The sovereign conquering Christ

[0:00] Welcome everybody to this recording for the 26th of April 2020 at Calvary Evangelical Church in Brighton.

[0:23] ! My name is Philip Wells. I work on the team of elders as a full-time elder. As I'm leading this morning, we're going through the Bible, we're going through the Book of the Prophet Isaiah, and we've got to chapter 63.

[0:42] So our theme this morning is the Sovereign Conquering Christ. And following this is going to be Zoom coffee and chat, which Steve Ellicott is usually in charge of and will no doubt send out an invitation if you'd like to join in with that.

[0:59] So welcome to everybody. Some of you are regulars, and if you happen to be just dropping in to see what goes on, you're very welcome to. I'll try and explain what's happening, but obviously this is something that we normally do, and I will just carry on with the normal things that we do as a church.

[1:18] So other details are on the screen by my head. There's a contact email, audio website for the evening audio, which Steve is doing, and this we trust will be up on the YouTube channel on Sunday morning that you can look at.

[1:38] So what are we going to do? This is our plan for this morning. I'm going to pray in a moment, then we're going to sing. We're going to pray in a moment, and we're going to pray in a moment, and we're going to pray in a moment.

[1:54] Let me pray, and then we'll carry on. Lord, you know every day. You know all our hearts. You know everybody joining in with this at this particular time.

[2:12] Please use this. Please show yourself to us. Please may we be in touch with the living God through the things that we do in these next minutes.

[2:27] We ask you yourself to take ownership of this, to do your work, and show us your glory. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Our song is 98a.

[3:07] So let me find the right button to click.

[3:28] Click. Thank you.

[3:59] His deeds are marvelous. He has brought salvation to us with His hand and holy arm.

[4:11] He has shown to all the nations righteousness and saving power. He recalled His truth and mercy to His people Israel.

[4:30] Sing to the new songs of worship. Earth has seen His victory. Let the lands of earth be joyful.

[4:44] Praising Him with thankfulness. Sound upon the harp His praises. Play to Him with melody.

[4:56] Let the trumpet sound His triumph. Show your joy to God the King. Sing to God new songs of worship.

[5:11] Let the sea now make a noise. All on earth and in the waters. Sound your praises to the Lord.

[5:25] Let the hills rejoice together. Let the rivers clap their hands. For with righteousness and justice He will come to judge the earth.

[5:45] Let the sea now make a noise. Let the sea now make a noise. our gracious God. Sing to God new songs of worship.

[6:05] He comes to judge the earth. That's good news that God will come to put everything right. We're going to be thinking along those lines as we go forward.

[6:16] And we're going to have a prayer now from Jerome. Our gracious God and Father, we thank you so much that we are able to come together and worship you as your people this Lord's Day.

[6:37] Although we are not together in person, Lord, we can still know your presence. And know your power in our lives.

[6:49] And Father, we are particularly mindful of this time where there's so much confusion and uncertainty, fear, anxiety, and very real worry about the future.

[7:04] Lord, that we can trust in you as our anchor, our rock, our strong tower, our fortress, and our God. Lord, it's with that in mind, Lord, that we consider who you are, Lord.

[7:18] And we lift up our praises to you as the infinite, the eternal, the unchangeable God. Lord, the one who is full of wisdom, power, holiness, goodness, justice, and truth.

[7:36] Lord, we recognize that so much that's going on around us is way beyond our control. Yet we know, Lord, it is within your sovereign control, Lord.

[7:51] Lord, we consider those places in Scripture where it says, I form light and create darkness. I make well-being and create calamity. I am the Lord who does all those things.

[8:05] We think of where your word says in Amos, does a disaster come to a city unless the Lord has done it. Oh, Lord, we thank you that we can rest in your sovereignty.

[8:18] You are a God who is ruling and reigning over every aspect of life and everything that comes to pass in your creation, Lord God.

[8:31] Help us to rest in that. Help us to find assurance and solidity and comfort in that, Lord God.

[8:43] And may we not be easily stirred, Father. May we cast all our cares on you as our rock and know that we are certain in our salvation and we have assurance in our salvation through Jesus Christ.

[8:58] And, Lord, we do thank you for the redeeming work of our Lord and Saviour who we know is coming back one day to put all things right, Lord.

[9:12] And we thank you that although right now we see so much turmoil, we see so much confusion, we see so much injustice, Lord, we know that Jesus Christ will make all things right and just.

[9:28] And upon his return. But right now, Father, we pray for your reign in our lives and for you to fill us afresh with your spirit. Lord, we are so aware of our frailty, our weakness at this time, our smallness.

[9:44] We're aware of our sin. Lord God, please forgive us. We've not placed you at the centre of our lives. We've been allured by materialism, our own needs, our own wants, our own desires.

[10:00] We have in many ways been greedy. We've been allured by our own sensuality, our own desire for more, our own lovelessness, Lord God.

[10:16] We've so easily allowed the world to shape us and form us. Oh, Lord, as a nation, we have largely turned our back on you.

[10:32] Oh, Lord, in your wrath, remember mercy. We do pray for your forgiveness. And we do pray that out of this situation there will be much good and that your church would be raised up, that your church would grow, that your church would flourish, that there would be fruit of repentance, that we would see Zion high and lifted up, that we would see the continuation of your covenant people being brought out, many added to your church from the nations, that we would see great revival.

