WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:04.520 We're starting a new series tonight on the book of Isaiah. 00:00:04.520 --> 00:00:07.759 And normally Isaiah is divided into three different parts. 00:00:07.759 --> 00:00:10.120 They call it the three books of Isaiah. 00:00:10.120 --> 00:00:13.880 The first book is chapters one to 39. 00:00:13.880 --> 00:00:17.240 And it's typically called the book of the king and all the commentaries and all the 00:00:17.240 --> 00:00:21.120 scholars we're calling it the book of the king. 00:00:21.120 --> 00:00:26.920 And in the morning we're looking at Mark, Mark one the past two weeks. 00:00:26.920 --> 00:00:32.280 And in Mark one, Mark says the beginning of the gospel, the good news of Jesus. 00:00:32.280 --> 00:00:39.719 And he says like Isaiah said, and so as soon as you open up the gospel, Mark, the first 00:00:39.719 --> 00:00:44.960 gospel to be written, the very first verse says the beginning of the good news and here's 00:00:44.960 --> 00:00:48.040 what Isaiah said about it. 00:00:48.040 --> 00:00:54.200 And Mark is saying there that Isaiah is actually the context of the story of Jesus. 00:00:54.200 --> 00:00:59.680 And so he's saying stop right here if you haven't read it yet and go back and read Isaiah 00:00:59.680 --> 00:01:03.800 and then come back again to the story of the gospel. 00:01:03.800 --> 00:01:06.359 And so we thought we would listen to Mark. 00:01:06.359 --> 00:01:09.879 And so we're in the morning we're looking at Mark and then in the evenings we're going 00:01:09.879 --> 00:01:11.920 back to Isaiah like Mark said. 00:01:11.920 --> 00:01:14.000 And here we are at Isaiah chapter one. 00:01:14.000 --> 00:01:18.439 Isaiah one is a microcosm of the whole book of Isaiah. 00:01:18.439 --> 00:01:22.240 Really everything that's going to happen in Isaiah is right here. 00:01:22.239 --> 00:01:28.319 And Isaiah, many people will say is a microcosm of the story of all of history. 00:01:28.319 --> 00:01:30.839 And so in Isaiah one, you've got everything. 00:01:30.839 --> 00:01:34.079 You really got everything, the story of all of history. 00:01:34.079 --> 00:01:35.079 It's all here. 00:01:35.079 --> 00:01:41.959 And it's all through the idea of the city and particularly the city of Zion, the concept 00:01:41.959 --> 00:01:43.959 of the city of Zion. 00:01:43.959 --> 00:01:51.000 And so we're going to see tonight the city lost, the city redeemed, the city judged and 00:01:51.000 --> 00:01:52.519 then the city redeemed. 00:01:52.519 --> 00:01:56.760 And then finally the question of can Zion be a faithful city? 00:01:56.760 --> 00:02:01.680 So the city lost, the city judged, the city redeemed and then can she be the faithful 00:02:01.680 --> 00:02:02.680 city? 00:02:02.680 --> 00:02:05.400 Okay, so first the city lost. 00:02:05.400 --> 00:02:10.520 Verse one, Isaiah one verse one, it says, the vision of Isaiah, son of Amos. 00:02:10.520 --> 00:02:14.080 We don't know very much at all about this man. 00:02:14.080 --> 00:02:19.599 But he lives near Jerusalem and he saw a vision about Judah in Jerusalem and he saw it, it 00:02:19.599 --> 00:02:24.919 says in the days of these four kings from Uzziah down to Hezekiah. 00:02:24.919 --> 00:02:33.319 Now that means that Isaiah had a vision from God at around 740 BC, 740 years before Jesus 00:02:33.319 --> 00:02:40.439 would be born and he carries on in this ministry, this prophecy all the way to about 688 BC. 00:02:40.439 --> 00:02:44.759 So it's about a 52 year ministry somewhere in that ballpark. 00:02:44.759 --> 00:02:46.079 And it says he has a vision. 00:02:46.079 --> 00:02:48.479 It means that God spoke to him. 00:02:48.479 --> 00:02:54.840 In different ways and multiple ways, God wanted Isaiah to say something to the world, particularly 00:02:54.840 --> 00:02:57.439 we're told here to Judah and to Jerusalem. 00:02:57.439 --> 00:02:59.479 What did God want Isaiah to say? 00:02:59.479 --> 00:03:05.759 Now, if you come to Isaiah, maybe you've read Isaiah or another prophet and you've come 00:03:05.759 --> 00:03:08.599 and you've said, what is Isaiah trying to say? 00:03:08.599 --> 00:03:12.319 What is God saying in this vision through Isaiah? 00:03:12.319 --> 00:03:17.959 Maybe you've had a hard time figuring it out. 00:03:17.960 --> 00:03:24.520 It's important to be honest and say that Isaiah is not an easy read and it's highly poetic 00:03:24.520 --> 00:03:27.480 as you saw in our reading just a minute ago. 00:03:27.480 --> 00:03:32.640 It's got a lot of history behind it that you really do need to make sense of what's going 00:03:32.640 --> 00:03:34.520 on. 00:03:34.520 --> 00:03:39.240 It's got a lot of ancient metaphors that are not easy to figure out. 00:03:39.240 --> 00:03:43.760 And so maybe you've come to it before and you've thought what Martin Luther thought when he 00:03:43.760 --> 00:03:44.760 read it. 00:03:44.760 --> 00:03:46.200 Do you know what Martin Luther said? 00:03:46.199 --> 00:03:52.759 He said, the prophets have a strange way of talking like people who instead of proceeding 00:03:52.759 --> 00:03:58.399 in an orderly manner, ramble off from one thing to the next so that you cannot make 00:03:58.399 --> 00:04:01.919 heads or tails of them or see what they're getting on about. 00:04:01.919 --> 00:04:04.599 So that's what Luther thought. 00:04:04.599 --> 00:04:09.919 And maybe you've read the prophets and kind of felt like that a little bit too. 00:04:09.919 --> 00:04:15.120 The reason is because for us modern readers, there is not a structure here that is obvious 00:04:15.120 --> 00:04:16.399 to us. 00:04:16.399 --> 00:04:19.959 It doesn't make sense the way it has been arranged. 00:04:19.959 --> 00:04:21.439 And it's not just a modern problem. 00:04:21.439 --> 00:04:25.720 It was a problem in the 1500s in these scholastic environments. 