Isaiah’s Prophecies of the Messiah

Transcript

GRM 1232
Isaiah’s Prophecies of the Messiah
12/15/2019
Selections from Isaiah
Gil Rugh

We have an emphasis on the coming of Christ to earth. We have heard that proclaimed in the songs we’ve sung, the choir’s ministry and I want to draw our attention to that in the book of Isaiah, so you can turn to Isaiah chapter 9. We’re not going to spend a lot of time in any one passage, but what I just want to do with you is walk through a variety of the passages in this great prophecy of Isaiah that relate to the coming of Jesus Christ and what He would accomplish in His coming. Seeing again what the scripture prophesized 700 years before the Messiah would come, clear statements are given regarding the Person He would be and the work He would accomplish. You appreciate the clarity we have in what we call progressive revelation for God gave further revelation after Isaiah the prophet, not only in some Old Testament prophets but then with our entire New Testament. What that does is give us a more complete picture and a more organized picture, if you will, so we can appreciate God’s plan in accomplishing the work that He would, and that only He could, with His Son.

Anyway, keep in mind the Old Testament prophet Isaiah talks about the coming of the Messiah. Now, he does not distinguish the First Coming when He was born at Bethlehem and the Second Coming when He would come in glory and establish a kingdom. Probably the most common way of picturing that is two mountain peaks, and if you’re looking from one dimension you see that there may be a great valley in-between, but if it gets turned around and you’re seeing from one angle you just see the two peaks, but you don’t realize how much distance there is in-between. You’ve driven through the mountains and you have that realization, you’ll see two mountain peaks as you’re coming down and they don’t look very far apart, but as you get closer, you come, and you see them from a different perspective, and you realize there’s a lot of mileage between those two mountain peaks. That’s the way it is with the First Coming and the Second Coming of Christ.

God did not see fit, it was not part of His plan to reveal to Old Testament prophets like Isaiah that what Christ would accomplish with His comings would really involve two separate comings to this earth, so the period of time in which we are living called the Church Age does not appear in the Old Testament. Isaiah will talk about Christ being born, providing salvation, and so on. And also ruling and reigning over all the earth, destroying all His enemies and having a kingdom that encompasses the whole world. Well, that didn’t happen. Now we talk sometimes about different theological positions and if you take a literal interpretation of the Bible you have an understanding that there are two separate comings, and what the prophets of the Old Testament prophesied, some of it will be accomplished at the First Coming of Christ, some at the Second Coming. If you’re what we call a Covenant theologian you compress that and you end up saying those things prophesized at the First Coming were fulfilled literally just as the Bible said, as we’ll read. Christ died on the cross, He provided salvation, and He established a kingdom. Well, they’ll say since the Old Testament doesn’t say there’s any gap between that everything about a kingdom must be spiritual in the hearts of people.

I’ll make reference to these as we go along but I just want us to appreciate again the fullness of the revelation given, for example in Isaiah. And I’ve just picked a sampling and since I’m preaching I get to pick them, but there are many other passages we could look at. Let’s start in chapter 9 since the choir sang verses right out of Isaiah chapter 9, we’ll look at this and this is a good example. Now we’ll go from the First Coming of Christ to the Second Coming of Christ, back to the First Coming of Christ to the Second Coming of Christ, but he talks about it because he didn’t know they were separated. Remember Peter writes in the New Testament that the Old Testament prophets didn’t have clarity of understanding, how the Messiah would come and suffer and die and rule and reign in glory. Both were prophesized, but how can He do both? Well, He does both because He’s really coming on two different occasions, but God hadn’t told them that. But everything He did tell us through Isaiah the prophet and the others will happen exactly as He said, so there’s no change in the way we interpret it, there’s just clarity in how it will unfold as we get further revelation.

Look in Isaiah, chapter 9 verse 1, ”There will be no more gloom for her who was in anguish; in earlier times He treated the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali with contempt, but later on He shall make it glorious, by the way of the sea, on the other side of the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles. The people who walk in darkness will see a great light; those who live in a dark land, the light will shine on them.” Stop! Sometimes in my Bible, I draw a line at the end of verse 2, I don’t have it in this Bible. Keep a marker in Isaiah 9 and come over to Matthew chapter 4. I’ve just picked three references in the New Testament, so we’re not going back and forth. Not all three at one time but I’m going to limit us mostly to Isaiah so that we can look at more of Isaiah’s prophecies. But for an example of Christ identifying Himself those verses we just read, the first two verses of Isaiah 9 have to do with the First Coming of Christ to earth.