[11:17] We pray, Lord, that many would be brought to an end in themselves and see their need and that we'll consider matters of eternity. we do particularly pray for those who are suffering at this time, Lord.

[11:33] We think of those among us who are lonely. We think of single parents with children having to juggle work and teaching at home and we think of those who have lost jobs and facing economic strife and are fearful for the future and worried about how to just put meals on the table.

[11:53] We think of the elderly and those that may not have the technological know-how and means of communication, Lord, that are feeling isolated and alienated from your people.

[12:07] We think of those that are grappling with mental health difficulties and depression and anxiety. We think of those that are in fear in their own homes due to the threat of violence or harm from those that are oppressing them.

[12:21] Oh, Lord, there's so much need that we can become overwhelmed, but we do pray for the most vulnerable and those that are mostly affected by this current situation with COVID.

[12:34] Draw close, Lord. Bring your healing and helping hand. We pray for those professionals on the front lines, particularly health workers, nurses, doctors, hospitals, sacrificially working and placing themselves at risk for the good of others, Lord.

[12:53] Please help them, bless them and be with them. And we just pray for this nation as a whole. We pray for the leaders of this nation. We pray for our Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, that you would give him wisdom, you would give him discernment, that you would enable him to draw on the wisdom of his advisors in this matter, Lord God.

[13:21] We ultimately pray, Lord, that these leaders would bow the knee to you and that you would draw them to a saving faith and a submission to the Lord Jesus Christ and that Christ would rightfully have his, be recognised to have his place which he has as King and Lord in this nation.

[13:44] We pray you bless this meeting this morning, Lord, with your presence and your empowering. Bless the preached word. Be with us all in the power and the strong name of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ.

[13:57] Amen. Thanks, Jerome, for that lovely and moving prayer.

[14:12] We are going to sing about this Jesus whom Jerome was referring to in his prayer. We have this song. My Jesus, my Saviour, Lord, there is none like you.

[14:27] All of my days I want to praise the wonders of your mighty love and let me just try and click the right buttons here. My Jesus, my Saviour, but there is none like you.

[15:08] All of my days I want to praise the wonders of your mighty love.

[15:22] I comfort my shield, my shield, my shield, my tower of refuge and strength let every breath.

[15:33] Let every breath, all that I am never cease to worship you.

[15:44] shout to you. I shout to you, Lord, all the earth and sea power and majesty praise you and me.

[15:58] mountains bow down mountains bow down and the seas will roll at the sound of your name.

[16:10] I sing the joy at the word of the heavens for you. For you, Lord, I love you from heaven or upstairs nothing compares to the promise I have in you.

[16:31] my Jesus my Savior my Savior my Savior my Savior oh, there is none like you all of my days I want to praise the wonders of your mighty love I'm filled by the shield tower of refuge and strength let every breath all that I am never cease to worship you shout to the Lord all the earth let us see power and majesty praise you again mountains bow down and the seas will roll at the sound of your name

[17:48] I sing the joy at the work of your hands forever I love you forever I stand nothing compares to the promise as I ever need you a dream a dream a dream a dream a dream a dream a dream a dream a dream a dream The passage of scripture that we're looking at, for those of you who are just dipping in, we base our services very much on what it says in the Bible.

[18:49] And the passage that we are looking at is in Isaiah chapter 63, verses 1 to 4. And Christopher's going to read that. I've also asked Julia to read on so we get the context of it.

[19:02] But she'll do that after we have sung another psalm. So first of all, we're going to have Christopher who will read to us our passage, which is Isaiah 63, verses 1 to 4.

[19:17] CHIRPING Who is this coming from Eden, from Bosra, with his garment stained crimson?

[19:40] Who is this robed in splendour, striding forward in the greatness of his strength? It is I, speaking in righteousness, mighty to save. Why are your garments red like those of treading the winepress?

[19:54] I have trodden the winepress alone. From the nations no one was with me. I trampled them in my anger and trod them down in my wrath. Their blood spattered my garments and I stained all my clothing.

[20:08] For the day of vengeance was in my heart and the year of my redemption has come. I looked, but there was no one to help. I was appalled that no one gave support. So my own arm worked salvation for me and my own wrath sustained me.

[20:25] I trampled the nations in my anger. In my wrath I made them drunk and poured their blood on the ground. Amen. Thanks Christopher.

[20:42] That's quite a tough passage of scripture. We are going to try and face head on what it's actually saying in a few moments. But thank you for reading that. And we're going to have a song.

[20:54] We're going to sing Psalm 2, which is about the successor to the ancient King David, God's king who rules the earth.

[21:06] The Christian claim is, of course, that this is Jesus Christ. And the psalm says, So this is quite a hard-hitting psalm.

[21:31] But we're going to sing it. These are the words. It's the version that Andrew King wrote, found in Praises for the King of Kings. And the music is coming up.

[21:43] It's the tune Leone, for those of you who are interested in tunes. Why do their heathen range?

[22:17] Why does the world conspire? The rulers blot against the Lord and his Messiah.

[22:31] Come, let us break their bonds and throw their matters off. The Lord enthroned on high looks down to love and scoff.

[22:48] In anger he rebukes, his wrath with terror fails. I have installed my king inside my holy hill.

[23:06] I'll tell the Lord's decree. To me his chosen one. I have begotten you today.

[23:20] You are my son. Past me and of the earth. East, west, and everywhere.

