Father in heaven, we thank you for your word. We thank you as we take a look at this prophecy
that you gave Isaiah centuries and centuries before the birth of your son, that promised
that one day in the latter days you would right all wrongs and that it would be through
your son. Lord, we thank you that we have this wonderful truth that's been preserved
for us, but more than that, that it came to pass which proclaims to this world that you are good
and you are God and you are almighty and that everything is under your sovereign rule and
that's a good thing. So Lord, as we come to your word this morning, we pray that you would bless us,
help us to have ears to hear and minds to understand, and most importantly, Lord, that we
would submit ourselves to your word by your help and live according to it. And we pray this in Jesus'
name. Amen. Some of you, if you've been to New York City, I mean, there's a lot to see. Obviously,
it's an absolutely gigantic city, but if you've gone to the United Nations or the United Nations
Plaza, you might have seen this staircase that goes down into the plaza and on this wall that's
right beside, butted up right against the staircase, it has a portion of our text just emblazoned on
the wall. It says this, they shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks.
Nations shall not lift sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore. So I don't know if
this is the official title, but it's known as the Isaiah Wall. It's a beautiful message. It's a message of
hope and presents this ultimate goal that world leaders ought to aspire to, that war would not
mark this world any longer, that nations would be at peace. However, the Isaiah Wall has a problem,
and the problem is that it does not quote verse 4 in its fullness. Verse 4 in its fullness reads like
this, he shall judge between the nations and shall decide disputes for many peoples, and they shall
beat their swords into plowshares, their spears into pruning hooks. Nations shall not lift up sword
against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore. No mention of God on the Isaiah Wall. Maybe it's
implied, whoever was the architect of it, maybe it was implied. I don't fully know the backstory,
but as it stands today on the Isaiah Wall, it's a portion of Isaiah 2 verse 4 and not the full thing.
No mention of the Messiah, only that one day in some way war will end, everlasting peace would prevail,
and yet not a generation later the Korean War happened. And after that the war in Vietnam as kind of
like the big wars, not to mention the dozens or so of skirmishes in civil wars and conflicts that have
existed unbroken until the present. Friends, swords are still swords. Spears are still spears. Peace
is not, it continues to elude us, it does not exist. So as we begin Advent, we're going to spend our time
in Advent over these four weeks in Isaiah looking at various prophecies. And as we begin Advent,
this time of preparation and anticipation for the birth of Christ, for the revelation of Christ,
we will see why the Son of God came to earth and why he clothed himself in humanity.
And we'll see that only he can bring about this fruition, this only he can bring to pass verse 4 of
chapter 2 of Isaiah's prophecy, because only he has the authority to judge, only he has the authority
to arbitrate between multiple nations and the peoples of the earth. Only through him can we approach
this mountain of the Lord, and we'll see that shortly, and participate in this glorious plan of
redemption. It is only through the Prince of Peace that we will know peace. So as we go through
Advent, we'll keep this thing in our minds that it's only through Christ will all of our hopes and
longings, both individually and collectively, all of our hopes and longings, will they be satisfied in
him? So we're going to look at Isaiah chapter 2. Well, it's only five verses, so we're going to
somewhat slowly go through it. So if you have a Bible, please turn with me to Isaiah chapter 2.
I've broken up the text, there's five verses, I've broken the text into four points, and it goes like
this, that Jesus, the Prince of Peace, can bring about peace, because in him we see the presence of
the Lord. Verses 2, in him we see the mission of the Lord. In him we see this and receive this call
of the Lord, that we actually get to participate in this mission, and finally we will see that he is
the Prince of Peace, because he is the Lord of all. So look with me verses 2, actually just verse 2,
and we'll look how Jesus is the culmination or the embodiment of the presence of the Lord,
and why this brings us peace. I'll read verse 2 for us again. It says this,
It shall come to pass in the latter days, that the mountain of the house of the Lord shall be
established as the highest of the mountains, and shall be lifted up above the hills, and all the
nations shall flow to it. This verse opens with this term, this reference called the latter days.
