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Survey of Isaiah #1 (Troy)

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Isaiah 1:1–17

1 The vision of Isaiah the son of Amoz, which he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah.

2 Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth: for the Lord hath spoken, I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against me.

3 The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master’s crib: but Israel doth not know, my people doth not consider.

4 Ah sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a seed of evildoers, children that are corrupters: they have forsaken the Lord, they have provoked the Holy One of Israel unto anger, they are gone away backward.

5 Why should ye be stricken any more? ye will revolt more and more: the whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint.

6 From the sole of the foot even unto the head there is no soundness in it; but wounds, and bruises, and putrifying sores: they have not been closed, neither bound up, neither mollified with ointment.

7 Your country is desolate, your cities are burned with fire: your land, strangers devour it in your presence, and it is desolate, as overthrown by strangers.

8 And the daughter of Zion is left as a cottage in a vineyard, as a lodge in a garden of cucumbers, as a besieged city.

9 Except the Lord of hosts had left unto us a very small remnant, we should have been as Sodom, and we should have been like unto Gomorrah.

10 Hear the word of the Lord, ye rulers of Sodom; give ear unto the law of our God, ye people of Gomorrah.

11 To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto me? saith the Lord: I am full of the burnt offerings of rams, and the fat of fed beasts; and I delight not in the blood of bullocks, or of lambs, or of he goats.

12 When ye come to appear before me, who hath required this at your hand, to tread my courts?

13 Bring no more vain oblations; incense is an abomination unto me; the new moons and sabbaths, the calling of assemblies, I cannot away with; it is iniquity, even the solemn meeting.

14 Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hateth: they are a trouble unto me; I am weary to bear them.

15 And when ye spread forth your hands, I will hide mine eyes from you: yea, when ye make many prayers, I will not hear: your hands are full of blood.

16 Wash you, make you clean; put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes; cease to do evil;

17 Learn to do well; seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow.

 

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Marriage and the World’s End (Get Married & Stay Married #5)

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INTRODUCTION

Perhaps you’ve watched a skilled artist at work. You watch them paint or carve or shape, moving their hands in ways you can’t, creating something you couldn’t. Then they do something so drastic that you think they’ve ruined the whole thing. That stroke of color was too much. That chiseled off too much marble. That marred the shape of the clay. But somehow it still ends up remarkable. Or think of the skilled cook who bakes & frosts, assembles & garnishes a wonderful spread. Then he invites the guests to dig in, seemingly ruining all the hard work. God is guiding history from one glory to the next. We live in the bright glory of Christ’s resurrection. However, we’re awaiting the final consummation of all things, where this present glory will give place to an eternal weight of glory.

THE TEXT

And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband (Rev. 21:2).

For as a young man marrieth a virgin, so shall thy sons marry thee: and as the bridegroom rejoiceth over the bride, so shall thy God rejoice over thee (Isa. 62:5).

SUMMARY OF THE EVENTS

There is something in a wedding that portends the end of the world. Secularists foretell that the world shall end, billions of years from now, either in a slow, cold demise, or a cataclysmic fiery meltdown. The Climate Activists tell us that the world will end in starvation, misery, and breakdown.

These texts, along with numerous others, reveal to us how the world will really end: marriage bells. A gloriously adorned bride, free of all flaw. A mighty Bridegroom, rejoicing and beaming with delight over His bride. An eternal covenant, which cannot and will not be broken or transgressed. A sweet consummation of fellowship free from sin, brimful of God’s great love, with no sorrow or sighing to be heard of.

John’s description is that of New Jerusalem walking down the aisle, as it were. The church made complete, coming to rest in the arms of her beloved Savior. Along the same lines, Isaiah uses the picture of the returning exiles of Israel to describe the end of the world, and he uses marital language as well to describe it. The sons would delight in the land of promise, as if marrying it. While even better, God would rejoice over His people like a bridegroom delights in His bride.

WHAT IS MARRIAGE? WHAT IS IT FOR?

If this be the case, the question arises: does your marriage (or your pursuit of marriage) preach a true or false Gospel? Hookups, porn, divorce, adultery, gay mirage, kink, polygamy, violent actions, and profane language/arguments are all ways of taking the Gospel glory which ought to be displayed in marriage and falsifying it. If marriage is to be a picture of Christ & the church, married Christians, or Christian singles who are pursuing marriage should ask whether they are presenting a faithful portrait of the end of the world.

