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[0:00] Those of you for whom English is not the first language might find this a bit strange.! Should old acquaintance be forgot? It's a Scottish song, isn't it? Should old acquaintance be forgot?

[0:17] ! When do you sing that song? New Year. It's a traditional New Year song. There's an occasion for singing that. Happy Birthday. So who was it who had the birthday?

[0:30] Anyways, Tegan had her birthday. She's gone out. Oh, it's Jan. It's your birthday as well. So it's a day for singing Happy Birthday. Which means it's a special occasion and the people who sing it say, we wish something to you. We wish you a happy birthday. It's something where you join in together with that. When I was at school, we learned the song Men of Harlach. Anybody else know the song Men of Harlach? Harlach is a place in Wales. There's a lovely castle there.

[1:06] There's fantastic sand dunes. So I remember Harlach as being a place of building castles and enjoying it and you could buy a little Welsh flag or a little Welsh dragon flag and stick it on the top of your sand castle. The song Men of Harlach is actually a song of war. Men of Harlach, like that it goes. And it's the words, Men of Harlach march to glory. Victory is hovering.

[1:37] Oeie. That sounds Scottish again, doesn't it? It's written in Welsh, I think. According to Wikipedia, it celebrates the victory or the battle of 14 something or other, I think probably against the English. So I think when my Welsh friends knew the words and I think what it was saying was kill the English, kill the English, but I don't know. But it does a song that invites you to take sides, you see, as a cause that you're singing for, an inspiration that you're generating as you sing it. And you do take sides. You know football songs where every team has their song and you sing that?

[2:24] I couldn't give you an example, so I stuck with these examples. But singing, not all songs, but there are songs that are for a cause and to inspire. And when you sing it, you take sides. May the men of Harlach win and the rotten English go right back to Birmingham where they belong. That's the sort of thing. And songs that relish victory. Men of Harlach march to glory. Victory is hovering. Oeie.

[3:01] Well, songs. And there are songs in the Bible. Christianity is a singing religion. And we're going to look at Isaiah chapter 26 and 27 because here, I might be pushing a point a little bit to make it all into a song, but it definitely starts off as a song. Chapter 26, in that day, this song will be sung in the land of Judah. And I would like to invite you to ponder the thought that when it was written all those years ago, the Christians in the New Testament would pick up this scripture and say, actually, we can sing this. This song explains the cause that is us. This song inspires us. This song urges us onto victory. And this is the song where we can take the side that says, this is our song.

[3:55] And just to put it very briefly into context, the book of Isaiah, written many years before Jesus Christ came, where God's purposes were focused on one nation and the earthly city of Jerusalem, was at that point his headquarters. Whereas the city that Christians belonged to was a heavenly city, but at that point it was a geographical city, threatened by the nations, but depending on her God. And I would say that this song, I'd like, I'm going to say there's roughly seven things, seven themes, if you like, seven verses of this song of the people of God. And it is a victory song to inspire. It is a divisive song that you take sides. Am I going to sing this or not?

[4:51] And the seven things I would like to bring out, and I'm going to try and do it fairly quickly, is number one, it's a song about the walk of faith. Number two, it's a song about inward desire.

[5:02] Number three, it's about the refusal of grace. Number four, it's about the gift of life. Number five, it's about the finish of the snake. Number six, it's about the promise of fruit. And number seven, it's about the bringing in of the exiles. So those seven things. And let's go through it reasonably quickly and pick out those seven themes. So chapter 26, verse one. In that day, this song will be sung in the land of Judah. We have a strong city. God makes salvation its walls and ramparts. Open the gates that the righteous nation may enter, the nation that keeps faith or that keeps truth. You will keep him in perfect peace. It's another Hebrew doubling, peace, peace, peace squared. You will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is steadfast because he trusts in you.

[5:56] Trust in the Lord forever. For the Lord, the Lord eternal is the rock, sorry, the Lord, the Lord is the rock eternal. He humbles those who dwell on high. He lays the lofty city low. He levels it to the ground and casts it to the dust. Feet trample it down, the feet of the oppressed, the footsteps of the poor. So the first thing is about the city. We have a city. Our city is strong. And the thing about this city that's picked up is these people keep faith with the Lord. Verse two, the nation that keeps faith.

[6:36] Verse three, the one whose mind is steady because he trusts in you. Verse four, trust in the Lord forever.

