Good morning, everyone. Shall we pray? Father in Heaven, we're thankful that we are people redeemed by the blood of the Lamb. We pray that today as we think about your holiness from your word, may your spirit guide our meditation, instruct our minds and equip us and strengthen and encourage us in this day and in the days to come.
We ask in Jesus' name. Amen. That is we're going ahead without me doing anything here. Last time I spoke I spoke on the book of Psalms and that there are precious things in the book of Psalms and I'd like to do with probably a three part series on the book of Isaiah.
The book of Isaiah is a very precious book and I have written precious preciousness of the book of Isaiah but it's because there are precious things in the book of Isaiah. There are teachings, there are truths in that book which are very very special to the believer. They are very powerful, they're very fundamental, they're very instructive and that book is a monumental book in your Bible. It deals with God, very fundamental questions, who is God?
Mankind. What are we? What are we like? What is the relationship between God and man?
The Messiah. The Messiah, who is he? And what was and what is his mission? And even Satan.
So I put that verse up with the book of Psalms and of course it's true of all scripture that all scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction, in righteousness. So indeed the book of Isaiah is very precious. In the canon that is the word that we use to describe the 66 books of the Bible, all of them are profitable for these things. In terms of references to the book of Isaiah, if I were to say what book did the Lord Jesus himself refer to more than any other Old Testament book?
Isaiah. What book did the Apostle Paul refer to more than any other Old Testament book? Isaiah. Therefore in its 66 chapters must be an extremely important book.
It contains important truths. We had meditated not long ago about preciousness. That's in my title and Unime use that word and you know what draws us to something. If something is precious we're drawn to it.
Perhaps our motives aren't pure. We see benefit there. We see some form of enjoyment there. But I'm speaking of spiritual benefit and spiritual blessings.
There might be something lovely about the personality and questions. Certainly the Lord Jesus Christ had a very lovely personality and people were drawn to him very often. Some people were repelled by him which is very interesting as to the reasons why. We often are drawn to those that may benefit us and certainly there is no one like the Lord Jesus Christ in terms of the benefits that he can bring to your soul eternally.
There's no one like him. But the preciousness that we meditated upon recently was of such a unique preciousness was it not that God's action toward us, the action of Christ toward us, the initiative of God in Christ toward us. We are confronted by it. How often have you been confronted by someone who wants to benefit you?
It comes out of the blue. It comes almost as a surprise. Well, there is nothing like that for preciousness. Someone who reaches out to you to save you, to save your soul.
What an enormous benefit that has been initiated by God. We should appreciate the fact that God took the initiative as we see in the Book of Romans. It's a preciousness that you might say takes us by surprise. What I want to focus on today however is God in the Book of Isaiah.
Before I do that, I want to simply reflect for a moment on that wonderful passage after the resurrection wherein a couple of disciples, one of them is Cleopas, and they're walking along and they're walking to a place called Amaeus, which I thought was such a genius name for a Bible school. You know, the road to Amaeus. What a wonderful choice of the name of a Bible school because here are these two men walking along and they go to Bible school. The Lord Jesus.
Here we have my notes and we have this passage and we have reference to the prophets and it says that as they walked along and the Lord Jesus expounded the scriptures to them and beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself. Expounded is the word hermeneutics. That's what's actually there's a course. If you go to a Bible school academic calendar and you look for the names of courses, there would be at least one course in formal hermeneutics.
That is the science of interpretation and that's where this word expounded comes from in this verse except that it's be it's preface by di to cut through. Isn't that wonderful to cut through the science of interpretation to get the meaning? That's what we want. We need the meaning.
We want the meaning. Who can do that for you? The Lord Jesus can do that for you. The Lord Jesus can expose the Old Testament, bring out its meaning.
Why? From Moses to the prophets because it's about him. It's all about him and he can bring that out for you in your personal Bible study and in your prayer. And then there's a reaction and they talk about what happened.
I don't know if that's your personal testimony but I hope that in your own study you have had an experience like this that the Word of God excites your heart. The words here are did not our hearts burn within us. We have in verse 32 and that is the opening. You know the Lord Jesus promised that the paraclete that the Holy Spirit would come to teach us and guide us.
We are in a unique and blessed position to be able to have the Scriptures opened to us. I tend to think analytically. Yes but what about the other side of what we are? Men are a bit like that.
What about the other side of what? Are you encouraged? Are you strengthened in your heart? Does the Bible make your heart burn within you?
So to speak again in that same chapter. The prophets, the prophets, the prophets is not only someone who tells the future even in the concept of the New Testament letters of Paul you have the concept of the prophet as a man in an assembly who can reveal the mind of God to prophesy to reveal the mind of God not necessarily to tell the future. He opened their understanding. He, looking at vine, enabled them to unite the perceptions that they had perceived.
