cease from Ephraim, and the kingdom from Damascus, and the remnant of Syria, that shall be as
the glory of the children of Israel, saith the Lord of Hosts.
And that day shall come to pass that the glory of Jacob shall be made thin, and the fatness
of his flesh shall wax lean.
And it shall be as when the harvester and gathereth the corn, and reapeth the ears with
his arm.
And it shall be as he that gathereth ears in the valley of Rephaim.
Yet gleaning grapes shall be left in it, as a shaking of an olive tree, two or three berries
in the top of the uppermost bough.
Four or five in the outmost fruitful branches thereof sayeth the Lord God of Israel.
At that day shall a man look to his Maker, and his eyes shall have respect to the Holy
One of Israel.
And he shall not look to the altars, the work of his hands, neither shall respect that which
his fingers have made, either the groves or the images.
In that day shall his strong cities be as forsaken bough, and an uppermost branch which
they left because of the children of Israel, and there shall be desolation.
Because thou hast forgotten the God of thy salvation, and hast not been mindful of the
rock of thy strength, therefore shalt thou plant pleasant plants, and shalt set it with
strange slips.
In the day shalt thou make thy plant to grow, and in the morning shalt thou make thy seed
to flourish.
But the harvest shall be a heap in the day of grief and of desperate sorrow.
Woe to the multitude of many people which make a noise like the noise of the seas,
and to the rushing of nations that make a rushing like the rushing of mighty waters.
The nation shall rush like the rushing of many waters, but God shall rebuke them.
And they shall flee far off, and shall be chased as the chaff of the mountains before
the wind, and like a rolling thing before the whirlwind.
And behold, that evening tide trouble, and before the morning he is not.
This is the portion of them that spoil us, and a lot of them that rob us.
Let's pray.
Thank you, Heavenly Father, for the King James Bible, dear God, and thank you for our pastor.
Please bless him tonight as he preaches your word in Jesus' name, Amen.
Amen.
So we're continuing this evening with the book of Isaiah, is this still on?
Maybe I'm just loud.
Isaiah chapter 17, and we're going to talk about the burden of Damascus in just a bit,
but let me just give you a little bit of review from the last couple of weeks just to kind
of get us caught up on what's taking place here in the book of Isaiah.
Since chapter 13, we've essentially read and seen some of the curses that have come upon
the nation, starting off with Babylon, and of course he goes into Assyria, and just different
surrounding nations, and of course the judgments began with Israel and Judah, but now that
they've been preached against, Isaiah is essentially turning his attention to the surrounding nations
because of their sins, of their abominations, their worship of false gods, and in many cases
the fact that they rose up against God's people to punish them, to overcome them.
And of course we know that God used a lot of these wicked motives that these people
had in wanting to take over Israel and Judah in order to punish them as well.
And so we see that throughout these last couple of chapters.
Last week, the nation that was highlighted was Moab.
And Moab, what's really significant and strange about Moab is the fact that they're being
punished for being prideful, yet they're the smallest nation compared to the other nations
that are being punished.
They're very small.
It's a cousin nation of Israel.
But it's hard to say, it doesn't matter if you are big or small, if you have money or
you don't.
You know, pride is an issue of the heart, right?
And Moab had that problem.
They were extremely prideful and arrogant, and it's for that reason that God brought
severe punishment upon them in chapters 15 and 16.
Now here in chapter 17, Isaiah actually begins to preach against Damascus, which is the capital
of Syria, and Ephraim.
And keep in mind that Ephraim is just another way of saying Israel.
So often in the Bible, when you hear that phrase Ephraim, it's often collectively referring
to Israel.
And so here he's going to highlight Damascus, which is the capital of Syria, and Israel.
Now why is that?
Why is he preaching against Israel again, right?
We've seen a lot of preaching against Israel in the previous chapters.
Why talk about them again?
Well, I believe it's the fact that the judgment's going to come upon both of these nations specifically
for the reason that they're essentially joining affinity one with another against the southern
kingdom, Judah.
Israel's that northern kingdom, Judah is the southern kingdom.
The northern kingdom is essentially in agreement with Syria to fight against Judah, which is
really wicked.
It's severe because they are essentially a part of the same nation to a certain degree.
They worship the same God, obviously it's a divided kingdom, but they're essentially
joining forces with a foreign nation who worships false gods to fight against Judah.
And so God is going to punish Israel along with Syria because of this.
And we're going to look at the fate of these two nations.
Look at verse number one.
It says here the burden of Damascus.
Now when it says burden, what is it talking about?
It's saying that basically what's about to be stated right now is really heavy.
So heavy in fact that basically saying I'm going to wipe you guys out.
This is a very heavy message.
There's nothing light about it, right?
He says behold Damascus is taken away from being a city and it shall be a ruinous heaps.
The cities of Arar are forsaken.
They shall be for flocks which shall lie down and none shall make them afraid.
The fortress also shall cease from Ephraim and the kingdom from Damascus and the remnant
of Syria.
They shall be as the glory of the children of Israel say the Lord of hosts.
Now go with me if you would to 2 Chronicles chapter 28 if you would hold your place there
in Isaiah and go to 2 Chronicles chapter 28 and we're going to see what's the reason
for this particular punishment and again I believe that the reason God is including Israel
with the punishment that's going to come upon Syria is because essentially they've joined
forces against Judah and really it's an unholy union you know.
Israel's supposed to be God's people they're supposed to be God fearing people yet they
are teaming up with the godless, the ungodly, these pagans, these individuals who don't
worship the God of the Bible and they're doing it for a super wicked reason to essentially
take advantage of and take down the southern kingdom of Judah.
Now look at 2nd Chronicles 28 and verse number 6 it says here, "Wherefore the Lord his God
delivered him," referring to Ahaz, King Ahaz, "into the hand of the king of Syria and they
smote him and carried away a great multitude of them captives and brought them to Damascus
and he was also delivered into the hand of the king of Israel who smote him with a great
slaughter."
Now one thing you'll notice as you read the Old Testament is that there's been multiple
times where God has punished both Israel and Judah but you'll notice that the punishment
for Israel is always more severe than the punishment for Judah, right?
