Turn with me to Isaiah 27. Can you believe we're in chapter 27? We started this clear back in September of last year, and we're now in chapter 27. We're getting there, all right? Little by little, we're getting there. But what a great text this morning. I've been looking forward to it. This is week four. Part four of two cities and three hymns from chapter 24 through 27. And the context is the end of the end. This is the end of the world that he's talking about. And God has granted him a vision and he wants the people of Israel to know that he is still God even at the end. And his promises still remain at the end. So as we hear the word of God today, there should be a real sense of a gladdening of the heart that would cause your face to smile. And I know you're gonna read through some of this and not be able to grasp it, my prayer is that you would hear the word of God, the word of God would meet the need of your heart, and that you would, in fact, enjoy these words from the book of Isaiah. Isaiah chapter 27, this is a hymn of redemption. We've talked about the two cities, and now this is the third and final hymn. Hear the word of God, verse one. In that day, the Lord with his hard and great and strong sword will punish Leviathan, the fleeing serpent. Leviathan, the twisting serpent. And he will slay the dragon that is in the sea. And in that day, a pleasant vineyard, sing of it, I, the Lord, am its keeper. Every moment I water it, lest anyone punish it. I keep it night and day. I have no wrath. Would I have had thorns and briars to battle, I would march against them, I would burn them up together. Or let them lay hold of my protection. Let them make peace with me. Let them make peace with me. In days to come, Jacob shall take root. Israel shall blossom and put forth shoots and fill the whole world with fruit. Has He struck them as He struck those who struck them? Or have they been slain as their slayers were slain? Measure by measure by exile you contend with them. He removed them with his fierce breath in that day of the east wind. Therefore by this the guilt of Jacob will be atoned for. And this will be the full fruit of the removal of his sin, when he makes all the stones of the altars like chalk stones crushed to pieces. No asherim or incense altars will remain standing, for the fortified city is solitary, a habitation deserted and forsaken, like the wilderness. There the calf grazes. There it lies down and strips its branches. And when its bowels are dry, they are broken. Women come and make a fire of them. For this is a people without discernment. Therefore, he who made them will not have compassion on them. And he who formed them will show them no favor. In that day, From the river Euphrates to the brook of Egypt, the Lord will thresh out the grain, and you will be gleaned one by one, O people of Israel. And in that day, a great trumpet will be blown, and those who were lost in the land of Assyria and those who were driven out of the land of Egypt will come and worship the Lord on the holy mountain at Jerusalem. This is God's Word. Let's be careful on how we hear it this morning. I recently heard an old interview with Judy Garland, it was an old one, okay, about the song that made her famous, Somewhere Over the Rainbow. from The Wizard of Oz. Some of you might remember that song. I have another rendition of it that I hear that's just breathtaking, this lady that sang it. But Judy said that the reason why she felt this song became so loved is because all people have a hope that there is some place out there where there are no problems and no sorrow, a place of eternal happiness, a place of hope. There's something about what she says that is true. When one carefully studies the Bible, one soon sees that there is truly such a place. For the believer into Jesus Christ, it is heaven. And for the nation of Israel, it is the promised land. For the believer in Jesus Christ, this is exactly what Isaiah has been telling the people of God in his prophecies, that there is going to be that final place somewhere over the rainbow. Assyria, in the meantime, will come and take Israel, remember Israel, and Judah are all part of the nation of Israel, but they're divided, Israel to the north, Syria to the south, but Assyria will come and destroy, literally obliterate Israel and take them captive in 721 BC. And Israel, for all intents and purposes, will be lost in the sands of Assyria. They'll never be heard of again. I don't know whether you picked up on that. Those tribes are lost to the pages of history. Judah, however, and that's who we're dealing with mostly in this book, similarly in about 140 years later, in 586, will be taken into Babylon. And it will be a terrible time. Can't even imagine what that would be like. Remember when we went through Daniel last year. They were there for 70 years before they were able to go back to Jerusalem. But these are going to be very tough times for God's people. And the people are wondering what on earth will become of them. Israel has been promised that one day she will be in her land enjoying the blessings of God, a total peace in total righteousness. It's where God has said this is where they'll end up. And that day is discussed in this chapter. And this is the kingdom for which Israel was to pray, thy kingdom come, thy will be done. And the in that day formula that we've been talking about, it is found in Isaiah. God projects us into his future. The future of God's people. And it's very bright. For God's people will have a king They'll have a kingdom of God and they will have the eternal king. And here's the point of this text for us this morning. God