There are two things which make a marriage what it is. A marriage is a solemn, lifelong vow between one man & one woman which is then consummated. You can have a vow that is never consummated, but that is more like roommates or business partners. You can also consummate without vows, but that is like trying to plant a garden in the middle of Times Square. It’s oxymoronic to speak of “redefining marriage.” You might as well speak of replacing the sun, or rearranging the constellations, or refilling the ocean.

BUILDING AROUND A BONFIRE

The WCF gives a helpful three-fold purpose for marriage: companionship, propagation of godly children; and in this fallen world, a curb against uncleanness. The order matters. The first tells us that we are not made for the isolation pods. God made us for fellowship (with Him and each other) (Cf. Gen. 2:18); marriage is ground zero for loving thy neighbor. The second teaches us that this marriage union is to be physical & fruitful (Mal. 2:15). It is to increase fellowship, not decrease it.

The third one is, perhaps, easily misunderstood; it might make us think, wrongly, that God is a repressive kill-joy. Rather, marriage is a safeguard against the misery of uncleanness (1 Cor. 7:2, 9). The misery which marriage guards us from is that of fatherless children, aborted unborn, an unending drumbeat of guilt for shameful deeds, the grief that is divorce, the impossibility of fruitful unions.

The modern world is full of smoldering ruins. The belief is that your momentary pleasure is central to your existence. this conviction is like thinking the best foundation for building your life is a napalm fire of sexual indulgence. The culture then wonders why the framing keeps catching fire, the concrete keeps getting charred, and the plumbing keeps melting. The marriage vows are the foundation, framing, and roof. The consummation is like the sturdy fireplace.

MEN ARE LINEAR, WOMEN ARE CIRCULAR

Marriage can only be constituted between one man and one woman. This is because marriage isn’t something which can be built using outsourced parts and a good bit of duct-tape. Man has been given a mandate (Gen. 1:28) and a Great Commission (Mt. 28:19-20). In both instances, we see that God intended husband & wife together to serve the task in their respective ways.

Men are linear. They must have a mission to pursue, a problem to solve, a rival to subdue, a challenge to overcome. Meanwhile women are circular. They must have a brood to gather in, a flock to nurture, a rhythm to dance to, a garden to fill & beautify.

Problems arise when husbands want their wives to be linear, and wives want their husbands to be circular. Men are to go out like a rocket, but wives are to draw them in again. Wives are to encircle their home, but a husband must lead his family forward so the encircling doesn’t become a smothering.

THE WORLD TO COME

God is orchestrating history towards a wondrous denouement. Christ dwelling with the church in unbroken joy, uninterrupted love, and unthreatened peace. Eden not only restored, but glorified. Eden was the seed, the New Jerusalem is the ever fruitful tree.

Lewis once gave the example of trying to describe for a child the delight which a married couple enjoy in their physical union. The child would still prefer chocolate. He can’t comprehend a joy that he isn’t yet ready for. This is what earthly marriage is. It is a preliminary joy intended to ready the church for the joy beyond the shadows. Real joy. God is like that artist which we began with. He has given us this glorious thing called marriage, and yet He assures us that it will soon be supplanted by the True Marriage.

The joy which you shall partake of in eternity isn’t contained by mere moments & glimpses. The hymn gets it spot on when it says, “Solid joys and lasting treasure” are what await Zion’s children. This joy is promised to those who lay hold of Christ by faith. It doesn’t come through good behavior. It doesn’t come from being woke or based. It comes to us through Christ, who sought us and bought us to be His holy bride.

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Christmas as Cornerstone (Christmas 2022)

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INTRODUCTION

On a number of different occasions, we have reminded you of the importance of having all our times and seasons defined in relationship to Jesus Christ. The only real alternative to this is to have them defined in reference to someone or something else, and this is obviously an unacceptable alternative to all faithful Christians.

Jesus Christ really has been established as the king of all heaven and earth. The federal building downtown has a stone embedded in the wall that tells us the building was put up in the administration of Richard Nixon, 1973. The dating of Christmas 2022 tells us the same kind of thing, which is that the new heavens and the new earth are under construction, and have been for just over 2,000 years.