And why is that?
Well historically when you look at the kings that rule over these particular nations Israel
just had way worse kings, right?
They're always evil on the side of the Lord, they always did wickedly, whereas in Judah
you had a couple bad apples but overall they had some pretty good kings and some pretty
righteous people and in fact the southern kingdom was essentially that kingdom that
still sought the Lord, they were still serving God, right?
Whereas Israel on the other hand you might have had people, some people that served God
but for the most part they went apostate, okay?
So here we see that the king of Assyria is seeking to destroy and overcome Judah but
then we also see that the king of Israel is also seeking to do the same.
So both of these nations have a nefarious motive against Judah and God is going to use
that to punish Judah for their sins as well, okay?
He says in verse six, "For Pekah the son of Ramaliah slew in Judah a hundred and twenty
thousand in one day which were valiant men because they had forsaken the Lord God of
their fathers."
And I forgot to mention this, but as I mentioned, you know, the punishment that would come
upon Israel was far more severe.
But that doesn't mean that Judah did not suffer casualties, right?
As we see here, a hundred and twenty thousand in one day.
But the difference is, is that Judah remained a people, whereas Israel became scattered
in the long run.
He says in verse seven, "And Zichri a mighty man of Ephraim slew Maseiah the king's son
and Azraqam the governor of the house, and Elkanah that was next to the king, and the
children of Israel carried away captive of their brethren," referring to Judah, "two
hundred thousand women, sons and daughters, and took also away much spoil from them and
brought the spoil to Samaria, which is the capital of Israel.
But a prophet of the Lord was there, whose name was Oded, and he went out before the
host that came to Samaria and said unto them, Behold, because the Lord God of your fathers
was wrought with Judah, he had delivered them into your hand.
Listen to this, and ye have slain them in a rage that reacheth up into heaven.
So God is saying, Hey, you know, God's electing you to punish Judah, but you're a little excessive
about this.
You know, they're being very excessive.
It says the rage, you know, they slew them with the rage that reaches up into heaven.
And God is the God of justice.
He's not just going to let that go.
He's not, he's not going to let that fly.
He's not going to turn a blind eye to the injustices that Israel's doing to Judah.
He says in verse 10, and now you purpose to keep under the children of Judah and Jerusalem
for bondman and bondwoman unto you.
But are there not with you, even with you, listen to this, sins against the Lord your
God.
So he's saying, you know, you think you're all high and mighty for overcoming and destroying
Judah, but just keep in mind, God hasn't overlooked your sins, right?
He hasn't overlooked your faults, the things that you're doing and the fact that you've
behaved extremely wickedly against the Lord, far more exceedingly than even the Southern
kingdom of Judah.
And the point that I'm making here is the fact that, you know, even though God used
Israel and he used Syria to punish Judah, they're not without excuse.
God's going to get them as well.
And it should remind us that if you see nations around the world that seem to be succeeding
or you know, they seem to be succeeding or achieving great accomplishments through wicked
means, it doesn't mean that God is favoring them.
You know, they're going to get theirs in the long run.
We see that pattern throughout the Old Testament.
But here's another principle that I want to pull from this, and that is that God doesn't
approve of unequal unions, even if it's for the greater good.
You have two nations here that are in agreement.
Israel and Syria have joined, they're in affinity.
They're in agreement.
They've committed together against Judah, and they essentially found common ground.
They're going to overcome Judah, and Judah's being wicked, so it kind of works to their
advantage.
But at the end of the day, God doesn't approve of that unequal union.
The point that I'm making there is the fact that God doesn't really approve of us joining
forces with other sects of Christianity or other religions just because they may agree
with us on a particular point.
God doesn't approve of that.
And in fact, as I was thinking about this this afternoon, nothing accomplishes this
better than the right-wing conservative Republicans, politics.
You would think that in the scope of Christianity, that which brings Christians together should
be Jesus, the Bible, salvation, the gospel.
But no, it's not.
The thing that brings Christians together more than anything is actually politics.
And in fact, you know, the thing that brings quote unquote Christians together, we're talking
about Catholics, Orthodox, Mormons, you know, anybody who leans towards believing the Bible,
you know, here's the thing is that Christians will quickly join affinity with these groups
because they share a common cause, they share a common interest, you know, which is America.
They want to save America and so let's all join hands and save the nation.
But folks, let me just remind you that God doesn't approve of that unholy union.
Okay.
You say why?
Because the Bible tells us to have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but
rather approve them.
And just because a Catholic agrees with me about particular issues, you know, cultural
issues, secular issues, you know, the abominations of the land or certain types of sins or whatever.
Or just because we agree on not liking liberals.
You know, the left wing, we understand what the agenda of the left wing is and, you know,
these liberals and these communists.
We may agree on that, but that doesn't mean we join forces with them to combat that.
And you know, politics has done a really good job in unifying different segments of Christianity.
You know what?
God doesn't approve of that because he wants us to esteem the Bible and his principles
far more than our political ideologies.
And you know what?
I'm just here to remind you that Christians need to stop being so political and be more
Christian.
Be more doctrinal in what they believe and the stances that they take.
You know, your political stance shouldn't be stronger than your Christian stance, okay?
And this isn't something that's new.
This has happened throughout biblical history.
We've seen this multiple times, where kings were just notorious for teaming up with a
wicked king, a righteous king is notorious for teaming up with a wicked king to fight
against another person, you know, a common enemy that they had.
And that's not right.
You know, one of the most famous examples is Jehoshaphat, right?
Jehoshaphat was the king of Judah, and he joined forces with Ahab, who was the king
of Israel, the northern kingdom, and he was a super wicked king.
His wife was Jezebel, and she was extremely wicked herself, and in fact, many of his evil
exploits were done because she coaxed him into doing a lot of those things.
But, you know, in 2 Chronicles chapter 18, you have the story of Jehoshaphat and Ahab,
and they're kind of hanging out, and Ahab wants to take over Ramoth Gilead, but he wants
to double his forces, so he essentially recruits Jehoshaphat and the southern kingdom to fight
with him against to overcome Ramoth Gilead, and he asks him, "Are you with me?" and this
righteous king, which is Jehoshaphat, he's a good king, he's not a wicked king at all,
he just keeps bad company, he says, "I am as thou art, thy people as my people, and
we will go to war with thee."