will have the ultimate victory and will fully restore his people. Right now it doesn't seem like God's gonna have that. And it doesn't seem like God's people will have that. But his point here is that you get a hold of this will happen. In Isaiah 27, God reveals his final triumph over evil. His redemptive discipline of his people and his people and his promise to restore his people for worship and fruitfulness. This, my friend, is a hymn of redemption. This is what we long for. This right here is what we think is somewhere over the rainbow. God's people go from judgment to joy. So here God's final word for his people. The redeemed will worship and sing forever for three reasons. The first reason, is this day, this day will be a terrible day for God's enemies. Four times in this text, he will say in that day. It will be in that day, a terrible day for God's enemies. And you see this in verse one. In that day, there's the first one, the Lord with his hard and great and strong sword will punish the Leviathan. Isaiah mentions a mystical monster that is literally woven into the fabric of Scripture. This is not the first time we hear of a Leviathan. The Leviathan is a symbol. It symbolizes the forces of chaos and evil, all political evil, all earthly evil, and spiritual powers that oppose God. This is the Leviathan. Evil is depicted as a fleeing serpent in this text, a twisted serpent, as it were, and a dragon. And God has this supreme weapon to do the final justice on this trifecta of evil. The sword is what's given here. The sword is most often used in scripture speaking of God's word. And so you kind of see that it's God's word here is just the right weapon to get after Leviathan, the serpent, and the dragon. There's this unholy trinity arranging itself against God and his people. God, you know, is a triune God, and it's just like the dragon, just like Satan himself, who will take a wonderful thing about God and flip it around and use it for his own wickedness. And so the threefold description of the Leviathan or serpent or monster is matched by a threefold description of God's word. And he says here in 27 verse one, this a hard, the word of God is hard. This is the idea of its fierceness. That the word of God is unrelenting. The word of God has strong power. It's great. The idea of great here. is the idea that it's equal to any task. The word of God is sufficient to deal with any task. And then it's powerful. That's the idea here of being dominant. It's dominating. The word of God is this much power. The sword that God uses against evil here is that powerful. So the picture here is that evil overcomes all the earth. That's why he uses these different images. You have the dragon in the sky, you have this Leviathan in the sea, and the serpent on the land. These are hostile supernatural forces that infest the entire creation, coiling on land and monsters in the sea. Thus, sin has corrupted the very good work of God that we saw in Genesis chapter one. However great this wickedness is, wherever it's concealed, the sword of the Lord will find it and slay it in this final day. It will have a complete end. God defeats every enemy. Let that settle into your soul this morning. God slays every enemy. Wherever the spirit of opposition to God has appeared, in whatever kingdom it may be, there God will show himself victorious. God wins. God's power to grant victory over everything set against his glory and our happiness is the greatest truth in the universe. This, my friend, should bring a smile to our face. that battle of sin that you fought all week, God has complete victory over all of that. God's power to grant this victory over, set against, over all his glory and our happiness is the greatest truth. God has not only restrained evil, he has not only made it serve his good purposes, but in the end time, he will annihilate all evil. No compromise. and no mercy, it will be good versus evil, simple as that, and evil will be destroyed fully, evil will be destroyed finally, and evil will be destroyed forever. So this, my friend, is a victory that's already been won through Jesus, and it will ultimately be won again at the end of the world. It is the already defeated, but not yet, and that's where we live. All that has plagued us in our sinful nature that wages war within us is brought to an end. All that is in the world that distracts us, that tempts us, that twists us and tricks us into embracing things that have nothing to do with God are emptied. They're done away with. And all the scriptural forces and spiritual forces arrayed against God's people, headed up by that great day, an insidious dragon, are destroyed and brought to nothing. The day of the Lord is terrible against all of the rightness of God. All that seek to take his place for all that is evil, God's justice, and final sovereignty will put it to an end. No enemy will escape his righteous sword. The sword was wielded first with Christ's victory over Satan in Colossians 2, 15, where Paul writes that Jesus disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame by triumphing over them. And then he will finish them off in Revelation 20 10 where it says, and the devil who had deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and sulfur where the beast and the false prophet were and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever. So the message my friend here is clear. All evil is doomed. Let that truth sit into your heart and let it reverberate into your mind. When you watch the news, calm your heart with the realities that chapter 27 verse one is true. The day will be a terrible day for God's enemies. And if