00:04:25.720 --> 00:04:29.319 He said, why is this not more structured? 00:04:29.319 --> 00:04:30.720 Why is it so poetic? 00:04:30.720 --> 00:04:32.600 Just say what you're trying to say. 00:04:32.600 --> 00:04:35.480 And sometimes we read the prophets and it feels a little bit like that. 00:04:35.480 --> 00:04:40.800 And so we do need a little history, a little context, and a little explanation to see what's 00:04:40.800 --> 00:04:41.800 going on. 00:04:41.800 --> 00:04:48.160 I don't want to spend a lot of time on the history so that we can get on with it tonight. 00:04:48.160 --> 00:04:53.520 So instead of going all the way back to Adam, we'll just go to Abraham. 00:04:53.520 --> 00:05:00.439 In 90 seconds from Abraham forward, what's going on that makes Isaiah Isaiah? 00:05:00.439 --> 00:05:07.080 God said to Abraham, I am going to save the lost world through your family. 00:05:07.080 --> 00:05:10.960 And he said, I'm going to do it through one family, but it's going to be about the whole 00:05:10.959 --> 00:05:12.719 world, not just your family. 00:05:12.719 --> 00:05:17.719 I'm using your family, but I'm going to save the world, the nations, everybody through 00:05:17.719 --> 00:05:19.079 you. 00:05:19.079 --> 00:05:22.479 And Abraham's family becomes Israel. 00:05:22.479 --> 00:05:24.839 And God says, I'm going to save the world through Israel. 00:05:24.839 --> 00:05:29.240 And then at the center of Israel, we learn that this is ultimately going to be found. 00:05:29.240 --> 00:05:30.240 Where is this going to happen? 00:05:30.240 --> 00:05:32.679 It's going to happen in a city. 00:05:32.679 --> 00:05:37.120 And that city we learned throughout the Old Testament is Jerusalem. 00:05:37.120 --> 00:05:40.240 God's going to save the world in the Old Testament through one place. 00:05:40.240 --> 00:05:44.639 One people, Jerusalem, all the nations are going to come there. 00:05:44.639 --> 00:05:48.920 And it's going to be a place of rest, a place of worship, a place of true Sabbath, a place 00:05:48.920 --> 00:05:52.759 where people are not hungry, a place where God lives. 00:05:52.759 --> 00:06:00.240 Everything, if Eden, if Eden was paradise lost, Jerusalem will be paradise regained. 00:06:00.240 --> 00:06:05.040 And when David steps in and God says, this is all going to happen through this man's 00:06:05.040 --> 00:06:08.079 family, King David and his sons. 00:06:08.079 --> 00:06:13.199 Even if his sons will be king of Zion, the great eternal city, when that happens, David 00:06:13.199 --> 00:06:17.000 names Jerusalem, Zion. 00:06:17.000 --> 00:06:22.639 And Zion becomes this word that means the hope of the nations, the place where everything 00:06:22.639 --> 00:06:25.000 will be fixed, where everything will be restored. 00:06:25.000 --> 00:06:29.879 Zion is very literally the mountain upon which the temple in Jerusalem sits. 00:06:29.879 --> 00:06:32.519 It's the center in Jerusalem. 00:06:32.519 --> 00:06:33.919 Is it city? 00:06:33.919 --> 00:06:36.919 Now there we did it. 00:06:36.920 --> 00:06:42.600 From Abraham all the way to Isaiah, what's happened is that the hope of the nations, 00:06:42.600 --> 00:06:49.000 Jerusalem, they've experienced 200 years of decline since David. 00:06:49.000 --> 00:06:56.480 Since David, Solomon, David's son and his sons, Solomon's sons, split the kingdom into 00:06:56.480 --> 00:06:57.480 two. 00:06:57.480 --> 00:07:02.560 So it was once a united kingdom, but Solomon's sons split it into two kingdoms and they didn't 00:07:02.560 --> 00:07:05.680 even have a referendum. 00:07:05.680 --> 00:07:12.720 And there was the kingdom of the north Israel and now the kingdom of the south Judah, Jerusalem. 00:07:12.720 --> 00:07:14.000 And here's Isaiah. 00:07:14.000 --> 00:07:17.920 He's the prophet of the south, 740 BC. 00:07:17.920 --> 00:07:21.040 Israel has lost their way in the north. 00:07:21.040 --> 00:07:22.040 What about Judah? 00:07:22.040 --> 00:07:23.040 What about Jerusalem? 00:07:23.040 --> 00:07:26.439 And that's where Isaiah's prophecy comes in here. 00:07:26.439 --> 00:07:29.920 Now Isaiah is the prophet of Judah, Jerusalem. 00:07:29.920 --> 00:07:37.000 And it's important to know that Isaiah teaches us at the very beginning what a prophet really 00:07:37.000 --> 00:07:38.000 does. 00:07:38.000 --> 00:07:42.640 A lot of times we think about prophets as future tellers, predicting future events. 00:07:42.640 --> 00:07:44.240 But that's not really the role of a prophet. 00:07:44.240 --> 00:07:47.960 The role of the prophet in the Old Testament is to be a lawyer. 00:07:47.960 --> 00:07:55.000 So prophets are covenant lawyers, they're to be really God's prosecutors to tell the 00:07:55.000 --> 00:07:58.840 people all about what God, the judge has said. 00:07:58.839 --> 00:08:00.479 And you can see that here in verse two. 00:08:00.479 --> 00:08:06.239 It says, here Isaiah is speaking on behalf of God, here, oh heavens and earth, for the 00:08:06.239 --> 00:08:07.639 Lord has spoken. 00:08:07.639 --> 00:08:11.039 And that's trial language. 00:08:11.039 --> 00:08:16.879 Here all you, every creature in heaven and on earth, you are the witnesses to this trial 00:08:16.879 --> 00:08:18.479 that's about to take place. 00:08:18.479 --> 00:08:21.839 And this comes straight out of Deuteronomy 30. 00:08:21.839 --> 00:08:23.839 Moses had done this too. 00:08:23.839 --> 00:08:29.919 Moses had said to Israel, before Israel, I call heaven and earth to witness against you. 00:08:29.919 --> 00:08:31.639 This is about to be a trial. 00:08:31.639 --> 00:08:34.679 We're starting a trial, a court case here. 00:08:34.679 --> 00:08:41.839 And so what we read were the charges, the prosecutions charges against Jerusalem, against 00:08:41.839 --> 00:08:42.839 Judah. 00:08:42.839 --> 00:08:43.839 What is that? 00:08:43.839 --> 00:08:49.720 Well, the charge, the punishment is ultimately that Jerusalem deserves judgment. 