[23:33] And all the nations in this world. You are the air. With eye and centre rule.

[23:48] In every land hope's sway. The nations you will break apart like pots of clay.

[24:00] Let all you kings be wise. Answer the Lord with fear. And trembling joy.

[24:13] His anger lies forever near. Now kiss the sun. Blessed he destroy you in your sin.

[24:28] For blessed are all eternally. You will turn in him.

[24:38] He said surely they are my people. Blessed are all eternally.

[24:56] Sheltered in him. The psalm anticipates people finding shelter from God's king. In God's king. To turn to him and find shelter.

[25:08] Kiss the sun. Lest he be angry. Blessed are all who take refuge in him. Well thank you Julia for recording a reading which goes on from what Christopher read.

[25:26] I don't think I've got the numbers quite right here. But she's going to read on in verse 7 and through to the end of the next chapter. Because this is now a response to the input from this person who trod the winepress.

[25:41] And the response goes on to say I will tell about the kindness of the Lord. The deeds for which he is to be praised. So this is Isaiah 63 actually from verse 7.

[25:53] And here we go. Today's reading is taken from Isaiah 63 verse 7 up to 64 verse 12.

[26:09] I will tell of the loving kindnesses of the Lord. The deeds for which he is to be praised. According to all the Lord has done for us. Yes the many good things he has done for the house of Israel.

[26:21] According to his compassion and many kindnesses. He said surely they are my people. Sons who will not be false to me. And so he became their saviour.

[26:33] In all their distress he too was distressed. And the angel of his presence saved them. In his love and mercy he redeemed them. He lifted them up and carried them all the days of old.

[26:46] Yet they rebelled and grieved his Holy Spirit. So he turned and became their enemy. And he himself fought against them. Then his people recalled the days of old.

[26:58] The days of Moses and his people. Where is he who brought them through the sea with the shepherd of his flock? Where is he who set his Holy Spirit among them? Who sent his glorious arm of power to be at Moses' right hand?

[27:12] Who divided the waters before them to gain for himself everlasting renown? Who led them through the depths? Like a horse in open country they did not stumble.

[27:23] And like cattle that go down to the plain they were given rest by the Spirit of the Lord. This is how you guided your people. To make for yourself a glorious name. Look down from heaven and see from your lofty throne holy and glorious.

[27:38] Where are your zeal and your might? Your tenderness and compassion are withheld from us. But you are our father. Though Abraham does not know us or Israel acknowledge us.

[27:50] You, O Lord, are our father. Our Redeemer from of old is your name. Why, O Lord, do you make us wander from your ways? And harden our hearts so we do not revere you.

[28:04] Return for the sake of your servants, the tribes that are your inheritance. For a little while your people possessed your holy place. But now our enemies have trampled down your sanctuary.

[28:15] We are yours from of old, that you have not ruled over them. They have not been called by your name. O that you would rend the heavens and come down.

[28:26] That the mountains would tremble before you. As when fire sets twixt a blaze and causes water to boil. Come down to make your name known to your enemies. And cause the nations to quake before you.

[28:40] For when you did awesome things that we did not expect. But you came down and the mountains trembled before you. Since ancient times no one has heard nor ear perceived.

[28:51] No eye has seen any God beside you who acts on behalf of those who wait for him. You come to the help of those who gladly do right. Who remember your ways.

[29:03] But when we continue to sin against them you are angry. How can we be saved? All of us have become like one who is unclean. And all our righteous acts are like filthy rags.

[29:16] We all shrivel up like a leaf. And like the wind our sins sweep us away. No one calls on your name or strives to lay hold of you. For you have hidden your face from us and made us waste away because of our sins.

[29:29] Yet, O Lord, you are our Father. We are the clay. You are the potter. We are all the work of your hand. Do not be angry beyond measure, O Lord.

[29:42] Do not remember our sins forever. O look upon us, we pray. For we are all your people. Your sacred cities have become a desert. Even Zion is a desert and Jerusalem a desolation.

[29:55] Our holy and glorious temple where our fathers praised you has been burned with fire. And all that we treasure lies in ruins. After all this, O Lord, will you hold yourself back?

[30:08] Will you keep silent and punish us beyond measure? Oh, goodness. Well done, Julia.

[30:25] That was a long reading and thank you for bringing that to us. Well done. The reading mentioned the Redeemer.

[30:37] The Redeemer is the one who buys back people in trouble. Who takes people out of slavery. Delivers them from bondage at cost to himself.

[30:52] Or a great expenditure of effort. It's usually a family member who does this. And we're going to sing about the Redeemer. About Jesus Christ and his character as the Redeemer.

[31:03] There is a Redeemer. Jesus, God's own Son. There is a Redeemer.

[31:36] Precious Lamb of God, my Son. O Holy One. Thank you, O my Father.

[31:54] For giving us your Son. And leaving your Spirit.

[32:05] The work on earth is done. Jesus, my Redeemer.

