ATE052 08152024 “Only For His Glory - Here, I AM, Send Me! - Isaiah 51”

One time I was deployed overseas in an unconventional warfare tasking. We had 24 hour operations, but I was the only one preparing the forecasts for our real world wartime operations  behind enemy lines. The other

person, a foreign military Captain, pretty much slept all night and then would have to  be woken up to brief the forecast. He was just the translator, really. Nice guy, but you can imagine my feeling around 4am each morning in having to wake him up for his few minutes of work. There are many today who are not doing their part in the spiritual war. They show up when it is comfortable of convenient. They are asleep on the job and not even being trained. They are basically being disobedient. They are asleep in the Light.

Asleep in the Light by Keith Green

Do you see? Do you see?

All the people sinking down?

Don't you care? Don't you care?

Are you gonna let them drown?

How can you be so numb?

Not to care if they come

You close your eyes and pretend the job's done

"Oh, bless me, Lord, bless me, Lord"

You know, it's all I ever hear

No one aches, no one hurts

No one even sheds one tear

But, He cries, He weeps, He bleeds

And He cares for your needs

And you just lay back and keep soaking it in

Oh, can't you see it's such sin?

'Cause He brings people to your door

And you turn them away

As you smile and say

"God bless you, be at peace"

And all Heaven just weeps

'Cause Jesus came to your door

You've left Him out on the streets

Open up, open up

And give yourself away

You see the need, you hear the cries

So how can you delay?

God's calling and you're the one

But like Jonah, you run

He's told you to speak but you keep holding it in

Oh, can't you see it's such sin?

The world is sleeping in the dark

That the church just can't fight

'Cause it's asleep in the light

How can you be so dead

When you've been so well fed?

Jesus rose from the grave

And you, you can't even get out of bed

Oh, Jesus rose from the dead

Come on, get out of your bed

How can you be so numb

Not to care if they come?

You close your eyes and pretend the job's done

You close your eyes and pretend the job's done

Don't close your eyes, don't pretend the job's done

Come away, come away

Come away with me, my love

Come away from this mess

Come away with me, my lov

Come away from this mess

Come away with me, my love

Come away, come away, oh

Come away with me, my love

We are His bride why we acting like a harlot or mistress? We have been set free and washed clean. Let us act like it.

Chapter 51-53 will dig deep in the atonement of Christ and His role.

Subtitle:  Wake up!

Isaiah‬ ‭51‬:‭1‬-‭23‬ ‭WEBUS‬‬

““Listen to me, you who follow after righteousness, you who seek Yahweh. Look to the rock you were cut from, and to the quarry you were dug from. Look to Abraham your father, and to Sarah who bore you; for when he was but one I called him, I blessed him, and made him many. For Yahweh has comforted Zion. He has comforted all her waste places, and has made her wilderness like Eden, and her desert like the garden of Yahweh. Joy and gladness will be found in them, thanksgiving, and the voice of melody. “Listen to me, my people; and hear me, my nation, for a law will go out from me, and I will establish my justice for a light to the peoples. My righteousness is near. My salvation has gone out, and my arms will judge the peoples. The islands will wait for me, and they will trust my arm. Lift up your eyes to the heavens, and look at the earth beneath; for the heavens will vanish away like smoke, and the earth will wear out like a garment. Its inhabitants will die in the same way, but my salvation will be forever, and my righteousness will not be abolished. “Listen to me, you who know righteousness, the people in whose heart is my law. Don’t fear the reproach of men, and don’t be dismayed at their insults. For the moth will eat them up like a garment, and the worm will eat them like wool; but my righteousness will be forever, and my salvation to all generations.” Awake, awake, put on strength, arm of Yahweh! Awake, as in the days of old, the generations of ancient times. Isn’t it you who cut Rahab in pieces, who pierced the monster? Isn’t it you who dried up the sea, the waters of the great deep; who made the depths of the sea a way for the redeemed to pass over? Those ransomed by Yahweh will return, and come with singing to Zion. Everlasting joy shall be on their heads. They will obtain gladness and joy. Sorrow and sighing shall flee away. “I, even I, am he who comforts you. Who are you, that you are afraid of man who shall die, and of the son of man who will be made as grass? Have you forgotten Yahweh your Maker, who stretched out the heavens, and laid the foundations of the earth? Do you live in fear continually all day because of the fury of the oppressor, when he prepares to destroy? Where is the fury of the oppressor? The captive exile will speedily be freed. He will not die and go down into the pit. His bread won’t fail. For I am Yahweh your God, who stirs up the sea so that its waves roar. Yahweh of Armies is his name. I have put my words in your mouth and have covered you in the shadow of my hand, that I may plant the heavens, and lay the foundations of the earth, and tell Zion, ‘You are my people.’” Awake, awake! Stand up, Jerusalem, you who have drunk from Yahweh’s hand the cup of his wrath. You have drunken the bowl of the cup of staggering, and drained it. There is no one to guide her among all the sons to whom she has given birth; and there is no one who takes her by the hand among all the sons whom she has brought up. These two things have happened to you— who will grieve with you?— desolation and destruction, and famine and the sword. How can I comfort you? Your sons have fainted. They lie at the head of all the streets, like an antelope in a net. They are full of Yahweh’s wrath, the rebuke of your God. Therefore now hear this, you afflicted, and drunken, but not with wine: Your Lord Yahweh, your God who pleads the cause of his people, says, “Behold, I have taken out of your hand the cup of staggering, even the bowl of the cup of my wrath. You will not drink it any more. I will put it into the hand of those who afflict you, who have said to your soul, ‘Bow down, that we may walk over you;’ and you have laid your back as the ground, like a street to those who walk over.””