It's like, what in the world?
And to add insult to injury, Ahab tells Jehoshaphat, he's like, "All right," and I'm paraphrasing
here, but he's like, "Okay, when we go out to war, I just need you to dress up like me.
In case when we go out to the field, someone thinks that they're trying to get me.
I don't want them to kill me, so why don't you go ahead and dress like the king of Israel?"
And you would think Jehoshaphat would be like, "No, thank you.
What about me, Ahab?
What's going to happen to me?"
That discussion apparently wasn't taking place there.
So they go on the battlefield, and here's the thing.
The prophecy against Ahab was already in full force, and God had already prophesied that
he was going to die.
So it doesn't matter if he gave his kingly raiment to another person.
He can't hide from God, right?
So he gives the clothing to Jehoshaphat.
Jehoshaphat's in his chariot, and the guys are out to get him.
And then he screams, and he's like, "I'm not him!"
And they're like, "Oh, this isn't King Ahab."
So they spare him, and they go out looking for the king of Israel.
They don't find him, but there's a random guy who's just nameless.
The Bible says that he just cast the bow out of venture, meaning there's this melee of
war going on, and this guy is just like, "Lord, guide this arrow."
And he ends up smiting Ahab between the joints and the harness, because God just guides that.
And then he bleeds out in his chariot and he dies.
So he can change his garment, he can do all these things, but he can just call as a random
guy who's probably just like, "I'm just going to look busy."
He's like, "I just got to look busy in this battlefield," and God just used that to kill
Ahab.
Well, Jehoshaphat returns to his home in peace.
He's not wicked.
He got involved in a stupid relationship with this person and his dumb affinity.
Ahab dies, but then Jehu, the son of Hanani, comes to him, who's a prophet, and he has
a sermon for him.
And he tells them, "Shouldest thou help the ungodly and love them to hate the Lord?"
It's a very powerful statement.
Confronts the king, he's like, "Why are you helping ungodly people and loving them that
hate the Lord?"
And really, Jehu didn't have an answer for him, because what is he referring to?
He's referring to Ahab, who's ungodly.
And in my personal opinion, he's not the one who hates the Lord.
It's his wife who hates the Lord, because Jezebel was extremely wicked, and I believe
she did more wickedly than her husband.
And a lot of the evil stuff that he did was because of her influence.
So I think when he says, "Should it not help the ungodly," he's referring to Ahab, because
he was ungodly.
But when he talks about those who hate the Lord, he's also referring to Jezebel, because
by proxy, because she's his wife, he's aiding her as well.
And what a shameful thing to be asked.
As a believer, as someone who claims to believe in the God of the Bible, that you're guilty
of helping the ungodly and loving them who hate the Lord.
And it doesn't end there.
He says, "Therefore, wrath is upon thee from before the Lord."
So he's specifically telling them you're going to suffer some severe punishment because you're
aiding the ungodly and you're loving them that hate the Lord.
And you know what?
Nothing in the New Testament says that that principle is repealed.
God still expects us as His people to be loyal to Him and to not aid and assist the ungodly
in their ungodliness, to advocate for what they're doing and to help them by joining
forces with them and to love them that hate the Lord.
God was completely against that and He says, "Therefore, wrath is upon thee from before
the Lord."
Sounds to me like God did not approve of that unholy union between Jehoshaphat and Ahab.
In the New Testament, obviously we're not in a physical war.
This is not a physical battle.
The Bible says that we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities,
powers, and the rules of the darkness of this world.
It's not a physical altercation that we're getting into, it's a spiritual battle.
The Bible even tells us that we should not even bid God speed of those who bring not
the doctrines of Christ to us.
Specifically says that those who don't bring the doctrines of Christ to us, we shouldn't
invite them into our home, neither bid him God speed, for he that doeth so says, the
Bible says, is a partaker of his evil deeds.
The most practical way to apply that is when a Mormon comes to your house, they're preaching
a false gospel.
I mean, I shouldn't have to tell a Baptist church that, but it's important to clarify
that.
They teach a false gospel just like the Jehovah's Witnesses, just like the repent of your sins
crowd.
It's a gospel that's a curse.
And if they bring that to you, it's not a noble, godly thing to invite them into your
home or to say, all right, God bless you or goodbye.
You know, you're like, oh, you can't even say, it says, don't even bid him God's speed.
You know, goodbye is basically bidding God's, he's like, have a good, you know, farewell
or whatever.
It says there that if you do so, God views it as you participating or advocating for
their ministry.
Well, that's a little extreme.
Yeah.
You know, God is a little extreme for sure.
You know, if I remember correctly, one of his names is jealous, like capital J. He says
my name is jealous.
You mean I can't even say bye to those people is yeah, he's jealous.
You know, if you could picture it's like God saying, oh, like, are you going to also wear
short sleeves and put a badge on your shirt that says elder and ride around a stupid bike
and preach a false gospel to is like, well, no, I just thought it was a Christian thing
to do.
No, the Christian thing to do is not bid them Godspeed.
And then mind you, this is New Testament.
Why?
Because God does not approve of us joining for well, you know, they're kind of right
on something.
They're not right on anything.
Folks, if you're not right on salvation, you're not right on anything.
Okay.
You know, even if you are right on eschatology, you're right on Israel and replacement theology,
but you're not right on salvation.
You're not right.
Okay.
The reason you're right on the things that you're right about is because you've copied
the people who are right and who are saved at the end of the day.
Okay.
You know, the Bible tells us they that forsake the law, praise the wicked, but such as keep
the law contend with them.
So the point that I'm making here is the fact that one of the reasons, go back to Isaiah
chapter 17, if you wouldn't, one of the reasons why God is punishing Israel is because they
join forces with the wicked nation against his people.
And so, you know, we're not going to have this kumbaya.
We should never have a kumbaya type of atmosphere with Christians, or we're cool with the Catholics
and we're cool with the Orthodox.
We're cool with the, you know, Mormons or the, you know, whatever, you know, canopy
of Christians.