[32:18] For giving us your Son. And even your spirit Till the work on earth is done When I stand in glory I will see His face And then I'll serve my King forever

[33:20] In that holy place Thank you, O my Father For giving us your Son And leaving your spirit Till the work on earth is done Thank you, O my Father For giving us your Son And leaving your spirit Till the work on earth is done Thank you so much Aaron and Annika for that

[34:40] There is a Redeemer Jesus, God's own Son We're going to talk a little bit now About the passage that was read In Isaiah chapter 63 So I'll pray for God's help Help me, O God, to speak truth And where truth is spoken Help all of us who listen To receive it And align our lives with it We pray that we may draw near to you You will draw near to us We pray through this Redeemer Jesus, God's own Son Amen Let's start off by talking about The problem of evil And its recompense What it deserves Our post-Western, post-God Western culture I think has a problem with evil Does it exist?

[35:42] Does evil exist? Well in some ways we would say Yes, it certainly does How do you define evil? What would be recognised as evil?

[35:54] Well I think people would say Child exploitation, that's evil Manipulation of the truth Saying that something's true when it isn't Or saying it's not true when it is We would say that was evil I think we would Selfishness, is that evil?

[36:14] And can we actually understand evil at all Without reference to the deepest obligations that we have And our deepest obligations are to our Maker To the one who made us Who upholds us every moment of every day And the one Yeah, we're his Our deepest obligations to him Shouldn't we take that into account?

[36:42] And how widespread is evil? Would it be correct to say most of us are In inverted commas, good And only a few people are evil And let's use this word that the Bible uses Sin, which is my personal evil How widespread is it?

[37:04] The Bible's going to say we're all sinners And I think that's something that We need a lot of help in our Western culture to grasp And then where does evil come from?

[37:17] So does evolutionary theory help us with this? I mean, if you think of David Attenborough So he sort of personifies evolutionary theory Is there any room in that theory for moral evil?

[37:32] Or actually, would it be actually more logical In an evolutionary view To say that evil's just a necessary process In a meaningless universe Because the strong survive And crush the weak And that's just what happens And then what do you do with evil?

[37:56] What do you do with it? Do you overlook it? Do you tolerate it? Do you retrain it? Or, as on our detective programmes on the telly Like Law and Order Do you actually make it your business To catch the perpetrator And punish evil?

[38:17] Well, those are quite big questions, aren't they? And quite searching questions I'm not going to go any further with the questions I'm just going to go to the answers that the Bible gives And the Bible is very clear that the universe is not meaningless and random But is made by a personal God Who has authority to set the boundaries of good and evil And also, being a maker, has the authority to judge which is which And, in the end, to give evil exactly what he deserves And this is not bad news This is good news It means that life is important That good does matter That somebody is watching And somebody values things And they do have a value And this is at the heart of our Bible passage today That we're going to look at So it is in the book of the prophet Isaiah If you have a Bible And you can look this up

[39:17] You'll find that really helpful You might want to pause and find In the front of the Bible Isaiah 63 Let me give you a little bit of context to this The Bible doesn't deal with the problem of evil In a sort of abstract way But it looks at real people In real situations In real time And real history And the Bible has a plot line and a plan And it says that the God who made everything Has a plan to bless all the nations And to solve their deepest problems Those problems being evil and sin and death And to build a humanity with every relationship healed That's to say relationships with people And relationships with God And relationships with the environment And to build a place A community of human flourishing Which you could for shorthand

[40:17] Call the city of God And in the plot line of the Bible God has started this plan with a prototype Which was ancient Jerusalem And he focused on a particular people The Lord, the God of Israel Has been dealing patiently with his people Rescuing them Teaching them Blessing them Being patient with them But characteristically The response of the human heart Even to such kindness Is to dishonour God To ignore him To turn away from him And the particular instance of this Is to be sent away from God Into exile And the people of Israel Were sent into exile In Babylon Historically for a 70 year period And that geographically, if you like Illustrates the spiritual condition Of human beings Far from God Exiled from him At the present time

[41:20] And these chapters that we've been looking at Reflect on The people of ancient Israel Reflecting on their total moral failure And they say things like this In 59, 12 They say Our offences are many in your sight And our sins testify against us Our offences are ever with us And we acknowledge our iniquities Rebellion and treachery against the Lord Turning our backs on God So they're saying This is us We are in deep moral trouble And there is prayers for God To radically act And intervene So Julia read to us this Oh that you would rend the heavens And come down Oh that God would do something About this terrible situation Of our human sin And lostness And being far away from God

[42:20] And the chapters pose the question Who is going to do this? And in chapters 56 to 66 They wrestle with this Very intense tension Between the impotence of human beings To sort out their own spiritual needs And this loud cry for God To come and do what they cannot do Rend the heavens and come down Save us So we were asking the question Who's going to do it?

[42:55] And as we've been going through the passage We've seen a number of parts In the first person Where they say I And I draw your attention To one person That popped up in the text In 5920 It said the Redeemer Will come And in 5921 It says my spirit Will be upon you And then in 6121 We have the spirit of the Sovereign Lord Is on me Because the Sovereign Lord Has anointed me Using the word Masha From which we get Messiah So this is the Messiah person To preach good news to the poor To bind up the broken hearted So here's this person Who pops up And we spent a little while If you might remember On that Sunday Asking the identity Of this agent Who does the Lord's work Yet is distinct from the Lord And yet is not a third party And you may remember That I quoted

[43:56] Jesus' view on this Where he Read this Bible In the Jewish synagogue Read this part of the Bible In the Jewish synagogue And said to the astonishment Of his hearers Today This scripture Is fulfilled In your hearing So it was Jesus' view That it was about him And that leads us To the most mind-blowing estimate Of the magnitude Of Jesus And we need to have that In the back of our minds As we approach this passage So I've entitled it The Sovereign Conquering Christ And it is Isaiah 63 Verses 1-6 Who is this Coming from Eden From Bosra With his garments Stained crimson Who is this Robed in splendour Striding forward In the greatness Of his strength It is I Speaking in righteousness Mighty To save So who is this person