Look at Matthew, chapter 4 verse 12, “Now when Jesus heard that John had been taken into custody, He withdrew into Galilee.” This is John the Baptist, remember Herod had him arrested and it will end up with John being beheaded; this is John the Baptist who came and announced he was the forerunner, the Messiah is coming. Remember John the Baptist sent some of his followers to ask Christ, “Did I make a mistake? I’ve been announcing You’re the Messiah, but the Messiah’s suppose to come and set up a kingdom, deliver us from our enemies. I’m in prison, we’re going backwards here.” So when Jesus heard that John the Baptist had been arrested, He withdrew into Galilee. Now Galilee is the northern part of Israel where the Sea of Galilee is, Jerusalem is in the southern part. What He’s doing is leaving the capital in that area where the heart of Israel is, to get away from the intensity of the opposition, if you will, so He retreats to this northern region into the area of Nazareth.

That’s where He was born but He came and settled in Capernaum, which is by the sea in the region of Zebulun and Naphtali. The same place as we mentioned and read about in Isaiah chapter 9 and note why He’s doing this. This was to fulfill what was spoken through Isaiah the prophet, “The land of Zebulun” and you can see by the way that it’s marked off this is a quote from Isaiah chapter 9. “The land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, by the way of the sea, beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles -- the people who were sitting in darkness saw a great Light, those who were sitting in the land and shadow of death, upon them Light dawned,” because Jesus is the Light. He comes to reveal and to make the Father known and He has come in and now resides in the land of Galilee.

You come back to Isaiah in chapter 9 and you’ll see he stops at the end of verse 2 as we have it in Isaiah in our Bibles, Isaiah 9:2, “the light will shine upon them.” He read, “upon them a light dawned,” and then he stops. Why? Because these first two verses pertain to what will take place during His first coming to earth. He’s ministering now, living in the land of Galilee. They are seeing the Light of the truth, the very presence of God in a human body is present there. They are blessed with this great Light but when you go on to verse 3, “You shall multiply the nation, you shall increase their gladness; they will be glad in Your presence as with the gladness of harvest, as men rejoice when they divide the spoil. For You shall break the yoke of their burden and the staff on their shoulders, the rod of their oppressor, as at the battle of Midian. For every boot of the booted warrior in the battle tumult, and cloak rolled in blood, will be for burning, fuel for fire.”

Well, He’s not doing that, the enemies aren’t being destroyed, Rome still rules, John the Baptist is in prison. But light is shining in Galilee and you can see how, yet God has not revealed the fullness of His plan. But Jesus is well aware so He stops because the rest of this applies to Him, but at a much later occasion at His second coming. Then you come to verse 6, “For a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us,” and some commentators note that this could imply and present both the humanity and deity of Christ, a child is born, a son is given. The child born is the humanity of Christ; the son given, God gave His only begotten Son, so this One born at Bethlehem, the eternal Son of God, has been born.
Well, we’re back picking up with even preceding what we started at in verse 1 of Isaiah 9 with the birth of Christ, which is necessary for Him to carry out what He did in the first two verses at His First Coming, but now we’re back.

This Son is born, but we’re going to jump to the Second Coming of Christ because the child’s been born, we’re celebrating His birth. “The government will rest on His shoulders.” He’s not ruling and reigning over His kingdom at this point. It will reveal His character and His character will be true of Him because of Who He is. In that sense, that’s true of Him at all times but the Jews are anticipating Him, particularly in the context of His kingdom but His character is His character as the God-Man, so His name will be called Wonderful Counselor. Some divide the two, some connect the two, you really come to the same place because the word wonderful means something that can’t be comprehended. We can’t get our arms around that, it’s more than we can fully grasp. It’s the name that the angel of the LORD used of Himself in Judges chapter 13 when He appeared to the parents of the one who would be Samson to announce that he would be born to them, and they asked him, “What is Your name?” and He says, “Why do you ask me my name seeing it is wonderful?” Now it is beyond what you can grasp and they realize, because when the angel of the Lord then departs from them rising in the fire they have set up for the sacrifice, what do they say? “We have seen God,” they realize God has manifested His presence, the One who was wonderful.

His name is not something He is called in this context, it is something that reveals who He is. No indication that these were names used of Him during His earthly life but they reveal something of His character and thus what He does. But He is Wonderful, so as much as we grasp of Him; we grasp little of what is the incomprehensible God. He’s a Wonderful Counselor whether you connect those two or separate them they both are true. As a Counselor, He’s the One who has complete wisdom, the fullness of wisdom. All the fullness of deity dwells in Him and in Him we have wisdom so Paul wrote to the Corinthians and says, “Christ, the wisdom of God.” Wisdom dwells in Him in bodily form Colossians tells us so He is the Wonderful Counselor. The Psalmist wrote in Psalm 119 verse 24. “Your testimonies,” the truths of Your word . . . “they are my counselors.”