Psychologists tell us that synthesis is a very important part of human thinking to be able to put things together. You know we sometimes use the expression to penny-dropped. You know you say well now I get it. I don't know why I didn't get it.
It was so clear. It's so clear to me now. I don't know how it was. I couldn't put these things together.
I can't imagine the power of that feeling that the disciples had after the resurrection and after these things were explained to them. And they put it all together because the Lord opened these things up. That is our birthright, our second birthright that the Lord opens these things up and enables us to synthesize from His Word to make sense of it so that our souls might be benefited. You know the book of Isaiah is important and a brother just came back you know from the state of Israel.
That's called the shrine of the book. And Isaiah is the longest of the long prophets. You have the long prophets and the long prophets are Isaiah Jeremiah's equal Daniel and you have the short prophets like Joel and Habakkah. So it's a very important book.
From the point of view of a technical word that word is historicity. You have the aspect of historical truth was Pilate a governor in what we now call Israel what some people call Palestine about two thousand years ago well he certainly was. Last year they found his name again. It was it was it was already been found.
It was found again. Other writers other people who write about the Bible you know 1500 and 1800 years ago made reference to Pilate. These are not biblical people necessarily but they're referring to people like that. So that is an aspect of archaeology and of the support for the Bible.
There is another aspect of it and that is the manuscript support. And there are three criteria for that and there is actually nothing like the Bible for manuscript support. Nothing compares to it and this is one of the reasons that this is quite an interesting structure. It's one of the most fascinating buildings you'll ever enter where in 1948 an Arab boy threw a stone in a cave in Qumran and he heard broken pottery and he got scared but then because he thought what am I in trouble for now and then he went and they went in and they found basically the entire book of Isaiah preserved where we have there.
So this I think I have a laser this ancient manuscript is what that person would be looking at and in fact there's another ring of it and there's different levels of it. It's an absolutely fascinating building. I hate to break the news to you about what you're looking at is not the real thing that is in a vault down below I guess but these are various millitudes of the actual thing the real ones are too precious to expose to things like light and this speaks to the question of apologetics and historicity in that it was found that the book of Isaiah is completely reliable. There so from the point of view of textual change they were shocked that the book of Isaiah has not changed that they from the Septuagint to this almost word for word it's a 66 chapter book so it really puts things in perspective that what you have in your hands and what we have in our hands in terms of the original documents is unparalleled in terms of historic reliability.
So it's very important book from that point of view so in flying around the internet a little bit you know this is not the kind of thing that CNN is going to report they just don't have that frame of mind but last year in a place called Othel just south of Temple Mount these two Bula were discovered before a week ago I didn't know what a Bula was so it is a piece of clay and if you are King Hezekiah that's his seal on the left. If you are King Hezekiah you send a message there's no internet so you have to do it hardly you have to write it down and you write it up in a piece of string and then where the knot is where it's tied up you put a blob of clay right and then you push your seal into it and it's hard and then if anybody has tampered with that then the recipient knows that it's been tampered with so it's proof of lack of tampering and that it has a kind of left and it's Isaiah on the right and it's missing a couple of letters but the missing letters appear to only fit with the Prophet Isaiah so you can you can read about that you know this is the archaeological support for the Bible just continues to be supported not that the internet would ever or CNN I should say whatever tend to support that the book of Isaiah as I said was the most quoted book is the most quoted book by Paul and Jesus written around 800 plus or minus 50 years and King's Uzziah Jotham a has and has a kaya our contemporaries of Isaiah and when you look at the various phrases that we have here how precious are these phrases to you know your sins be a scarlet chapter nine a virgin count shall conceive make straight the way of the Lord the voice of the wilderness perfect peace the mind that stayed on the youth thought that was only the New Testament wounded for our transgressions you'll mount up with wings like eagles wipe away all tears you thought that that was just a revelation death swallowed up by victory read this morning at the breaking of bread first Corinthians 15 oh let's say it's 25 by wine and milk without money and without price beat swords into plowshares looking into the millennium these things have not only permeated our minds as Christians they many of these things are actually part of the thinking of literature the the influence of the Bible on literature in the Western world is enormous and these phrases permeate not only Christian writings but non-Christian writings this is a very complicated diagram however however you can see there's my laser that Isaiah is right there so here you have Saul David Solomon 40 40 40 it's all beginning at about thousand years before Christ then from 960 there about half of the Psalms written by David in that period then Solomon Proverbs song of Solomon Ecclesiastes in the following 40 years then we have actually many many books of the Old Testament occurring during the period of the divided Kingdom Solomon's son Rio Bowen half of the country said no way we're going with a general named Jeroboam that was a very tragic division of the country which crippled the country thereafter and the country in fact did not last very long so we have in many cases the prediction of what's not only going to happen to Israel but what nations are going to be involved with what's going to happen to Israel and Isaiah is the most is the longest and the