You'll see variations of this throughout Isaiah's prophecy. Sometimes you'll talk about in those days,
or in the latter days, and this is a very comprehensive term. It's not just talking about
some future day that's kind of, it's in the future but doesn't really have a date. Rather,
it's a biblical expression for the future, specifically the time when the Messiah will come.
In Isaiah's day, the Messiah, this figure, especially if you get into the servant psalm,
songs later on in Isaiah chapter 40, there's this understanding of the Messiah being a Savior, but
for Isaiah's time, this idea of the Messiah as we know him today in the person and work of Jesus Christ,
there's just shadows, there's whispers, there's allusions to him. But Isaiah is saying that
there will be a day when this Savior will come, and this is what he will do.
So this is what he's talking about, these latter days. This time marks, in the biblical sense,
the righting of all wrongs, the redemption of all that is broken. It's the beginning of the fullness
of time. It's the beginning of the end of the ages, and this inauguration of the good and everlasting
kingdom of God. So, like I mentioned, the New Testament understands this as the time when Jesus
will come. This would be the Advent season, the anticipation that we are in the latter days,
the beginning of the end of the age, the beginning of when the Messiah will come.
Jesus will live, he'll die and rise again, defeating death. It is a beautiful picture and promise from
God. But I also want to draw your attention to a second reference that might be familiar if you've
gone to church for a while, but can also be a bit confusing as well. There's this reference on the
second line here, at least in my Bible, it's on the second line, and it says this. We'll read the first
part, it shall come to pass in the latter days that the mountain of the house of the Lord shall be
established as the highest of the mountains. And I'll pause there. This is certainly is a reference
to the temple in Jerusalem. If you've been to Jerusalem, the temple does not exist. There's just
the western wall. The temple would have been absolutely huge. It would have been a sight to see.
This is surely a reference to the temple. But what's interesting here is that the temple in
Jerusalem that is referenced here isn't called the temple. It's called the mountain of the house of
the Lord. It's not to say that the temple is now referred to as the house of the Lord. There's a lot
of overlap, but Isaiah's prophecy specifically uses this term, the house of the Lord, to signify the
very presence of God amongst his people in these latter days in this messianic age. Why? A house is
where somebody resides. And here we have a reference to the house of the Lord, meaning that there will be
a time where God will once again be with his people. He will reside with them. His presence will be among
them. Sin and the things that have come into the world because of sin have separated us from the
presence of the Lord. On one hand, God is everywhere. There's no place where he is not. But in terms of
a relational presence, because of sin, because of death, we are separated from this presence, this
relational connection to God. This is saying that one day in these latter days, that will all be
reversed. Redemption will happen. And the key bit to redemption, this beautiful salvation that this
Messiah will bring, this cosmic victory, is a promise that God will dwell with his people once again.
There's also a reference to this mountain. And all of a sudden, we start to see a bit of a picture
being painted here. Mountains are these high places, obviously. But in the ancient world, the mountain or
the high place would be where the transcendent would meet the temporal. The place where we would go to get
as close to the divine or to the divines as we could. Think about Mount Olympus, where the pantheon
of gods live. It's a mountain up there. You traverse, you get as close to Mount Olympus as possible. You
think about in the narratives of the Old Testament, where Israel would sacrifice to the false gods,
the Baals and the Asheroths would be on a high place. It's a symbol of religious might and
religious power. Now, Jerusalem isn't anything to write home about in terms of its height. It's about
2,500 vertical feet or so. It is not very high. Nevertheless, this mountain, this place where
the house of God would be, it would be grander and bigger than any other mountain on earth, which is to say
that the faith, the religion of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God who created everything, Father, Son, and Holy
Spirit, he would be above all gods. That all faiths would not compare to him. That his mountain, his house,
would be the pinnacle of what it meant to worship anything. For he is the only one. He is the most
powerful. He is the Almighty. It is no wonder then that the nations would flow to it, which is somewhat
bizarre language. I'm not a physics major. I'm not sure if you knew that. I know enough to know that gravity,
it doesn't work in reverse, right? Things flow down. They don't flow up. So we start to see a bit of a
bizarre picture of what this end of the age would look like. That there would be this mountain
where God would dwell, and it would have this magnetic pull, and not just to the people of
Israel, the ethnic descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, but that all nations would be drawn
towards the presence of the one true God. That from it, it will also say that peace would flow down.