Why? They come from God, He’s the Wonderful Counselor, He’s the One who can give wisdom, can give insight to enable me to handle the issues and circumstances of life wisely, as we studied in the book of Ecclesiastes. As the book of Proverbs unfolds its all the Word of God does. He’s the One we go to first and last, He is the Wonderful Counselor, and His counsel is beyond what anybody else can give because He’s the One who searches the hearts and the motives and so on. He’s the Mighty God, El Gibbor, the Mighty God. Now, He’s not God the Father, don’t get confused, there is God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit, but as Deity they share the same qualities and attributes so we think more of saying Jesus is a shepherd, John 10. He’s the Good Shepherd but that’s saying a similar thing as being a father, one who cares for His sheep, one who cares for His children, one who watches over them, protects them, provides for them. God the Son is eternally a father as well as God the Father.

Now He’s a separate Person but in His basic character, makeup, they share the same attributes that make them God. But don’t confuse the Person, He’s not God the Father, He is God the Son but He has the qualities eternally of a father. That’s a great comfort to us. We pray to Him and say, “Father, we come to You in the name of Jesus Christ who loved us and died for us, and You’ll eternally be our Father caring for us, watching over us.” I don’t know the future; you know the little song, I don’t know the future but I know Who holds the future; my future is secure. Why? He is eternally a father, He’ll love me, care for me, provide for me, protect me, keep me in a way that no other could or can. That’s who Christ is, this Child that will be born, the Son that will be given, unique and separate from any other child ever born. He’s the Prince of Peace because peace is found in Him.

These things will realize physical expression, if I can put it that way, in the kingdom, but we experience the reality of it now in a personal relationship with Him. He’s the Prince of Peace in the sense we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Romans 5:1 says, and Philippians 4 says the peace of God stands guard at our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. True peace comes from Him and when He comes and sets up His kingdom that same peace will envelop the world, and not just in hearts but in reality, in the physical realm, as well. “There will be no end to the increase of His government or of peace on the throne of David and over His kingdom, to establish it, and to uphold it, with justice and righteousness.” So you can see where His focus has been.

The Jews are looking for the One who was promised, who would come, who would bring all this to them. Can you imagine? We’ll someday live on this earth in a world that’ll be characterized as having God as its Father, and every person they have God as their Father. Peace envelops the world. He’ll sit on the throne of David and they’ll be no end to the increase of His government or of peace. In other words, it will envelop everywhere and all. That’s not happening today, that’s not a reality today. That’ll happen when He’s sitting on the throne of David in fulfillment of the Davidic Covenant in 2 Samuel 7. God has promised that it’ll be a kingdom characterized by justice and righteousness from then on and for evermore. How can you be sure the zeal of the Lord of Hosts will accomplish this? There is coming a time when this One born at Bethlehem will travel north to Galilee because of opposition. The One who was the greatest of the Old Testament prophets who announced the coming of the Messiah is now in prison and will soon be beheaded.

Now wait a minute, I read Isaiah 9 that one who brings light to the region of the Galilee is going to establish a kingdom that’ll envelop the world. Well, if you don’t take later revelation as clarifying you become a covenantalist because they’ll say, “Well, the first part of this was fulfilled literally, the second is being fulfilled spiritually in your heart so He does rule everywhere that there are believers and in every believer’s heart.” That doesn’t do it. Who gives us the right to say, “Well, we’ll just decide to accept one.” We’ll say, “Well, its put right together, the Old Testament does that, but everything that’s said here will happen.” There’ll come a time when Jesus Christ the Son of God will rule the government. The kingdom will be under His direct rule and He will be called the Wonderful Counselor, the Mighty God, the Eternal Father, Prince of Peace. He’ll be recognized as that by the world over which He rules and there will be no end to the increase of His government or of peace.

That’s what we’re looking for. We don’t live in the kingdom, these things aren’t taking place now. We see we can say, “Well, there’re certain spiritual benefits we get because God is God, and He is eternally a Father, but He’s not exercising that in the governmental way He will in the kingdom, caring for everything and everyone in His realm, which encompasses everything. He brings peace to a heart to be sure but there’s no peace on this earth, because He’s not reigning yet.” So you see the importance of recognizing both. The clarity will come when Christ comes at His First Coming, and it will take after His crucifixion for His own disciples to begin to understand that the Messiah had to suffer and die, be raised from the dead to provide salvation, so people would be eligible for the kingdom. But it would take even further revelation. Paul said that it was revealed to him with its fullness that the Church would be established between that mountain as we pictured it with the First Coming and the Second Coming to earth. The kingdom is not in here, the Church is in here, the Old Testament doesn’t talk about that. All right, that’s a little bit of a foundation.

