God’s King in His Beauty – Isaiah 32-33 — A Christian Growth Message

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Transcript

We’re going to turn in the scriptures now to Isaiah 32 and 33, so you might like to open your Bible in front of you and see if you can find page 1065.

And we’re going to look at this slab from Isaiah, so we’ve been learning from Isaiah for a number of weeks now, this is our 8th in a series of 9.

The prophet Isaiah in the Old Testament had the very painful job of warning God’s people that, uh, their unfaithfulness to him would bring great trouble.

And the trouble was going to be not just a few days of bad crops or something like that, but it was going to be quite a few decades in the prison of Babylon, they were going to be exiled from the promised land, and that actually took place. But after that, said Isaiah, the Lord will bring you back to the promised land and there will be a great hope to come.

I haven’t mentioned so far in the series in Isaiah that some of you may know this, but back in 1947, there were some boys in Israel throwing rocks at their goats because the goats had wandered from them, and they threw some rocks and as they threw the rocks at the goats to get them back into line, the rocks obviously hit some pottery.

And the boys heard this sound of breaking pottery, and they climbed into these caves to discover there were these large and many jars filled with old scrolls. And one of the scrolls was the full complete scroll of Isaiah. What’s interesting is that in 1947, the oldest scroll of Isaiah was 800 AD.

But this scroll sitting in the cave of this particular area was written in 200 BC and so suddenly the world had a copy of the full book of Isaiah 1000 years older than they had had, and as they compared the old with the new, they discovered that hardly a dot had changed.

So the remarkable preservation from the copyists of the writing out of scripture.

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And we’re studying this very wonderful book of Isaiah together, and today we come to a section, as I say, chapter 32 and 33. I’ve tried to pick out as we have gone along, some of the warning passages of Isaiah. So chapter 1, the Lord says, can you believe it? My children have turned their back on me. The people who I have saved.

And then we’ve tried to look at some of the hopeful passages, so Isaiah chapter 11, someone will come and the spirit will be upon him, and he will bring his people peace.

And last time I pointed out to you, last time I spoke on Isaiah, I spoke on a bit of chapter 28 where we discover that even when God disciplines his people, it is what he calls his alien task. It’s not something he delights to do.

Some of you maybe old enough to remember your father getting the strap out when it was time to give you a little bit of discipline and the famous saying was the father would say, this is going to hurt me more than it hurts you.

Well I’ve never really sure about that, but it’s what God would say to his people, it grieves him to discipline them.

And then of course I pointed out also last time that in chapter 30 he says what he loves to do is to be gracious, and to show compassion because the fatherhood of God is more loving and more compassionate than all the fathers of the world.

So today we come to a section, chapter 32, 33, it begins with the king, you’ll see in 32 verse 1. And it ends with a king in 32-33 17, so it’s a kind of a section bookended by kingship.

And I want to look at with you at chapter 32 quite quickly under this heading. Constructive fire and the gold that comes.

That is purifying fire.

And the gold that comes, constructive fire and the gold that comes, that’s chapter 32. And then chapter 33, I’m going to address under the subject of destructive fire, that is the fire that destroys and the king who will come.

So chapter 32, constructive fire and the gold to come, chapter 33, destructive fire and the king to come.

So let’s think about constructive fire and it would be greatly help if you had chapter 32 open in front of you.

Isaiah 32: Constructive fire and the gold that comes.

You’ll see in chapter 32 verse 1 that Isaiah predicts, and he did this accurately, a perfect king to come.

Now would it not be wonderful if somebody arrived in the world who was a perfect leader.

An absolutely perfect leader, I mean we should be very thankful for our good leaders. It’s not just those who have great abilities, but those who have good character.

But even our best leaders are flawed, as we know perfectly well, whether they’re leaders in the world or whether they’re leaders in the church, all leaders are flawed. Dale Ralph Davis says that once Abraham Lincoln, who’s always held up as being a sort of an almost perfect leader, was once dealing with his cabinet and the cabinet were not cooperating. And so Abraham Lincoln just simply pulled rank and he said OK, so the there are 7 nays and 1 yay, that would be him. The yays have it. That was the end of the discussion.

But Isaiah is predicting in chapter 32 the coming of a perfect king.

And this is what I would call the gold that is going to come down the track after much testing. And you’ll notice if you look at chapter 32 that not only will there be this perfect king in verse one, but there’ll be a kind of a trickle-down effect from the king, so you’ll see also in verse one that the princes, the offspring of the king, will also be just, and you’ll see in verse two, the ordinary man is going to be a protective person.

Here’s a word you see in a world of domestic violence, that under the influence of this perfect king, men will be honourable.