[6:50] This, the particular thing pointed out is that this city is the people, the city of people who trust the Lord. And it's said of them that they have peace. They are not the people of the proud city. That gets smashed down. But they are the people of the poor. It says in verse six, the feet of the oppressed, the footsteps of the poor. Jesus picked that up, didn't he? When in the Sermon on the Mount, when he said, yeah, that's absolutely right. There's a blessing on the poor. But he clarified, it's not just having no money that makes you blessed. That's not, it's not like that. It's poor in spirit. That's a bit different because you can find very proud people who've got very little money.

[7:44] But this is poor in spirit. It's those who don't say how splendid I am, how God must look at all the things I've done for God. It's like the tax collector who went to the temple. You remember that Jesus talked about who said, God have mercy on me, a sinner. And this is the character of the citizens of this city. And it is a city. It's a community. It's people interacting with each other.

[8:21] And in our church, as we had on the members meeting last week, I hope we know how to rejoice with those who rejoice and weep with those who weep. Because that's what a city is about, isn't it? It's belonging together. And these citizens are citizens by faith. And for them is the blessing that Jesus gave, blessed are the poor in spirit. And I ask whether you could sing that first verse and say, yeah, I'm part of that city. That's where I want to be. I'm there not because I'm so brilliant and clever and always right. I'm there because I've asked the Lord to have mercy on me and I'm trusting him. Blessed are the poor in spirit. Let's go to the second verse, if you like. So let's pick this up at verse 7. The path of the righteous is level. O upright one, you make the way of the righteous smooth. Yes, Lord, walking in the way of your laws, we wait for you. Your name and renown are the desire of our hearts. My soul yearns for you in the night. In the morning, my spirit longs for you.

[9:47] And what is this verse of the song about? Well, it's about a number of things, but I'm going to pick on what goes on inside the people who belong in that city. As they walk, their hearts are in it.

[10:07] That's what's being picked up. They walk on a path, verse 7. It's a level path. It's, as best I could understand it, where it says smooth, the idea is upright. We wait for you. And then it has these three things that it says about what's going on inside. Your name and your renown, meaning the things that we know from the past about you, the sort of your historical achievements, your track record, your renown, your memory, are the desire of our hearts. It doesn't actually use the word heart. It uses the word soul.

[10:53] But he says, this is what we desire. It's an interesting thing that these people can say, this is what deepest within us is what motivates us and the thing that we most long for.

[11:12] We long for your name and your renown. And then he goes on to say the same thing. My soul yearns for you in the night. I have a desire to meet God. You remember David saying, when can I go and meet God? I want to meet God. I want to hear from him. I want to meet him.

[11:45] That's the yearning of our soul, he says in verse 9 and then repeats it. In the morning, my spirit, almost the same word, longs for you.

[11:58] That's quite a reflective reaction to that, isn't there? What do we have going on inside our souls that we really long for, that really preoccupies us? This is the thing that we want most of all.

[12:17] Is it the approval of other people? Is it just to get all our jobs done? Is it that we should see our children getting on okay? There's all sorts of things that we might long for. But he says here, the thing that I really long for is you, oh God. Whatever else may be right and proper, the first thing I'm longing for is for you. So that's quite a challenging thing. Jesus will pick this up, won't he, in the New Testament and talk about blessed are the pure. And all the Jewish people would say, yeah, absolutely, pure. Wash your hands. Make sure in the right place at the right time.

[13:02] And Jesus said, actually, pure in heart, actually. Pure in heart. Blessed are the pure in heart. And here is a spirituality which keeps the statutes in the outward walk and that's matched equally by the inward desire. And you need both of those. You need both of those. Because if it's just inward and it never works out according to God's word, you say, well, that's just some sort of inner self-deception.