Now come back to Isaiah 2. We’re just going to look through some passages, see where they fit. In Isaiah 2, verse 1,”The word which Isaiah the son of Amoz . . .” And incidentally this Amoz is not the Amos who wrote the prophecy of Amos, it’s a different person In Hebrew it’s spelled differently but his father’s name was Amoz. “. . . saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem.” Isaiah was prophesying in the southern kingdom, he’s centered in Jerusalem. Now he’ll say things that pertain to the northern kingdom and to other nations as well but he is operating out of Jerusalem the capital.

“Now it will come about that in the last days . . .” Now the last days in the Old Testament are the days of the Messiah. Sometimes that refers to the First Coming of Christ, sometimes it refers to the Second Coming of Christ. So in a sense, everything here are the last days, but in the Old Testament prophets they’re looking for the days of Messiah, because His comings are not separated in the revelation given to them, so these are the last days. Then when you spread that out so they are separated by 2,000 years, in a sense we live in the last days, we live in Messianic days, He has come and He’s coming again. “It will come about that in the last days the mountain of the house of the Lord . . .” Now remember in Old Testament prophecy a mountain symbolizes a kingdom. We saw that in the book of Daniel where Christ’s kingdom grows to be a great mountain and supersedes all other kingdoms. So here “the mountain of the house of the Lord will be established as the chief of the mountains, and will be raised above the hills; and all the nations will stream to it.” There will be one world capital.

We have talked about the devil will try to create the counterfeit of this with Babylon, Babylon the Great, as we saw in the book of Revelation. But there’ll come a time when Christ will come and establish a kingdom and all the nations everywhere in the world; there will be only one capital supreme over it all. “Many peoples will come and say, ‘Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; that He may teach us concerning His ways and that we may walk in His paths.’ For the law will go forth from Zion and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. And He will judge between the nations, and will render decisions for many peoples.” Now note, they put this verse on the United Nations building but it doesn’t apply. “They will hammer their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not lift up sword against nation, and never again will they learn war.”

It’s not happening, we’re not in the kingdom unless you allegorize or spiritualize the Bible and say, well, this is just talking about in your heart. Who decides that? This is what the Jews were anticipating and Christ did not deny that would happen. It would just be a yet future event following His First Coming, so here we’re talking about the kingdom. We interpret the Bible literally. Nothing regarding this kingdom is going to be changed. We see that as we get to the end of the book of Revelation, the closing chapters that talk more in detail about the coming kingdom. We see these things will be true and Jerusalem will be capital of the world. Verse 11, “The proud look of man will be abased and the loftiness of man will be humbled, the Lord alone will be exalted in that day,” and he repeats that several times.
Come over to Isaiah 11, Isaiah 11, and we have the same thing as we had in chapter 9. This will start out and it’ll talk about things that happened in the First Coming but will lead us into things related to the Second Coming of Christ. “Then a shoot will spring from the stem of Jesse, and a branch from his roots will bear fruit.” That’s talking about Christ’s coming and He’s in the line of Jesse who is the father of David and David is the father as the ancestor of Christ, so that’s the root coming out, He’s in that line. “The Spirit of the Lord will rest on Him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and strength, the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord,” this sevenfold Spirit that will rest upon Him. Come over to John chapter 3, the gospel of John chapter 3. This is the second of New Testament references that we’re going to look at, there could be many others as we go through there, but in John chapter 3 verse 34 concerning Christ. “For He whom God has sent speaks the words of God; for He gives the Spirit without measure,” referring to God gives Him the Spirit without measure, the point being Jesus Christ has the fullness of the Spirit. In Isaiah, chapter 11 verse 1 you have that sevenfold Spirit. Remember when we studied the book of Revelation the Spirit of God was pictured by the seven eyes before the throne of God, which are the seven Spirits of God, with seven being the fullness, the completeness. He had the Spirit of God in completeness and only God could with that fullness.

We have the Spirit of God dwelling in us, but He has the fullness of the Spirit because He is God, and so He is all that God is even though He is distinct from the Spirit. All the attributes and characteristics of the Spirit will be true of Him, and as He is in a human body, the Spirit of God is working in and through Him during that earthly ministry. Then you have verse 4, which will take us to things that won’t happen until the Second Coming, “But with righteousness He will judge the poor, and decide with fairness for the afflicted of the earth, and He’ll strike the earth with the rod of His mouth.” In other words, it’s His authority; the words coming from His mouth are the final words with the breath of His lips He’ll slay the wicked. Righteousness will be the belt about His loins, faithfulness will be the belt about His waist. Righteousness, faithfulness, justice, fairness, these will characterize His rule and the judgments made.
We are debating this in our government. This is right, this is fair, this isn’t right, this is fair. There will be none of those discussions when Christ rules. It will be perfectly just, perfectly fair and so on, and He will be the sole authority, that’s the judgment He’s exercising. And then what?