00:08:49.720 --> 00:08:51.759 That's what God is saying very clearly here. 00:08:51.759 --> 00:08:58.439 Now, the way that Isaiah says it is he uses two metaphors to explain it. 00:08:58.439 --> 00:09:00.200 And you'll probably have noticed them. 00:09:00.200 --> 00:09:03.600 One you'll have noticed very quickly, very easily. 00:09:03.600 --> 00:09:08.759 The first one, you can just look down at verses two, verses four. 00:09:08.759 --> 00:09:12.139 Middle of verse two, he says, children, I reared and brought up. 00:09:12.139 --> 00:09:16.259 Verse four, he says, children who deal corruptly. 00:09:16.259 --> 00:09:23.120 The first way that God speaks to these people is he says, you are my children. 00:09:23.120 --> 00:09:25.879 And actually, it's not the word children. 00:09:25.879 --> 00:09:29.200 You might have a little footnote in your Bible that says sons. 00:09:29.200 --> 00:09:34.960 It's very technically, it's very literally the word, sons I raised up and these sons 00:09:34.960 --> 00:09:36.319 have run away. 00:09:36.319 --> 00:09:42.039 And so what God is saying here, the first thing he wants to say is, you are my son, 00:09:42.039 --> 00:09:43.879 but you've gone prodigal. 00:09:43.879 --> 00:09:45.200 You've run away from me. 00:09:45.200 --> 00:09:46.640 You are lost, your rebels. 00:09:46.640 --> 00:09:49.600 And verse three, just what does he say about his son? 00:09:49.600 --> 00:09:57.040 He says verse three, you know, the donkey knows its master's trough, not crib, trough, 00:09:57.040 --> 00:09:58.920 but Israel doesn't know. 00:09:58.920 --> 00:10:03.379 And he's saying, my son is dumber than a donkey. 00:10:03.379 --> 00:10:06.840 A donkey knows it's where to find its master's trough. 00:10:06.840 --> 00:10:10.000 My sons don't know where to find, where to feed. 00:10:10.000 --> 00:10:12.560 They're dumber than donkeys. 00:10:12.560 --> 00:10:15.160 He goes on verse five and six. 00:10:15.159 --> 00:10:16.559 What does that mean, God? 00:10:16.559 --> 00:10:19.360 Well, verse five and six, you've got a heart problem. 00:10:19.360 --> 00:10:20.919 Your whole head is sick. 00:10:20.919 --> 00:10:23.000 Your heart is faint. 00:10:23.000 --> 00:10:26.959 From the top of your head down to the bottom of your feet, you've got sores, he says. 00:10:26.959 --> 00:10:29.799 And they're not, they've not been pressed out. 00:10:29.799 --> 00:10:35.179 You'll see it at the end of that verse, meaning the inside of you, your head and your heart 00:10:35.179 --> 00:10:39.879 is like an infected sore and the pus has not been squeezed out. 00:10:39.879 --> 00:10:41.879 That's the way God puts it. 00:10:41.879 --> 00:10:44.120 That's how bad it is. 00:10:44.120 --> 00:10:47.919 He says that your heart is like an infected wound. 00:10:47.919 --> 00:10:48.919 And move on. 00:10:48.919 --> 00:10:50.960 Verse eight, this is my favorite one. 00:10:50.960 --> 00:10:53.879 This is where the ancient Near Eastern metaphors need some explanation. 00:10:53.879 --> 00:11:01.399 He says, you know, you people, you prodigal sons, you're like a lodge in a cucumber field. 00:11:01.399 --> 00:11:03.320 And does it get worse? 00:11:03.320 --> 00:11:04.960 Have you, has anybody ever said that to you? 00:11:04.960 --> 00:11:07.240 You're like a lodge in a cucumber field. 00:11:07.240 --> 00:11:08.759 What is he saying? 00:11:08.759 --> 00:11:14.080 He's saying in the harvest times in the ancient world, they would build little tents. 00:11:14.080 --> 00:11:19.800 Or little booths, little houses, and somebody would protect the harvest, the cucumber harvest, 00:11:19.800 --> 00:11:21.560 whatever it may be, fruit. 00:11:21.560 --> 00:11:26.720 Somebody would literally live in the field to watch out for people coming and stealing. 00:11:26.720 --> 00:11:30.360 But when the harvest was over, they would leave the booth because there's nothing to 00:11:30.360 --> 00:11:31.720 steal anymore. 00:11:31.720 --> 00:11:34.200 And the booth would just deteriorate. 00:11:34.200 --> 00:11:36.120 It would become dilapidated. 00:11:36.120 --> 00:11:38.960 And you see, he says right after that, you're a besieged city. 00:11:38.960 --> 00:11:43.480 You're a lodge in a cucumber field, meaning you were once beautiful. 00:11:43.480 --> 00:11:46.560 You were the great city, the city of Zion. 00:11:46.560 --> 00:11:47.720 And now you're desolate. 00:11:47.720 --> 00:11:49.080 Your beauty is gone. 00:11:49.080 --> 00:11:54.720 You're like an old lodge that's tipping over in the midst of the cucumber field. 00:11:54.720 --> 00:11:57.399 And the very last thing, nine and 10. 00:11:57.399 --> 00:12:01.560 He says, you are Sodom, you are Gomorrah. 00:12:01.560 --> 00:12:04.159 Your princes are the princes of Sodom and Gomorrah. 00:12:04.159 --> 00:12:09.720 And anytime, if you've read the Old Testament, you know, if you get called Sodom and Gomorrah, 00:12:09.720 --> 00:12:12.320 that means you're as bad as it gets. 00:12:12.320 --> 00:12:15.440 That's the pinnacle insult in the Old Testament. 00:12:15.440 --> 00:12:19.879 Now the second metaphor, which would have jumped out to you a little bit more just because 00:12:19.879 --> 00:12:22.800 of the way it's said is verse 21. 00:12:22.800 --> 00:12:25.960 He says, my children, they are prodigal sons. 00:12:25.960 --> 00:12:30.680 But verse 21 and following, the faithful city has become a whore. 00:12:30.680 --> 00:12:38.560 So the second metaphor he uses is the idea that the city is an adulterous wife. 00:12:38.559 --> 00:12:43.079 And so you see what he's saying, he's saying, I'm your father and you are my sons. 00:12:43.079 --> 00:12:45.039 He's talking to men and women in both metaphors. 00:12:45.039 --> 00:12:49.479 He's saying, you men and you women, you are my sons who have run away from home. 00:12:49.479 --> 00:12:53.919 You men and you women, you city, you are a prostitute. 