[13:34] If all there is is outward and there's nothing desire on the inward, then that's a sort of external religion that the Bible condemns. You need to have both of those. And that's what's here as these people sing of walking in the law of God and desiring God inwardly. I remember once when I was a young Christian saying to Pastor Les Hill that I'd read a book about repentance and it was all to do with sin and a rather preoccupation with sin. And he rightly rebuked me and said, actually, Phil, repentance is a preoccupation with God. Do you get that? Have I lost you all? It's a warm day. Repentance is turning from where we are to God inwardly and outwardly. And this is a description of somebody living a repentant life. A preoccupation with God. Your name. Your renown. You. And I want to walk that way. That was the second verse. Let's look at, let's go on now into verse 9. So I think, sort of halfway through verse 9, he brings in another theme and he says, when your judgments, when your mishpat, your right ways of doing things, come upon the earth, the people of the world learn righteousness. Though grace is shown to the wicked, they do not learn righteousness. Even in a land of uprightness they go on doing evil and regard not the majesty of the Lord. O Lord, your hand is lifted high, but they do not see it. Let them see your zeal for your people and be put to shame. Let the fire reserved for your enemies. So this verse is about an unappreciated call, or if you like, God's kindness rejected. So in several ways it says God reveals his right ways of doing things, his judgments, if you like, or his mishpat, his ways of doing things. When your judgments come upon the earth, the people of the world learn righteousness. And he says that grace is shown to the wicked, but they do not learn righteousness. And he's talking about grace in the sense that theologians call it common grace, meaning common as in widespread for everybody.

[16:34] And Jesus would talk about the perfection of God who makes his sun shine on the righteous and the wicked, shows his kindness to everybody, who brings rain on the righteous and the wicked, because as we are beginning to learn, you need rain. It's not judgment when God sends rain, it's good.

[16:58] And God shows these things to everybody, the beauty of creation in the image of God in people. There's lots of ways in which God shows to people, to everybody, that he's there and that they live in his world and that there is obviously more to this world than just physics, biology, chemistry, economics, economics, that there is a spiritual, we live in a spiritual world. And there are transcendent things that come into everybody's lives. So music, I think, is a transcendent thing. It speaks of another world. It can't take you there, because only Jesus can do that. But it speaks of another world and whatever your taste in music. You will, I think, almost certainly have heard some music that makes your soul leap outside yourself. Marriage is a transcendent thing. It's modeled on Christ and his church. And we know there are all different shapes and sizes of marriages and some more happy than others. But the thing of marriage is something that's come from outside this world. It's not just a biological thing.

[18:19] It's a spiritual thing. And poetry and dance and all these things. Football, which is a glorious game, isn't it? I'm not a huge fan of football. But do they call it the beautiful game? Because there is something beautiful about the right kick at the right time and the way the ball goes. Wow, fantastic.

[18:41] These things come from outside the world and show us that it's not just biology, physics and chemistry and economics. We live in a world with more than that. Grace and favor is shown. Cookery. I should have mentioned cookery, shouldn't I? Grace and favor is shown to the wicked. Art. But people still do evil.

[19:05] Even in a land of uprightness they go on doing evil and regard not the majesty of the Lord. That's what this verse of the song says. I think Brighton is a superb example of that. We have a sad example. We have, I don't know the statistics, other people tell me the statistics of this. We're about the second lowest church attendance in the whole of the UK or the highest number of people who declare themselves to be not Christians in any shape or form. Something like that. But here in Brighton we've got so many ways in which God shows his grace to us. We've got the beach.

[19:51] Beach is a nice place, isn't it? Yeah. We've got the downs, which are so beautiful. We've got the creative things in this world. So Katya was just exhibiting her stuff at an art thing, which I've yet to see, but we've got loads of that here. We've got art, creativity, all of these things which have come from God and yet despite the grace that is shown, they do not learn righteousness.

[20:21] And that's a, we've got things to be thankful for, but also to be sorry for. Oh, how much we long that our city, which has been given so much favor from God, should be thankful to God and that people should honor him, which they just don't do by and large. Number four, life from death. Do you know, let me just see whether I've got this right. Yeah. Okay. I think I've got two mixed up here. Let's see. Verse 12.

[21:01] All that we have done is from him. Verse 12. Lord, you have established peace for us. All that we have accomplished, you have done for us. Oh Lord, our God, other lords beside you have ruled over us, but your name alone do we honor. They are now dead. They live no more. The departed spirits do not rise.

[21:28] You punished them and brought them to ruin and wiped out all memory of them, but you have enlarged the nation. Oh Lord, you have enlarged the nation. You have gained glory for yourself. You have extended the borders of the land. All that you have done is what you have done for us.

[21:49] All, look, verse 12, all that we have accomplished, you have done for us. All that we have accomplished, you have done for us. That's the humble statement of dependence on God and thanks to him. And we haven't always known that, says Israel. We haven't always been in that place. Oh Lord, our God, other lords besides you have ruled over us. We've served other gods. We've been under the reign of other kings.