If they're not right on the doctrine, we can't be cool with them.
That's what the Bible says.
And keep in mind, you know, here's a good scripture here to, to, to kind of talk about
Israel and Syria, though hand joined in hand, the wicked shall not be unpunished.
And that's a good picture right there, you know, oh, we're going to join hands together
against the forces of darkness, the forces of evil.
God's like, no, if you're joining forces with wicked people, you're going to suffer the
punishment of wicked people.
That's how, that's how hard he draws the line.
You know, that kind of preaching is necessary more today than ever before, because the day
and age in which we live, every Christian wants to make excuses for every Christian
that claims to be Christian, that claims to believe the Bible, that claims to say they
believe in Jesus, but folks, you know, we need to question and ask people what they
actually believe about the Bible, because, you know, if someone says, you know, they
believe in Jesus, but they believe Jesus is the father, uh-uh, not the same one.
The Bible talks about another Jesus.
It says that people come and preach another Jesus, and no sympathy, empathy, or love should
be shown to that doctrine or to those groups of people.
Obviously, and look, I'm not saying that people who are deceived by that, you know, we shouldn't
try to reach them, but the reality is this, is that we do try to reach people like that
all the time.
You know, the percentage of people that we speak to outdoor to door, you're going to
run into people who believe in all types of weird stuff and we're not biased when we go
out there.
We don't have like a bias opinion about who we're preaching the gospel to.
We want to preach the gospel to everyone.
Okay.
And look, I despise Catholicism with every fiber of my being and probably my hatred for
Catholicism and Catholicism has grown even more over the last couple of months where
it's just a, it's a grief of mine into me.
But you know what?
When I go out and preach the gospel, I run into Catholics all the time and I genuinely
love them in my heart because I want them to be saved.
If someone tells me, you know, I go to the Catholic church and St. Whatever and you know,
I do the catechism, I'm not like, apostate.
You guys are a bastardization of Christianity.
See a sucker, you know, I'm not going to, you know, say that, you know, you say, what's
your attitude?
My attitude is like, this person is lost and I genuinely hope this person gets saved.
And when I approach them, I approach them with meekness and fear.
You know, I walk on eggshells around unsafe people.
Yes, I do.
When I'm at the door, I walk on eggshells.
I tread lightly.
Why?
Because their soul hangs in the balance.
And right there, I'm not there to preach Isaiah 17 to them.
I'm there to preach the gospel to them so that they can be saved.
And so the point that I'm making is that I'm not saying that we shouldn't love Catholics
and Orthodox, love them so that you give them the gospel.
But you know what?
What I see far too much, especially on social media, is a bunch of Christians just kind
of joining forces with these people and making excuses for what they believe because, oh,
because they're voting for Trump or something.
It's just like, well, you know, they believe right on this and they're right about this
and they're trying to get the right people in.
Folks, there is no such thing as the right people.
They don't exist in the political realm.
There's none righteous, no not one.
And you know, I know you want to point to Old Testament scriptures of kings, but we're
not under that system right now.
And we're not under a theocracy.
I wish we were, but that's not the case right now.
One day we will be again, but that's not the case right now.
Okay.
And so I have the unsavory responsibility to remind our church that you're a Christian
first.
And in fact, you're, you should only be a Christian.
There's no second or third.
You know what I mean?
It's just, we're just Christians.
And maybe the, a close second is Baptist.
Amen.
If you really want to get specific about it.
And if you really want to get more specific, it's like new IFB, just to kind of, because
we got to keep labeling, put labels on there to make us different from, from what people,
what's out there.
Labels are good.
Amen.
You know, we had a lot of problems at the grocery store of what to get.
If everything just, nothing had labels, it's just like, well, it's all food, right?
You go home.
It's like dog food.
It's like, oh crap.
You know, point that I'm making is, you know, the Bible says, be not unequally owed together
with unbelievers for what fellowship has righteousness with unrighteousness.
The Bible tells us what Concord hath Christ with Belial, what agreement had the temple
of God with idols.
That's New Testament.
And look, you've got to understand there's a very clear distinction between what we believe
and what these other religions believe.
And keep in mind, I understand there's other churches out there that believe like us, that
are not Baptists.
And you know what?
Praise God for them.
There's other churches out there that preach the gospel, they have the right doctrine,
and they're serving God wherever they're at.
And praise God for them.
I'm talking about those who are under the cloak of Christianity, but they actually reject
the Bible.
They believe in a false gospel, we should have no fellowship with that.
And not say, "Well, but they're right politically."
I don't care.
That means absolutely nothing to me.
And it should mean absolutely nothing to you as well.
And so he's punishing Israel, he's punishing Ephraim and Syria because they're joining
forces there.
And it says in verse number three, I want you to notice it says, "The fortress also
shall cease from Ephraim."
What does that mean?
It's like, hey, the strongest of fortifications are not going to help you against the Lord.
So your fortresses is just nothing to God.
You can build up the highest of walls, but cursed be he that put his trust in man.
Because at the end of the day, nothing can save you from God's wrath.
The Bible says in Psalm 33 verse 17, I like this verse, "And horse is a vain thing for
safety.
Neither shall he deliver any by his great strength."
And more specifically is that he can't deliver you, especially if God's against you.
God's against you, doesn't matter how high your walls are, how large of an, how vast
of an army you have, how much artillery you possess, you're going to get it if that's
God's will.
And if you are living in complete rebellion against him, look at verse number four.
So we see there the fate of these two nations.
Now we're going to look at the fading glory of Israel.
He says, "And in that day, it shall come to pass that the glory of Jacob shall be
made thin and the fatness of his flesh shall wax lean."
Now, what is this talking about?
Well, specifically it's referring to the fact that the Assyrians would ultimately decimate
Israel to the point where no glory shall be left in it.
Okay.
It's just going to be an ugly nation, just ruinous heaps.
It's not going to have any glory.
It's not going to look powerful and strong.
It's not going to look like the nation that God wanted it to look like when he first established
it.
Okay.
And you know, that is in its most literal sense, what's going to happen to it.