[44:56] He matches Isaiah 59 Verses 15-21 And we'll see some of that Correspondence As we go through But Isaiah 59 Verses 15-21 Was the Lord himself Saying that Single-handedly He would Intervene and save So you get it in verse 16 Of chapter 59 He was appalled That there was no one Sorry He saw that there was no one He was appalled There was no one To intervene So his own arm Worked salvation for him His own righteousness Sustained him This is the Lord Stepping in To save his people And we get The same sort of thing In 63-5 Where the speaker there Says I looked There was no one To help I was appalled That no one Gave support So my own arm Worked salvation for me

[45:56] And my own wrath Sustained me So this person Is clearly Very closely Allied To the Lord In a way Which perhaps only becomes Totally clear in the New Testament But it's there In these scriptures This agent Allied With the Lord And yet Distinct from the Lord Okay So Let's look at Just some of the features Of the text One of the features Is astonishment Isn't it So it begins Who is this Coming from Eden Who is this Robed in splendour Why are your garments red So there's Astonishment Who is this And another feature Of this Is that The passion If you like Strength Determination Of the person Described So He It is said In verse One He strides forward In the greatness Of his strength He isn't coming

[46:57] In a wobbly way He's not Exhausted And he's not Weedy And weak He's Strong And it talks About his Sort of Determination Doesn't it Striding forward And it speaks About his Emotional intensity Verse 3 I have trodden The winepress Alone from the nations And no one Was with me I trampled Them in my anger And trod them Down in my wrath There's a lot of Emotional intensity There In verse 4 The day of vengeance Was in my heart And the year Of my redemption Has come Or better still The year of My redeemed people Has come I looked There was no one To help I was appalled That no one Gave me support So A lot of Passion If we might use That word Intensity Another feature Of the passage Is colour So It starts off With the question About the Clothing

[47:58] It is Dyed Red Stained Crimson It says in Verse 1 And it is Red Verse 2 Why are your Garments red?

[48:10] And we get Repeated References to The winepress The place where The grapes Are squashed And the juice The red Crimson Purple juice Spreads out And stains Everything Verse 3 I stained All my Clothing And the Equivalence Between Wine And blood Verse 6 In my wrath I made them Drunk And poured Their blood On the ground So Features like that And another feature Which is repeated Is trampling Treading A couple of words Used Alternated Verse 2 Treading the winepress Verse 3 I have trodden the winepress Verse 3 I trampled them down And trod them down And Verse 6 I trampled The nations in my anger So you get a bit of a feeling For the sort of thing

[49:10] That's going on In this text It isn't a Sort of Comfortable Woolly sort of text It's very active And another thing In the text Is the Aloneness Or if you like The single handedness Of the person Verse 3 I did this alone Nobody helped me Verse 3 From the nations No one Was with me Verse 5 I looked There was no one To help I was appalled That no one Gave me support So my own Arm Worked salvation For me My own Wrath Sustained me So he does this Single handed And that's a Feature that we've Seen before No one else Can take the credit For what this person Does They do it Themselves And Another feature Of the text Is Vengeance Wrath And this app Happens to be Linked with And we might find This is a strange

[50:11] Linkage With salvation So We have In verse 1 This person Says I'm mighty To save And then In verse 4 The day of Vengeance Was in my heart And the year Of my Redeemed people So both those things Coupled together there And In verse 5 My own Arm Worked Salvation For me And my own Wrath Sustained me So a coupling Of salvation And wrath There So those are Some of the Features of the Text And perhaps Help us to get A bit of the Flavour of it I mean feel free To press pause And read it Through again So that you've Really got the Impact of this Text So I'm going to Ask three Questions Number one Who is this That's a question In the text Number two Why are his

[51:11] Garments red And that's a Question in the Text And number three Why is it Why does it Matter so much What is the Driving force Behind this Why is he So intense About it So those are The three Questions I'd like us To look at For a few Minutes this Morning So question Number one Who is this Who is it Talking about It's a very Crucial question In the end Of the previous Chapter 62 Verse 11 We've actually Been invited To be on the Lookout For someone Coming Behold Your saviour Comes Behold His reward Is with him And his Recompense Accompanies him So we're on The lookout For somebody But who is it Going to be And The question Who is this Is asked In verse One Who is this Coming from Edom Now What is the Colour Of this Question

[52:12] Is it Simply Mystery We don't know Who this Person is Is it Horror Look Who is this Is it Incredulity I can't Believe It could be This person Well Surely it's not Just information Is it There's something Going on There What are we Told Well we're Told That he Comes from Edom There's a Play on Words Edom Is The red Country And it's Linked With the Word Adam In verse Two So Edom Verse One Adam Red Verse Two And Bosra So My Dear Commentator Alec Matia Says that The name of Bosra means Wine Place Or Vineyard I Couldn't Confirm that Anywhere else I looked But that's What he

[53:12] Says And He's a Man to be Respected But anyway That Makes the Linkage Between Redness And Wine And Who is Edom Well They Represent It's a Nation Ancient Nation That If you like Represents The Enemies Of God And The Enemies Of God's People They've Been Described Before In Chapter 34 Verse 6 Where It Says My Sword Has Drunk Its Fill In The Heaven Sea It Descends In Judgment On Edom The People I Have Totally Destroyed And They're Sort Of Iconic For The Nation Or The Group Of Nations If You Like Or The National Spirit That Is Dead Set Against!