breadth of it and the the sheer monumental significance of Isaiah is is a very very figures very very large in the Old Testament then in 586 Jerusalem is sacked and the inhabitants are carted away to Babylon I don't know when you thought the verses and chapters of your Bible were brought into being but here you have a Bible 66 books 39 in the Old Testament 27 in the new well what about we do a mirror image thing part one of Isaiah 39 chapters part two of Isaiah you could probably find it in many of your study Bibles right there is part two it actually says this at the beginning of chapter 40 but it gets better 66 chapters just like the Bible that the part one does have Old Testament character and the part two does have New Testament character in a kind of a mirror image way and that is due to the Archbishop of Canterbury of about 800 years ago those divisions are not inspired but it turns out to be helpful to us to understand the structure of the book preciousness of the book of Isaiah perhaps can be thought of in terms of uniqueness the uniqueness of God the uniqueness of his son the Messiah and the uniqueness of God's plan in which the Messiah figures very large James F. Clark wrote a book in 1899 I thought this statement was quite interesting Mohammed taught us God above us Moses taught us God above us and yet with us Jesus taught us God above us God with us and God in us revolutionary so let's think for a few minutes I have 10 to 15 at most about God who is he I like to consider three passages Isaiah 6 Isaiah 9 and some passages around Isaiah 43 and 45 my son read this not very long ago in speaking about the throne of God the Lord sitting upon the throne in those words high and lifted up and then on Isaiah 9 although this is about the Messiah it does relate very much to who God is and then Isaiah 43 and 45 are some fundamental verses pertaining to the uniqueness of God in the year that King Ziah died I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne high and lifted up and his train filled the temple and above it stood the seraphim's each one had six wings with 20 covered his face and with twain he covered his feet and with twain he did fly and one cried unto another and said holy holy holy is the Lord of hosts the whole earth is full of his glory and the posts of the door moved at the voice of him that cried and the house was filled with smoke then said I whoa is me for I am undone because I am a man of unclean lips and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips from my eyes have seen the king the Lord of hosts he had seen the Lord Jesus holiness isn't that one of the most fundamental things that is one of the bedrock truths of the Christian faith the phrase holy one of Israel or holy one of Jacob occurs 32 times in the book of Isaiah that's half of all the mentions of holy in the entire Old Testament half of them are in the book of Isaiah we would we would say that holiness is axiomatic to what God is it doesn't make sense to talk about a God who is not holy it is fundamental to the concept of God as God did you know that Catholics have a rosary Muslims have a rosary I've seen I was in when I was in Africa I had never seen that before I'd never seen a Muslim going through the beads he was on the front porch of my neighbor professor Sinclair and I didn't know that I was in the late 90s going and he's repeating and repeating three times 33 99 names of God and he's repeating Catholics have rosary beads and they do this repetition stuff and out of all those names you have names like merciful and terrible and other names but there's one name that's missing from those 99 holy the word the adjective holy is missing from the names of God in the Muslim religion and the Quran never once describes Allah as holy that's very interesting I guess what's perhaps more important is that the question of whether the Lord God is high and lifted up and you have the heart of worship that says holy holy holy you in your heart is that where your heart is that's what's important that's very very important here's a verse from Isaiah 57 this is bringing what I said quoting James Clark home for thus sayeth the high and lofty one that inhabiteth eternity whose name is holy I dwell in the high and holy place with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit to revive the spirit of the humble and to revive the heart of the contrite ones so you can have fellowship with a holy God Moses wrote in Deuteronomy 32 he is the rock his work is perfect for all his ways are judgment of God of truth and without iniquity just and right is he to revere God as holy is very fundamental to what it means to be a believer we should not let go of it we should make sure that our heart is in the right place when it comes to consideration of the nature of the unique holiness of God this is very familiar they sing it within handles Messiah for unto us a child is born unto us a son is given and the government shall be upon his shoulder and his name shall be called wonderful counselor the mighty God the everlasting father the prince of peace of the increase of his government in peace there shall be no end upon the throne of David and upon his kingdom to order it and to establish it with justice judgment and with justice from henceforth even forever the zeal of the lord of host will perform this from Isaiah 7 14 we know that this one this child is going to be born of a virgin so what you have there with a capital s on son is very important it means that this is the Messiah this is the son of God born of a virgin we have the words everlasting father dr iron side says that father of eternity would be a good translation of that the executor of the ages we think of god very often as creator in the sense of making all material things but have you thought about the god who makes time and who breaks down time into history and so that his action within the context of the bible and reference to the throne of David is a clear reference to actual time and actual history Jesus is also the architect the executor of those ages he created space and all it is in it and all the ages that are there i um see if i can find that in a moment when we look at this we get the impression that the writer Isaiah is speaking about god do we not why is that because Jesus is fully divine he is fully divine Jesus is deity it is a logical outcome of that jesus said this in john chapter five verse 23 that all men should honor the son even as they honor the father he that honor the son honor is not the father which has