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Hidden in the Lord (Survey of Isaiah #36) (CC Troy)

Lindsey Gardner on

ISAIAH 26

1 In that day shall this song be sung in the land of Judah; We have a strong city; salvation will God appoint for walls and bulwarks.

2 Open ye the gates, that the righteous nation which keepeth the truth may enter in.

3 Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee.

4 Trust ye in the Lord for ever: for in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength:

5 For he bringeth down them that dwell on high; the lofty city, he layeth it low; he layeth it low, even to the ground; he bringeth it even to the dust.

6 The foot shall tread it down, even the feet of the poor, and the steps of the needy.

7 The way of the just is uprightness: thou, most upright, dost weigh the path of the just.

8 Yea, in the way of thy judgments, O Lord, have we waited for thee; the desire of our soul is to thy name, and to the remembrance of thee.

9 With my soul have I desired thee in the night; yea, with my spirit within me will I seek thee early: for when thy judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness.

10 Let favour be shewed to the wicked, yet will he not learn righteousness: in the land of uprightness will he deal unjustly, and will not behold the majesty of the Lord.

11 Lord, when thy hand is lifted up, they will not see: but they shall see, and be ashamed for their envy at the people; yea, the fire of thine enemies shall devour them.

12 Lord, thou wilt ordain peace for us: for thou also hast wrought all our works in us.

13 O Lord our God, other lords beside thee have had dominion over us: but by thee only will we make mention of thy name.

14 They are dead, they shall not live; they are deceased, they shall not rise: therefore hast thou visited and destroyed them, and made all their memory to perish.

15 Thou hast increased the nation, O Lord, thou hast increased the nation: thou art glorified: thou hadst removed it far unto all the ends of the earth.

16 Lord, in trouble have they visited thee, they poured out a prayer when thy chastening was upon them.

17 Like as a woman with child, that draweth near the time of her delivery, is in pain, and crieth out in her pangs; so have we been in thy sight, O Lord.

18 We have been with child, we have been in pain, we have as it were brought forth wind; we have not wrought any deliverance in the earth; neither have the inhabitants of the world fallen.

19 Thy dead men shall live, together with my dead body shall they arise. Awake and sing, ye that dwell in dust: for thy dew is as the dew of herbs, and the earth shall cast out the dead.

20 Come, my people, enter thou into thy chambers, and shut thy doors about thee: hide thyself as it were for a little moment, until the indignation be overpast.

21 For, behold, the Lord cometh out of his place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity: the earth also shall disclose her blood, and shall no more cover her slain.

 

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A Ziggurat of the Unborn (Politics in the Pulpit #2) (CC Downtown)

Lindsey Gardner on

INTRODUCTION

The conservative Christian cause emerged victorious on many levels this week. But one of the most important principles of warfare is to not get lost in the fog of victory and give way to gathering spoil before the enemy is entirely scattered. God has kindly given us a tailwind for advancing Biblical justice and truth in the civic sphere. The enemies of God have made it plain that they will not renounce or retreat from the need to heartlessly destroy the unborn. Victory is not permission to set down your weapons. Rather, it is the best opportunity to press our advantage.

 

THE TEXT

Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? yea, they may forget, yet will I not forget thee.
Isaiah 49:15

 

SUMMARY OF THE TEXT

Isaiah foretold the various exiles that were approaching both Israel and Judah for their rebellion and idolatry. When the just calamities arrived, Zion would be tempted to ask whether God had forgotten them. To answer this, Isaiah, by the Spirit’s inspiration, gives one of the most tender statements of God’s mercy which is found in Scripture. God summons to mind the image of a nursing mother tenderly cherishing the son of her womb. God points at that and asks a question. Could a mother treat the child which was knit in her womb with disdainful indifference? Could a nursing mother forget to kiss those sweet cheeks, or to nurture the vulnerable life of her infant?

The picture of a woman nurturing her child is a true picture. It is feminine glory. To mar that image is to mar femininity itself. Nevertheless, there have always been horrific instances of women who neglect, abandon, or even slay their young child (Cf. Deu. 28:56-57). Such mothers may vandalize this painting, but the Painter of that image, which is the Truth behind that image, will not and cannot mar it. God declares to Zion that He will not forget her.