you're here today and you're lost and you do not know the Lord Jesus Christ as your savior, may I encourage you this morning to understand this. The evil that is, that just, messes with your heart and your mind, understand something, God is going to remove all of that on this final day. It will be a terrible day for God's enemies. But it doesn't stop there. It will also be a great day for God's people. And we see this in verses two through 11. He says, in this day, a pleasant vineyard. And then he says, sing of it. Oh my goodness, sing of this pleasant vineyard. I love that little phrase, sing of it. Isaiah was confident that the whole of human history was converging on a single point which had been determined by God in advance. In fact, it's well known that this particular part of the hymn, God himself is actually singing this. Yahweh is singing this. And God's people will now have much to celebrate on this day. His point is that there will be much pain, There'll be much perplexity, there will be profound destruction of their world, but in the end of the end, God will see to it that his promises of fruitfulness will be realized. Now remember, if you can remember back, if you were here with us back in November, I looked it up, it's the first Sunday of November, when we started chapter five. And in chapter five, you remember the title of the message was Sour Grapes. Do you remember that? It was when we first heard Isaiah sing. He sang this song. And that song depicted a vineyard where God spared no expense to get the finest grapes so that his vineyard would be the finest. His love was steady and steadfast for years, but then the second stanza had this very sorrowful tone to it. You can look back and you can see if you wanna go back and read it if you weren't here. But God rightly looked for good grapes. Remember, he talked about this. But it yielded only bad fruit. In fact, he called them stinking grapes, literally rancid grapes. And it indicated the futility, the worthlessness of their obedience. He said, I bought the very best grapes, vineyards that could be done. But he said, and over time, you ended up being the worst in many ways. They sought to thwart all of God's tender love for them. The judgment of the first song in chapter five has now come to be realized. And it has had its intended effect. God's judgment on Israel seeks to purify, seeks to heal, seeks to cleanse, seeks to make healthy. And in the end, God intends to make good on all of his promises to Israel, and included in this are the nations of the earth. And here's what this means. This means that we also are included in this. That we have much hope. We who are not Jews, we get to be a part of this. But notice what God does, and this is very beautiful. In verses two through six, God will tend his people. And you see this, and he uses this illustration of this pleasant vineyard. Israel is this vineyard. And there's a profound set of comparisons between the song in Isaiah five and now this song in Isaiah 27. First of all, the vineyard had no fruit. If you remember in Isaiah five, there was no fruit. Now there is this delightful fruit, do you see that? He says, a pleasant vineyard, sing of it, I the Lord am its keeper. Every moment I water it, lest anyone punish it. I keep it night and day, I have no wrath. Would I had thorns and briars to battle, I would march against them, but I would burn it altogether. This pleasant, this delightful fruit. There was, in chapter five, there was no rain. no nourishment. Now there is abundant rain and abundant nourishment at every moment he says. The first song God had to abandon Israel and broke down the walls around the vineyard because of their sin. But now at the very end God Himself is guarding this vineyard. There were thorns and briars in chapter five. But now God dares those thorns and briars to show themselves. It's almost like he says, it's how I feel like in my yard, all right? And I'm looking for weeds. I'm looking for those dandelions, all right? And I have weed killer. And I'm like, just show yourself, just come on. And it's like, what are we saying here? Notice what he says here. He says, I keep it day and night. I have no wrath. Would I have thorns and briars to battle? I dare these enemies of God come. It will be their end when they show themselves. And what is he saying here? He says they will blossom. He says Jacob will take root. They will blossom and grow a fruit of godliness and good works. What he's saying here is that God himself is realizing their profitability and God is shaping his people into this very fruitful vineyard. This vineyard is under God's divine care personally. The judgment God proclaimed in the first song will be totally reversed. That's because it's God doing this. The Lord was angry with Israel and invited her enemies to overrun her, but the time will come when his wrath against her will be spent. Look at verse four again. I would have no wrath. He has no more wrath. This is the work of Christ. This is foretelling what would come another 700 years when Christ would show himself, taking upon himself the full wrath of God for the sins of the world. God has no more wrath for the rest of the world. or for those who have believed into Christ. And now, at the end of the end, every enemy will interfere no more. Why? Because evil is completely gone. Sin, evil, and the curse are so thoroughly removed, they will be burned completely. Do you see that? Or let them hold of my protection. I would burn them up together or let them hold in my protection. It's a beautiful thing that God has done here. At the end of the end, all evil will be gone. The song