[22:23] And that brought us into really death. And those gods and those lords are now dead, verse 14, and they rise no more. The departed spirits do not rise. And you know, that was how we were, verse 16. Lord, they came to you in their distress. When you dismayed, they could barely whisper a prayer. Because that's where we were at. We could hardly whisper a prayer. We had no strength in ourselves. I don't know whether the Lord has ever brought you to that position that you realize that you have no strength in yourself. That everything that's achieved is achieved through him.

[23:15] That's the right place to be at. That's the place that Jesus was at when he said the Son can do nothing apart from the Father. The total dependence of Jesus upon his Father. And that's the place where we need to be. Francis Schaeffer said, moment by moment, dependence on Jesus Christ. And that's the place that we need to be. They came to you in their distress. When you disciplined them, they could barely whisper a prayer. As a woman with child and about to give birth rise and cries out in her pain, so were we in your presence, O Lord. We were with child. We writhed in pain, but we gave birth to wind. We have not brought salvation to the earth. We have not given birth to the people of the world. And we found, he says as he sings this song, it was not possible for us to produce new life. We couldn't do it. It was not possible for us to produce salvation in the world. It was not possible for us to produce world revival, which is what Israel was there for, actually, to conquer the world, to be a witness to the world. So we couldn't do it. We really couldn't do it. We were, it was futile. But with you, says the Son, singer, all things are possible. But, he says in verse 19, your dead will live. Their bodies will rise. You who dwell in the dust, wake up and shout for joy. Your dew is like the dew of the morning.

[25:12] The earth will give birth to her dead. And he uses, I think, three different ways of putting it. He talks about resurrection. He talks about waking from sleep. And he talks about plants springing up when they get water on them. But he says, you were dead. You couldn't do anything. But God will be at work. And he will raise the dead and wake the sleeping and pour water on the thirsty ground. And where you were sort of in a grave, as it were, whoop up, God's people will come. And he says, you will wake up and shout for joy. Hmm. What's he thinking of? Well, he's probably thinking of the nation. He would certainly be thinking of the deadness and futility of the nation and looking for the nation to rise up again, like Ezekiel was when he said, can these bones live? Or the Lord said, can these bones live?

[26:15] And Ezekiel said, you alone, you alone, Lord, know. And the dry bones came up and became an army. Perhaps he's thinking of that sort of thing. But it seems to be even more strong than just a picture language to say that resurrection will come. That death will no longer be the shroud that covers the nations. And he looks for a universal resurrection. The earth will give birth to her dead. So a resurrection for God's people. And maybe he's also getting a resurrection for judgment.

[26:52] And we think, where does that all come to, come from? And as he wrote this, Isaiah was probably longing to know. This is what the Lord showed me, and I'm writing it down. But I really would love to know, how can that happen? And of course, we know because we can look backwards, can't we?

[27:14] And we can see when resurrection entered history, when sinlessness and deathlessness entered this human course of events, when Jesus rose from the dead.

[27:31] So, the dead will live. We have an amen for that, don't we? Yes, amen.

[27:46] Let's move on to the next verse that's sung. In that day, chapter 27, the Lord will punish with his sword, the great and powerful sword, Leviathan the gliding serpent, Leviathan the coiling serpent. He will slay the monster of the sea. And the commentators say, well, where does he get this from? Is this a sort of commonly held myth about Leviathan? What's he referring to? And I don't really know, except to say that the idea of the serpent as the enemy, or the snake, or the dragon, is there in the Bible right from the beginning, and it's there in the Bible right at the end.

[28:33] There's a fundamental assumption, no matter what literary clues the writer was using from his own culture, but there's a fundamental spiritual assumption that this world is a battle between the serpent and God. It's there in Genesis chapter 3 that in the garden was the snake tempting Eve.

[29:02] Do you remember this? Now, the snake, the serpent, was more shrewd than any of the animals that the Lord had made. And the serpent tempted Eve, and the serpent was cursed by God. And we have that battle beginning. It doesn't always show on the surface of things. The Bible doesn't specifically refer to the adversary, the Satan, all the time, but he's always at work there. In Revelation chapter 20, right at the end of things, the snake, the dragon, the serpent is thrown into the lake of fire. And here we are singing about this in Isaiah chapter 27. In the meantime, incidentally, Christians are meant to be ready to do combat with the snake. We are fighting against Satan's evil darts, evil arrows, and we put on spiritual armor, because without it, we're totally weak and squashy and vulnerable and easily defeated. But with the armor, we can stand up against him. And the armor is just the simple things of the Christian life, reading the Bible.