But it's also a foreshadowing of what's going to happen to the nation of Israel spiritually
in the New Testament, because when you look at both testaments, you actually come to the
realization that the physical nation of Israel represents the old covenant.
They're essentially almost synonymous one with another.
Okay.
Unless they believe on the Lord, they're essentially represented by the old covenant, old testament.
Now go to second Corinthians chapter three, if you would hold your place there in Isaiah.
So this is foreshadowing the glory because he's saying basically the glory of Israel
is going to just vanish away.
It's going to fade away.
It's going to be like leanness where it's just like you have Ephraim also referred to
as Jacob, also referred to as Israel, just kind of wasting away, you know, it's like
they're on this prolonged fast and there's just eating up all the muscle, all the fat
and they're just kind of withering away. He's saying that's going to be the glory of Israel
is just going to cease to exist at one point. Okay. So Israel represents the old covenant
that eventually faded away in the New Testament. And in fact, look at second cross, excuse
me, second Corinthians chapter three, verse seven, it says, but if the ministration of
death written and engraven in stones was glorious so that the children of Israel could not stead
fastly behold the face of Moses for the glory of his countenance, which glory was to be
done away.
Now, what is he referring to?
Well, if it's saying engraven, written and engraven in stones, it's referring to those
two tables of stone that we talked about on Sunday night, referring to the 10 commandments
that represents the old covenant, right?
And he's saying there that that's called the ministration of death because of the fact
that the purpose of the law is to kill you.
Can't give you any life.
It's there to kill you.
Okay.
You can't keep the law to be saved because it's there.
It's an assassin is there to just take you out.
There's nothing in the law that can give you life.
Okay.
It's the ministration of death.
But it says there that it was rather glorious.
Right.
In other words, there was glory in the Old Testament through that Old Covenant, meaning
that it was given by God.
The laws are superior to all the laws of this world.
They are glorious.
They're wonderful.
The law of God is great and it manifested itself in a physical way in the countenance
of Moses.
In other words, when he went up to Mount Sinai to receive these two tables of stone, when
he came down, he was like shining.
He was, he was mauging everyone, right?
It was like no one could even like look at who's beside him because he's just so glorious.
Right?
You understand what I'm saying?
I'm speaking to the young people.
You old folks, don't worry.
They're like, "What is mauging?"
Don't worry about it.
This is for the younger crowd.
I got to speak to the Gen Z'ers every once in a while.
But it was so glorious that he had to literally cover his face because the glory of his shining
face was just so bright.
People couldn't look at him.
They couldn't look at him.
So it's essentially describing how wonderful and glorious the Old Testament is.
So we don't want to speak irreverently of the Old Testament to say there's no glory
in it.
Right?
It's very glorious.
God established it for a purpose.
Right?
He says in verse eight, "How shall not the ministration of the Spirit be rather glorious?"
So at the end of verse seven, it says that it was glorious, but the glory was supposed
to be done away eventually, meaning that it was going to be null and void at a certain
point.
And he says that the ministration of the Spirit, referring to the New Testament, will be rather
glorious.
In other words, it'll have more glory than the Old Covenant.
He says in verse nine, "For if the ministration of condemnation be glory," referring to that
Old Covenant, "much more that the ministration of righteousness exceed in glory, for even
that which was made glorious had no glory in this respect, by reason of the glory that
excelleth."
This is just another fancy way of saying, even though the Old Testament was glorious,
it just doesn't compare to the glory of the New Testament.
Why?
Because grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.
The pinnacle apex of glory is Jesus, and because Jesus was revealed in the New Testament,
it's way better.
That's why they call it a better testament, established upon better promises with a better
mediator.
It's just greater than that old covenant.
So the point that he that he's making here is that the New Testament new covenant is
better than the old, it excels in its glory.
Verse 11, for if that which is done away was glorious, much more that which remaineth is
glorious.
Now let me read to you from Hebrews chapter eight, verse 13, it says, he in that he saved
a new covenant, he hath made the first old.
Now that which decayeth and waxeth old is ready to vanish away.
The point that I'm making here is that Israel's fading glory in Isaiah chapter 17 is a picture
of that old Testament that is ready to vanish away.
And obviously at this point is already gone.
Okay.
And I think the reason why Hebrews Hebrews eight says that it's ready to vanish away
is because the book of Hebrews is written when pretty much in the first century AD.
So if in that first century when the new covenant was established, it was inaugurated, you still
have pockets of people that are still observing that old covenant and still even performing
the Old Testament sacrifices.
So it hasn't completely vanished away.
Right.
And we have proof of that.
We see that in the book of Acts, there's people who are saved that are still observing
times and seasons.
They're still performing animal sacrifices because they don't really know about that
new covenant until the gospel came to them.
The name of Jesus Christ was revealed to them.
But it came to a point that at least after the first century AD, that old covenant is
completely gone.
Okay.
So along with that, Israel's gone basically, right?
It's no longer the people of God because the New Testament, the people of God are all believers.
You understand what I'm saying?
And it's rather glorious.
God's people in the New Testament are far more glorious than the God's people of the
Old Testament.
You say, well, how so?
Well, think about the quantity of believers that exists now compared to the quantity of
believers that existed in the old covenant.
The old covenant believers, to a certain extent, obviously there's believers all over the world
to a certain degree because there's prophets preaching all over all places, but geographically
it was only subject to that Middle East portion of the world, whereas now it's just this chosen
generation is found in all different nations and all tongues.
There's believers all over the world throughout the generation.
We would say, wow, it's far more glorious, right?
It excels in glory because of the work that's been accomplished.
So go back to Isaiah chapter 17.
The point that I'm making there is the fact that this fading glory of Israel that's being
wiped away is symbolically representing the fact that that old covenant will one day also
be wiped away, vanish away.
It'll be famished.
It'll be gone because, you know, the new covenant is on its way.
Look at verse five.
It says, and it shall come to pass when the harvest men gather at the corn and reap at
the ears with his arm, and it shall be as he that gathereth ears in the valley of Rephaim,
yet gleaning grapes shall be left in it as the shaking of an olive tree, two or three
berries in the top of the uppermost bow, four or five in the outmost fruitful branches thereof,
saith the Lord God of Israel.