[54:05] We're Told That He Comes So I've Gone Back To The Question Of Who Is This Who Is This Person Striding Forward In The Greatness Of His Strength The Robes It Says Robed In Splendor Perhaps The Word Notable Would Be Better There His Clothing Is Notable Look at This Something Rather Unusual About This Clothing Who Is This That Comes With Such Strange Clothing But He's Coming Along In The Greatness Of His Strength And The Person Speaks I It Is I It Is I I Speak In Righteousness Sedeca This Person Doesn't Speak Fake News Half Truth Weasley Words He Speaks Straight

[55:05] I Speak In Righteousness Mighty To Save Hebrew Word Yeshua Something Like That Which Name Joshua Which Is Like The Name Jesus So Who Is This He's Clearly A Most Unique And Impressive Individual And Let's See If We Can Focus A Little Bit More On Him I've Already Made The Comparison With 59 15 Where The Lord Says That He Undertake Intervention And Salvation And This Person Speaks In Very Similar Terms We Could Also Look Back And Link Him With The Anointed Saviour

[56:05] In 61 1 This Person Brings Good News To The Poor And Binds Up The Broken Hearted And Proclaims Freedom For The Captives And The Year Of The Lord's Favor And The Day Of Vengeance Of Our God He Comforts Those Who Mourn So That Particular Emphasis In Chapter 61 Is His Ministry To The Poor And The Distant And The Helpless And The Imprisoned Sets Them Free But It Doesn't Omit A Reference To Vengeance So We Have Three Passages The One About The Lord The One About The Anointed Saviour And The One That We've Got Now This Conqueror With The Red Clothing And We Might Ask Have We Got Three Different People Here And I'm Going To Just Say No We Haven't Got Three Different People We've Got Three Different Angles On One Person And The Fulfillment Of These Chapters

[57:05] And Prophecies Is Found In Jesus That's What He Said That's What The New Testament Says And That's The Thing That Fits He Is The One Being Spoken Of Here Jesus Himself As I've Already Mentioned In Luke 4 19 When He Read That In The Synagogue Said This Is Fulfilled In Your Hearing Now He Did Omit The Reference To Vengeance Because That Wasn't Fulfilled That Hadn't It Happened At The Time At Which He Spoke It And Here's Another Part Of The New Testament It's Revelation Chapter 19 And This Also Picks Up What Said In Isaiah And Refers It To Jesus It's One Of Seven Visions Towards The End Of The Book Of Revelation It's The Vision Of The Rider On The White Horse I

[58:05] Saw Heaven Standing Open And There Before Me Was A White Horse Whose Rider Is Called Faithful And True With Justice He Judges And Makes War His Eyes Are Like Blazing Fire On His Head Are Many Crowns He Has A Name Written On Him That No One Knows But He Himself He Is Dressed In A Robe Dipped In Blood And His Name Is The Word Of God The Armies Of Heaven Were Following Him Riding On White Horses And Dressed In Fine Linen White And Clean Out Of His Mouth Comes A Sharp Sword With Which To Strike Down The Nations He Will Rule Them With An Iron Scepter He Treads The Wine Press Of The Fury Of The Wrath Of God Almighty On His Robe And On His Thigh He Has This Name Written King Of Kings And Lord Of Lords And There Is That Very What Do We Say Daunting

[59:06] Vision Of The Risen Jesus The One Who Has In His Mouth A Sharp Two Edge Tord The One Who Rules The Nations And Brings Them Into Compliance And The One Who As We Read Shreds The Wine Press Of The Fury Of The Wrath Of God Almighty So My Question Was Who Is This And My Answer Is This Is Jesus So Speaking Of Speaking Of Jesus My Second Question Is Why Are His Garments Red That's The Question That's Asked In The Text Why Are Your Garments Red Like Somebody Treading A Wine Press Now In The Flow Of The Book There Have Been Garments Mentioned Already 59 17 God Has The Garments Of The

[60:08] Helmet Of Salvation The Garments Of Vengeance He Wraps Himself In Zealers In A Cloak So Garments Is Nothing New 61 3 Zion Had Been Given Garments Of Praise Instead Of Mourning A Garment Of Praise Instead Of A Spirit Of Despair A Garment Of Praise And 61 10 I Delight Greatly In The Lord For He Has Clothed Me With Garments Of Salvation And Arrayed Me In A Robe Of!