[30:22] praying, walking obediently, trusting the Lord, getting on with the gospel. These are the things that the spirit of the spiritual armor. Anyway, this section simply says, he's going to be slain.

[30:40] He's going to be slain. In that day, all Satan's activities will be squashed. And the enemy that we have battled with consciously or unconsciously, every moment of our Christian walk will be squashed. Amen.

[31:06] Right at the beginning of his ministry, I think it was in the synagogue at Capernaum, somebody stood up and shouted out under the influence of the demon, Jesus of Nazareth, I know who you are, the Holy One of God. Have you come to destroy us? Of course, the answer is yes.

[31:29] He is the serpent crusher, the dragon slayer. And that's another opportunity to say three cheers for Jesus. Isn't it? Amen. Let's go to the next verse. And you notice that he is actually bringing in different themes from all sorts of places in this song.

[31:49] And in chapter 27, verse 2, he says, let's sing about a fruitful vineyard. Sing about a fruitful vineyard. I, the Lord, watch over it. I water it continually. I guard it day and night so that no one may harm it.

[32:06] If I am not angry, if only there were briars and thorns confronting me, I would march against them in battle. I would set them all on fire. Or let them come to me for refuge. Let them make peace with me.

[32:19] Yeah, let them make peace with me. In days to come, Jacob will take root. Israel will bud and blossom and fill all the world with fruit.

[32:31] So this is about fruit. And you may remember that there was, earlier on in Isaiah chapter 5, a lack of fruit. He looked for a crop of good grapes, but it yielded only bad fruit.

[32:47] You remember Jesus in exactly the same way coming into Jerusalem and he sort of acts it out with the, it's the fig tree, isn't it? Outside Jerusalem and looks for fruit, very obviously looking for fruit and finding none and cursing that fig tree.

[33:03] And here, God says, I will have fruit. In the days to come, in the new covenant, in the new day, there will be a fruitful vineyard.

[33:26] And the Lord is the farmer. I, the Lord, watch over it and water it continually. I guard it day and night. As Jesus said, my father is the farmer. He said that. And he defends his vineyard against briars and thorns.

[33:41] I sort of wonder whether briars and thorns is a, is a sort of code for enemy invaders. I put that as a, as a possible thought in my head to check out.

[33:53] But he says, if, if only there were, I would really smash them. I'd really, because I'm so keen on my garden, on my vineyard. I want to defend it with great earnestness and passion.

[34:07] And if there aren't any, if there aren't any invaders, I'm still keen on my vineyard. Let them come to me and take refuge, he says. Let them make peace with me. In days to come, Jacob will take root.

[34:20] Israel will bud and blossom and fill all the world with fruit. That's what we're going to be singing about in the days to come. And there's going to be fruit. And you remember Jesus giving us the clue to this.

[34:34] No, not the clue, the key. Where he said, yeah, fruit. I am the true vine. My father is the gardener.

[34:46] You are the branches. If you abide in me, you will bear much fruit. And you could imagine the Orthodox Jewish people saying, no, no, no, we don't have to abide in you.

[34:57] We just had to get our birth certificates, which say that we're Orthodox Jews, fully paid up. That makes us fruitful. And Jesus says, no, it doesn't actually. The thing that makes you fruitful is abiding in me.

[35:11] And the me is the Jesus who did the things he did and said the things he said. If anyone is ashamed of me and my words, the Son of Man will be ashamed of him.

[35:21] And so, yeah, we sing a fruit. It's fruit through Jesus. And interestingly, at the beginning of Colossians, Paul says about his gospel ministries.

[35:35] All over the world, the gospel is bearing fruit. Which is exactly what this song says, isn't it? He will fill all the world with fruit.

[35:46] And we can sing that as Paul could sing it as we see it happening. Question? Are you a fruitful Christian?

[35:57] Are you abiding in Jesus? Obeying his commands? Trusting his word? Sticking with him? Not being a stranger to him?

[36:10] In that day, sing about a fruitful vineyard. Number seven. Through judgment to righteousness.

[36:26] We've now got to verse seven of chapter 27. Has the Lord struck her as he struck down those who struck her?