ISAIAH 51 – LISTEN AND AWAKE

Isaiah 51-53 – The Atoning Suffering & Victory of the Messiah

A. “Listen to Me.”

1. (1-3) Listen: The LORD’s past faithfulness is a promise of future blessing.

a. Listen to Me, you who follow after righteousness: The LORD here speaks to His people, but His people have had trouble listening to Him. So, three times in this chapter, the exhortation is given: Listen to Me.

b. Look to the rock from which you were hewn…. Look to Abraham your father, and to Sarah who bore you: God counsels His people to look at His work in His people in days past. This is one of the great glories of God’s word to us; it tells us how God has dealt with His people and gives us faith and guidance for His work in our lives – if we will listen to Him.

i. As Isaiah spoke to them here, God’s people were in a discouraging place. They felt defeated, and the prophet told them to look at God’s work in and through His people in days past.

ii. “Once a Christian gets eaten up with discouragement and unbelief it takes a great deal to shake him out of it. Those two emotions are the masterstrokes of Satan. So long as the child of God maintains an attitude of praise and trust in the Lord, then he is invincible. Once the devil gets him discouraged, that poor man is really going to take a knocking!” (Redpath)

c. For I called him alone, and blessed him and increased him: Abraham was one man, from one simple family. Yet God called him alone and increased him. This should remind His people today that God does not need many people to do a great work. He can bless and increase one man alone. Isaiah wanted God’s people – in view here are the returning exiles from Babylon, and those of Israel’s ultimate regathering – to not be discouraged of their small numbers but realize that just as He did great things with Abraham and Sarah, He can do great things through them.

d. For the LORD will comfort Zion…He will make her wilderness like Eden…Joy and gladness will be found in it: Remembering Abraham and Sarah should give them hope for this promise. The promise seems too good to be true, but by faithfully remembering God’s work in people like Abraham and Sarah, they would have the faith to believe God’s promise to them today.

i. This shows how we can benefit through God’s work in the lives of others. When we hear of what God has done and is doing in the lives of others, it can build our faith for God’s work in our own lives.

e. He will make her wilderness like Eden, and her desert like the garden of the LORD: This reminds us that though these promises had a near fulfillment in the return from Babylon’s captivity, their ultimate fulfillment is in a regathered, blessed, and saved Israel in the millennium.

2. (4-6) Listen: The LORD’s salvation and righteousness are forever.

a. I will make My justice rest as a light of the peoples: When the LORD ultimately regathers, blesses, and saves Israel, He will also shine forth His justice to all the world – to Israel (My nation) and to all the nations (the peoples).

b. For the heavens will vanish away like smoke, the earth will grow old like a garment: These are references to phenomena surrounding the Second Coming of Jesus (Matthew 24:35, 2 Peter 3:7-10, Revelation 6:12-17). This is ultimately when the justice of the LORD will be displayed to Israel and all nations.

i. The judgment of the LORD isn’t only evident in creation, but also upon humanity: Those who dwell in it will die in like manner.

c. But My salvation will be forever, and My righteousness will not be abolished: Those tied to the earth (not to heaven) will be cast away, and even the earth will vanish away. But never the righteousness or salvation of God. They remain and are more permanent than even the heavens and the earth. We don’t have to be afraid that God will change His character (My righteousness) or His mind about us (My salvation). This is something to listen to.

3. (7-8) Listen: Fear God, not man.

a. Listen to Me…Do not fear the reproach of men: Knowing the permanence of the righteousness and salvation of the LORD, and the passing nature of the wicked (For the moth will eat them up like a garment), we should listen to God, and not be afraid of men.

i. I cannot imagine a true man saying, ‘I love Christ, but I do not want others to know that I love him, lest they should laugh at me.’ That is a reason to be laughed at, or rather, to be wept over. Afraid of being laughed at? Oh sir, this is indeed a cowardly fear!” (Charles Spurgeon, The Secret of Love to God)

ii. “Yet you are a coward. Yes, put it down in English: you are a coward. If anybody called you so you would turn red in the face; and perhaps you are not a coward in reference to any other subject. What a shameful thing it is that while you are bold about everything else you are cowardly about Jesus Christ. Brave for the world and cowardly towards Christ!” (Charles Spurgeon, Cheer for the Worker, and Hope for London)

b. But My righteousness will be forever, and My salvation from generation to generation: Knowing that the righteousness and salvation of the LORD are permanent and the opposition and mocking of the wicked are temporary, we should stand strong in faith.