finishes in verse five. This is Yahweh singing and he finishes in verse five. In verse six, makes the great reversal very plain. So he says this in verse six. In days to come, Jacob shall take root. Israel shall blossom and put forth shoots and fill the whole world with its fruit. The vineyard of Israel will finally be healthy and will fill the earth. The world will no longer invade the vineyard. The vineyard will invade the world, filling it with fruit. This, my friend, is the mandate of Eden. Do you remember when God put Adam and Eve into the garden? What did he say? He said, take and make good of this and fill the earth. Yahweh himself is singing, and God and his people are now One, and their joy is complete. And this is God's promise to Abraham from Genesis chapter 12 fulfilled. all nations of the world, brought into one, all evil is vanquished, and God will tend his people. But notice, secondly, God will transform his people. This, my friend, is amazing. In verses seven through 11, this gives us just a glimpse of the full and complete transformation that will take place when he makes all things new, when evil is totally crushed. God will transform his people. How will God do this? Well, he has mercy and grace for his people. And we see God, first of all, God's discipline is always with purpose. You read this and you kind of scratch your head just a little bit and go like, why is he saying this? Why does he ask this question in verse seven? Has he struck them as he struck those who struck them? Or have they been slain as their slayers were slain? You kind of look at that and go like, what is he talking about there? God's judgment on Israel is always measured. God's judgment on Israel is never destructive. It's never completely annihilating them. God did not strike Israel like he did their enemies. That's what he's saying. He didn't completely wipe them out like he did his enemies. God always kept a remnant, why? Because God had promised Israel that they would make it to the end. He's always showed mercy and grace to Israel. And this goes, my friend, to the heart of the gospel. The good news of God's mercy and grace is that God invades our rebellion and pierces our heart to bring life. If God doesn't pour out his grace into our dead souls, life will not happen within us. It all goes to our thinking of what it is that we deserve though. And here, it's often like, We come to God with all the pain and the crushing circumstances that we're faced with, that sin has brought into our souls. And really, we come to God, but all we really want to do is argue with God. God, it doesn't feel fair. When they were looking and seeing all these nations around them, and God was wiping them out, And then all of a sudden, now God says, Israel, you are gonna be wiped out. Judah, you're gonna be wiped out. And they're going like, how is that? How is that connected with your promises, God? God, it doesn't seem fair. Look at the problems that I'm going through. Look at the weight of sin and destruction that I'm going through. The presence of evil, the curse, and the weight of our own sin is often overwhelming. And no doubt there is something that perhaps even here today that you are dealing with now or have dealt with before or will very soon be dealing with that will be so insurmountable, so oppressive, so unjust, it will feel as if all evil has arrayed itself against you and you have nowhere to go. This is how they felt. And you'll cry out like the psalmist in Psalm 54 verse three, evil men, seek my life. God, when will this ever be done? You think of Israel today. When will it ever be over that nations won't be out to get us? God, it doesn't seem fair. And what is it in our own lives that cause us to think, God, you're just not a man of your word. and you cry out against an evil, and you say, what is this evil that might seem so insurmountable to you? Maybe it's the abuse that you've suffered at the hands of a wicked person. Maybe it's a disease that just won't be cured, no matter what you do, no matter what torturous treatments you endure. Maybe it's the devastation and destruction left in the wake of broken relationships such as spouses or broken relationship between parents and between children. I mean the heartbreak that comes from the loss of those who go and they die long before it's their time. And there's nothing we can do to help. What seems so insurmountably evil to you today? We have hope to know that it will not stand in that day. No evil will stand. It will be destroyed. It will be brought to nothing. It will be undone. And God's discipline, though, is measured with purpose and for a purpose. And he tells us so in verse eight. Notice in verse eight, he says this, measure by measure, By exile you contend with them. And what he's saying here is that God has this all figured out. The Lord contended with Israel, even in their problems, even in their difficulties. But the Lord did not contend with Leviathan, did he? He slaughtered that serpent. He doesn't contend with the altars. He crushes them to dust. God doesn't contend with indwelling sin. He removes it. But He contends with His people because He wants to claim us as His own, that we might turn from our idols, that we might turn from our destruction, that we might make our peace with Him and find our life and our hope in Him, that we might know what it means that He is not just our Creator. but he is our Redeemer, and that he himself has atoned for our sins. This is why they can sing of this vineyard. This is not only a reference to exile in Babylon. God did send them to Babylon, and it was truly difficult and bad, but literally all