[36:36] Has she been killed as those were killed who killed her? By warfare and exile you contend with her? With his fierce blast he drives her out. As on a day the east wind blows.

[36:50] By this will Jacob's guilt be atoned for. And this will be the full fruitage of the removal of his sin. Well this is about judgment.

[37:02] And it's talking about God and the city of the world. The fortified city. The strong city. And his own city. And he.

[37:14] Both of these cities experience destruction. Both of these cities come under judgment. And the question is, is it the same? Does God treat his people and the unbelieving hostile nations just the same?

[37:30] Because they both get judged. And the answer is, it's not quite the same. But they do both get judged. There's a sort of fire of judgment. And it certainly affects the strong city.

[37:44] Verse 10. The fortified city. Which I take to be the enemy city. The fortified city stands desolate. An abandoned settlement. Forgotten like the desert.

[37:55] There the calves graze. There they lie down. They strip its branches bare. When its twigs are dry they're broken off. Women come and make fires with them. For this is a people without understanding.

[38:07] So their maker has no compassion on them. And their creator shows them no favor. So there is a city that receives no favor. There are people without understanding.

[38:19] Who receive no compassion from their maker. And I'm connecting that with the wicked that we talked about before. The people of the world do not learn righteousness.

[38:32] But for Jacob it's different. Verse 9. By this then will Jacob's guilt be atoned for. And this will be the full fruitage of the removal of his sin.

[38:45] When he makes all the altar stones like chalk pieces crushed to pieces. No asherah poles or incense altars will be left standing. I think this is Jacob's city.

[38:57] With the idols removed. And sin purged away. Now how does that work? Because it doesn't involve. An absence of judgment.

[39:11] When God sees sin. There is no way that he just says. Oh well that doesn't matter. There's a sense in which God is impartial.

[39:22] In that sense. If it's sin. It's sin. It needs to be punished. No matter who's been doing it. It needs to be punished. So there is no root for the people of God.

[39:35] Which goes from their sin to their salvation without judgment. There's no root which just bypasses judgment. And for the people of God. They're not swallowed up by judgment.

[39:48] So they don't enter judgment in such a way. That they never come out of it again. Not for the people of God. But for the people of God. There's a root through judgment.

[40:01] There is judgment. And they come out the other side. As it says here. With guilt atoned for. With the removal of sin.

[40:14] That's what it says in verse 9. And that's a bit of a mystery. A little bit of a conundrum. That is all the way through Isaiah. And you wonder how is that going to happen? I'm sure Isaiah would have wondered.

[40:26] How does this purging operate? And it's another thing in which we can see this so much more clearly. Looking backwards. How can there be judgment on the people of God.

[40:39] Which does not just swallow them up. And leave them as ashes. That's all that remains after this fire. And of course the answer is.

[40:50] Well the answer is Jesus. He is. The representative of the people of God. He's the one. Who is the people of God.

[41:02] If you like. And when he died on the cross. This is exactly what he was doing. He was taking all that judgment. That the sin of his people deserved.

[41:14] And funneling it onto himself. So there's no question that the sin is not paid for. There's no question that sin is just overlooked. But there is a.

[41:28] Now what should we say. There's a sort of substitution. There's that he takes that. That we ought to be paying for. And he pays for it. So that the judgment doesn't fall on us.

[41:41] It's a substitutionary atonement. He bears the wrath. So that we don't have to. And I'm sure if Isaiah was here this morning.

[41:54] He would say. Wow. That's brilliant. Every time I wrote that. I was thinking. How can that happen? And now you've explained that. That is just so brilliant. And so wonderful.

[42:05] Are there any other bits of my book. That Jesus fulfills. And you say. Oh yeah. Wait till you get to chapter 52. 53. You'll be absolutely. Blown apart by that. Anyway. Somebody.

[42:19] Bears the sin of the people of God. So that they. Their sin is paid for. And they come out free. On the other side. By this.

[42:30] Will Jacob's guilt be atoned for. This will be the full fruitage. Of the removal of his sin. He takes away our sin. He sets us free.

[42:41] He gives us a new heart. We come out. We come out on the other side. Of judgment. As new people. In the Lord Jesus. I think so.

[42:52] Yeah. Last section. Verse 12. In that day. Last verse of the song. Another little bit. Which I think is a bit like. The little bit about the dragon. A little bit here.

