was to be that God-man. And yet he found that his offering,
his worship was rejected and Abel's was accepted. And in pride
and jealousy, he lifted his hand up against his brother and slew
him in anger. And that same attitude of Cain,
that same pride of humanity has existed and continued throughout
history. and finds a personification in
the heart of the King of Babylon. In fact, it's very interesting.
If we read through the early chapters of Genesis, we come
to chapters 10 and 11, and we discover there the story of a
man called Nimrod who built the Tower of Babel in the land of
Babylon. There's a connection between
the Tower of Babel and the Empire of Babylon. This was not merely
a city with a high tower. It was a full-blown religious
system centred on man's pride, man's aspirations to be like
God, and man's own will and man's own righteousness. It was founded,
Babylon and the Tower of Babel was founded on man's lust for
divinity. Babylon was founded on the desire
for men to be like God. and it is in itself the foundation
of all man-made religion that we have ever seen in the world
and see existing in the world today. This system of religion
is a system that has been set up in opposition to the truth
that is revealed of Christ in scripture. and it has always
been the devil's purpose to reprocate and to counterfeit the true faith
of Jesus Christ by the establishment of false religion in this world. It is for that reason that Babylon
Again, here is the King of Babylon, here is the nation of which Isaiah
is writing. It is for that reason that the
Apostle John uses Babylon as a synonym in Revelation, not
simply for the Church of Rome only, but for all anti-Christian
religious activity. The religion of Babylon is the
religion of Satan and the damned and it is set up in opposition
to the Church of Christ and the Kingdom of God. So that the religion
of the world began as an organised religious system way back in
Genesis chapter 10 and 11 building on the desire of Adam and Eve
under temptation of Satan to have the knowledge of good and
evil and be like God. And during the days of Nimrod
and the building of the Tower of Babel, we see that manifested. And here it continues with Lucifer,
King of Babylon. And it continues still in the
religion of false Christs and antichrists that we see in the
world today. So this is referred to in the
scriptures as Babylon, the great whore, the mother of all harlot
religion, and it is the religion of the self-righteous religion
of works and free will. and we're warned of God to come
out of it and to separate from it and have nothing to do with
it. This is what the king of Babylon
was setting himself up as, as the morning star. But the Lord
Jesus Christ is the true son of righteousness. It is the Lord
Jesus Christ who rises with healing in his wings for his people.
And so having thought, first of all, then, about this Lucifer,
son of the morning, that brings us rather to think about he who
was being counterfeited and who was being falsified, Christ,
the true light of the world. You see, Isaiah had already indicated
to the people of his day, the people of his age, and all who
would come after him that a child was to be born and a son was
to be given. This Messiah, to whom all true
faith looks for saving grace, would certainly come at the promise
of God. This is what Isaiah had told
the people already. And his would be a spiritual
kingdom. It would be the kingdom of heaven. It would be not of the earth,
despite the fact that even the Lord's disciples thought that
it would be, right up to the moment of his death. But the elect people knew, Isaiah
knew, that this one would come as the true light of the world. Isaiah in fact had said concerning
the one who would be born as the child who would be born and
the son who would be given, he had said of him in Isaiah chapter
9 verse 2, the people that walked in darkness have seen a great
light. Not Lucifer, not Lucifer, the
light of the morning. This great light was the true
great light, was the light of the world, was Jesus Christ himself. The people that walked in darkness
have seen a great light. They that dwell in the land of
the shadow of death, upon them hath the light shined. Zacharias,
father of John the Baptist, confirmed that that light was Christ and
our Saviour himself said, I am the light of the world. He that
followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the
light of life. So we compare Lucifer the Star
of the Morning, so-called King of Babylon. What did he say?