sent him a very simple question on in this regard and you can challenge groups like Jehovah's Witnesses or Mormons or the like is worship a form of honoring someone it most certainly is who should we be permitted to worship only god we're not even permitted to worship angels or only permitted to worship god any honor that you would give to the lord jesus must be equal to and commensurate with the honor that is worship that you would give to god he is equal footing with god in terms of the honor implied by worship how did the children of israel get to this place we saw the complex diagram of where isaia falls in the canon in the divided kingdom they got there by idolatry and i think sometimes we imagine that idolatry has to do with carving something out of wood and bowing down before it and no doubt that kind of thing was happening but in this day and age wasn't one doesn't usually see that kind of thing especially in in a country like canada but what about idolatry of the heart idolatry of the heart god is unique god is eternal you are my witnesses say at the lord and my servant who i have chosen that you may know and believe me and understand that i am he jesus said before abraham was i am before me there was no god formed neither shall there be after me no previous god no subsequent god and jesus taught that the honor that is due to him is equal to the honor that we would give to god by worship and we read in john chapter one in the beginning was the word and the word was with god and then we read that in verse three nothing in the category of things created has been created unless the lord jesus as the word created it since a being cannot be simultaneously created and created jesus cannot be in both of those categories the lord jesus is the creator he is fully god there is no other god there is only one god god is unique and god is eternal and thou oh lord it says in hebrews in the beginning has laid the foundation of the earth and the heavens are the work of thy hands they shall perish but thou remainest and they all shall wax hold as dothic garment and as a vesture shall now fold them up ever think of that that at the end of time god will fold it up just like some kind of finished this is like a piece of clothing it's a temporary thing so temporary finished fold it up like a vesture that's folded up but god himself will go on into eternity and the redeemed with him there is my um john one three all things were made by him and without him was not anything made that was made the lord jesus is fully deatine moving to the last passage i say forty-five i am the lord and there is none else there is no god beside me i girded the e though thou has not known me that they may know from the rising of the sun and from the west that there is none beside me i am the lord and there is none else we need to refer return to first principles the um verse there at the bottom is called the shema and that is that duduramis six-four and an observant jiu should say that every day hero is real the lord our god is one lord and it's possible is it not in in seeking to reflect god's truth to engage in empty recitation some people just say the lord's prayer or something else to do something perhaps religious do you think that pleases god it didn't please god in this age of idolatry that we have in the divided kingdom it doesn't make it there's no point it doesn't make any sense for people to continue to say the shema when in fact god is not first in their hearts it is empty recitation is a twenty nine in matthew fifteen share this this people draw of nayum to me with their mouth and honoreth me with their lips but their heart is far from me that is the culture and climate of that time in is a twenty nine thirteen we see the exact same thing that the lord jesus quoted in matthew fifteen it's good to know that god is unique and holy is it merely a piece of information in your mind or is god someone that you worship in your heart so that when you express these truths in prayer and in worship and in song that that is actually a reflection of what's going on in your heart that you acknowledge the uniqueness and supremacy and holiness of god should not be empty words and psalms i mentioned about god being both transcendent and imminent these are wonderful truths and they're the definitions again as i quoted clark god above us yeah that's that's god being transcendent and so he is moses god above us and yet with us he can be with us jesus of nazareth god can be in us he can be imminent in our very hearts if we know him if we are redeemed people and again i come to is af 5715 for thus sayeth the lord for thus sayeth the high and lofty one that inhabiteth eternity what a concept inhabiteth eternity whose name is holy i dwell in the high and holy place with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit to revive the spirit of the humble and to revive the heart of the contrite ones god's place is that he is the lord i even i am the lord he says and beside me there is no savior do you want to be in a relationship with god he needs to not only be recognized as holy and high and lifted up he needs to be recognized in your heart as your savior as af 556 seek ye the lord while he may be found call ye upon him while he is near revelation three talks about the lord knocking on a door and if we open the door he will come in and he will sup with us and us with him the invitation to fellowship with god that is the invitation there is nothing else like that you won't find that truth anywhere else but the bible that god is unique and high and holy that you can know him in your heart and fellowship with him in your heart that he can be near to you in your life not just in your mind only if he is your savior i trust that these few thoughts this morning have helped you and that in the coming week you will read the book of isaia some more and reflect upon its truths shall we pray father in heaven we acknowledge that lord you are high and lifted up that you are holy help us not to forget this and what we say and what we do and what we see and where we go help us to remember in our lives in our hearts and our thoughts that you are holy help us father to know however that through christ we have redemption that through christ you have brought us into relationship with you that we are redeemed if there's anyone here who does not know about this lord does not know what it's like to be in fellowship with you may your spirit deal with them this day to bring them to your son we pray in his name amen i think my my