[43:03] Verse 12. In that day. The Lord will thresh. Thresh is to gather in. A harvest. So if you've got things growing. And you. And cut them.

[43:14] That's threshing. I think that's what threshing is. And let's assume that's about right. On that day. The Lord will thresh. From the flowing Euphrates. To the wadi of Egypt.

[43:26] And you. O Israelites. Will be gathered up. One by one. And in that day. A great trumpet will sound. Those who are perishing. In Assyria. Those who are exiled.

[43:38] In Egypt. Will come. And worship the Lord. On the holy mountain. In Jerusalem. He expresses it. In the language of. Specific historic places.

[43:48] So Assyria. The great. Place of captivity. On Egypt. The great place of captivity. Of God's people. And he says. God will go. Right across the whole.

[44:00] Field as it were. And thresh. And cut. And bring in. His harvest. Christ. And he says. There's going to be. So it's a. Sort of. Cutting. Harvesting thing.

[44:11] And in verse 13. He talks about. A trumpet call. On that day. A great. Trumpet. Will sound. Great.

[44:23] Trumpet call. I'm not going to do it. Any louder than that. A great. Trumpet call. Will sound. And people. In Assyria. Will say. What's that? Do. Do. Ah.

[44:34] That's the call. Off we go. People in Egypt. Will be sitting. Having their breakfast. What are we going to do today? Might go and have a coffee. Boop. Boop. Boop. Boop. Boop.

[44:44] Boop. Boop. Boop. Boop. That's us. Time to go. Off we go. And they go off to. To the mountain of God. In Jerusalem. God's called us. To be his worshippers.

[44:56] To worship on his holy mountain. And off we go. And Assyria would have said. I know this is a picture language. Because I know that. Even as I write it.

[45:07] I wonder what it will look like in real life. And we have the. We see it in real life. Don't we? That across the world. People preach the gospel. And it's like that.

[45:18] And people are going to Christianity Explored. And people are going to church here. And church there. And meeting somebody on the street corner there. They hear it. That's God calling me.

[45:30] To leave whatever I was going to do. And follow him. And to become. As Isaiah says. A worshipper. On the holy mountain. Of.

[45:42] On the holy mountain in Jerusalem. There's the holy mountain. There are the people that have been. Streaming towards it. Since chapter two. And I like this expression. It says in verse 12.

[45:53] We'll be gathered up. One by one. Gathered up. One by one. So there's a special trumpet call. That went out to you.

[46:04] Boop. Boop. Boop. Boop. Boop. Daniel. There's a special trumpet call. Boop. Boop. Boop. Boop. Boop. Boop. To Roger. And to you. If you're a Christian. That God called you.

[46:16] And you left what you were doing. Metaphorically speaking. And you. Made your way. To the mountain of the Lord. The holy mountain in Jerusalem. And you've become.

[46:27] A holy worshipper of God. Come and worship the Lord. On the holy mountain. In Jerusalem. And we've just gone quickly through.

[46:39] Those two chapters of this. Song. Which I think is. It just has so much in it. Doesn't it? Of the Christian life. All the different dimensions of it. And I just want to.

[46:50] Ask you. Are you a singer of that song? And I don't really mind. What. Whether you do it. In this lovely Latin beat. Or you do it in a straight for.

[47:02] Isaac Watts song. Or. Whether you do it with. Masses of guitars. That's almost deafening. That's not the point. The point is. Can you sing the song? And I want to invite you.

[47:15] To be marching to Zion. Singing that song. Don't forget what you've heard. Sing that song. Let's sing that song every day. As it were. Are you singing this song?

[47:26] Or if you. If you're not. Because you might say. I'd love to be able to sing that song. But my heart isn't in it. My life isn't like it. There's something.

[47:37] That won't let me. Then. What I say to you. Is you need to do some real business with Jesus. Person to person. And you need to talk to him.

[47:48] Lord Jesus. You have the key to that song. You can make me a singer of that song. You can break the chains that set me free. You can call the trumpet call that brings me to you.

[48:00] You can. You're the one who takes away my sin. You can do that. Please do that for me. As you have done it for all these other people. That's the prayer to pray. And we are going to sing a song.

[48:13] One one five. Well this isn't actually in the book. One one five. It's on the screen. There is a higher throne. Than all this world has known. Where faithful ones from every tongue. Will one day come.

[48:23]  So we will stand and sing this.