B. “Awake, awake!”

1. (9-16) Wake up to the power and greatness of the LORD.

a. Awake, awake, put on strength, O arm of the LORD: Here, the faithful believer calls out to the LORD, looking to Him for salvation. They know of God’s great works in the past (Awake as in ancient days) but ask God to act on their behalf now.

i. Curiously, though it is phrased this way (and rightfully so), it is really more of a wakeup call to faith for the believer than an attempt to wake up God. Psalm 121:4reminds us, Behold, He who keeps Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep. Yet it is still wonderful for the believer to call upon the LORD this way because it awakens our faith.

b. Are You not the arm that cut Rahab apart, and wounded the serpent? Among God’s great works remembered is His defeat of Rahab. But when did God cut Rahab apart, and wound a serpent? The name Rahabmeans pride, and ever since the Garden of Eden, the serpenthas been associated with Satan (Genesis 3:1-6). This speaks in poetic terms of God’s victory over Satan, as it does also in Psalm 89:10.

c. So the ransomed of the LORD shall return, and come to Zion with singing: With every enemy defeated, and every obstacle taken care of, God’s people are restored. This is another promise with both a near and an ultimate fulfillment.

d. Who are you that you should be afraid of a man who will die: With promises this glorious, and a God this mighty, we have no reason to fear man. Man can never undo God’s plan for our lives. Compared to the great power of God, they are like grass.

e. You forget the LORD your Maker…You have feared continually every day: The two go together. We will only live in fear continually every day if we forget the LORD. When we forget the LORD, we forget His tender love and care for us: I have covered you with the shadow of My hand…and say to Zion, “You are My people.” This is something to be awake to.

i. The phrase I have covered you with the shadow of My hand reminds us of how God covered Moses with His hand, as Moses hid in the rock and the LORD made His glory to pass before Moses (Exodus 33:17-23).

ii. The LORD would shelter and protect His people the same way. Nothing comes to us unless it has first passed through His counsel. “Ask the question again, ‘Where is the fury of the oppressor?’ And the answer comes, it is under the control of God. Even Satan, your fiercest foe, – God created him, God governs him, God can do with him just as he pleases. Then as to that poverty of which you are afraid, it will not come unless God permits it; and if it does come, the Lord can alleviate it.” (Spurgeon)

2. (17-23) Wake up to the reality of God’s wrath.

a. Awake, awake! Stand up, O Jerusalem: This wakeup call is directed right at Jerusalem. God’s people sometimes spiritually “fall asleep” and need to be awakened. Romans 13:11-12 says, And do this, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep; for now our salvation is nearer than when we first believed. The night is far spent, the day is at hand. Therefore let us cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armor of light.

b. You who have drunk at the hand of the LORD, the cup of His fury: A common picture of judgment in the Old Testament is the cup of God’s wrath or fury. The idea is that God gives a cup “full” of His wrath to those who are under judgment, and they must drink it. Here, God calls Jerusalem to remember that they have drunk at the hand of the LORD, the cup of His fury when they experienced God’s judgment through the Babylonians.

i. If possible, the image is even strengthened: You have drunk the dregs of the cup of trembling, and drained it out. Not only did Jerusalem drink the cup, but they also drained it – drinking down to the dregs at the bottom of the cup. They had experienced desolation and destruction, famine and sword, and this was God’s cup for them.

ii. This powerful image was in the mind of Jesus when He prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane on the night before His crucifixion. When He prayed, Father, if it is Your will, take this cup away from Me; nevertheless not My will, but Yours, be done (Luke 22:42), He had in mind the cup of God’s wrath He was about to drink – to the dregs – at the cross.

c. See, I have taken out of your hand the cup of trembling, the dregs of the cup of My fury; you shall no longer drink it: The LORD knows when to give the cup, and when to take it from His people. Now is time for their redemption and for the shame of their enemies, so the LORD promises, I will put it into the hand of those who afflict you. We should always be awake to God’s timing and loving promises.

i. “When faith is weak men are in a dreadful hurry, but strong faith does not judge the Lord to be slack concerning his promise. As God achieves his purpose with infinite leisure, he loves a faith that is patient and looks not for its reward this day or the next. ‘He that believeth shall not make haste’: that is to say, he shall not be ashamed or confounded by present trials so as to rush upon unbelieving actions. Faith leaves times and seasons with God to whom they belong.” (Spurgeon)

ii. Who have said to you, “Lie down, that we may walk over you”: This “barbaric practice…is well documented in the ancient Near East, featured especially, but not exclusively, in Assyrian inscriptions” (Grogan). But God will give this humiliation to those who humiliated His people.