00:12:53.919 --> 00:12:56.079 You've run away from your husband. 00:12:56.079 --> 00:12:59.519 And so God says, I'm your father and I'm your husband. 00:12:59.519 --> 00:13:01.719 And in both instances, you've left me. 00:13:01.719 --> 00:13:04.639 You've chased after other gods. 00:13:04.639 --> 00:13:09.600 And it's important to say here that the reason that he uses this metaphor of the city and 00:13:09.600 --> 00:13:16.799 the language of prostitute is because anytime in the ancient world in Hebrew that someone 00:13:16.799 --> 00:13:20.960 talks to a group of people that are going to use the language sons, they're going to 00:13:20.960 --> 00:13:23.439 use the masculine every time. 00:13:23.439 --> 00:13:28.639 But anytime anyone speaks and talks about a city, it's always feminine. 00:13:28.639 --> 00:13:32.399 And so the reason that the metaphors go that way is because the words are very literally 00:13:32.399 --> 00:13:34.439 masculine and feminine words. 00:13:34.440 --> 00:13:37.360 The city is always called a she. 00:13:37.360 --> 00:13:41.960 And so in verse eight, you can see that he calls the city, he calls the people the daughters 00:13:41.960 --> 00:13:43.560 of Zion. 00:13:43.560 --> 00:13:45.880 Literally Zion, Jerusalem is a mother. 00:13:45.880 --> 00:13:51.160 She's a she and the daughters of Zion are all the people, men and women. 00:13:51.160 --> 00:13:55.440 And he says, the daughters of Zion, men and women, they've all run away from me. 00:13:55.440 --> 00:13:59.560 They've all given themselves over to idols. 00:13:59.560 --> 00:14:03.920 And so God is saying in this court case, the city is lost. 00:14:03.919 --> 00:14:06.799 The hope of the nations, Zion, she's lost. 00:14:06.799 --> 00:14:08.299 She's gone forever. 00:14:08.299 --> 00:14:13.839 Now before we move on, and this is our longer point, we'll be brief after this, just two 00:14:13.839 --> 00:14:15.120 things. 00:14:15.120 --> 00:14:17.079 Here's exactly why. 00:14:17.079 --> 00:14:19.079 What exactly have they done? 00:14:19.079 --> 00:14:24.159 And God through Isaiah tells us specifically, now listen, this is what he says here, our 00:14:24.159 --> 00:14:27.659 principles for all time. 00:14:27.659 --> 00:14:31.199 And these are the specific charges that he's laid. 00:14:31.200 --> 00:14:35.960 And you can see it in verse 10 to 15, if you just cast your eyes over it. 00:14:35.960 --> 00:14:42.800 He says, what to me is the multitude of your sacrifices in the temple? 00:14:42.800 --> 00:14:49.320 But pinnically it's in verse 13, at the very end he says, I cannot endure iniquity and 00:14:49.320 --> 00:14:50.759 worship assemblies. 00:14:50.759 --> 00:14:53.879 And you see that what he's saying? 00:14:53.879 --> 00:14:58.360 He's saying this is why you're going to be judged. 00:14:58.360 --> 00:15:02.480 Because you're all religion with no repentance. 00:15:02.480 --> 00:15:10.039 He says, you know, you come to me in public acts of worship, but it's all pretense, it's 00:15:10.039 --> 00:15:12.440 all performance. 00:15:12.440 --> 00:15:15.440 There's no repentance in your hearts. 00:15:15.440 --> 00:15:20.480 And what he's saying here is he's not saying that, listen carefully, he's not saying I'm 00:15:20.480 --> 00:15:24.000 coming and judging you because I expected you to be sinless. 00:15:24.000 --> 00:15:29.000 I expected you to come to the temple and come to worship and be sinless, not at all. 00:15:29.000 --> 00:15:30.000 Not at all. 00:15:30.000 --> 00:15:33.600 He's saying instead, you come and you perform. 00:15:33.600 --> 00:15:36.279 The issue you see is honesty. 00:15:36.279 --> 00:15:42.120 He's saying if you would have just come to worship me and been honest about who you were, 00:15:42.120 --> 00:15:43.120 sinners. 00:15:43.120 --> 00:15:48.559 You say, I've been so far from God all week this week and God says, don't come into my 00:15:48.559 --> 00:15:52.440 presence and perform and act like you're something different. 00:15:52.440 --> 00:15:57.720 Don't come into my presence and know that you're a sinner and I will see your worship 00:15:57.720 --> 00:16:00.160 and it will be sweet to me. 00:16:00.160 --> 00:16:03.280 But he says, instead you come under pretense of performance. 00:16:03.280 --> 00:16:07.000 And in the New Testament, Jesus teaches us the same thing. 00:16:07.000 --> 00:16:12.440 He says, he looks out, John the Baptist Jesus, and looks at, and says to be a Pharisee, 00:16:12.440 --> 00:16:19.360 Phariseism, to be a viper is to be publicly religious to perform, but yet not honest about 00:16:19.360 --> 00:16:21.200 who you are on the inside. 00:16:21.200 --> 00:16:24.600 It's intentional deception when you come to worship. 00:16:24.600 --> 00:16:27.520 And so listen, you see the language here. 00:16:27.520 --> 00:16:31.800 He's saying an unwillingness to be honest before God about who you really are when you 00:16:31.800 --> 00:16:32.920 come into the worship space. 00:16:32.920 --> 00:16:35.160 God says, I hate it. 00:16:35.160 --> 00:16:36.720 That's the language he uses. 00:16:36.720 --> 00:16:38.640 And he says, it's like a burden. 00:16:38.640 --> 00:16:44.120 He says, you come to worship and you put a burden on my back with the fact that you're 00:16:44.120 --> 00:16:47.600 trying to lie about who you really are. 00:16:47.600 --> 00:16:49.160 And so that's the first reason. 00:16:49.159 --> 00:16:57.799 You see, that means that religion, when religion in a culture becomes public performance, religion 00:16:57.799 --> 00:17:02.639 actually has the power to destroy a society. 00:17:02.639 --> 00:17:09.159 Now the second thing that he charges them for here is exactly what he means in verse 00:17:09.159 --> 00:17:12.079 13 by you mix worship with iniquity. 00:17:12.079 --> 00:17:14.480 Well, what iniquity are you talking about? 