Now, what is this talking about?
Well, the immediate interpretation is the fact that when the Assyrians come to take
over Israel, you know, he's going to decimate it, but only a couple of people are going
to be left behind, okay?
In other words, you know, the conquering of Israel is going to be so complete that if
anybody survives, it only be a couple of berries, you know, the harvest man comes and he reaps
the entire harvest.
You might find a couple of berries here and there, but it has to be like at the top of
the bowl, right?
Some place that was missed is what it's saying.
In other words, it's essentially talking about the thoroughness of God's destruction
upon Israel.
But we see here that what he's also saying is that a remnant shall be left, right?
And throughout the Old Testament, you always see that when God destroys, brings judgment
upon Judah and Israel, he always says that a remnant is going to be left.
Now this remnant that's left behind is not based upon just because they're Israel or
just because they're Judah or just because they're Jews, okay?
It's not this, "Well, you know what?
They are Jews, they're Israelites, therefore we're just going to leave them behind."
Because look what it says in verse 7, "At that day shall a man look to his maker and
his eyes shall have respect to the Holy One of Israel and he shall not look to the altars,
the work of his hands, neither shall respect that which his fingers have made either the
groves or the images."
So the remnant is based upon what?
It's based upon the condition that they look towards the God of the Bible.
Obviously in the Old Testament they weren't looking towards Jesus because they didn't
know Jesus by name.
The Old Testament, they knew him by the Old Testament names, you know, Jehovah.
They knew him as the Lord God.
The names by which he revealed himself in the Old.
The point that I'm making here is that the only reason they were spared was why?
It's because they were looking towards their maker.
It's not because, "Oh, you know, you guys can keep worshipping Moloch and Remfan and
I'm going to spare you even though you're worshipping these false gods."
The condition is they had to look to the maker.
They had to look towards the God of Israel.
So the condition was still the same in the Old Testament.
They had to be believers.
And in fact, the reason why judgment is coming upon them is because they're worshipping false
gods, right?
They're not worshipping the God of the Bible.
And this is not controversial at all.
In the Old Testament, the condition that God gave Israel in Deuteronomy was that they can
remain the people of God as long as they believed on the Lord, as long as they obey the covenant.
Once they decided not to obey the covenant, God said, "Okay, I'm going to bring foreigners
to take you out."
A new generation would come back that would believe on the Lord.
And that was essentially the pattern that we see in the Old Testament.
But a remnant was always left, but the remnant was always based upon a people that believed
on the Lord.
And so this is a picture of the fact that salvation is conditional.
What's the condition?
You have to believe on the Lord.
That has always been the condition.
It reminds you of 1st Thessalonians 1.9 that says, "For they themselves show of us what
manner of entering in we had unto you, and how ye turned to God from idols, to serve
the living and true God."
This is a little interjection here, but in order for someone to be saved, obviously they
have to believe on Jesus Christ, but let me just say this, exclusively on Jesus Christ.
They cannot add Mary to that.
They can't add these false Hindu gods and just kind of aggregate some other deities
to their belief in Jesus.
It's only by Jesus Christ.
So Jesus is not added to their myriad of false deities.
It has to be exclusively on Jesus.
And so they have to turn to God from idols, implying that they're trusting in those idols
to be saved.
So they have to forsake that.
And let me just say this, is that when someone gets saved, I don't believe people can still
struggle with worshiping false gods.
You understand what I'm saying?
I think people can struggle with idolatry, which is a little different in the sense that
people can get saved but they keep their little idol because it holds some sort of sentimental
value because of a person that gave it to them.
You understand what I'm saying?
But that's still idolatry though, right?
So it's just like, "Well, you know, I'm a Christian, but my abuelita, you know, she
gave me this San whatever, Santa Muerte or something, you know, she gave me this Santa
Maria and all this or whatever and I don't worship it.
I just have it because, you know, my abuelita gave it to me."
That thing needs to be burned and thrown in the trash or something because God considers
that idolatry because you are esteeming that and we know that the idol isn't anything,
right?
But it's obviously a devil, but at the end of the day, you know, God doesn't approve
of that.
And so, you know, what I'm saying is that when someone believes on Jesus Christ, I don't
think if they genuinely believe in Jesus Christ, they're going to be like, "Man, I wish I couldn't
worship Mary right now, like, it's ugly in my heart right now, like, I just want to say
those 50 Hail Marys.
I've got to fight this urge, you know, and I just wish I could worship those saints or
something.
This doesn't exist.
You understand what I'm saying?
Because people will point to like Solomon, "Well, you know, he had all these false gods
and he was worshiping them," or whatever.
Well, he was building altars to false gods because of his wives.
He was doing it to placate his wives, okay?
But in his heart, he actually was saved.
He was a believer, but he was committing idolatry because he's constructing these idols for
his pagan wives.
And so Christians can still commit idolatry, even when saved, only because it holds sentimental
value or because they're compromised because of their spouse or something like that.
I'm sure there's times when the spouse has gone to some Catholic church because of their
spouse and they went through the whole rigmarole of the Catholic mass service or whatever.
It's sinful, especially if you're bound to statutes and stuff and going through that
whole routine.
That's idolatry.
Yeah, but I'm doing it to placate, okay, whatever, but you're still committed to idolatry.
Confess that unto the Lord, not unto the priest by the way.
The point that I'm making here is the fact that in order for someone to be saved though,
they have to trust on Jesus Christ and remove their trust from that idol, which is the implication
that's given here in Isaiah 17 is that they're looking towards their maker, they're forsaking
the works of their hands, et cetera.
Now go to Romans 11, Romans 11, because we're going to go on the same thought here because
obviously we're dealing with Israel in Isaiah chapter 17 and you know, you have a group
of people commonly referred to as dispensationalist, right?
Zionist Christians, whatever you want to call them.
And you know, they still hold to this belief that the Jews are God's chosen people.
And to that I say, amen, if they're believers in Christ though, but at that point you shouldn't
call them Jews because in Christ Jesus, there's neither Jew nor Gentile.
And there's nowhere in the Bible does it say Judeo-Christian or Masianic Jew or whatever.