THE TEXT

“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, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even for ever. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will perform this” (Is. 9: 6-7).

SUMMARY OF THE TEXT

There are many things to note in this glorious text, and it is right that we are reminded of this on many Christmas cards. The message of Christmas is politically incendiary, if you think about it, and it is not for nothing that secularists are trying to get us to forget Jesus with their C.E. (Common Era) and B.C.E. (Before Common Era), and seasonal conifers instead of Christmas trees. Nice try, but we aren’t buying any.

We were not given a son who aspired to have the government be on His shoulder. The result of His coming is promised just as surely as His coming was, and that result was that the “government shall be upon his shoulder” (v. 6). No, the child is born. No, the Son is given (v. 6). This government will be established in fact (as it was over 2,000 years ago), and the growth and increase of that government will necessarily be inexorable. “Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end” (v. 7). His government will not be manifested all at once because this same prophecy describes it as needing to be ordered and established with judgment and justice. But this will happen, and we have the assurance that God is zealous to accomplish this. And so this is the point of Christmas—a cornerstone in the building of a new humanity, a new heaven and a new earth.

AN “INSIGNIFICANT” FAITHFULNESS

A moment’s reflection should reveal that the calendar system we have now was not instituted by Herod the Great just after the wise men got away, or by Caesar Augustus. When did this happen? And who did it? Anyone who has read their Herodotus knows that the Scythians were a rough bunch, a reputation that may be reflected in the New Testament (Col. 3:11). But by the 5th century, there was a thriving Christian church in Scythia, and at that time there was a Scythian monk named Dennis. The ancient form of that name would have been Dionysus. Because that name was so common then, he took the nickname of Exiguus. And so you are now introduced to Dennis the Insignificant, who, as the providence of God would have it, was one of the most significant figures of all church history. He moved to Rome around 500 A.D. and he was the one who proposed that the calendar system be changed to date from the birth of Jesus Christ.

In his calendar, the New Year was the 25th of March (the Feast of the Annunciation), ninth months before Christmas. After all, that is when the Incarnation happened. So for a thousand years, the Christian new year was March 25, and it was not moved to January 1 until Pope Gregory XIII reformed the calendar once more in 1582. And of course, we now know that Jesus was probably born in 4 B.C. and not four years later. But the issue is symbol, not simple reenactment.

SYMBOLS AND FAILED SYMBOLS

Several centuries before Dionysus, the emperor Diocletian revealed himself as a serious megalomaniac by trying to change the dating system to count everything from the year he became emperor. The Jewish false Messiah, Simeon Bar-Kochba, did the same thing. The devotees of the French Revolution attempted the same trick, dating the events of the whole world from 1792. But the Scriptures stand firm. Of the increase of His government and peace there will be no end. But these clowns at least knew how important the issue is, which is more than we can say of many Christians. The Anti-Christian Liberties Union (ACLU) knows that getting Christmas trees off public property is well worth fighting for.

MERRY CHRISTMAS AS INSURRECTION

How do we define our lives? More than this, how do we define our lives as a people? Far from retreating into a minimalist celebration, or no celebration at all, we as Christians must take far greater advantage of the opportunities we have in all of this. Now the Lord Jesus is on His throne. And His government will continue to increase, whether or not you put up a Christmas tree.

But He works through instruments, and one of His central instruments for establishing His kingdom on earth is the faith of His people. Faith in what? Not faith in a holiday, or in the spirit of Christmas, or anything like that. We are talking about faith in the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. We are talking about His Incarnation, His sinless life, His crucifixion, His resurrection, and His enthronement at the right hand of the Father.

Another version of this message was preached many years ago.

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Unbelief on Christmas Eve (Christmas Eve 2022)

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Unbelief has a mysterious ability to tie knots in just about anything. Because unbelief is a function of the heart and will, it can operate in defiance of right reason, known facts, unambiguous texts, and just plain good sense. Unbelief knows what it wants, and what it wants most of all is the liberty to lock its knees and to just say no.