00:17:14.480 --> 00:17:19.079 And then Isaiah tells them, you can see it in verse 15, verse 23. 00:17:19.079 --> 00:17:23.439 Especially, he says, everyone loves a bribe. 00:17:23.439 --> 00:17:25.399 Your princes are thieves. 00:17:25.399 --> 00:17:26.879 Everyone runs after gifts. 00:17:26.879 --> 00:17:30.480 He calls them earlier murders. 00:17:30.480 --> 00:17:32.879 Then he says, and here's the pinnacle. 00:17:32.879 --> 00:17:37.319 They don't bring justice to the fatherless and the widows calls does not come to their 00:17:37.319 --> 00:17:38.319 mind. 00:17:38.319 --> 00:17:43.279 Now, listen, God saying you come to worship and you're not honest about who you are. 00:17:43.279 --> 00:17:44.559 It's all performance. 00:17:44.559 --> 00:17:46.679 And then you go out into the world and here's the way you live. 00:17:46.679 --> 00:17:48.839 And listen, this is God saying this. 00:17:48.839 --> 00:17:53.919 He says, you do not love vulnerable people. 00:17:53.919 --> 00:17:58.199 You do not seek justice in the land. 00:17:58.199 --> 00:18:02.240 You don't care for the child that doesn't have a home. 00:18:02.240 --> 00:18:04.359 And that's why you're being judged. 00:18:04.359 --> 00:18:07.759 And then you come into worship and pretend like you do. 00:18:07.759 --> 00:18:10.519 And he says, your injustice is the reason. 00:18:10.519 --> 00:18:12.439 And this is no metaphor. 00:18:12.439 --> 00:18:16.439 God really does love vulnerable people. 00:18:16.440 --> 00:18:20.640 And he calls his people to love vulnerable people. 00:18:20.640 --> 00:18:22.840 And this is the ultimate reason. 00:18:22.840 --> 00:18:26.640 He's not expecting Israel, Jerusalem, I should say, to be sinless, not at all. 00:18:26.640 --> 00:18:34.279 What he's saying here is that for 200 years, I've tolerated this from you. 00:18:34.279 --> 00:18:37.519 And you were an orphan in Egypt. 00:18:37.519 --> 00:18:41.160 You were a widow in Egypt without a husband. 00:18:41.160 --> 00:18:45.559 And I came to you and I saved you and you experienced grace. 00:18:45.559 --> 00:18:47.480 And now you're graceless. 00:18:47.480 --> 00:18:51.839 I brought you out of the land to bring you to this place to worship in the holy city 00:18:51.839 --> 00:18:54.079 and everything's fake. 00:18:54.079 --> 00:18:55.079 Everything's fake. 00:18:55.079 --> 00:18:56.079 It's all a performance. 00:18:56.079 --> 00:18:59.679 And you don't have grace for anyone, even though you've received it. 00:18:59.679 --> 00:19:03.559 Now, secondly briefly, we'll run through the last three. 00:19:03.559 --> 00:19:05.879 So he says, you're going to be judged. 00:19:05.879 --> 00:19:06.879 You will be judged. 00:19:06.879 --> 00:19:08.519 You can see, this is how you know it's a court case. 00:19:08.519 --> 00:19:15.000 If you look down at verse 24, he says, the Lord declares, he's about to give. 00:19:15.000 --> 00:19:16.759 The judge is about to give the judgment. 00:19:16.759 --> 00:19:20.440 And the judgment is, I'm going to turn my hand against you. 00:19:20.440 --> 00:19:22.559 I'm going to get relief from my enemy. 00:19:22.559 --> 00:19:25.839 He's saying, you have now become my enemy. 00:19:25.839 --> 00:19:33.200 Now, I want to say that God's justice here is going to bring judgment. 00:19:33.200 --> 00:19:37.920 And God's judgment is going to mean throughout the rest of this first 39 chapters, as we'll 00:19:37.920 --> 00:19:43.079 see, that the kingdom of Assyria is going to come and going to be God's instrument of 00:19:43.079 --> 00:19:44.079 judgment. 00:19:44.079 --> 00:19:46.559 There's not more about that in the future. 00:19:46.559 --> 00:19:50.919 But as modern people, we read about this, and it's really hard for us. 00:19:50.919 --> 00:19:55.639 It's really hard for us to read passages like this and hear God say things like this, that 00:19:55.639 --> 00:20:02.839 he's going to consume and quench the small little flame that is Jerusalem. 00:20:02.839 --> 00:20:06.720 Judgment passages are really hard and difficult for us modern people. 00:20:06.720 --> 00:20:11.599 And even when we look at this, we say, well, look, I do remember what we just said, that 00:20:11.599 --> 00:20:17.679 the reason God is coming is he says, because you don't care for the vulnerable. 00:20:17.679 --> 00:20:19.639 You murder those who are easy to murder. 00:20:19.639 --> 00:20:24.399 You don't give the widow and the orphan who are homeless a home. 00:20:24.399 --> 00:20:29.240 And so as modern people, we look at that on the one hand and say, I love justice for vulnerable 00:20:29.240 --> 00:20:30.240 people. 00:20:30.240 --> 00:20:31.240 Yes. 00:20:31.240 --> 00:20:35.000 But on the other hand, we come to the Bible and we say, but I don't like the God who judges 00:20:35.000 --> 00:20:37.559 in the Old Testament. 00:20:37.559 --> 00:20:38.559 Why do we cry? 00:20:38.559 --> 00:20:40.240 Let me say two things very quickly. 00:20:40.240 --> 00:20:44.599 Why do we cry for justice for the vulnerable in the modern West? 00:20:44.599 --> 00:20:48.920 And without too much time to defend it, let me say the reason that we feel that way, the 00:20:48.920 --> 00:20:53.640 reason that the modern Western person, every single one of us wants to identify the oppressor 00:20:53.640 --> 00:20:58.359 and the victim is precisely because of Christianity. 00:20:58.359 --> 00:20:59.759 Christianity has taught us to do that. 00:20:59.759 --> 00:21:04.160 And it's been well established in the literature over and over again. 00:21:04.160 --> 00:21:10.160 What God says here about justice, justice for vulnerable people is not a trademark of ancient 00:21:10.160 --> 00:21:12.040 and modernary certain cultures. 00:21:12.040 --> 00:21:15.880 It does not exist outside of this document. 