occasions that God uses his earthly circumstances to discipline our hearts and our minds, just like he used these earthly nations to discipline Israel. It was always met with the promise of a remnant that would be saved and a final restoration that will take place. Well, it's happening now in this verse, in this text. The problem was, is like you and me today, they would not believe that God is God. That the pain of that difficulty right now causes our hearts to believe, God, you're not kind, you're not good. You don't really know what you're doing. And it's a real lesson for us to trust God through these very difficult times. And this is why Isaiah was telling them before it happened. God's discipline is always with purpose. Whatever you are going through right now, it's measured. And God's discipline is for a purpose. But notice secondly, God's judgment is always for the purpose of cleansing. Look at verse nine. God's judgment is always for the purpose of cleansing. Therefore, Whatever you see there for, you know that's a pivotal statement. Therefore, by this, the guilt of Jacob will be atoned for. and this shall be the fruit of the removal of his sin. When he makes all the stones of the altars like chalk stones crushed to pieces, no Asherim, no incense altars will remain standing. This, my friend, oh my goodness, this should bring a smile to our faces. This verse is full of gospel clarity. The words therefore through this, it's pointing to the grace and the mercy of God's restraint that he consistently showed his people God doesn't just go in and when he could, because of their sin, just obliterate them, but instead he demonstrates a judgment for the purpose of cleansing them. So the word therefore points to that same grace and mercy that we will bring to them and to us, this full atonement from sin. God knows that Christ is coming. This speaks of Christ's substitutionary work. It is because of his perfect work, God's people will be able to turn from sin and notice the fruit of atonement, the fruit of salvation and turning from sin. There will no longer need to be an altar for sacrifice and Jacob will acknowledge this by even grinding the altar to pieces like chalk. There will also be this purging of religious practices such as the Asherah polls. Religion all around them. Idolatry, the incense, the altars linked with Baal that 2 Chronicles 14.5 warned them about. And the high places of idolatry that God consistently confronted them with. At this time, God cleanses his people so that they will no longer give of themselves to idols. The idea of God's discipline and God's judgment is to remove the idol worship and to remove them from their religion, their way, system of working to get to God without getting to God. God cleanses his people. so that they will no longer give themselves to idols. You see, my friend, idolatry has been the Achilles heel of humanity from the beginning of sin. God literally takes us through the school of disappointment to rid ourselves from our idols. Some of you know this. You've been through the disappointment. You've charted your course against different things that you thought would bring you peace. Some of you are doing this even now. You are pursuing the things of this world and hoping that it will do what only God can do. And what Isaiah is pleading with these people is to understand on that day, all evil will be gone. There'll be no need for astropoles, no need for altars of incense, why? Because evil is gone. The salvation for the people of God will be there. And it's interesting that in this, God literally takes them through over and over the school of disappointment. And they're so disappointed. were the idols that they ran after. And so our idols, our God replacements, never satisfy. They don't bring the needed cleansing from sin. Only the true God can do this. And this is God's point. But then notice in verses 10 through 11, God's judgment though is ultimate victory. And this is what we can't do for ourselves. God in his grace shows the terrible result of idolatry in the lives of his people. Verse 10, he says, for the fortified city is solitary. What is the fortified city? Remember back chapter 24? This is the city of man. This is man's own concoction. They don't wanna live in the city of God, they live in the city of man. And he says, this fortified city, as great as it could be from a humanity standpoint, it's a habitation, deserted, forsaken like a wilderness. There are calves that graze there. There it lies down and strips its branches. When its boughs are dry, they are broken. It just falls apart. And God in his grace shows the terrible result of idolatry in the lives of people. This is what happens. I'm wondering if we see this today. The world itself, this fortified city of man, this world system will come to its final end. There's a contrast in these verses between the people of God and the city of God that are kept by God. And when the city of man is finally abandoned by God, The people of God are kept by God. And sometimes God withdraws for a moment because of our disobedience, but he will never let us go. And the city of man, on the other hand, will become solitary, deserted, forsaken, and their maker will not have compassion on them. He will show no favor on them. In other words, and this is what I want you to understand, there is nothing in the entire Bible that supports any notion that in the end there will be salvation for everybody. There will be salvation for the people of God, but there will be this separation of those who are left abandoned finally, forsaken finally, deserted finally, and without compassion finally, without