So we have this picture of this mighty mountain where the temple, where the presence of God is,
where the house of God is. People are flowing up. Peace and his word and his truth and his ways are
flowing down. And all of it conveys to us that God's great desire for humanity, for men and women,
for families, for all nations, for you and I this morning, is that he would dwell with us and we would
dwell with him. This is it. It's this wonderful picture of God's desire to reverse
all that was broken because of sin. All the chaos, all the sin, all the disorder, the evil, despair,
the rage, the conflict. All that would separate us from him, he would traverse it. And that we who
would come to him, we would know his presence and would know a true godly peace and relationship with
our creator once again. So he states this purpose from the very beginning. Upon his mountain, in his
house, the Lord will be found and you can come to him. It's a beautiful picture. It also is covenantal
language. An agreement, a covenant is more than just an agreement between two parties. It is
a relationship that people enter into. There's very specific rules and obligations, but also joys in a
covenant. Marriage is a covenant. Adoption is a covenant. Here we have covenantal language used so
that those that would come to the Lord would enter into this relationship with him. Here's the thing,
though. This covenant that God has promised is an agreement made by him to us, an agreement that we
can't somehow make on our own, but that he has initiated. And therefore, he will promise us in this
covenant that if we are in him, we cannot fall out of him, that we are with him to the end.
The reality is we have no business being in the presence of the Lord, but because it is his will for
this to happen, it's because he has initiated the covenant. He makes what is impossible come to pass.
He makes rivers flow up.
He makes it possible for us to ascend.
Why is contentment so elusive for us?
For many in our city, I mean, again, I've,
the economy is that, it's like every headline,
and rightfully so. It's,
from what we've known in Canada, it is tumultuous.
But even,
even a difficult economy for us
would be some of the most affluent living
that people have ever lived in the history of mankind.
It's remarkable.
I'm not trying to downplay the economy
just to show our affluence.
And yet,
discontentment
is still very high in our culture.
We have,
it seems to be,
an insatiable desire for more.
We want more things,
more opportunities,
more progress.
We want more authority,
more prestige,
more fame,
immortality.
We want it,
and yet we cannot achieve it.
Our discontentment manifests itself
all the time,
often in unhappiness or disappointment,
but sometimes in anger and rage.
Could it be that we desire
the presence of God
without quite knowing it,
so that we try other things
in the stead of God,
instead of Him,
and we can't get it,
and it's frustrating?
We use temporal things
to achieve a transcendent joy,
and we can never achieve that end.
So we're unsatisfied.
Is that not because we were created
to know and be in the presence
of the triune God?
To know Him,
but more importantly,
to be known by Him?
It's remarkable then
that even though we have
all that we have,
we are constantly trying to create
and recreate ourselves.
Oftentimes in social media,
our identity is at the very top
of our priorities.
I'm speaking generally here,
but I'm sure it touches on all of us
to one degree or another.
But here's the wonderful thing
about the gospel of Christ
and the presence of God,
is that it becomes
our very identity
that when we know Him,
we are secure in Him forever.
And this is His mission.
This is the culmination
of all history,
that God is drawing people
to Himself.
Friends, this is the mission of God.
So how will He achieve this mission?
We'll see this in verse 3,
and this will be
the second point in verse 3.
It reads like this,
And many people shall 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 His ways,
and that we may walk in His paths.
For out of Zion shall go the law
and the word of the Lord
from Jerusalem.
Like we've seen already,
nations are being drawn to the Lord,
entering into this covenant with Him.
So that the house of Jacob,
which is ethnic Israel,
becomes expanded,
so that non-ethnic Israelites
can claim the God of the house of Jacob.
It's a beautiful, incredible picture.
This is true inclusivity here.
It does not matter, then,
where you are from.
If you ascend the mountain,
if you know the Lord,
you are a part of His people.
You can enjoy His presence.