[60:39] So People Dressed For The Occasion As It Were And Here We Have Notable Garments Here's Somebody Wearing Garments That Are Notable Because Of Their Colouration Where Did That Colouration Come From They're All Stained Red Like Somebody Who's Been Treading Out Grapes In A Wine Press And I Found This Advertisement On The Internet It Says Fruit By The Foot Grape Stomped Wine Is Making A Comeback And You Want to Follow The Advert You Can There It's A Vineyard But There's Somebody Doing Exactly What We've Got Here Treading Grapes And Getting Messy With The Grape Juice So Why Are His Garments Red Because He's Been Treading A Wine Press A Metaphorical Wine

[61:39] Press Like Treading On Grapes With The Release Of Red Juice He's Been Treading On People With The Release Of Life's Blood Verse Six Poured Their Blood On The Ground It's A Very Gory Image Isn't It It's As Horrifying As It Is Vivid It's Most Unmistakable Violent Lethal And Obviously It's Imagery But It Is All Those Things And The People On Whom He Tramples Are The Nations It's Verse Six I Trampled The Nations In My Anger I Trodden Them Down In My Wrath It Says In Verse Three Why

[62:41] Are His Garments Red Because Of This And I Think It Would Not Be Unlikely For People To At This Point Say Whoa I'm Not Going To Listen To This Any Longer I Strongly Object To This And The Injection Would Be That This Is Aggressive And Cruel And Savage And Unworthy And Unchristian You Might Say Or You Might Say It's Unacceptable And Morally Indefensible Well Let's Take That Head On Shall We Are There Any Answers To Those Accusations So I Think We Can Just Say For One Thing What We See Here Is Not Bad Temper And Tantrum

[64:58] Messiah Will Rule that he has anger against those who defy him and despise him and rebel against him.

[65:12] And he says, you have a chance. Be wise. Now is the opportunity to make friends, to take refuge in this king.

[65:25] And if you are far away from this king, if you're still not a subject of his, if you resent him and reject him, that is the time for you to turn, reconsider, rethink and come to him with apology and confession and to take refuge in his promises of forgiveness.

[65:52] So it's not bad temper. It's not arbitrary. Now as I began to say before, Edom is not just any old country, some innocent bystander.

[66:07] They are portrayed as having a perpetual hostility towards God and his people and all he stands for. That's where they're at.

[66:19] But they have long opposed their maker with belittling and with insult and with settled antagonism. And God has been patient with them for, well, I guess we could say centuries.

[66:35] And he says, you know, I won't put that word up forever. There will come a time when you have so vexed my patience, so exhausted my patience, that you will get exactly what you deserve.

[66:54] And do you know, I really do wonder whether our culture isn't rather like Edom in exactly that way. We've had so much good things from the Christian God, and yet the Christian God, well, I don't know, where are you with that?

[67:13] There's a lot in our culture that's settled and hostile against him, I'm afraid. Answer three. It's not hasty. Jesus, you remember when he quoted along these lines, didn't say, now is fulfilled vengeance.

[67:30] That remains to come. So this is looking forward to the distant end of the world. We don't know how far away it is, but there will be an end of the world.

[67:42] This is looking forward to the day of judgment. You know, like the last day. Doomsday, if you will. And to be told about it in advance functions as an advance notice and a warning to take note of.

[67:58] And if you like to bring it into this very, very present moment, what is the virus? It's a pre-echo of judgment. God's wrath is being revealed ahead of time.

[68:11] He's giving us notice that things are not right at a very, very deep level. A bit like all the warning lights coming on on your computer printer and your microwave beeping.

[68:27] It's wrong. It needs attention. It needs maintenance. And that's what God is saying to us, even at this time. And the third thing, this isn't the only thing that's said about, sorry, the fourth thing.

[68:40] This isn't the only thing that's said about the nations. If they want to remain enemies, then they will surely be defeated in shame and destruction. But there is a big invitation and a big vision of the nations actually changing heart.

[68:56] And even the most perverse enemy of the nations coming in humility to worship Israel's God and to ascend his holy hill. That's in Isaiah 2, the nations stream to Israel's God.

[69:08] So there's a wonderful invitation. It isn't just judgment, is it? Invitation to us. And if we're saying that this vigorous antagonism against evil is unacceptable, doesn't it show how much we're mistaken?

[69:31] We're mistaken if we think that our morality is slightly better attuned than God's. This passage shows the aggressive nature of his holiness.

[69:43] It is his righteous, fair, massive reaction against the sin which we, in our moral ineptitude and moral indifference, think is trivial or unimportant.

[69:57] Without wishing to be political, do you think some leaders have been wrong to trivialise the virus and say it's no worse than flu?

[70:10] Do you not think they had a misreading of the situation? And don't we misread sin if we think, well, it doesn't matter too much, we can't work out why God should be worked up about it at all?

[70:22] This is our endemic failure to appreciate the reality of God being God. So here's the third question.

[70:33] Why is he so intense about this? Because we can't mistake the emotional force of this passage. We've mentioned things already. He comes striding along. He's mighty to save. He speaks about his anger and his wrath.

[70:46] He talks about the day of vengeance in his heart. And the year of my redeemed people. And the language of saying he needs to lean on someone for this demanding task, whereas help, verse 5, there was no one to help.

[71:02] I was appalled. No one gave support. And the support for this is found from within the character and being of the conqueror. Conqueror, verse 5, my own arm worked salvation for me.

[71:17] My own wrath sustained me. There was something deep within me that propelled me along in this demanding and gruelling task, if you like. My own wrath sustained me.

[71:28] So he's fully emotionally committed to this work. And there's no reluctance in that sense. I mean, he's taken a long time to get to this point. But now he's got to this point.

[71:40] He doesn't do it half-heartedly. Why is he so intense? We can't mistake the emotional force. And we can't mistake the rational force here.

[71:50] There's some reasoning. It's not done blindly. Verse 4, the day of vengeance was in my heart, and the year of my redeemed people has come.