The consequences for our sin may cause us to think God has forsaken and forgotten us. But the wonder of the Gospel is found in this incomprehensible mercy of God. He will not forget. He has graven the name of His people upon the palms of His hand. The Gospel, as presented here in Isaiah, requires a true portrait of maternal and feminine glory. For that image is a shadow of the true mercy found in the heart of God the Father towards the Church.

 

THE HORROR WE DON’T ABHOR

Therefore, the horror of abortion which we have culturally tolerated is an affront to the very Gospel. It is not a long and involved argument to show from Scripture that human life begins at conception in the womb of the mother. Jeremiah was set apart by the Lord from the womb (Jer. 1:5). Moses’ Law applied lex talionis for the crime of striking a woman and causing her to miscarry (Ex. 21:22-25). In both the story of Jacob & Esau doing jiujitsu in Rebekah’s womb, along with the story of John the Baptist leaping at the voice of Mary, who was already pregnant with Jesus, we see undeniable evidence that life begins in the womb. Not only that but significant theological categories are established in these stories. Many Psalms praise the providential hand of God knitting us together within our mother’s womb, and being our covenant God from our conception. The incarnation of Christ in Mary’s womb requires us to affirm that the union of God with human flesh took place at the holy conception.

But our nation has insisted that the authoritative Word need not shape how we think about life in the womb. We have chosen instead to draw an arbitrary line the sand for when life is viable according to the expertise of the all-wise and never fallible physician. For instance, Arizona passed a constitutional amendment enshrining the right of every individual to abort their child before “fetal viability” which they define this way: “Fetal viability” means the point in pregnancy when, in the good faith judgment of a treating health care professional and based on the particular facts of the case, there is a significant likelihood of the fetus’s sustained survival outside the uterus without the application of extraordinary medical measures.

The white lab coats of the medical industry have become the robes of a priestly class. It is by their omens and priestcraft that it can be discerned when a child must be sacrificed to the gods. Our nation has refused the Word of God and has submitted to the word of health care professionals.

 

THE TENDER MERCIES OF THE WICKED

The abomination that is abortion demonstrates that truth of Proverbs 12:10 that the tendermercies of the wicked are cruel. When God made an image of Himself He made man with righteousness, knowledge, spiritual life, and authority. Genesis teaches that image is displayed in both male and female, not male alone. This is because in the union of husband and wife there is the possibility of the conception of more image bearers. The womb of the woman is where those image bearers are seemingly brought out of nothingness into being.

The wicked feign compassion for women’s rights. Yet their mercy is as a tender as a bludgeon. Their compassion is as soft as a brick to the back of the head. They have persuaded an entire generation of women to despise the glory of bearing in their wombs a being which will exist forever. A being whose purpose is to hymn God’s praise for everlasting days, dwelling in the joy of God’s joyful life and light. The progressives and squishy conservatives have deluded themselves into thinking that women can determine to snuff out such a life without any eternal consequence or guilt. Mothers are told they can crush that skull, dismember that body, poison it with saline, turn it away through a blockade of pills and not bear any guilt or shame.

We might stand astonished at the tales of gruesome horror from ages and cultures in the past like Nineveh or the Aztecs. But we daily erect a ziggurat of unborn babies throughout our nation. And we have the deluded pride to proclaim that it is health care for women. That’s like a little boy throwing a baseball through his parent’s living room window and then claiming to be a home renovator. The health of a woman is found in honoring God with her feminine glory, and in that alone. This is worship. Offering up our bodies as living sacrifices. This is faith. For the Christian, bearing godly seed (Mal. 2:15) is an act of faith that this world will be remade and will be filled with a countless multitude of redeemed men and women.

 

A WORD TO OUR NATION

So, to God’s people, do not despise the feminine glory of a mother nurturing her child from conception. For this is to cherish the greater glory of God’s everlasting mercy to His people.

To the State and Federal Government, the Word of Christ demands that you end this atrocity speedily. Christ, by His Word, commands that you unsheathe the sword of justice against this grievous injustice.

Nationally, we have sinned grievously. The various calamities which have visited us are the result of our stubbornness. Yet God points to a picture of a nurturing mother and says His tender-mercy is like that, only greater and higher and further.