So the mission of God
towards humanity
is a mission of expanding His presence,
and most importantly,
His love,
so that all who are distant
will be drawn near
and will have satisfaction
for all eternity.
And I'll say this.
This is not just the mission of God,
but this is who God is Himself.
1 John chapter 4
speaks of God being love.
It says,
God is love.
It's a wonderful passage,
chapter 4 of 1 John.
And this is precisely right,
not because it's in the Scripture,
but because we have a triune God,
a Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
So St. Augustine,
from the 4th century,
he wrote a treatise on the Trinity.
High-level thinking,
high-level theology,
but he has this
absolutely remarkable
line of talking about
why God is love
and how He can be loved
and how only in the Trinity,
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit,
can God be called
a God of love
and love itself.
This is what it says.
The Father is not the Son,
nor the Son the Father,
and the Holy Spirit
is neither the Father
nor the Son.
Here it is.
But the Trinity is one,
the Father who loves,
the Son who is love,
and love itself,
the Holy Spirit.
The Father who loves,
the Son who is loved,
and love itself,
the Holy Spirit,
so that in the Trinity,
because God has always existed,
there was never a time
when He did not exist,
the Father loves the Son,
the Son is loved by the Father,
and the Holy Spirit
is love itself.
That love is constantly
and integral
to the person
of the Godhead.
Three persons,
one God.
And here's the mission of God.
To invite us into
this love.
To extend the love to us
so that we would know
the Father's love
through the Son.
That the Son gives us
the Holy Spirit
to love,
not perfectly,
but to grow in our love
and to also know
the love of the Father.
And all of a sudden,
without becoming a part of God,
God is God,
we are not,
we get to participate
in the love of God.
And this is what He invites us into.
This is the mission of God.
So you see,
love is always
an expanding force.
It never contracts.
It always expands.
It always looks to invite
and go forth
and to find the lost
and to remedy brokenness
and to fix
the outworking of sin
so that people can
know what it is
to have the presence of God,
which is the presence of love.
This is the mission of God.
To seek and save the lost.
How wonderful is this mission?
It is not an invitation
to submit to a wrathful God
so that we can get crushed
and that we can become slaves to Him
and live a life of black and white.
But rather,
there is a God who is holy
who pays the penalty
for our sins
so that we can know His love
and live in 4K technicolor.
That we can enjoy
all the beauty of life
in its fullness.
And a part of this mission,
interestingly,
and this will lead us
to our third point,
is to include us
in this mission.
That we get to participate in it.
So,
you'll notice that
the nations
flow to God
but also,
in verse 3,
that there is
that for out of Zion,
the last part of verse 3,
for out of Zion
shall go the law
and the word of the Lord
from Jerusalem.
So,
the people come in
but also the law
and the word go out.
And this,
surely,
is a reference,
of course,
to the Spirit of God at work
but,
the call of God
to His people
to proclaim the goodness
and invite people
to know the one true God.
So,
this is the third point,
the call of the Lord
on our lives
so that we can too
participate in this mission.
We'll look at two verses here.
The first and the last,
verses 1 and 5.
And I'll read it now.
The word that the,
sorry,
the word that Isaiah,
the son of Amoz,
saw concerning Judah
and Jerusalem.
And then verse 5.
O house of Jacob,
come let us walk
in the light of the Lord.
So,
I mean,
it seems like a prescript,
verse 1.
It just says the word
just introduces this,
this prophecy
that's going to come from Isaiah.
But here's the thing,
if you notice.
It says,
the word that Isaiah,
the son of Amoz,
saw concerning Judah
and Jerusalem.
Judah and Jerusalem
represent the people of God,
the Israelites,
the ancient Israelites.
So this is the word for them.
And yet,
in the entire prophecy,
it's about the nations
coming to the God
of Abraham,
Isaac,
and Jacob.
That the message
for the people of God
is to expand the people of God
and to proclaim
the gospel message
so that the nations
could also be welcomed in.
verse 5 as well.
O house of Jacob,
come,
let us walk
in the light of the Lord.
That is a beautiful picture
of this outworking
of lives
transformed
by the one true God
to mimic him,
to imitate him.
And how do we imitate him?