favor finally. And I would be failing you if you're not a Christian, you're not a believer in Christ, and you're here this morning, I would be failing you if I didn't point out to you that there is going to be a time when God's judgment upon sin is final. You will face desolation. And God warns this. And it's right for us to hear this this morning. This ultimate victory of God is over all the evil in all of the world and in our lives. My friend, evil cannot win. And even as you look at our nation so desperately trying to put evil out and yet allowing evil to happen all around, it's why you look at the news and you just go like, what in the world is going on? Over here, trying to stop this real wicked stuff, but over here, there's just this wickedness that's going on all over that everyone's just going like, okay, we can't do anything about it, so let's just go with it. My friend, there comes a day when God says no to all of it. And that day is coming, evil cannot win. Why, because God is holy and God is just. So for God's people, this will be a good day. No more fighting that battle from within. As a mother, you know what that's like. You got children and the sin is going on all around you and you go like, ah, how do I stop? What do I stop? What do I stop first? On that day, it's done. It's done. And that brings us to our third point that you see Isaiah trying to tell our folks here, that this will be a day worth waiting for. Now, when he's telling them, it's 700 years before Christ comes, and then before the second coming of Christ, where all of this will happen is still not happened yet, right? So this is a long wait. And God has called us to this long wait. But in this two verse section, in that day is mentioned twice more. So he's trying to get you the idea that there's this day that's coming, it's coming, it's coming, it's coming, and we go like, yeah, maybe, no, it's coming. It's as if Isaiah's excitement for the culmination continues to grow. And this is kind of the way our hearts should be. Remember as a kid when it was almost Christmas? I mean, it just couldn't get there fast enough, right? Every Christmas song heard was one step closer to the day of gift opening and eating together as a family. You know what that excitement's about. Here is the culmination of the end of the end, and it will be well worth waiting for. All the power of God is not just for the end, But it literally is for everything between now and the end of the end. Everything right now. And that means this, everything right now that is startling to you, that is powerful in our lives, that is just a glimpse from our God now that reminds us one by one that he is the all-powerful God of the end of the end. So here's what this means. When we see countries like we're seeing today, one nation rising up against another nation, and we see the judgment and its awfulness, understand that is a small picture of what the end of the end is going to look like. Because what are they after? They're after peace. Thereafter, only what God can do. And here is where Isaiah explains this. Verse 11. Or verse 12, excuse me. And in that day, from the river Euphrates to the brook of Egypt, the Lord will thresh out the grain, and you will be gleaned one by one. What's he talking about here? It's really quite beautiful. Three things. One, God will thresh a true people. He will thresh out a true people. And what he's saying here is this. In the end, all evil is removed. All pretenses of righteousness, all pretenses of righteousness will be finally taken out of the world, and what is left? This is what threshing does. It takes away all the stuff around that is not wheat, for instance, that's not that grain, all that stems and all the little flowers that come out of it, everything that's not the grain is threshed. A threshing floor was designed on purpose to take all the minutia and all the thing that would fall down is the grain. And what he's saying here is, There will be no question at this point who is and who isn't a child of God. The idea of this threshing is removing all that isn't at the very core of the fruit at harvest. All covering is removed. There's nothing left but the sweet fruit of the vine or the kernel of corn or the grain of wheat is left. The long process of removing all that sin has wrought in us is over now. God will thresh a true people. Secondly, God will gather a scattered people. And this is what's beautiful. He says, from the brook of Egypt, or the river Euphrates to the brook of Egypt, you will be gleaned one by one. And in that day, a trumpet will be blown and those who were lost in the land of Assyria and those who were driven out of the land of Egypt will come and worship the Lord in the holy mountain. So the idea here is people at this point were scattered into Assyria and Egypt because those are the enemies. And the idea here is this basically the world map as Isaiah knew it, but it literally means from everywhere. That means that there will not be a single one of his people lost. Unless you think that the trials you are now going through, unless you think that the oppressions that the world, the flesh, and the devil have laid upon you could possibly hide you from the sight of God, unless you think that things could get so bad, so intense, so destructive, so oppressive, and so unjust that God might forget you or lose sight of you, no, my friend, he won't. That's his point. He will go to the farthest nation and seek you out and find you and bring you back. No one will be lost because God gathers a scattered people. And every one of us should say amen to that. But then God will restore a worshiping