"Listen & Hear" Sermon: Isaiah 51:1-8 (manuscript)

 

“Listen & Hear”

[Isaiah 51:1-8]

March 7, 2021 YouTube

            Last week we saw that some of Jerusalem were questioning God as to why they are going into exile – into the Babylonian captivity, and God makes it clear to them that they are going into captivity for the sake of their sin.  Sending them away from the land is God’s discipline of them.

            We also saw more about the Servant Savior – how He will submit to God the Father and take on and pay the debt for all the sins of all those who believe in Him throughout time and space, and the Father will help Him to do this.

            As we continue in our text, God addresses those in Jerusalem who are striving for righteousness.

            And we see, first, the Lord is the source of righteousness.

            “Listen to me, you who pursue righteousness, you who seek the LORD:”

            God calls on those who are striving for righteousness – those who are pursuing righteousness – those who are keeping the Law of God and not sinning to the best of their ability – truly – and God tells them to listen.  (These vigorously seek righteousness – they are dissatisfied with sin and its promises.) Those who pursue righteousness – those who seek the Lord – are to listen to Him.

“look to the rock from which you were hewn, and to the quarry from which you were dug.”

And God tells them to look at where they come from.  Understand where they get the ability and the desire to pursue righteousness.

“Look to Abraham your father and to Sarah who bore you;”

God suggests that they look to Abraham and Sarah the parents of Israel.  And that might seem like a good place to claim their pursuit of righteousness comes from.

God speaks to Abraham, and we read, “And he brought him outside and said, ‘Look toward heaven, and number the stars, if you are able to number them.’ Then he said to him, ‘So shall your offspring be.’ And he believed the LORD, and he counted it to him as righteousness” (Genesis 15:5-6, ESV).

God chooses Abraham and Sarah to be the parents of Israel.  God promises Abraham that his descendants will be like the number of the stars in the sky.  And since Abraham believes God’s promise by faith, God counts it to him as righteousness.

But that’s the wrong answer.

“for he was but one when I called him, that I might bless him and multiply him. For the LORD comforts Zion; he comforts all her waste places and makes her wilderness like Eden, her desert like the garden of the LORD; joy and gladness will be found in her, thanksgiving and the voice of song.”

God says, “But I am the One Who called Abraham.  I chose to bless him.  I made him a people for Me.”  The Lord God is the only source of righteousness.  It is from Him and to Him and by Him that anyone can pursue and strive after righteousness.  The godly of Jerusalem – the believing remnant of Jerusalem – who pursue righteousness – are hewn from the rock by God for His purposes – for His glory – and by His power indwelling in believers Who is the Holy Spirit.

God does not want them to become confused and think that their pursuit and success in righteousness is of their own power or by virtue of their heritage.  Rather, they ought to rejoice and give thanks, for God has gifted them with the indwelling of God the Holy Spirit so they desire and strive after holiness.

And the same is true for modern believers.  We strive after righteousness – we desire to keep the whole Law of God and not sin against Him – because God causes us to have that desire and gives us the ability to pursue it, and as we do so, it is credited to us as righteousness.

Paul writes, “And it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment, so that you may approve what is excellent, and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God” (Philippians 1:9-11, ESV).

The Lord God – Who is sending His people into captivity – is the Comforter of Jerusalem – He is the Comforter of all those who will believer.  He is the Comforter of all we who believe through all our trials and tribulations.

God tells those who seek Him – and righteousness – God will restore His cursed, fallen creation.  The Lord will comfort Zion – Jerusalem.  He will change the wildernesses and make it into a new Eden – deserts will be the new garden of the Lord.  And in the garden, there will be joy and gladness and thanksgiving and the voicing of songs!

This is the restoration all creation is awaiting:

“For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies” (Romans 8:19-23, ESV).

Glimpses of this begin to be seen as Jerusalem is freed from the Babylonian captivity.  Glimpses begin to be seen as we see people from every nation believing savingly in Jesus as God and Savior.

The Lord God is the source of our righteousness through Jesus.

Second, the righteousness of God is for all peoples.

“Give attention to me, my people, and give ear to me, my nation; for a law will go out from me, and I will set my justice for a light to the peoples.”

God calls His people – those who seek after righteousness – to understand that the Torah – the Law of God – the revealed word – will go out from Jerusalem to all the peoples of the world, and God will set justice before them – He will make clear to them the difference between staying in their darkness and being in the light of God through Jesus.

As John writes, “The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God” (John 1:9-13, ESV).

And Jesus says, “The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light, but if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!” (Matthew 6:22-23, ESV).

God demands the attention of His people to tell them what will come to pass.

Similarly, God demands our attention to the whole Word of God – to know Him and His salvation – to know how He would have us live and how to strive after righteousness and holiness.