There's no special title given to a person of a specific ethnic background because they
convert to Christianity.
And there's no specific title, special title given to a person or an amalgamation of two
religions of Christianity and Judaism.
So no matter which way you want to cut it, it was like, well, it's because they're ethnically
Jewish.
So there's nothing in the Bible that says go ahead and add your Jewish, your ethnic
title to your religious title here.
It's only Christian.
But let's just say we're talking about their religion.
Well, for sure, you know, there's no adding another religion as a prefix to Christianity
or something.
It's only Christian.
Okay.
And so, uh, well, you should be more patient with people and be more kind.
No, God says this though.
Okay.
And look, let me just say this is that to be a Christian, you have to believe that Christianity
is the superior religion to all religions of the world.
And all religions are inferior and so inferior in fact that it'll all take you to hell.
There's only one religion that'll take you to heaven.
And by religion, I mean the belief in Christ, right?
That's what we're talking about.
Now often when you bring up this subject, people will bring up Romans 11.
It's like their goat.
It's like their ha ha.
Oh yeah.
It's just like, well, what about this?
You know, but Romans 11 is actually one of my favorite chapters to go to when it comes
to the subject of replacement theology, because it teaches a replacement theology.
It says in verse number one, I say then have God cast away his people, God forbid.
And that's when they just stopped reading.
They're like, boom, boom, right?
It's like the whole, don't judge.
And then they go to Matthew seven.
They only read like the first part of Matthew seven and that's it.
He says, God forbid for I also am an Israelites of the seat of Abraham of the tribe of Benjamin.
So why is he saying God forbid regarding the casting away of his people?
Well, the person speaking is the apostle Paul who is an Israelite.
He's of the seat of Abraham.
He's of the tribe of Benjamin and he saved.
So he's saying God hasn't cast away his people because his people of the Old Testament who
believed on Jesus Christ like the apostle Paul remain the people of God.
They're grandfathered into the New Testament.
He says God has not cast away his people, which he foreknew.
Are you not what the scripture sayeth of Elias?
How he maketh intercessions to God against Israel, saying, "Lord, they have killed thy
prophets and digged down thine altars and I am left alone and they seek my life."
By the way, I want you to notice that he's making a distinction between himself and Israel.
Elijah is of Israel.
So how can he be big?
Wait a minute.
You are God's chosen people.
No, he's making a distinction between believing Israel and unbelieving Israel.
And in fact, to the point where he's preaching against them or he's praying against them.
He says in verse 4, "But what sayeth the answer of God unto him, I have reserved for myself
seven thousand men who have not bowed the knee to the image of Baal."
Now hold on a second.
If he's saying he's reserved to himself seven thousand people who have not bowed the knee
to Baal, that means every other Israelite was bowing the knee to Baal.
Meaning they were not worshiping the God of the Bible, they're worshiping Baal.
And if you're worshiping Baal, which is the devil, you're not saved.
Can we all agree on that?
That if you're worshiping Satan, you're not saved, right?
So he gives a little historical fact there, he's just dropping some historical facts there.
And then he makes the application to his day, verse five, "Even so, then at this present
time, also there is a remnant according to the election of grace."
Now what does the election of grace mean?
Just a fancy way of saying, by grace are you saved through faith.
The election of grace is referring to salvation.
So he's saying that the remnant that you saw in Elijah's day, who did not bow beneath
the belt because they were saved, they believe in the Lord in like manner, there is also
a remnant today, but it's based upon the election of grace, meaning just like the apostle Paul,
they're saved.
He says, and if by grace, then it is no more of works, otherwise grace is no more grace.
But if it be of works, then it is no more of grace.
Otherwise work is no more work.
Great verse to use there to show that you can't mix works with grace to be saved.
You will make it null and void if you do.
I want you to notice verse seven, what then Israel has not obtained that which he seek
it for, but the election hath obtained it and the rest were blinded.
So the apostle Paul is clearly making a distinction here between Israel and the election showing
us that Israel cannot be the elect if he's making a difference between the two.
And he's saying that Israel didn't obtain that which they saw for, but those who were
elected did obtained it and the Israel that he's referring to were blinded.
This is the same group of people that were worshiping Baal, you understand?
Skip down to verse 22, "Behold therefore the goodness and severity of God on them which
fell severity," referring to the physical nation of Israel, "but toward thee goodness.
If thou continue in his goodness, otherwise thou also shall be cut off.
And they also," listen to this, "if they abide not still in unbelief shall be grafted in,
for God is able to graft them in again."
So what is he saying?
No, they don't have to remain in this pagan, you know, Moloch, star of remfan, religious
state that they're in.
They could actually get saved if they wanted to.
And so they can become the elect, they can become the actual Israel of God, if what?
They don't remain in unbelief.
So it sounds to me like the condition that was set forth in Isaiah 17 is still present
even today.
Because he's saying if they don't, you know, if they stop just being Christ rejecting Israelites,
they can be saved.
I mean, the condition is pretty simple.
And obviously this applies to the entire world, right?
But the context here is Israel.
And so the point that I'm making here is that what God wants of Israel in the Old Testament
in the Book of Isaiah is for them to turn to their maker.
And let me just let me just state the obvious here.
Our maker is Jesus Christ, okay?
So it's not like, well, they believe in God, they don't believe in God because they don't
believe on Jesus Christ.
He is the maker.
By him all things consist.
That's what the Bible says, right?
In the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God.
All things were made by him and without him was not anything made that was made.
That's a wonderful verse there.
So anything that was made was not made without him.
He is the creator.
So in the Old Testament they have to look to their maker, Jehovah, the Lord God, the
Tetragrammaton.
But in the New Testament because Jesus, the name of Jesus revealed, they have to look
to Jesus and they have to believe on him and realize that they're unsaved and they need
Jesus Christ to save them.
You know what the Bible says, "Who is a liar, but he that deny that Jesus is the Christ,
he is anti-Christ, that deny the Father and the Son."
Showing it's clear that they can say that they're worshiping God all they want, but
if they're rejecting the Son, God interprets that as a rejection of him.
Not as a, "Well, we like God, the Father, we just don't accept God, the Son."