He said, I will ascend into heaven. He said, I will exalt my throne
above the stars of God. I will sit upon Mount Zion. I will be like the Most High. His pride was in what I will
do. He repeats it time after time
after time. This is what I will do. This is the false religion of
the world. But the Lord's people, Christ's
people, the Lord's elect, abase themselves and exalt Christ because
they've learned that their will is to cling to darkness and their
righteousness is as filthy rags. They need one who will cleanse
them from their sin and cover them with a perfect righteousness
that is beyond their own ability. And by God's grace, the kingdom
of Christ, the elect of God, are brought to see and to know
that one who is the true light of the world. We're brought out
of darkness, the darkness of false religion, the darkness
of our own ambitions, the darkness of self-aggrandizement and what
I will do, and we are brought to see what Christ will do. We
see our need. and then we are shown the supplier
of our need. By faith we are given to trust
in Christ's blood for cleansing from sin and to trust in Christ's
obedience for the righteousness that we require. We believe that
we are holy, not by an act of our free will or an act of our
fallen flesh, but by God's grace, by the gift of God in Christ
alone. And those who follow Christ in
the light of his grace do not speak about what I will do, they
speak about what Christ has done. They speak of redemption, particular
and effectual, that has been effected on the cross for them. They don't speak about a redemption
that is universal and provisional and doesn't actually achieve
anything. They speak about the redemption
that bought them and paid the price and made peace with God. They speak about regeneration
as a powerful work of God the Holy Spirit, not what I will
do, not what I aspire to, but as a work of God's grace and
the quickening power of God the Holy Spirit to make us alive
when we were dead in trespasses and in sins. They see their spiritual
life not as a product of their own agency, but as the free gift
of God towards them while they were dead and deserving of nothing.
They speak of redemption, they speak of righteousness, and they
speak of reconciliation that has been accomplished everlastingly
by the death of our substitute and by the imputation of his
righteousness and holiness to us. They speak of Jesus Christ. He is all their thought. Whom having not seen, they love. In whom though now they see Him,
not yet believing, they rejoice with joy unspeakable and full
of glory, receiving the end of their faith, even the salvation
of their souls. That was Peter that wrote that,
but who was he talking about? He was talking about Isaiah.
He was talking about the fact that these old men saw and understood by the grace
of God, by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, that this was
the nature of true faith, looking to Christ, looking to that spiritual
dimension where, by the grace of God, sins are forgiven and
liberty is obtained. Christ is that light and we who
walked in darkness now walk in the light of the risen son of
righteousness. I mentioned in yesterday's note
how we are taught some important truths in this chapter concerning
death and hell and I won't repeat it here but The foreboding as the prospect
of death is for many men and women in this world. This passage
is also teaching us that physical death is not the end. Christ's
resurrection proved that, as we mentioned earlier, to the
young people. There is judgment and everlasting
separation from God for all who are unholy and sinful. That's what Isaiah is telling
us here. That's what he was indicating
to these men and women who read his words 700 years before the
birth of Christ. So long ago, and yet these truths
were understood. These things were appreciated
and grasped by the Holy Spirit's revelation. The scriptures call
this, Christ himself calls this, being cast into hell. And Isaiah's imagery of hell
here in this chapter is really quite amazing and fearsome. That's awesome! That's terrifying! Hell from beneath is moved for
thee, to meet thee at thy coming it stirreth up the dead for thee. This is what happens, this is
the experience of all who die without Christ as their Saviour. Hell is It will be a terrible
place. It will be a place of unremitting
suffering and loss. These inhabitants of hell that
we read about in this chapter 14 in the book of Isaiah, they
were conscious. They moved. They spoke. They
knew themselves to be lost. They knew themselves to be powerless. And personally, I know of no
greater horror than the prospect of hell. The prospect of eternity
without a saviour separated from God. And I implore all who hear
my voice today to flee from the wrath to come. Flee to Christ
while the day of salvation yet remains. So there was Lucifer, star of
the morning, and here is Christ, the light of the world. And my
third point is Jehovah, the Lord, our salvation. Finally, I want
to mention this point, which is actually Isaiah's final point