On one occasion, the Pharisees and chief priests sent out some officers to bring Jesus in (John 7:32). When they came back empty-handed, they were asked the reason why, and they said that no one ever spoke the way Jesus was speaking (John 7:46). The unbelieving rulers replied with a verbal sneer. Has anyone important or accredited believed in Him (John 7:48)? Nicodemus intervened and asked whether or not they ought to hear Jesus out before passing judgment (John 7:50-51). At this the rulers and Pharisees responded with another sneer. Are you from Galilee too? Check into it, bozo, and you will find out that no prophet arises from Galilee (John 7:52).

But what does Isaiah say, that prince of prophets? What did he say about Galilee?

And this was no obscure passage in an obscure book. We need to realize that this great light arising from Galilee is one of the brightest lights in the entire Old Testament—and it shines in words familiar to just about everyone here, because they are kind of impossible to miss.

That is what rises in Galilee.

And if we wanted to speak with a biblical trope, we could say that this passage has adorned a multitude of Christmas cards, in number like the grains of sand on the sea shore. It is one of the most well-known passages from the entire Old Testament.

What was the nature of this light? The light was going to begin small. Unto us a child is born. The light was going to start as a fertilized egg, and was going to appear in the world as an infant boy. This boy was doing to grow up in Galilee, but because the prophet Micah had also spoken, it was necessary for Caesar Augustus to wield what he thought was his prerogative, and to order that the whole world be taxed (Luke 2:1). As a consequence, this boy was born in his ancestral town, which was Bethlehem of Judea, but afterward His family returned to Nazareth, which was in Galilee.

Christ is that light who came into the world, and He did so in order to enlighten every man (John 1:9). Wake, o sleeper, Paul says, and Christ will shine on you (Eph. 5:14). This is the light of the kingdom that this child king brought into the world. This is the rule and realm of Jesus Christ, and the light of this kingdom is an ever-increasing light. Isaiah tells us this expressly. Does he not? “Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it.”

This rule of Christ is the light, and the rule is an ever-increasing light. Not only will it never go out, it will never stop getting brighter. Christmas lights are the future of the world.

But when we look at the stupidity of our race, coupled with our venality and corruption, we find this kind of staggering promise a little hard to believe. And this is why we must pay attention to the last phrase in this promise—the zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this. It will not be the wisdom of man that does it. It will not be the pure motives of our parliaments and presidents. It will not be the sophistication of our universities that ushers in this state of affairs. No, it will be the zeal of the Lord.

I spoke a moment ago about the stubbornness of unbelief. We think in our folly that we can brace ourselves in such a way as that such unbelief could put God off. No, remember that the zeal of the Lord is going to convert the entire world, and will never stop growing in that world.

And so I want to conclude with a word to the unconverted. Christmas is a time of year when you are reminded more often than usual of the centrality of Christ. So if the zeal of the Lord of hosts is coming for you, then realize that whatever you do to resist will be entirely futile. There you are, barricaded in the dirty little apartment of your heart, and you have all the furniture you possess piled up against the door. You think that will do it? You think you can hold out against this Christmas message? Christmas is just the first few words of the message, and the whole thing includes His life, His passion, His burial, and His resurrection. And after His resurrection, remember how He just appeared in the upper room, with no need to use the door. So when He wants you to follow Him, He can just come in, without so much as a “by your leave,” and start cleaning things up. The zeal of the Lord of hosts is up to whatever challenges you present.

And so here is your Christmas invitation. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved. Come. Come now. No need to hold out, and as you should realize, no use holding out. Christ is Lord. Give up your unbelief. Lay down your arms. A prophet does arise from Galilee.

In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, amen

And merry Christmas.

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Self-Deception in Marriage

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INTRODUCTION

Self-deception is truly an interesting psychological phenomenon. I mean, whenever it occurs in your life, that means that you are the one lied to, and you are the liar, and you buy it. “Seems reasonable,” you mutter to yourself.

Now at one level, Scripture teaches that every form of sin, disobedience or unbelief is a form of self-deception. You are living in the world that God made, with all of His self-disclosure operating, and yet you are steadfastly telling yourself that the world isn’t really like that.

“The way of a fool is right in his own eyes: But he that hearkeneth unto counsel is wise” (Proverbs 12:15). “There is a generation that are pure in their own eyes, and yet is not washed from their filthiness” (Proverbs 30:12). Sin is the refusal to see your relationship to God and His world for what it actually is, and so it is a form of self-deception.