Verse 6, “The wolf will dwell with the lamb, and the leopard will lie down with the young goat, and the calf and the young lion. The curse will have been lifted from the creation so even the animal world gets along now. That’s why, remember Romans 8, the whole creation groans in anticipation of this time to summarize it. You can even put your little kids outside. Oh, there’s an asp, oh, there’s a King cobra, go ahead out and play with them. Why? Verse 8, “the nursing child will play by the hole of the cobra, and the weaned child will put his hand on the viper’s den.” Are you kidding? No, “they will not hurt or destroy in all My holy mountain.” The whole creation has been transformed. “For the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. Then in that day the nations will resort to the root of Jesse,” through Christ, the Davidic descendant and so on.

What? Literal, take that literally. How was Christ born? He was born literally, as Isaiah chapter 7 verse 14 said, a virgin will conceive and bear a son, you call His name Immanuel, which means God with us. Literally, where would He be born? He would He born in Bethlehem. Where was He born? Bethlehem. Where did the prophets say He would shine that great light? in Galilee. Where do we read in Matthew 4 Christ went to be a great light? Galilee. Well, why would they say these things about the animals and that? That’s just spiritually picturing the spiritual battles that are won by believers. I don’t think so! Who says? I don’t find anywhere that scripture says, but you have to understand later revelation does not change earlier revelation, but it can clarify it. It can add to it, it can organize it. But now I understand there is a First Coming of Christ to earth born at Bethlehem. And then later there’ll be a Second Coming to earth, not to be born as a baby at Bethlehem. Not to deal with the issue of sin by dying on the cross as Hebrews tells us, but to destroy His enemies and rule and reign in glory. So nothing gets changed in Isaiah’s prophecy, but they do get clarified, it will all be fulfilled exactly as He said it would.

Come over to Isaiah 35. Now I know some of you are familiar with Isaiah say, “Boy, he skipped a lot of good stuff.” Yes he did! Now Isaiah 35 he’s going to talk about the kingdom. Now, you see this is Israel’s looking for it, and as we see, the Church is looking for it, not only the rapture but our ultimate end as we saw in the book of Revelation which is addressed to the churches, is the kingdom. When we get to Revelation 20, 21 and 22 what will happen? “The wilderness in the desert will be glad, and the Arabah,” the desert, “will rejoice and blossom like the crocus.” Some translations said, “the rose,” the point is a beautiful flower but the crocus is a more accurate depiction of the flower. The desert, which is a desert, is going to be transformed. It’ll blossom, not a flower here and there, profusely, it’s a flower garden. “Rejoice with rejoicing and shout of joy. They will see the glory of the Lord, the majesty of our God.”

“Take courage,’’ I’m skipping obviously, fear not. Behold, your God will come with vengeance; the recompense of God will come, but he will save you. Then the eyes of the blind will be opened and the ears of the deaf will be unstopped. Then the lame will leap like a deer, and the tongue of the mute will shout for joy. For the waters will break forth in the wilderness and streams in the Arabah,” desert. They’ll have a highway, verse 8, “a roadway, and it‘ll be called the Highway of Holiness. The unclean won’t travel on it, it will be for him who walks that way, and fools will not wander on it. No lion will be there, nor will any vicious beast . . . will be found there.” This hasn’t happened but I believe it will. It makes no sense to try to interpret the Old Testament and everything that was prophesized that has happened around the First Coming of Christ we take literally, but everything that didn’t happen then we’ll redo now and say, “It’s just spiritual, and the kingdom exists, but it exists in the hearts of people.”

If you came out of Roman Catholic, Lutheran, Presbyterian and any other denomination like it -- that was the background, that’s where they come from. And I’m not doing that to attack them, I have a background as a Methodist, and for a lot they just never dealt with anything. So we have people talking about we’re in the kingdom, we’re doing the work of the kingdom, we’re building the kingdom. We’re not in the kingdom, the kingdom’s yet future, He will build the kingdom and this is what the kingdom will be like. You aren’t doing anything like this, quit it, check the news! Some of you are going to go to Israel in the spring if the Lord doesn’t come. Check the desert, it won’t be blossoming profusely. Oh, say, they’ve done marvelous things, they’ve taken over some of the desert and with some of this it’s amazing what they’ve done, but it’s nothing like we’re talking about here. Now men can work, yeah, we can have safety from wild animals in this kind of setting. Don’t send your little kid out to play with the poisonous snake. Well, it’s spiritual. Well, I don’t think I can help you.