00:21:15.880 --> 00:21:20.120 And when you come to the Greco-Roman Empire, we in the modern West did not learn to love 00:21:20.120 --> 00:21:24.759 vulnerable people and give rights to all, a fair court case to all. 00:21:24.759 --> 00:21:26.440 We didn't learn it from the Roman Empire, not at all. 00:21:26.440 --> 00:21:28.080 We learned it from the Bible. 00:21:28.080 --> 00:21:29.840 We learned it from the Bible. 00:21:29.840 --> 00:21:32.040 It comes to us from Christianity. 00:21:32.040 --> 00:21:37.240 And yet at the same time, we look and say, how modern that God would say, love for the 00:21:37.240 --> 00:21:41.880 Wurfen and the widow, justice against the oppressor, how modern. 00:21:41.880 --> 00:21:45.240 And yet we come as modern people in this culture at the same time. 00:21:45.240 --> 00:21:51.559 And we say, yet I cannot take it when I read in the Old Testament about a God of judgment. 00:21:51.559 --> 00:21:57.400 And Charles Taylor, the great Catholic Canadian philosopher, he tried to address this dilemma 00:21:57.400 --> 00:21:59.880 that we experienced, this feeling that we have. 00:21:59.880 --> 00:22:00.880 And this is what he said. 00:22:00.880 --> 00:22:07.480 On the one hand, Western people have a lot of hot indignation against injustices. 00:22:07.480 --> 00:22:14.240 We identify oppressors and victims, and we want judgment for the oppressor. 00:22:14.240 --> 00:22:15.320 And he says, why? 00:22:15.320 --> 00:22:17.280 Because Christianity taught us that. 00:22:17.280 --> 00:22:18.280 Charles Taylor says that. 00:22:18.280 --> 00:22:20.960 But then he says, but here's the problem. 00:22:20.960 --> 00:22:21.960 Here's the problem. 00:22:21.960 --> 00:22:26.080 Here's why we struggle, nevertheless, with the God of judgment in the Bible, God of justice 00:22:26.080 --> 00:22:27.080 in the Bible. 00:22:27.079 --> 00:22:34.519 Because he says, we cry out justice, and we think that evil is always outside of us. 00:22:34.519 --> 00:22:38.279 See, in the modern world we've learned, we say, we cry justice. 00:22:38.279 --> 00:22:41.639 We want justice for the victim, judgment for the oppressor. 00:22:41.639 --> 00:22:47.720 Yet, he says, we always locate the evil, the oppressor, far away from us. 00:22:47.720 --> 00:22:51.639 And you see, in other words, he's saying there's a nagging in every single one of our hearts 00:22:51.639 --> 00:22:52.879 when we read the Bible. 00:22:52.879 --> 00:22:55.960 Yes, I know people deserve to be punished. 00:22:55.960 --> 00:22:58.279 But not me. 00:22:58.279 --> 00:23:02.240 And when you read the Bible, and you read about the God of judgment, if he's real, if 00:23:02.240 --> 00:23:08.640 the God of justice is real, maybe he sees what's on my inside. 00:23:08.640 --> 00:23:13.680 And if that's true, if God sees inside me, maybe I have to say that I deserve what the 00:23:13.680 --> 00:23:14.680 oppressor deserves. 00:23:14.680 --> 00:23:18.680 And you see, what the Bible does is it cuts through. 00:23:18.680 --> 00:23:21.559 There really are victims in this world. 00:23:21.559 --> 00:23:22.559 There really are. 00:23:22.559 --> 00:23:27.599 There are people who are sinned against more than they sin against other people. 00:23:27.599 --> 00:23:32.079 And there really are oppressors in this world, people who sin against others more than they're 00:23:32.079 --> 00:23:33.319 sinned against. 00:23:33.319 --> 00:23:38.440 But actually what the Bible does is it says we have to cut through that and say that the 00:23:38.440 --> 00:23:41.799 oppressor lies in every single one of our hearts. 00:23:41.799 --> 00:23:46.119 That every single one of us deserves judgment. 00:23:46.119 --> 00:23:47.799 That we're all oppressors and victims. 00:23:47.799 --> 00:23:51.919 That we've all been sinned against and that we've all sinned against others. 00:23:51.920 --> 00:23:54.279 At the same time, you see the Bible diagonalizes. 00:23:54.279 --> 00:23:58.200 It cuts through what the culture wants to separate. 00:23:58.200 --> 00:24:02.000 And so the reason we cry for justice in the modern world is precisely because of Christianity, 00:24:02.000 --> 00:24:06.080 but at the same time, Isaiah comes and says, this is us. 00:24:06.080 --> 00:24:08.279 This is every single one of us. 00:24:08.279 --> 00:24:12.560 Now before we move on, let me just mention this. 00:24:12.560 --> 00:24:17.800 When you read about God's judgment here in this passage, verse nine is a great example. 00:24:17.799 --> 00:24:22.839 It says, if the Lord of Hosts had not let a few of us survive, we would be Sodom and 00:24:22.839 --> 00:24:24.599 Gomorrah. 00:24:24.599 --> 00:24:25.599 You see what it's saying? 00:24:25.599 --> 00:24:32.359 It's saying that God for 200 years tolerated the injustices that were going on. 00:24:32.359 --> 00:24:36.240 And Israel, Judah, Jerusalem deserve to be Sodom and Gomorrah. 00:24:36.240 --> 00:24:39.359 They deserve to be destroyed like Sodom and Gomorrah. 00:24:39.359 --> 00:24:44.799 But he says, except for God's mercy, that He has let a few of us remain. 00:24:44.799 --> 00:24:46.599 We would have been that. 00:24:46.599 --> 00:24:53.519 Now that's just a small glimpse that what's going on here actually is God saying nobody 00:24:53.519 --> 00:24:55.759 ever gets what they deserve. 00:24:55.759 --> 00:24:56.959 No one. 00:24:56.959 --> 00:25:02.639 Every moment that we ever draw breath in this life, it's mercy, not judgment. 00:25:02.639 --> 00:25:04.639 It's not what we really deserve. 