people. They will come, scripture says, and they will worship Yahweh. The final harvest, the final trumpet, the final destiny of all, and what will they do? They will come and worship the Lord on the holy mountain in Zion. You know, we've seen this image used earlier in Isaiah chapter two. where he says this, it shall come to pass in the latter days, a mountain of the house of the Lord shall be established, remember we talked about this, it becomes the Mount Everest, it's the highest of the mountains, and shall be lifted above the hills, and who shall come in that day? Remember we asked this question, just the racially pure Jews? No, my friend. Many peoples will come, and they will go up They will come and they will say, let us go up the mountain of the Lord to the house of the God of Jacob. My friend, here's why I want to drill into your heart and to your mind that all of life is all about God. And I wanna say this over and over and over and over so that you understand, even as you live now through the most difficult times of your life, or you come to the very end of the end, all of life, is continuing to be all about God. And from the first word in Genesis to the last word in Revelation, it's all about him. And I love how what one writer says, all the strands of the book of Isaiah converge on this single point, worship. God being acknowledged for who he is. And such worship is not an escape from reality, but a return to reality, and it is in returning to reality, listen to this, that the world, so long out of joint, will finally be made whole. This gives us hope. God will have the ultimate victory and will fully restore his people. That's our destiny. This is the reality in our final redemption, and this is where we're going, and this is what God is doing. He's preparing us that he might live in us, that he might dwell with us. It's a restored Eden, and it's life as God created it, finally. So take heart, my friend. Whatever power seems strong today, God has the final say. Don't let the news of today scare you and cause you to disbelieve God. Calm your heart. Some of you are so filled with anxiety. Let not your heart be troubled. You believe in God. Whatever powers seem so strong today, God has the final say. Trust God's pruning and cleansing. All the pain, all the circumstances that seem to overwhelm you, trust the process. Keep your head down. His disciplines are there to make you fruitful on that day. This isn't the final day. This isn't what we were created to be doing today. That pain, you were not created to feel that pain. That's all a part of this life, but God intends for you to forbear. God intends for you to persevere, but God's gonna see to it that you get there. Don't cling to idols. God's goal is your holiness, not your comfort. And our idols are simply looking for convenience in life, comfort in life, and peace without having to go through God. That's our idols. And some of you are masters at finding those things that you think are going to provide you that convenience, that comfort, and that peace outside of God. Can I just tell you in advance? It's not gonna work. That's not how it's designed. It doesn't work that way. Don't cling to idols. And then trust the eternal hope that's in Christ. This looks ahead to a global, multi-ethnic church worshiping Christ. We can read about that in John 4, 23. He says to that Samaritan woman, there's coming a day when it's going to be the whole people from all over the world, Revelation 7, 9 through 10. Don't look for hope anywhere else. And then finally, see this picture with me today as we close. Revelation 7, verses 9 and 10. This is John writing, and I'm sure that he doesn't quite know exactly what he's writing about, but it's marvelous. And he says, after this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes. Why, because there's no evil. with palm branches in their hands, crying with a loud voice what we sang about earlier. Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne and to the Lamb. My friend, don't put your trust in our country, in our politicians, Don't put your trust in our wisdom of this world. Put your confidence in the God who has this all planned out by His grace and mercy. Run from idols, run from your sin, and trust only in Him. And it's all made possible, and you can do this through Christ, which strengthens you. Will you pray with me this morning? Lord, as we've stumbled through this magnificent text this morning, it seems that what Jesus told us is really true. Without him, we can do nothing. But we try really hard to do our own thing in hopes that he will go along with it. And Father, would you forgive us of our arrogance? Would you forgive us of our pride? Would you forgive us of our idolatry, Lord, that we keep looking for things that will satisfy and bring comfort and bring convenience that's just not of God? And God calls our hearts to trust fully into our Savior, our Lord, our King. Thank you that you've given to us this warning and you've given to us this information that Isaiah said centuries ago to people who had to go through far worse things than we will ever have to go through. But Father, even as we go through difficult things, we know difficult days are ahead, that no matter what the circumstances are, may we trust ultimately in you May we find our salvation is really from the Lord. And that means salvation from every sin, every desire, every wickedness that our hearts can imagine. It's through Christ. And through that, we find strength, we find peace, and we find righteousness. So God, be our God today, and we bow before you and serve you alone. We pray in Christ's name, amen.