Isaiah describes the protective man in verse 2 as a hiding place, a cover, a great rock for the person who wants to be safe. And then you’ll see in verse 3 that people under this perfect king are going to be very responsive. Their eye will see what is meant to be seen, their ear will hear what is meant to be heard, and you’ll see in verse 5, truth will suddenly be called truth. That would be a great bit of progress, wouldn’t it?

And verse 7, evil will be called evil, that would be a great bit of progress as well. And verse 7, right will be rewarded.

So this you see is a king to look forward to and is, as it were, putting the telescope out and saying there is a solid hope coming, yes.

Isaiah spoke accurately. Christ came.

But in verses 9 to 14, he goes back to the theme of this constructive fire, that is there is a need to wake up.

Otherwise you’ll be tested, disciplined, and so he says in chapter 32 verse 9, I want you to listen.

I remember when I was talking to my son, I just have one son, one fine son, and it was coming up to high school certificate, and he seemed to me to be specialising in playing his guitar in his room and counselling attractive girls, those seemed to be the two great subjects of his life at that time, and the high school certificate was looming and I remember sitting down with him and saying, you know, in about a year’s time you’re either going to be sitting on the lawn of the university with all your friends having a great time, or you’re going to be stacking shelves in Woolworths, you know, starting at about 7 a.m. in the morning, and he kind of went a little bit ashen and I had a feeling that my warning was getting through to him, whether it did or not, I don’t know, but he did very well.

But here is Isaiah appealing to people, I don’t want you to go down this track, and he’s actually speaking in verse 9 to the women in Israel, and the women were usually the most sensitive, and in many ways the most sensible, especially when it came to trouble.

But these women in Isaiah 32:9, they couldn’t care less, and Isaiah has to basically warn them, the testing will come, the fire will come.

And you’ll see in verse 13, he says very specifically the land will become thorns, and of course it did, once the people of Israel were taken out of their land, the place became barren. Verse 14, the cities will be deserted and verse 14, even the palaces will be empty. Isaiah was not talking rubbish, you know this, don’t you? They just steadily refused to listen to him.

And eventually all the testing which God promised, all the warning came true.

Babylon came 587 BC and took the people out of the land. Because they just didn’t listen.

Now is that going to be the end of God’s people? Well, it won’t be the end of God’s people because God will not allow evil to have the last word, and we come back to the gold in verse 15, that the Spirit would come and bring change. You see, chapter 32 verse 15, until the Spirit is poured out, and the wilderness, he says, becomes fruitful again. And then verse 16, justice will live and righteousness will stay or remain.

And verse 17 we’ll move into righteousness and righteousness will produce peace and rest or Sabbath, and then verses 19 and 20, up from the trouble is going to come this brand new harvest.

You’ll notice in verse 17 that he speaks of righteousness, and this word righteousness is a confusing word because some people will sit in church and think oh righteousness means that I must be a good person.

That’s not a bad thing to want if you just want to be a good citizen, but it’s got very little to do with biblical righteousness, and actually I was explaining righteousness to Carol and talking with her about her funeral and talking with her about her future, and I was reading to her from the scriptures about righteousness.

And I was reading to her especially about how we need what we might call the coat of righteousness to be placed upon us, because we’re going to stand before God one day and she was getting ready to stand before God very quickly. And I was talking to her about how we must go to God in prayer, knowing that our coat is actually a filthy coat, a sinful coat.

And we must ask Him to have mercy on us.

And the promise of God is that because of Christ, he will lift off the filthy coat and he will place upon us the coat of righteousness, so that we stand before him, righteous, in the righteousness of Christ.

But then of course when you’re standing in the coat of the righteousness of Christ, a new life enters into your soul and you begin to live a more righteous life. So the coat translates into character. And that’s the way righteousness is being spoken of here. It isn’t just if you’re good, all will be well. It’s basically if you’re God’s people, all will be well.

Well, you’ll see therefore in chapter 32, which we’ve just sped across at some speed.

That Isaiah is warning the people that there’s going to be some constructive fire, which is going to test or purify them, but in the end there will be gold. And it’s perfectly true what Isaiah said that in the short-term, they would come back from Babylon and they would be a new humble people.

And then of course in the long-term, the great king, the king of kings would come.

And in the end, in the future, there will be a kingdom of peace, so what Isaiah spoke in chapter 32 is true.

Now we come to chapter 33. I’ve called this destructive fire. This is fire which is to be aimed at the enemy. And the King to come, destructive fire and the King to come, chapter 33.

I’ve said many times to you that God was threatening trouble, if his people refused to be loyal to him, just as God disciplines me.

When I’m disobedient, I hope you experience this every now and again. I hope if you’re a believer and you just sort of walk into stupid land. That God brings you back again, and of course he does that because he loves you. As the New Testament says, you know, if you don’t get disciplined by God, you know, what sort of father do you have? But our heavenly Father disciplines us, now the discipline that God would use would be, as I say, Babylon down the track.