THE TEXT

“He feedeth on ashes: A deceived heart hath turned him aside, that he cannot deliver his soul, nor say, Is there not a lie in my right hand?” (Isaiah 44:20).

SUMMARY OF THE TEXT

Isaiah is speaking the plain stupidity that cuts down a tree (v. 14), and which uses a portion of the wood to keep himself warm, and to cook his food, on the one hand (v. 15), and from the rest of the wood he carves an object of adoration (vv. 15, 17, 19).

A deceived heart is turned aside, meaning that a deceived heart is both deceived and deceiving. The end result is that the idol he has fashioned to deliver him will be unable to deliver him. He should have known this already because he carved his savior out of a piece of wood that he cut down himself.

FOUR KINDS OF SELF-DECEPTION

We have already seen that all sins are self-deception at some level, but there are certain forms of it that might be called “high-profile” instances of self-deception.

Forgetful neglect of application: “But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves. For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass: For he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was . . . If any man among you seem to be religious, and bridleth not his tongue, but deceiveth his own heart, this man’s religion is vain” (James 1:22-24, 26). The deception occurs in between the sermon and the moment this afternoon when application is called for.

Assumption of innocence: “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us” (1 John 1:8). Everyone here is encased in a first-person-singular narrative. And everyone here has a strong impulse to trust the narrator, which is a bad idea.

Neglect of holiness: “Let no man deceive himself. If any man among you seemeth to be wise in this world, let him become a fool, that he may be wise. For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. For it is written, He taketh the wise in their own craftiness. And again, The Lord knoweth the thoughts of the wise, that they are vain” (1 Corinthians 3:18–20). We are very prone to self-deception when it comes to the moral demands of the free grace gospel. “Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God” (1 Corinthians 6:9–10).

Self-serving flattery: “For if a man think himself to be something, when he is nothing, he deceiveth himself” (Gal. 6:3). Every man wants to be the hero in his own story, and casting yourself in that role is the very worst way of accomplishing this.

A BAD MARRIAGE OR A BAD ATTITUDE

Not all Christian marriages are successful. Some really thrive, most are pretty okay, some struggle along, and a handful are what we would call “bad marriages.” If you would put yourself in that category, I want to suggest one more division that I hope you might find helpful.

One kind of bad marriage is the result of a real mismatch of persons. The conflicts and difficulties arise out of the clashes between very different perspectives. The communicate poorly and problems result. They assume too much in opposite directions and problems result. This does happen, and a lot of good pastoral help is available—in Scripture, with counselors, with good literature.

But the intractable problems are, in my experience, not strictly speaking bad marriages at all. The marriage is just the location where the badness is manifesting itself. What would you think of someone who gave a restaurant a savage one-star review on Yelp, and if you asked him why he did that, the response was that while he was there he got the worst toothache of his life? You should say, yeah, that wasn’t a bad restaurant experience. It was a bad experience in a restaurant.

Intractable marriages problems are often intractable problems in a marriage, not the result of the marriage.

PRIDE, THE GREAT ENEMY

When a self-deceived person marries, they are moving into a room filled with excuses. Opportunities for misdirection and blame-shifting abound. Remember that the heart is deceitful above all things (Jer. 17:9). The thing that deceives such a person is the pride of his heart (Oba. 3), and remember that pride goes before destruction (Prov. 16:18). The self-deceived husband compares himself to himself, and the wife measures herself with herself (2 Cor. 10:12). These are not wise.

I am talking about (and to) the husband who is sullen, grouchy, and angry all the time. He tells himself is not angry all the time because he is not yelling all the time, which tells us how much he knows about it. I am talking about (and to) the wife who is a lazy and undisciplined, and if any real work threatens to intrude, she is sure to develop a serious malady with ambiguous symptoms. These two examples are stand-ins for countless others. The problem, the central problem, is self-deception.

THE MIRROR OF CHRIST

The only remedy for such self-deception is to see yourself accurately, and this can only be done by looking into the perfect law of liberty (Jas. 1:5). But this should not be understood as a detached list of rules. Christ is the end (telos) of the law (Rom. 10:4). Your identity is in Christ. If you look at yourself there, in the mirror of Christ, you do not just see Christ. You also see yourself, perhaps for the very first time.

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