Let’s move on to Isaiah 60, we’re really jumping now because when we get from Isaiah 60 to the end he’s talking about the kingdom. You know the problem for Israel -- now stop at chapter 59 verse 1, “Behold, the Lord’s hand is not so short that it cannot save; nor is His ear dull that it cannot hear. But your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden His face from you so that He doesn’t hear.” The reason people aren’t saved is because they won’t believe. They love their sin more than they love Christ, more than they love God. That doesn’t matter where they go to church. They can go here, and not believe and experience the forgiveness of sins. This was Israel’s problem and when the Messiah comes and says, “Here I am, repent the kingdom is right here, we can have it.” They said, “No!” What did they tell Pilot? “We will not have this man rule over us,” so they rejected Him. God didn’t change His plan but now He unfolded what His plan had been all along.
Look at verse 20 of chapter 59. You don’t know how much trouble I had eliminating so many passages. Chapter 59 verse 20, “ ‘A Redeemer will come to Zion, and to those who turn from transgression in Jacob,’ declares the Lord” and then the promise He gives which can bring us into chapter 60. Come down to verse 11 talking about the Jerusalem that’s coming. “Your gates will be,” verse 11 of chapter 60, “Your gates will be open continually; they will not be closed day or night, so that men may bring to you the wealth of the nations, with their kings led in procession,” because that kingdom will be Jewish at its center. The capital of the world will not be Washington, will not be Brussels, it will be Jerusalem, and there’s no problem. There’ll be gates but you can keep them open because there’s perfect rule here. There’s nobody hiding around the corner to get you, there’s nobody sneaking in at night to steal. And in that time, at the end of verse 16 of chapter 60, “Then you’ll know that I, the Lord, am your Savior and your Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob.”

Verse 19, “No longer will you have the sun for light by day, nor for brightness will the moon give you light; but you will have the Lord for an everlasting light, and your God for your glory.” Remember Revelation 21, God resides there, you don’t need the sun, you don’t need the moon. God is light and the light of His presence overshadows everything. “The Lord for an everlasting light, and your God for your glory. Your sun will no longer set, nor will your moon wane, for you will have the LORD for an everlasting light, and the days of your mourning will be over.” Think that’s true for Israel? Some of you are going to go visit there, some of you have been there. There are some minor changes, nothing like he’s talking about. “Then all your people will be righteous; they will possess the land forever . . . that I may be glorified,” at the end of verse 21.

Then you come into chapter 61, we’re going back to the First Coming. The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the afflicted. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to captives, and freedom to prisoners; to proclaim the favorable year of the Lord.” Stop, underline, I draw a line across there. Why? That’s the First Coming of Christ. Come over to Luke chapter 4, Luke chapter 4, and we’re going to be picking up at verse 17. He’s in Nazareth, they give Him the Bible to read, He opens to the prophet Isaiah, verse 17, and He finds the exact place He wants. “The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor. He has sent Me to proclaim release to the captives, and recovery of sight to the blind, to set free those who are oppressed, to proclaim the favorable year of the Lord.” Period, stop, He doesn’t continue to quote Isaiah because He’s there offering that now, and if the nation would have turned from their sin and believed then the kingdom could come, but it won’t; but it’s offered to them. How gracious God is, but you’ll note, He stops. “To proclaim the favorable year of the Lord,” Messiah is here, repent, believe.

Come back to Isaiah chapter 61, the next line. Do you know why He stopped exactly where He did? The next line of Isaiah 61:2 to proclaim the year of the Lord,” (he stopped) “and the day of vengeance of our God,” because He wasn’t going to bring that at His First Coming, because the kingdom wasn’t going to be established, so all the enemies won’t be destroyed. We read about this day of the vengeance of our God in Revelations 6 to 19, with those seven years and the judgments and that. The Messiah’s not here to destroy His enemies at His return like Revelation 19. There’s not going to be one coming to this earth, there’s going to be two so you have that clear break, to comfort all who mourn, to grant those who mourn in Zion, giving them a garland instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning . . . so they will be called oaks of righteousness . . . Then they will rebuild the ancient ruins,” verse 6, they’ll “be called the priests of the Lord.” We see how you go from the First to the Second Coming.