But the more immediate superpower, listen carefully to this, the more immediate superpower danger for Israel, was the country of Assyria.

Assyria, what we might call Syria, was right on the border, and Assyria was the superpower of the day. And Syria had already wiped out the north of Israel. And Assyria was going to come and knock on the door of the South to take over, and Assyria did come and knock on the door to take over. This is before eventually Babylon came and took them away.

And as we’ll see next time, the last time we look at Isaiah, Assyria came and absolutely terrified God’s people, and they pleaded and pleaded and pleaded to God to rescue them, which he did. So when we read in chapter 33 verse 1, if you’re still with me, woe to you who plunder and deal treacherously, this is no longer God speaking to Israel, this is now God speaking to Assyria. Isaiah is saying to the country of Assyria, Woe to you who try to plunder us. Woe to you who deal treacherously with us.

The 1st 16 verses in chapter 33, describe Assyria coming to the door, and the people pleading with God to protect them, which he did. And so God, you see, bringing Assyria to the door, gave the Israelites a taste of terror. So that they would learn to fear and not fall into the path of foolishness.

It’d be a little bit like going to your doctor, having had a whole year of no exercise and dreadful diet, and then the doctor saying to you, you know, your blood pressure is very high. And you suddenly are getting a fairly healthy warning that you’ve been a bit of a fool, and it’s time to change. That’s what God does when he brings Assyria to the doorstep of Israel. And you’ll see in chapter 33, the message to Assyria is woe to you, you’re a bully. And you’re going to be bullied.

And in verse two, there’s the prayer the people sent up to God because they were desperate, Lord, be gracious to us, we wait for you, be our strong arm in the morning, our salvation in time of trouble. That wouldn’t be a bad prayer to put on a card and put beside your bed as you wake up in the morning, Lord, be gracious to us, we wait for you. Be our strong arm in the morning, our salvation in time of trouble.

And then in verse 3 comes God’s comfort to Israel, that is the enemy is gonna scatter.

And you will plunder them, they won’t plunder you, you will plunder them, and they did, Israel did plunder the Assyrians. What’s the result of the mini victory, verse 5, the Lord will be exalted, and he was. Verse 6, you’ll fear and respect him more, and they did. And verse 7, the attackers who came will weep and they did. Verse 9, their territory will shrivel. And it did.

So this is God’s message to his enemies, chapter 33 verse 10, I will arise, says the Lord, verse 11, you enemy will be destroyed. Verse 13, all peoples will see my power. So notice that this is the effect on God’s people in Zion, verse 14, they will have a new healthy fear of God.

And verse 15, it’ll be time for them to be godly.

And verse 16, it’s the godly person who takes God seriously, who will be safe and well.

I want to say again, I want you to notice as we talk about fire this morning that the Bible speaks about fire as purifying, removing impurities. Peter says in his first letter, when you’re tested, it’s to produce a better faith, a faith without the impurities, and so we mustn’t be surprised, says Peter, if various tests come.

Because they come from a God who wants our faith to be real, strong – a proper faith.

And we of course might say to God, look please don’t test me at all, I don’t want to have any difficulties, I’ll be great. But he knows us better than we know ourselves, and so he brings various tests that bring us back to our senses, and they bring us back to lean on him. So there is a purifying fire, but there is also, there is this destructive fire. We might say some fire tests God’s people and some fire tortures God’s opposition.

There is constructive fire and there is destructive fire. There’s fire that you get through. And tragically there’s a fire that you don’t get through.

I mentioned in the bulletin letter last week that I’m trying to pull together a little book of chapters to help a person navigate the Christian life. I’m hoping that this will be published and will be useful, and I’ve been doing the editing process with these chapters, brave man that I am.

And I’ve been editing one of the chapters this last week which was written by a friend of mine on the subject is heaven and hell real? Are they real? And my friend has done a wonderful job of explaining the reality of heaven and hell, and I found myself quite sobered because he expressed the reality of the two in very real terms.

And if I had sort of vague understanding of them from a distance, this chapter really brought them home to me. Because of course this destructive fire that Jesus spoke of so often is real.

So in this first half of Isaiah 33, there is the warning to the enemy of God, the warning to Assyria, that they will be defeated. Then in chapter 33 verse 17 comes this beautiful passage – sometimes when I’ve been preaching this series in Isaiah, I’ve looked at the passage and I’ve thought, listen, pal, just don’t say anything on Sunday morning, just get up and read it.

The passage is better than your sermon will ever be.

I mean, why get up and discuss a beautiful painting, why not just look at it?

Why interfere with the sunset and talk about it, why not just look at it?

And some of this stuff in Isaiah is so beautiful, it’s as if you can’t really add anything to it.