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The Feast of the Lord (Survey of Isaiah #35) (CC Troy)

Lindsey Gardner on

1 O Lord, thou art my God; I will exalt thee, I will praise thy name; for thou hast done wonderful things; thy counsels of old are faithfulness and truth.

2 For thou hast made of a city an heap; of a defenced city a ruin: a palace of strangers to be no city; it shall never be built.

3 Therefore shall the strong people glorify thee, the city of the terrible nations shall fear thee.

4 For thou hast been a strength to the poor, a strength to the needy in his distress, a refuge from the storm, a shadow from the heat, when the blast of the terrible ones is as a storm against the wall.

5 Thou shalt bring down the noise of strangers, as the heat in a dry place; even the heat with the shadow of a cloud: the branch of the terrible ones shall be brought low.

6 And in this mountain shall the Lord of hosts make unto all people a feast of fat things, a feast of wines on the lees, of fat things full of marrow, of wines on the lees well refined.

7 And he will destroy in this mountain the face of the covering cast over all people, and the vail that is spread over all nations.

8 He will swallow up death in victory; and the Lord God will wipe away tears from off all faces; and the rebuke of his people shall he take away from off all the earth: for the Lord hath spoken it.

9 And it shall be said in that day, Lo, this is our God; we have waited for him, and he will save us: this is the Lord; we have waited for him, we will be glad and rejoice in his salvation.

10 For in this mountain shall the hand of the Lord rest, and Moab shall be trodden down under him, even as straw is trodden down for the dunghill.

11 And he shall spread forth his hands in the midst of them, as he that swimmeth spreadeth forth his hands to swim: and he shall bring down their pride together with the spoils of their hands.

12 And the fortress of the high fort of thy walls shall he bring down, lay low, and bring to the ground, even to the dust.

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God Is Glorified out of the Darkness (Survey of Isaiah #34) (CC Troy)

Lindsey Gardner on

 

 

 

 

23:10 Pass through thy land as a river, O daughter of Tarshish: there is no more strength.

11 He stretched out his hand over the sea, he shook the kingdoms: the Lord hath given a commandment against the merchant city, to destroy the strong holds thereof.

12 And he said, Thou shalt no more rejoice, O thou oppressed virgin, daughter of Zidon: arise, pass over to Chittim; there also shalt thou have no rest.

13 Behold the land of the Chaldeans; this people was not, till the Assyrian founded it for them that dwell in the wilderness: they set up the towers thereof, they raised up the palaces thereof; and he brought it to ruin.

14 Howl, ye ships of Tarshish: for your strength is laid waste.

15 And it shall come to pass in that day, that Tyre shall be forgotten seventy years, according to the days of one king: after the end of seventy years shall Tyre sing as an harlot.

16 Take an harp, go about the city, thou harlot that hast been forgotten; make sweet melody, sing many songs, that thou mayest be remembered.

17 And it shall come to pass after the end of seventy years, that the Lord will visit Tyre, and she shall turn to her hire, and shall commit fornication with all the kingdoms of the world upon the face of the earth.

18 And her merchandise and her hire shall be holiness to the Lord: it shall not be treasured nor laid up; for her merchandise shall be for them that dwell before the Lord, to eat sufficiently, and for durable clothing.

24:1 Behold, the Lord maketh the earth empty, and maketh it waste, and turneth it upside down, and scattereth abroad the inhabitants thereof.

2 And it shall be, as with the people, so with the priest; as with the servant, so with his master; as with the maid, so with her mistress; as with the buyer, so with the seller; as with the lender, so with the borrower; as with the taker of usury, so with the giver of usury to him.

3 The land shall be utterly emptied, and utterly spoiled: for the Lord hath spoken this word.

4 The earth mourneth and fadeth away, the world languisheth and fadeth away, the haughty people of the earth do languish.

5 The earth also is defiled under the inhabitants thereof; because they have transgressed the laws, changed the ordinance, broken the everlasting covenant.

6 Therefore hath the curse devoured the earth, and they that dwell therein are desolate: therefore the inhabitants of the earth are burned, and few men left.