[72:02] So there's a reason here. Vengeance is repaying exactly what is due to evil, and redemption is to rescue from slavery by payment of a great price or expenditure of great effort.

[72:16] And you get that same coupling as we've seen before, verse 5. My own arm worked salvation for me, and my own wrath sustained me. So there are two rational aims here.

[72:28] One, to judge evil, and two, to save his people. And God is committed to both those things decisively in this passage.

[72:42] But that leads us to the question of how does this act of bloody destruction advance the salvation of his dear people? It's a big question, isn't it?

[72:53] And I've got a few answers here. So firstly, justice is not satisfied until the wickedness of the nations is given its full, fair, just recompense.

[73:06] People in our world seek, we say, closure when there are blameworthy things done.

[73:17] And perhaps some hideous child abuser. They want him to be caught and punished. Closure, people say.

[73:28] Well, God is saying, well, there's something in there that is deeply true and echoes down to the heart of the universe. Justice is not satisfied until there is a full recompense.

[73:39] But let's take that a little bit further and say that until the enemies of God's people are soundly defeated and God's people are not free. So when Israel escaped from Egypt and the imprisonment that Pharaoh brought upon them, they weren't free until Pharaoh's threatening army lay at the bottom of the Red Sea.

[74:08] Until, because the army wouldn't give up. Pharaoh wouldn't give up trying to grab them. And until they were defeated and that enemy was vanquished, the people weren't free.

[74:22] The same way that we won't be free of the virus until the last microbe is obliterated. And Jesus frees his people from sin and death and the devil.

[74:37] And until those enemies are completely dealt with, freedom has not yet been achieved. Freedom from the devil and his citizens and his foot soldiers.

[74:49] And that's why this passage has that catastrophic final determination in it. And let's just pick up one more thing here.

[75:05] I was noticing in verse 3, Their blood spattered my garments and stained all my clothing. The word for spattered there is to sprinkle.

[75:17] And I want to say there's a close linkage actually between this fierce judgment and powerful final salvation. So the word for sprinkle is nearly always, but not quite always, but nearly always, something that the priest does when he takes blood and sprinkles it.

[75:38] So sacrificial blood sprinkled to make something clean. Which is rather ironic, isn't it? Blood poured out by an innocent victim in the sacrificial system has power to cleanse the sinner and to wash clean.

[75:58] New Testament says this peculiar thing. They washed their robes in the blood of the Lamb. There's an old hymn. There's power, wonder-working power in the blood of the Lamb.

[76:15] And this is just a little bit of an echo really, a foreshadowing. The great trampling down at the end, the great spilling of blood to the ground, the great spattering and sprinkling.

[76:28] But that treading down occurred not only on the last day, but on the cross. Where Jesus was not then the trampler, but the trampled on.

[76:42] A place where he was squashed for our iniquities. He was bruised for our sins. Where wrath was poured out and fully landed and punishment was meted out.

[76:55] And wrath satisfied and atonement made on the cross. Which makes Jesus not only a judge, but a powerful saviour.

[77:06] Someone who has in his hands both judgment and salvation. So, we draw to a close. We ask the question, who is this?

[77:18] Who is this that comes from Eden with his garments stained crimson? And the answer is, this is the Lord, through his son Jesus Christ, the powerful saviour and the powerful judge.

[77:32] And why are his garments red? Because he is the agent of final, triumphant, catastrophic victory over evil. That includes victory over the people who with full responsibility sign up against the Lord as their course of life.

[77:51] And then we thirdly asked, why is he so intense about it? And the answer is, because God is so holy. Because evil is so evil. And because redemption and salvation does not bypass judgment and blood and violence.

[78:05] But Christ's cross is the place of judgment. And therefore, therefore, the place of full salvation. And I want to invite all of us to be glad in what Christ has done.

[78:22] To honour him as the one who holds judgment and salvation. The keys of death and hell are to our Jesus given. I want to encourage us to respect him. To love him.

[78:33] To put him first in our lives. To give him the honour and awe and wonder that he deserves. And to find ourselves sheltered from wrath.

[78:44] In the one who can inflict wrath, but also who bore wrath. Rock of ages, cleft for me. Let me hide myself in thee. His cross is the place where sin is exposed.

[78:57] But also the place where sinners can safely hide. Sheltered under his protection. And we shall sing. Rock of ages, cleft for me. Rock of ages, cleft for me.

[79:37] Rock of ages, cleft for me. Rock of ages, cleft for me. Hide me now, thy refuge be. Let the water and the blood From your wounded side which flow Lead for sin, the double cure.

[80:00] Cleanse me from his guilt and power. Not the labour of my hands And fulfil your lost demands Could my zeal no respite know Could my tears forever flow Oh, for sin could not atone You must stay and you alone Nothing in my hand I bring Simply to your cross I cling Naked come to you for dress Helpless look to you for grace Stain my sin to you I cry

[81:04] Wash me, Saviour, for I die When I draw this fleeting breath When my eyelids close in death When I soar through realms unknown Thou before your judgment prone Hide me then, my refugee Rock of ages, cleft for me To him who loves us And has freed us from our sins By his blood And made us to be a kingdom And priests to serve his God and Father To him be glory and power

[82:07] Forever and ever Amen Amen Thank you for joining us I hope that was a helpful time together And look forward to seeing you soon Bye bye from me Bye bye from me