But I maybe can point out a couple of things, June, so if you look at chapter 33 verse 17, you’ll see as Isaiah puts the telescope out, he describes this great king to come. It was very confronting for Isaiah to say that a king will come because there were kings around at the time.

It would be like me getting a job of preaching at parliament this week and going in and saying something like this, you know, dear friends, there’s going to be a real leader one day.

Can you imagine how insulting that would be?

And that’s what Isaiah is saying, there’s a king coming and he’s going to be perfect. Look at verse 17, he will be beautiful, that is, he’ll be admirable, he’ll be flawless, we’re talking here of the king of kings, we’re talking of the coming of Christ, and you’ll see verse 18, although you’ll see the king, you won’t see troublemakers.

On that day, says Isaiah, troublemakers will have disappeared.

You won’t see the person who set out to hurt you.

Has there been somebody in the past who has set out to hurt you verbally or physically, and they have turned their back on Christ as well, you won’t see them in the future.

You’ll see the king, but you won’t see the troublemaker, and then look at verse 19, this is very meaningful, there’ll be no more frightening languages that you don’t understand, like Assyrian language and Babylonian language.

Everything will be understood.

And the place, verse 20, where the king lives will be peaceful and secure, the tent pegs are going to be fixed.

Isaiah might have said something like, do you remember when you were travelling through the wilderness and you were always having to pull up the tent pegs and move on, and then put in the tent pegs and then pull up the tent pegs and then move on and then you’d put in the tent pegs and pull up the tent pegs. Now says Isaiah, there’s gonna be no more moving of the tent pegs. It’s gonna be fixed and secure forever.

And verse 21, there’ll be no warships, the rivers and the streams will just have pleasant traffic.

One of my friends in the UK whenever he’s looking out at beautiful scenery, he says this out loud, he says, paradise with tears.

Which is a reminder that it doesn’t matter what scenery you’re looking at in this world, it’s part of a fallen world.

Paradise with tears, but there’s going to come a time where you see the people of God will look at paradise without tears.

And that’s what Isaiah is describing here, are we in fantasy land when we talk like this, is this just a myth? Look at verse 22, no, the Lord is our judge, he knows how to get rid of evil, the Lord is our King, he knows how to establish what he wants to establish, so the enemy is gone, and the people of God are going to enjoy the plenty which God has planned, and there’ll be no sickness at the end. There’ll be no sin, because sin will be completely forgiven and removed and the king we’re talking about here, eventually of course, is the Lord Jesus.

I read these verses to Brian Turnbull, one of our members who died some months ago. I remember going to visit him in hospital in the palliative care unit and he was at the very end, and he was really looking forward to glory and I thought, what should I read to him? And I read to him these verses from Isaiah 33, you’re about to see the king in his beauty.

I remember a friend of mine had to go and visit his own minister when his own minister was dying.

And this young man said to his minister, how do you feel about the fact that you’re going to see the Lord Jesus, you know, within the next hours or days. And this old minister sort of tugged his legs up and he said to this young man, I’ve gotta tell you, I’m a little bit excited. It’s a great reaction, isn’t it?

And that’s the way Isaiah is speaking, you’ll see the king in his beauty, the terrors will be behind you, the pleasures will be in front of you. Again you might think this is just wishful thinking.

But it’s no different from what Jesus said, when Jesus said – I’ll take you to be with me, and where I am, you will be also.

So my friends, do you see that in chapter 32 there is a constructive fire, which Isaiah has to warn them of which will bring forth gold.

Repentance, faith, humility, devotion.

And they had to go through the fire to produce it.

And then in chapter 33 there is the destructive fire.

Where the enemy that stands up against God and against God’s people will be removed.

And then the king will stand, and the King will stand and everything to do with the King will stand.

I want to finish by just pointing out to you that um the word king in verse 1 of chapter 32 is described as a king, and I wonder if there’s anybody here this morning, and you can say to yourself, I believe there is a king – Christ, well that’s good.

Now look at 32:17.

The king is described as the king.

I wonder whether you this morning can say, I believe Jesus Christ is the king, there’s nobody else to match him, he is the king, the king of kings.

And that’s good.

And then look at chapter 33 verse 22 because the king is described as – Our king, or we might say, my King, and I wonder whether you can say that, I wonder whether you can say there is a king.

He is the king.

And he is my king.

Because it’s only if you can say he’s my king that you’ve really got to hope. May it be true.

Let’s bow our heads and pray.

We thank you, gracious God for these very precious words, especially pointing to the King in his beauty.

And we pray that you would help us not only to trust him, and follow, but rejoice in all that he has done and all that he will do, that we might be your people in this world.

Faithful, useful, thankful.

And we ask it in Jesus’ name, Amen.

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