Now both will be fulfilled exactly as they are said but later revelation reveals there is a gap, for example in chapter 61 between the first line of verse 2 and the second line of some 2,000 years. You say, “Well, that would be confusing.” It was! That’s why the Old Testament prophets just couldn’t put it all together. You know, like we do, we always want to -- it’s like your kids. They always want answers to things that there’s no answer to and you say, “Well, why don’t you just concentrate on what you know you should do.” “Yeah, but if I don’t do it and this happens and this, what about . . .” “Just do what you’re supposed to do.” Sort of that way with God’s word, they couldn’t figure it out. It wouldn’t be figure-able until Paul came. Paul said it was a mystery kept hidden, Ephesians 3, until God revealed it to him. There were pieces but now it comes together: here is what God is doing, here’s how we understand it. Now we see there’s a period of time in here called the Church Age; it’s not anywhere in Isaiah.

Well, since God didn’t reveal it but He’s revealing things regarding the First Coming of Christ and the
Second Coming of Christ, events around that, we can go from His death on the cross to the 7-years Tribulation, which we do in Isaiah. Well, what about the 2,000 years in-between? Isaiah would have said, “What 2,000 years?” “Well, you know, the Church and Christ coming a second time.” “I don’t know what you’re talking about.” That’s where he was; but future revelation. We’re blessed to have it all put together. Come to chapter 63 and as I mentioned chapter 60 begins to unfold so many great truths here, but Isaiah 63, “Who is this who comes from Edom, with garments of glowing colors from Bozrah, this One who is majestic in His apparel, marching in the greatness of His strength?” And it goes down, verse 3 “I have trodden the wine trough alone, and from the peoples there was no man with Me. I trodden them in My anger and trampled them in My wrath; and their lifeblood is sprinkled on My garments, and I stained all My raiment.” For the day of vengeance was in My heart, andy year of redemption has come.” Verse 6, “I trod down the peoples in My anger and made them drunk in My wrath, and I poured out their blood on the earth.” We saw this in Revelation 19 with Armageddon, so Isaiah 63 now. You know, Isaiah didn’t get all these prophecies just in order, put all the things relating to the First Coming of Christ at the beginning, then we’ll go through the judgments, and then we’ll go through the Second Coming to earth. No, but everything He says relates to what He is saying, the time-period. This relates to the coming of Christ. This is Christ coming from Edom, from Bozrah. Talked a little bit about that in Revelation, a possible explanation, but He didn’t do it at the First Coming. It’s not the same event as a child is born, a son is given. Not the same as the One born at Bethlehem has dwelt in eternity. That’s all true, it happened as it was, but this isn’t the same event. That was 2,000 years at least earlier so that’s where you have to see it unfold as Isaiah unfolds it.

Come to chapter 65, now jump down to verse 17, verse 17 says, “Behold, I create new heavens and a new earth; and the former things will not be remembered or come to mind. But be glad and rejoice forever in what I create.” Well, we saw a new heaven and a new earth in Revelations 21 but that was after the 7 years Tribulation and the return of Christ to earth in the Millennium. There will no longer be an infant who lives but days, an old man who does not live out his days and all these things, building houses will be as the lifetime of a tree. Down in verse 25, “The wolf and the lamb will graze together,” and we talked about the kingdom that begins with the coming of Christ. The first thousand years accomplishes certain things, then the eternal phase of the kingdom.

The important thing, in chapter 66 verse 2, is to have a humble and contrite spirit and tremble at the word of God. In chapter 66, oh, come down to verse 22, “ ‘For just as the new heavens and the new earth which I make will endure before Me,’ declares the Lord, ‘so your offspring and your name will endure.’ ” Then He’ll go, “ ‘From new moon to new moon and from sabbath to sabbath, all manknd will come to bow down before Me.’” It gives you some time, we go into the new heavens, the new earth, we’re still going to have certain things we connect to, remember we saw in Revelations 22, there’ll be seasons. Twelve months, because the tree of life will have a different fruit each month that you can freely partake of, the Garden of Eden had one tree, there’s twelve and they have their seasonal fruit, twelve months. Here you have sabbath from moon to moon; all bow down. But wait, you know how He ends, it’ll be like we say, we like to end on a positive note. Well, you know this is the last verse of Isaiah. “Then they will go forth and look on the corpses of the men who have transgressed against Me. For their worm will not die and their fire will not be quenched; and they will be an abhorrence to all mankind.” What a contrast, what an ending! When will that happen? Well, it seems like it’s connected to some of the events of the Tribulation. We get these things more organized later.