00:25:04.639 --> 00:25:09.199 And he said, we deserve, Judah deserves to be Sodom and Gomorrah, but God has said, I 00:25:09.199 --> 00:25:12.119 will not give it to you all the way. 00:25:12.119 --> 00:25:16.799 This will be had, but not yet, not completely, not in you. 00:25:16.799 --> 00:25:24.000 And that means that just like Jesus looked out on Jerusalem many 700 years later and 00:25:24.000 --> 00:25:29.359 said, if you would just come, Zion, I want you, if you would just repent and come to 00:25:29.359 --> 00:25:36.079 me, God the Father looks out at Jerusalem 700 years before and says, you deserve to 00:25:36.079 --> 00:25:39.439 be judged, but I'm not going to give it to you. 00:25:39.439 --> 00:25:41.839 That's actually what's happening here. 00:25:41.839 --> 00:25:45.359 And the ultimate example of that is third and we'll have to stop here. 00:25:45.359 --> 00:25:53.679 The city redeemed, the city redeemed, the city redeemed, there's a tension here between 00:25:53.679 --> 00:25:55.720 verse 25 and verse 26. 00:25:55.720 --> 00:25:59.279 Just look at this with me as we close. 00:25:59.279 --> 00:26:04.959 God says in verse 25 and 26, I will turn my hand against you and I'll smelt away your 00:26:04.959 --> 00:26:08.279 dross as with the lie and I will remove your alloy. 00:26:08.279 --> 00:26:13.599 Now, when God says, let me show you what this judgment is going to look like, it's a smelting 00:26:13.599 --> 00:26:15.399 metaphor. 00:26:15.399 --> 00:26:18.720 He says your judgment will be that I will smelt you. 00:26:18.720 --> 00:26:21.839 I will burn away your dross. 00:26:21.839 --> 00:26:29.160 Now I'm not going to pretend for two sentences that I know anything about smelting, but smelting, 00:26:29.160 --> 00:26:30.359 you know about smelting. 00:26:30.359 --> 00:26:37.039 Smelting is where you burn away impurities from precious metals so that you have the 00:26:37.039 --> 00:26:40.839 center, the true piece of metal that you really desire. 00:26:40.839 --> 00:26:44.079 And here he says, look, I'm going to judge you and that judgment will be that I'm going 00:26:44.079 --> 00:26:45.079 to smelt you. 00:26:45.079 --> 00:26:46.079 And you understand what he's saying? 00:26:46.079 --> 00:26:49.359 He's saying that is not annihilation. 00:26:49.359 --> 00:26:50.559 He says I will smelt you. 00:26:50.559 --> 00:26:58.960 I will burn away the impurity, the evil that is caked on your outside and inside I will 00:26:58.960 --> 00:27:00.359 find the precious metal. 00:27:00.359 --> 00:27:03.440 Now, look, here's the tension. 00:27:03.440 --> 00:27:08.519 Even his judgments are merciful, but look what he says in verse 26, and I will restore 00:27:08.519 --> 00:27:10.600 your judges. 00:27:10.600 --> 00:27:16.799 Now that word there for judge, I will restore your judges. 00:27:16.799 --> 00:27:17.880 That is the Hebrew word. 00:27:17.880 --> 00:27:20.640 I want to give you the Hebrew word because it's so important. 00:27:20.640 --> 00:27:26.840 It's the word shofet and it's the title of another book of the Bible. 00:27:26.840 --> 00:27:31.360 And that book of the Bible is judges. 00:27:31.360 --> 00:27:32.360 Judges. 00:27:32.359 --> 00:27:35.119 What is a judge in the book of judges? 00:27:35.119 --> 00:27:36.839 It is not a courtroom judge. 00:27:36.839 --> 00:27:41.279 It's not a man in a black gown with a white wig, not at all. 00:27:41.279 --> 00:27:44.799 What's a judge in the Bible? 00:27:44.799 --> 00:27:52.639 It is one who comes in the midst of Israel, Jerusalem's oppression, and saves Jerusalem 00:27:52.639 --> 00:27:57.479 and redeems Jerusalem and establishes Jerusalem as the hope of the nations. 00:27:57.480 --> 00:28:04.680 You see, the judge in the Old Testament is also translated as the redeemer. 00:28:04.680 --> 00:28:08.200 And what he's saying here is that I'm going to judge you for your injustice. 00:28:08.200 --> 00:28:10.400 You've trampled on the vulnerable. 00:28:10.400 --> 00:28:13.400 You've murdered those who are easy to murder. 00:28:13.400 --> 00:28:15.880 You've left children without homes. 00:28:15.880 --> 00:28:20.680 You were meant to be the hope of the nations. 00:28:20.680 --> 00:28:23.120 And I'm not going to kill you forever. 00:28:23.119 --> 00:28:27.559 I'm going to wipe away your evil and I'm going to set a true judge in the center of the city 00:28:27.559 --> 00:28:29.159 of Zion. 00:28:29.159 --> 00:28:34.759 And that true judge will be exactly what a shofet is, a redeemer king. 00:28:34.759 --> 00:28:37.679 Will Zion be the hope of the nation? 00:28:37.679 --> 00:28:39.599 The nations, will it have a true king? 00:28:39.599 --> 00:28:42.239 Will it have a shofet, a judge, a redeemer? 00:28:42.239 --> 00:28:47.639 And Isaiah here in the midst of this pronouncement of judgment says, yes, that the city will 00:28:47.639 --> 00:28:49.519 ultimately be redeemed. 00:28:49.519 --> 00:28:56.079 Now, oh boy, as we close, verse 27, he says, I will establish justice. 00:28:56.079 --> 00:28:59.759 I will satisfy the justice that is owed. 00:28:59.759 --> 00:29:06.720 And there's a shadowy connection and it's found in verse six. 00:29:06.720 --> 00:29:11.960 Now in verse six, remember the infected wounds? 00:29:11.960 --> 00:29:17.519 He says, you know, Israel, Judah, Jerusalem, human being, your heart is like an infected 00:29:17.519 --> 00:29:20.559 wound. 00:29:20.559 --> 00:29:27.119 The language that he uses here, he says, the soul of the foot to the top of the head, 00:29:27.119 --> 00:29:28.359 there is no soundness in you. 00:29:28.359 --> 00:29:29.359 You're an infected wound. 00:29:29.359 --> 00:29:30.720 You have bruises and sores. 00:29:30.720 --> 00:29:33.519 You've got raw wounds. 00:29:33.519 --> 00:29:41.279 Isaiah in one other place is going to talk in the same way, using the same Hebrew verbiage. 00:29:41.279 --> 00:29:44.519 One other place, it's going to be, it's coming. 00:29:44.519 --> 00:29:48.359 It's going to be not till next year that we'll get to it. 00:29:48.359 --> 00:29:50.639 But it's Isaiah 53. 00:29:50.639 --> 00:29:57.359 And if you look down, you'll see the word sores there is the word that the old authorized 00:29:57.359 --> 00:30:02.879 version, as many of us remember, translated stripes. 00:30:02.879 --> 00:30:07.639 He says, you know, your insides are like stripes, wounds. 