In the same way
that we saw
in the previous section,
by seeking
and saving
those that are far away.
expanding love,
telling of the gospel
of Christ,
inviting people
to the mountain,
into the presence
of the Lord,
saying to people,
listen,
there is a better way.
There is a better way.
The rat race
does not have to go on
indefinitely.
The things that you find
that you look to hope,
that you look to for hope
that fail to produce
what you hope for,
you don't have to continue
looking for them.
We found the solution
and his name is Christ.
And this is the call
of the Lord
upon our lives,
to know him
and to make him known.
So as we grow
in our obedience
and trust,
in our holiness
and godliness,
those very things
will come to mark us.
And friends,
we,
and I've mentioned this
and I'll continue
to mention this,
there is a vacuum
of meaning
and purpose
in our society.
And I think
as we seek
by God's help
to live out
this life
where we have
a purpose
and an identity
that is not rooted
in the here and now
but in the eternal God
that is unchanging,
it will be
like a magnetic reaction
so that people
will be drawn to us
but also people
will be also repelled
for those that are called
but those that want
to deny.
So as we walk
in the light,
we learn to walk
in the Lord's favor
and in his presence
and care
and in his truth
and his revealed word
and it cannot
not be noticed.
It's a wonderful
picture of the redeemed,
the reality
of the culture
of heaven
being established
here on earth,
the latter days
coming to pass
that justice
will be promoted,
that mercy
will be promoted
and that the gospel
of grace
will be proclaimed.
And all of this
then leads us
to verse 4,
what true peace
looks like
and how it is
only through Christ
that the peace
that is proclaimed
on the Isaiah wall
at the UN Plaza
can really come to pass.
I'll read verse 4
one last time.
He shall judge
between the nations
and shall decide
disputes for many peoples
and they shall beat
their swords
into plowshares
and their spears
into pruning hooks.
Nations shall not
lift up sword
against nation
neither shall they
learn war anymore.
Learn war anymore.
The only way
that there can be
a true abolition
of war
is when all forms
of division
within the human race
will be eliminated.
This does not mean
that there will
be the elimination
of differences
but that
that there will be
no more division
within the human race.
The promise
isn't that
through Christ
humanity
will morph
into some
indistinguishable
ethnicity,
culture,
or even tongue
but only that
the divisions
that are brought about
by disordered
allegiances
are eliminated.
What do I mean
by that?
Here it is.
all forms
of nationalism
or culture
political ideology
all of the
things that are
unique to
different cultures
or peoples
or subcultures
or subgroups
that supersede
supersede
the supremacy
of the one true God
over all
of heaven
and earth
and the Lord
Jesus Christ
will inevitably
lead to differences
that cause
divisions,
distress,
conflict,
and war.
Differences
are threats.
They're not things
to be celebrated.
They must be treated
therefore accordingly.
If my
ultimate identity
is rooted
in my political
ideology
or in
my nationalism
and somebody
threatens that
I have to
eliminate the threat
or else
that's the end
of me.
It's not to say
that having
pride of your
country
or having
strong
political
convictions
or being
proud of
your heritage
cultural
ethnic
the language
that you speak
that's somehow
a bad thing.
Not at all.
It's a beautiful thing.
Differences
are beautiful
but they become
ugly
when they are
disordered.
When they are
not put in
their proper place.
When they are
elevated to supreme
where only God
is to be
supreme.
Friends,
in the
shadow of
two devastating
world wars
it makes sense
that the United
Nations
have these
grand
aspirations
to see
verse 4
come to pass.
And it's
and really
there's
I think it's a
good thing
in a sense
or at least
an understandable
thing
that our
Prime Minister
and many of
the Western
world leaders
have embraced
a type of
post-national
view.
I mean
nationalism
again I'm
speaking in
general terms
was a very
cause of two
horrendous
world wars
and it seems
like the
elimination of
nationalism
would be the
way forward
to everlasting
peace.
A globalist
ideology seems
admirable
however
any such
vision that is
unrooted by
recognizing that
only Christ
is the judge
and arbiter
will inevitably
collapse
into itself.