Doesn't work that way.
You might as well say you don't accept God, the Holy Spirit, because they're God, they're
all God.
And so another way of saying this is you have to believe in the Trinity to be saved, because
it's the whole package.
You can't just accept one.
It's not like, "Well, you know, we accept Jesus, but you know, we think the Holy Spirit
is a force."
Okay, you can't have salvation then.
I got you.
If that's what you believe, you just can't be saved.
You can believe whatever you want.
It's just not going to save you, because the Holy Spirit is a person, and he is God, okay?
Go back to Isaiah.
We're going to finish up Isaiah 17.
You know, he's given these conditions.
He's saying, you know, those who look to the Maker, they forsake their altars.
And you know, a lot of Christians today seem to forget these verses, that the Israelites
were major, major worshipers of false gods.
Not only were they worshipers of false gods, they were major constructors of false gods.
They're like making them, selling them.
Their land is just filled with, it's basically like India and Israel.
Basically Cambodia and Israel.
You take what Cambodia, you know, Southeast Asia, India is now, and you just basically
say that was Israel during this time.
Because they literally had false gods like on every corner.
Why? I thought they were like, you know, that the nation of Israel, yeah, which would explain
why their punishment is so severe.
Look at verse number nine.
I got to finish up here.
"In that day shall his strong cities be as a forsaken bow, and an uppermost branch which
they left because of the children of Israel, and there shall be desolation, because that
was forgotten the God of thy salvation, and has not been mindful of the rock of thy strength.
Therefore shalt thou plant pleasant plants, and shall set it with strange slips.
In the day shalt thou make thy plant grow, and in the morning shalt thou make thy seed
to flourish, but the harvest shall be a heap in the day of grief and of desperate sorrow."
Now let me just cover this and I'm done, okay?
Because he's saying, you know, I'm punishing you because you forgot me, is what he's saying,
right?
You forgot the God of your salvation.
And in its most literal interpretation, it's basically means they went apostate.
Because when you compare what it means to forget with what they actually did, what did
they do?
They started worshiping false gods.
So God interprets you worshiping a false god as you forgetting the God of your salvation.
You understand what I'm saying?
So if they're worshiping false gods, they're basically saying they're not saved.
And God words that as forgetting the God of your salvation.
Now that's not very far removed from what we see in the New Testament.
Okay?
Let me read to you from 1 Corinthians 15 verse 1, it says, "Moreover, brethren, I declare
unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also you have received in wearing
ye sin, by which also ye are saved," listen to this, "if ye keep in memory what I have
preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain."
So what is it saying?
It's saying that, you know, the Apostle Paul is telling the Corinthian church, "Hey, you're
saved if you remember what I've told you about salvation."
Okay?
And the context of 1 Corinthians 15 is what?
What is the main theme of 1 Corinthians 15?
What?
Resurrection, which is essential to be saved, right?
You have to believe in the resurrection, but you had Corinthians that were questioning
whether there was a resurrection.
And it's not because the apostle Paul wasn't thorough, because he explained to the Corinthians
the gospel, which a part of that, is the resurrection.
So he's saying, you know, you're saved if you keep in memory what I've told you though,
right?
Because if they forgot that, it basically means they don't believe that.
And it's not like they forgot it like they forgot that piece of information.
Because what are they doing?
They're questioning the resurrection.
So it's something they know about, but they're rejecting.
God interprets it as like, okay, then you've believed in vain if you claim to have believed
that previously.
So when a person says, oh man, I'm a Mormon now, hook me up with those short sleeve shirts,
give me a bike, a 10 speeder or whatever, what do I got to do?
And it's just like, oh, you believed in vain.
They're like, no, no, no, I'm so saved.
I believe in Jesus.
It's like, no, you've gone apostate.
You have forgotten the God of your salvation, understand?
So it's a great way to kind of see that in Isaiah because they're worshiping false gods
and God's saying, you forgot me.
I'm not your God anymore.
I mean, that's sad.
That's so sad.
Forgot to tell them, I'm like the God of your salvation.
You forgot me.
You don't even worship me anymore.
It's a devastating thing to think about.
And so you can see, basically it's like, they're his people from the covenant perspective,
but they're not really his people in heart, though, because they don't really believe
on him.
But the remnant does, though.
The remnant has not forgotten the Lord.
They may have veered off and done some stupid stuff, but they look into their Maker thereafter.
And so I'm going to stop there because I'm out of time.
Yeah, I'll stop there.
I want to talk about this, but we'll talk about it next week.
The point of this chapter that we can take away from this is that, hey, don't join forces
with the wicked for a common cause, for a righteous cause at that.
Keep your loyalties to the Lord Jesus Christ in the Bible.
And I hate to break it to you, but that's not the most popular position.
You're not going to garner a lot of followers or advocates of yourself when you take that
position, but that's the right position to take.
That's the biblical position to take.
And we don't want to suffer punishment with the wicked because we join forces with them,
because we aid them, we advocate, we're advocates of their agendas or whatever.
God's not looking at us saying, "Well, that's honorable."
No, it's not right.
We are strangers and pilgrims in this world, and we don't want to suffer the consequences
of the wicked because we also agreed with the wicked.
You understand what I'm saying?
And so let's pray.
Father, we thank you so much for your word.
Thank you for this chapter, Lord, such a short chapter, but so much in it.
Pray that you help us as your people to continue to increase in our love for the lost.
There's a lot of people out there that are just deceived, Lord, and I pray that you would
help us to be patient with them and approach them with love when we knock on their doors.
But not at the exclusion of recognizing that we can't cross that line, Lord.
And you don't want us to.
We don't want to become like a Jehoshaphat that loves the ungodly, helps the ungodly,
and loves them that hate the Lord.
And I pray that you'd help us to carry that balance.
And Lord, help us as your people to esteem being separated unto you in belief and practice.
And may you bless us as we go on our way, Lord.
Give us a great fellowship tomorrow as we go to the beach, Lord.
And of course, give us a great weekend and a great offering so we can tear down this
wall and make room for more.
We love you and we thank you.
We pray these things in Jesus' name.
Amen.