00:30:07.639 --> 00:30:12.559 And the stripe, the reason the King James translated this word stripes, not sores, is 00:30:12.559 --> 00:30:19.159 because it very literally is a word for a wound created by being beaten. 00:30:19.159 --> 00:30:21.679 And Isaiah 53, it's going to say this again. 00:30:21.679 --> 00:30:28.240 It's going to say that there will be a judge, a shofette, a servant, and he will suffer 00:30:28.240 --> 00:30:35.679 to the point that he will bear the stripes that reflect your inner stripes, that he will 00:30:35.679 --> 00:30:38.759 be beaten with the whip. 00:30:38.759 --> 00:30:42.640 Especially because your heart looks exactly like that. 00:30:42.640 --> 00:30:45.599 And by his stripes, you will be healed by his stripes. 00:30:45.599 --> 00:30:47.879 The city will be redeemed. 00:30:47.879 --> 00:30:51.079 Justice will be had, but not yet, not in you. 00:30:51.079 --> 00:30:53.879 We're waiting for the suffering servant. 00:30:53.879 --> 00:30:59.480 And so for the rest of Isaiah, just to tell you where we're going in this series, Israel 00:30:59.480 --> 00:31:00.480 is going to be Judah. 00:31:00.480 --> 00:31:01.640 I should keep saying it. 00:31:01.640 --> 00:31:06.240 Judah is going to be judged and she's going to be cut off like a tree and there's just 00:31:06.240 --> 00:31:11.359 going to be a stump left, but then Isaiah starts to say things like this. 00:31:11.359 --> 00:31:18.279 From that little stump, Zion, there's going to be a little branch, a twig that grows. 00:31:18.279 --> 00:31:23.839 And that branch is called the Nazar, N-A-Z-A-R. 00:31:23.839 --> 00:31:24.839 That's what Isaiah says. 00:31:24.839 --> 00:31:31.259 And then you flip over to the Gospels and Mark says, and he, Jesus Christ, was called 00:31:31.259 --> 00:31:35.000 the Nazarene, the Nazar, the branch. 00:31:35.000 --> 00:31:36.880 He says, look for the branch. 00:31:36.880 --> 00:31:39.400 And then Mark says, here's the branch. 00:31:39.400 --> 00:31:41.920 Look for the king. 00:31:41.920 --> 00:31:44.000 And then the Gospels come and say, here's the king. 00:31:44.000 --> 00:31:45.000 How about John 12? 00:31:45.000 --> 00:31:55.079 John says, city of Zion, look for the king who will ride in, mounted on a donkey. 00:31:55.079 --> 00:32:00.400 And later in Isaiah 7, it'll say, Isaiah 9, it'll say, for unto us, look for a child 00:32:00.400 --> 00:32:04.160 that will be born by a virgin. 00:32:04.160 --> 00:32:10.000 And then it'll say, and look for the one who will be beaten by the whip and by his stripes. 00:32:10.000 --> 00:32:11.000 You will be healed. 00:32:11.000 --> 00:32:12.000 He will be crushed. 00:32:12.000 --> 00:32:14.640 Now listen, we've got to say this as we close. 00:32:14.640 --> 00:32:16.440 This is simple. 00:32:16.440 --> 00:32:19.240 And if you've been in the church any time, you've heard this and you know it, but it 00:32:19.240 --> 00:32:23.200 has to be said as you begin to study Isaiah. 00:32:23.200 --> 00:32:29.759 No matter how late you think Isaiah was written, Isaiah was written centuries before Jesus 00:32:29.759 --> 00:32:32.160 Christ was ever born. 00:32:32.160 --> 00:32:38.400 And Isaiah said, the one who will restore the true city of Eden, he will be a king in 00:32:38.400 --> 00:32:39.600 David's lineage. 00:32:39.600 --> 00:32:43.200 He will be the branch, the Nazarene. 00:32:43.200 --> 00:32:45.040 He will be the one born of a virgin. 00:32:45.040 --> 00:32:47.920 He will be the one who will be beaten by the whip. 00:32:47.920 --> 00:32:52.160 He will be naked when he goes to the cross to die for you. 00:32:52.160 --> 00:32:57.200 Isaiah said every one of those things. 00:32:57.200 --> 00:33:02.000 And so let me say tonight, if you're struggling with the God of judgment, let me put you on 00:33:02.000 --> 00:33:07.400 the spot before you the God of prophecy and say every single one of the things that Isaiah 00:33:07.400 --> 00:33:11.720 said about this man became true in Jesus Christ. 00:33:11.720 --> 00:33:13.960 And there's really no getting around that. 00:33:13.960 --> 00:33:16.759 You have to go through it. 00:33:16.759 --> 00:33:22.599 And so it's the challenge tonight to say, is this man really the Messiah of God who 00:33:22.599 --> 00:33:26.920 was prophesied about seven centuries before he ever came into the world? 00:33:26.920 --> 00:33:35.320 And for that reason, Mark 1, 1, the beginning of the good news, go backward and read Isaiah. 00:33:35.320 --> 00:33:41.320 He really is the man who was spoken of in Isaiah 1, 6, B. 00:33:41.320 --> 00:33:48.880 And that's an invitation tonight as we step into a new week to repent and to believe and 00:33:48.880 --> 00:33:50.279 to follow him. 00:33:50.279 --> 00:33:53.519 All right, let's pray together and ask that God would do that for us. 00:33:53.519 --> 00:33:58.799 And so Lord, we ask tonight that you would give us hearts to see the hope of the city. 00:33:58.799 --> 00:34:00.720 And that city is not physical Jerusalem. 00:34:00.720 --> 00:34:04.039 It is Jesus, the King of Zion. 00:34:04.039 --> 00:34:07.440 And so we long for the Zion that he's building. 00:34:07.440 --> 00:34:14.480 And we pray tonight that by the fact of this great prophecy, we would see the truth that 00:34:14.480 --> 00:34:21.360 in him, in him, the story became real. 00:34:21.360 --> 00:34:25.039 And so Lord, give us faith, give us hearts and eyes to see. 00:34:25.039 --> 00:34:28.240 And in that, give us repentance, the kind of repentance we prayed about earlier, that 00:34:28.240 --> 00:34:33.039 it wouldn't just be that we're sorry, that we feel shame, but that we would say, I want 00:34:33.039 --> 00:34:34.280 to follow Jesus. 00:34:34.280 --> 00:34:37.480 And so we ask for that as we step into our Monday. 00:34:37.480 --> 00:34:39.480 And we pray for that in Jesus' name. 00:34:39.480 --> 00:34:51.679 Amen.