Come back to one other passage, Isaiah 53, you know we can’t leave this. This is the greatest chapter in all the Old Testament on the First Coming of Christ, so if you’re not familiar with any other passage in the Old Testament you ought to be familiar with Isaiah 53. There’s nothing like it, the details it gives that this Messiah, this One who’s going to be born, a child born of a virgin who is the Mighty God, who is Immanuel, God with us, who’s going to rule and reign in power and crush all His enemies. The section begins in chapter 52 verse 13, “Behold, My servant will prosper, He will be high and lifted up and greatly exalted. Just as many were astonished at you, My people, so His appearance was marred more than any man and His form more than the sons of men,.” Chapter 53, “Who has believed our message? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? He grew up before Him like a tender shoot, and like a root out of parched ground.” That’s a picture there of the spiritual deadness of Israel. “He has no stately form or majesty that we should look upon Him, nor appearance that we should be attracted to Him. He was despised and forsaken of men.” So exactly describing, think of that, God is walking the earth in bodily form, all the fullness of Deity dwells in Him.

The greatest revelation ever given and men despised Him. He didn’t have the glory they’re looking for of coming with the clouds of heaven, as He will, destroying all His enemies and taking control of all creation. No, He’s despised and rejected, we despised and did not esteem Him. He’s writing here as though it’s happened, like we talk about the prophetic past. This is 700 years away and Isaiah is telling you exactly what will happen. Verse 5, “He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; the chastening for our well-being fell upon Him, and by His scourging we are healed. All of us like sheep have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; but the Lord has caused the iniquity of us all to fall on Him.” Could we get any more clear presentation of the gospel? You get it from Isaiah who had so much to say about the glory of the coming of the Messiah and the reigning in His kingdom, and who He really is. Yet I have to put this together from Isaiah, this is the same One I’ve written about, even the animals will come under His authority and control, every enemy will be killed and removed, and now He’s pierced through, crushed for our iniquities, and you can say, “Yeah, He knew this had to happen.”

We have a lot more revelation and we still like to play games about how this’ll fit, how that’ll fit, how this’ll fit. We were talking earlier today a couple of us, you know, the problem we have is we just don’t have any revelation on that. I know and that’s the very thing we want to talk about as though I understood everything here. There’s nothing wrong with us wanting to delve as deeply as we can, but you know, we don’t want to miss the basic message, “all of us like sheep have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way, but the Lord has caused the iniquity of us all to fall on Him.” That tells you how it is, Isaiah started out, “ ‘Come now, and let us reason together,’ says the LORD, ‘though your sins are like scarlet they can be white as snow; though they look red like crimson, they’ll be white like wool.’ “ The contrast is so great. Come to Me for salvation. Many people today celebrate the birth of Christ, talk about it, go to get together, or do everything, give gifts, go to church, go to special services, like to sing the hymns, go hear songs presented that present great truth. They’ve never come to humble themselves before the Lord, bow and say, “I am the sinner you’re talking about; I’m one of those that He had to die for, I’m guilty!”

Oh, well do we have to ruin Christmas, isn’t it about happy things? What’s happier than to know there’s the gift of salvation and it’s a free gift for everyone who believes? The sad pathetic thing that ruins the message of Christmas is you won’t believe it. That’s terrible! Why did this One, who’s someday going to rule and reign over all the redeemed, come to earth and die? So many of the commercials and everything they’re so sappy and emotional and oh . . . You can control people’s feelings. Why am I sitting here watching this, they aren’t even real people, and I’m crying? They really didn’t even do that, and I think this is so sad and we get manipulated.

What about the true message? You know, Christ came to earth and died so you wouldn’t have to go to hell, Christ came to earth and died so you could someday be part of a kingdom. That is more glorious than you can imagine, that’s the message. Isaiah puts it all there and now with the coming of Christ and the further revelation, we can see how all these pieces fit together. He’s coming again to this earth just as really as He came the first time and He’ll do everything the Bible says about Him that He didn’t do the first time. But He had to come the first time to die, to have the iniquity of us all to fall on Him, so that we could simply receive the free gift of forgiveness and life by believing that message. And then all the anticipation of what He has promised He will do and provide at His Second Coming becomes something we look forward to.

Let’s pray together. Thank you, Lord, for the riches of Your word, which revealed the riches of what You’ve provided for us in Christ. Now, Lord, we rejoice at being able to celebrate the birth of Your Son, the One who came to this earth to a little no place called Bethlehem, which is of eternal importance, and He was born to be the Savior. He was born to be the King, but He would not be the King until He was the Savior, so that we could be forgiven. We could be cleansed by simply believing and receiving the free gift of life in Him. May that be true of each one here; if not, may it take place very quickly. Lord, may the truth that we share during this time of year be used of the Spirit to impact many lives. We pray in Christ’s name. Amen.

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