7 The new wine mourneth, the vine languisheth, all the merryhearted do sigh.

8 The mirth of tabrets ceaseth, the noise of them that rejoice endeth, the joy of the harp ceaseth.

9 They shall not drink wine with a song; strong drink shall be bitter to them that drink it.

10 The city of confusion is broken down: every house is shut up, that no man may come in.

11 There is a crying for wine in the streets; all joy is darkened, the mirth of the land is gone.

12 In the city is left desolation, and the gate is smitten with destruction.

13 When thus it shall be in the midst of the land among the people, there shall be as the shaking of an olive tree, and as the gleaning grapes when the vintage is done.

14 They shall lift up their voice, they shall sing for the majesty of the Lord, they shall cry aloud from the sea.

15 Wherefore glorify ye the Lord in the fires, even the name of the Lord God of Israel in the isles of the sea.

16 From the uttermost part of the earth have we heard songs, even glory to the righteous. But I said, My leanness, my leanness, woe unto me! the treacherous dealers have dealt treacherously; yea, the treacherous dealers have dealt very treacherously.

17 Fear, and the pit, and the snare, are upon thee, O inhabitant of the earth.

18 And it shall come to pass, that he who fleeth from the noise of the fear shall fall into the pit; and he that cometh up out of the midst of the pit shall be taken in the snare: for the windows from on high are open, and the foundations of the earth do shake.

19 The earth is utterly broken down, the earth is clean dissolved, the earth is moved exceedingly.

20 The earth shall reel to and fro like a drunkard, and shall be removed like a cottage; and the transgression thereof shall be heavy upon it; and it shall fall, and not rise again.

21 And it shall come to pass in that day, that the Lord shall punish the host of the high ones that are on high, and the kings of the earth upon the earth.

22 And they shall be gathered together, as prisoners are gathered in the pit, and shall be shut up in the prison, and after many days shall they be visited.

23 Then the moon shall be confounded, and the sun ashamed, when the Lord of hosts shall reign in mount Zion, and in Jerusalem, and before his ancients gloriously.

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The Lord of Hosts Has Purposed It (Survey of Isaiah #33) (CC Troy)

Lindsey Gardner on

 

 

 

 

1 The burden of Tyre. Howl, ye ships of Tarshish; for it is laid waste, so that there is no house, no entering in: from the land of Chittim it is revealed to them.

2 Be still, ye inhabitants of the isle; thou whom the merchants of Zidon, that pass over the sea, have replenished.

3 And by great waters the seed of Sihor, the harvest of the river, is her revenue; and she is a mart of nations.

4 Be thou ashamed, O Zidon: for the sea hath spoken, even the strength of the sea, saying, I travail not, nor bring forth children, neither do I nourish up young men, nor bring up virgins.

5 As at the report concerning Egypt, so shall they be sorely pained at the report of Tyre.

6 Pass ye over to Tarshish; howl, ye inhabitants of the isle.

7 Is this your joyous city, whose antiquity is of ancient days? her own feet shall carry her afar off to sojourn.

8 Who hath taken this counsel against Tyre, the crowning city, whose merchants are princes, whose traffickers are the honourable of the earth?

9 The Lord of hosts hath purposed it, to stain the pride of all glory, and to bring into contempt all the honourable of the earth.

10 Pass through thy land as a river, O daughter of Tarshish: there is no more strength.

11 He stretched out his hand over the sea, he shook the kingdoms: the Lord hath given a commandment against the merchant city, to destroy the strong holds thereof.

12 And he said, Thou shalt no more rejoice, O thou oppressed virgin, daughter of Zidon: arise, pass over to Chittim; there also shalt thou have no rest.

13 Behold the land of the Chaldeans; this people was not, till the Assyrian founded it for them that dwell in the wilderness: they set up the towers thereof, they raised up the palaces thereof; and he brought it to ruin.

14 Howl, ye ships of Tarshish: for your strength is laid waste.

15 And it shall come to pass in that day, that Tyre shall be forgotten seventy years, according to the days of one king: after the end of seventy years shall Tyre sing as an harlot.

16 Take an harp, go about the city, thou harlot that hast been forgotten; make sweet melody, sing many songs, that thou mayest be remembered.

17 And it shall come to pass after the end of seventy years, that the Lord will visit Tyre, and she shall turn to her hire, and shall commit fornication with all the kingdoms of the world upon the face of the earth.

18 And her merchandise and her hire shall be holiness to the Lord: it shall not be treasured nor laid up; for her merchandise shall be for them that dwell before the Lord, to eat sufficiently, and for durable clothing.

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