“My righteousness draws near, my salvation has gone out, and my arms will judge the peoples; the coastlands hope for me, and for my arm they wait.”

Freedom from Babylon is a forerunner of the spiritual salvation that is found only in the Servant Savior God sends.  Just as God will save His people from slavery in Babylon, God will save His people from slavery to sin and the devil.

God makes the point that salvation and judgment come together.  God does not merely grant forgiveness – the debt to Him must be paid – there must be a judgment for the sins of God’s people.  As we saw last week – this is taken on by the Servant Savior for our sake and to the Glory of God.

And so, it is not just Jerusalem that looks forward to the salvation of God – from Babylon and from God’s Wrath against our sin, but the coastlands – all the Gentile nations come to hear of the salvation that is only found in God through Jesus.  They wait for God to exercise His Power in sending His Son in the person of Jesus for the sake of all those who will believe.

In the doxology to Paul’s letter to the Romans, he writes, “Now to him who is able to strengthen you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery that was kept secret for long ages but has now been disclosed and through the prophetic writings has been made known to all nations, according to the command of the eternal God, to bring about the obedience of faith—to the only wise God be glory forevermore through Jesus Christ! Amen” (Romans 16:25-27, ESV).

God continues by presenting the created universe as temporal, but human life – damned and saved – as being eternal.

“Lift up your eyes to the heavens, and look at the earth beneath; for the heavens vanish like smoke, the earth will wear out like a garment, and they who dwell in it will die in like manner; but my salvation will be forever, and my righteousness will never be dismayed.”

The sinful, fallen creation that we observe is temporal and will be renewed and restored on the final day.  The restoration will be through purification – and all that is wrong and evil will vanish like smoke and wear out.  All that is less than perfection and holiness – as it will be in God’s kingdom – will die and be sent away – including those who never believe savingly in Jesus.

Jesus says, “Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away” (Luke 21:33, ESV).

The psalmist writes, “They will perish, but you will remain; they will all wear out like a garment. You will change them like a robe, and they will pass away, but you are the same, and your years have no end” (Psalm 102:26-27, ESV).

And Peter explains, “But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed.

“Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness, waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be set on fire and dissolved, and the heavenly bodies will melt as they burn! But according to his promise we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells” (II Peter 3:10-13, ESV).

The righteousness of God is for all peoples and involves both the eternal salvation and judgment of all of Creation.

Third, the righteous have no reason to fear men.

“Listen to me, you who know righteousness, the people in whose heart is my law; fear not the reproach of man, nor be dismayed at their revilings.”

God again calls His people to listen to Him – to hear what He is saying.  As they are taken off into captivity, even with the promise of salvation and righteousness for all those who will believe in the Servant Savior – if the Law of God is in their hearts – if we have believed and seek after obedience to it – there is no reason to fear the reproach of men.  All we who believe should not fear when men put us down and threaten us for believing in the Servant Savior.

The psalmist writes, “The LORD is on my side; I will not fear. What can man do to me?” (Psalm 118:6, ESV).

“Well, they could kill us!”

Jesus says, “so what?”  “And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell” (Matthew 10:28, ESV).

Jesus is not saying that believers should run head-long into situations where we will be put to death.  No, He is saying that those who have been made righteous through Jesus have nothing to fear from the people of this world.

Why not?

 “For the moth will eat them up like a garment, and the worm will eat them like wool, but my righteousness will be forever, and my salvation to all generations.”

The reason why those who strive after righteousness and holiness do not need to fear what the world does to them when they are striving to live according to the Law of God is that the righteous will be with God – eternally saved – forever.  Nothing can take the salvation away that we are given through the work of the Servant Savior.

However, the wicked – those who never believe savingly in Jesus – will eternally be like a garment eaten by moths or wool that is eaten by worms.

Jesus says, “For to everyone who has will more be given, and he will have an abundance. But from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away. And cast the worthless servant into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth” (Matthew 25:29-30, ESV).

And John records, “And if anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire” (Revelation 20:15, ESV).

Eternal salvation is a call to fearlessness because our salvation is founded on the goodness of God.

So, the righteous – those who have been made righteous by God through Jesus – have no need to fear men.

            For the Lord God is the source of our righteousness.  Merited by Jesus and applied by God the Holy Spirit.

            And this righteousness that God gifts is for all the peoples.

            And as those who have been saved and made righteous, the evil of the world should not make us fear.

            Let us pray:

            Almighty God, we are weak and do tend to fall into fear.  Send the Holy Spirit to grow us in faith, to help us to hold on to the fact that salvation is utterly from You.  You have made us righteous, and we will be in Your kingdom forever – without a doubt.  Cause the Holy Spirit to continue to strengthen us and to pursue righteousness in this life with our whole being, and may You be glorified.  In Jesus’ Name, Amen.