It lacks
the divine
authority
and power
to achieve
its lofty
goals.
To remove
the first
part of
verse 4
that speaks
of God
himself being
the judge
between the
nations
the arbiters
between peoples
to remove
that from
the rest of
the section
is to
kneecap
and cut
out the
legs
from any
hope of
peace.
The solution
isn't to get
rid of
nations
but is to
worship God
as the one
true supreme
God
and that
we recognize
that in
his son
the Lord
Jesus Christ
he has made
a way for
us to know
his presence.
It doesn't
mean peace
is going to
come immediately
but peace
starts to
work its
way out.
only in
Christ can
such differences
be properly
ordered.
And then
once they're
properly ordered
they can be
celebrated.
No longer
is somebody
else's
nationality
or ethnicity
or language
or way
that they've
gone about
life
no longer
is it a
threat.
With the
caveat that
there are
some
political
ideologies
that are
threatening
no matter
what.
But
generally
speaking
people
that are
different
no longer
become a
threat
they become
something
to
celebrate
in their
fullness.
The other
ceases to be
a threat
to our
personhood
because
our
ultimate
identity
cannot be
robbed from
us.
It can't
even be
robbed by
death.
So you
see if you
take Christ
out of the
equation
this utopian
vision
will be
hijacked
turn into
a dystopian
hellscape.
It will
have the
opposite
effect.
So it
is not a
hopeful thing
to quote
Isaiah
chapter 2
verse 4
partially.
It's
actually
leaving out
the very
power
and hope
of peace
that is
proclaimed in
the scripture.
So I'll
close with
this.
the vision
of verse
4 is not
just that
the practice
and mentality
and the
means of
war will
come to
an end
although that
is a huge
part of it
but there's
more to it
because here
it says
swords will
become
plowshares
and spears
will become
pruning hooks
which is to
say that it's
not just the
elimination of
war but
the
that there'll
be a return
so to speak
to the
garden joys
of Eden
where Christ
will be
among his
people and
that we will
see things
grow and
flourish and
we will have
a part to
play in the
cultivating of
the new
heavens and
the new
earth.
That the
reign of
Satan will
be forever
extinguished
and that
God will
dwell among
us once
again.
The
mountain of
the house
of the
Lord is
this picture
of a return
to Eden
but it's
more than
that.
For the
possibility of
messing up
Eden once
again will
be eliminated.
We will
know the
Lord and
he will
in us
make it
so that
we will
be like
him unable
to sin
in the
new heavens
and the
new earth.
The
mountain of
the house
of the
Lord that
God is
calling all
the nations
toward is
the very
presence of
God among
us.
It is
Jesus Christ
himself.
He is
God with
us.
He is
God present
among us.
He is the
place where
true worship
happens.
He is the
place of
everlasting
peace.
He's the one
who judges
with equity
and truth.
He is the
supreme
authority.
So in the
words of
Isaiah,
church,
church of the
Messiah West,
let us walk
in the light
of our
Lord and
Savior Jesus
Christ.
Let's pray.
Father in
heaven,
we thank you
for the
beautiful
and true
prophecy
that you
gave your
servant
Isaiah
centuries
and centuries
before the
coming of
your son.
You promised
a day
and it has
come to
pass.
Lord,
help us
to look
to you,
to trust
in you,
to see
you as
supreme
in our
lives,
to know
your goodness
towards us
that you
purpose
to redeem
us and
that in
Christ you
have.
Lord,
help us
also to
be faithful
and obedient
by your
Holy Spirit
to proclaim
this good
news to
those that
are far
off,
inviting them
up to
you so
that they
through your
son would
know what
it means
to have
their
identity
and purpose
secured
forever,
never to
be robbed,
not even
by the
grave.
Lord,
thank you
for the
coming of
your son
this Advent
season.
Help us
in anticipation
of his
arrival.
Lord God,
to eagerly
search our
hearts so
that we
would be
ready,
that when
he would
come,
we would
be ready
to receive
him
worthily.
We pray
this in
Christ's
name.
Amen.
Tennessee
oney
in
ень
some
immigrants
name
ay
ips
in
the
ré
city