in this chapter. It's his closing passage in his
reference to Assyria and Palestina. Palestina was the land of the
Philistines. We still talk about Palestine
today. It was a long time before I realised that there was a direct
connection between Palestine and Philistine, which is a bit
odd because it's pretty obvious when you realise it. But when
we talk about the Philistines, we're talking about the land
of the Palestinians, or the land that is called Palestine today. But here, the Lord is making
reference to this land, Syria and Palestine, and also to what
he's going to do with his elect people, do against these countries
on behalf of his elect people. And from these final verses,
two things are certain. Judgment is coming. because God
has willed it and promised to enact it. And salvation is coming
because God has willed it and promised to effect it. Let there
be no doubt. Let there be no question. Let
us not go through life in any way deluded or imagining that
there's nothing to this, that it's not going to happen, that
these things are a lie, that the scriptures aren't true. When
Satan endeavours to set such blasphemy before our eyes, let us take the words of the
Lord and say, get thee behind me, Satan. because these two
things are certain. Judgment is coming because God
has willed it. Salvation is coming because God
has willed it. These final verses provide a
clear statement of God's sovereign purpose of election and reprobation,
and it is as clear a statement as is found anywhere in Scripture,
including Romans 8 and 9 and Ephesians 1 and 2. Let us read
what Isaiah wrote. The Lord of hosts hath sworn,
saying, Surely as I have thought, so shall it come to pass, and
as I have purposed, so shall it stand. For the Lord of hosts
hath purposed, and who shall disannul it? And his hand is
stretched out, and who shall turn it back? Do you see what
is being said here? Do you see what the prophet is
telling us? As I have thought, says the Lord,
as I have willed and purposed so shall it come to pass. This is God's prerogative. This is God's initiative. It
is the will of God that comes to pass, not the will of man,
not the will of the sinner, not the will of the fallen creature,
certainly not the will of Satan. Not the will of the King of Babylon. He aspired to be as God and where
did he find? That he was brought down to the
depths of hell and hell opened its mouth to receive him. Why? Because that was God's will against
his pride. That was God's condemnation against
his sin. This is no Babylon religion of
man's free will that Isaiah is speaking about here. This is
God's sovereign will and purpose in election and election to salvation
and to the reprobation of the damned. According to his will
and purpose. And notice this. This is the
God that Isaiah preached. This is the gospel that Isaiah
believed. All those years ago, the elect
remnant of God heard and understood God's sovereignty in salvation
and reprobation. But look with me in closing to
verse 32. What a lovely verse this is.
The Lord hath founded Zion, and the poor of his people shall
trust in it. Or that might equally be said
that the poor of his people shall go to it. This is what the Lord
is saying here. They shall betake themselves
unto it. They'll go to it. This is a word of encouragement
for us all. The Lord hath founded Zion. Preachers
can plead and beg all they like. They can offer and invite men
and women and boys and girls to get saved and accept Christ
and come to Him as if they had power to do it. But see what
the Lord says. The poor of my people shall find
safety in Christ. The poor of my people shall find
safety in Christ. The Church of God is often called
Zion in the Bible and Zion, says Isaiah, is founded by Jehovah. He has laid Christ as the foundation
of his church and all who see their spiritual poverty, all
who know the misery of sin, all who feel the danger that their
souls are in outside of Christ, all who fear that hell hole,
that pit that awaits those who are outside of Christ and feel
a need to trust in Him, will find Jesus Christ to be their
Lord and Saviour. We do not trust in the church,
but being in Christ's church, we trust in Him. We trust in
Jesus Christ, the cornerstone. We trust in Jesus Christ, the
foundation of the building that has been built. Christ is the
foundation that God has laid in Zion and the church is built
on that foundation. This is an extraordinary chapter.
This is a chapter that is full of imagery and powerful ideas
and thoughts. and yet it reveals just the clarity
with which these Old Testament saints understood God's purposes
of salvation and of the promises and the faithfulness of God in
Christ. Let us take these passages also
and be reminded, let them speak to our hearts as they spoke to
the generations then and ever since. And may these passages
continue to impress upon the Lord's people both the solemnity
of God's judgment and the assurance of God's salvation in Jesus Christ. May the Lord bless these thoughts
to us. Amen.