And then if the rest of us would open our Bibles to the book of Isaiah, and we're gonna continue our study through these chapters of Isaiah this morning, focusing on Isaiah chapter 42, verses 10 through 17. So Isaiah chapter 42, verses 10 through 17. And here in these verses, we see a shout of good news for a world that desperately needs good news. And it's also a good reminder for us that we shouldn't be ashamed of the gospel. Because gospel, that term right there, is good news. We actually have a message of good news that brings joy to all who have the ears to hear it. If there's no reason for us to be timid, no reason for us to be ashamed, and this message of good news is hope for all the nations of the world, including ourselves. So the question that we can be asking ourselves as we prepare ourselves to look at God's word is that if God's word has the best answers to life's biggest questions, then why do we feel so timid or afraid to talk about the Bible with others? Because if he has the best answers for life's biggest questions, then we should eagerly be saying, friends, listen to this. This is good news. So what is it that has us so timid? But as we prepare our hearts and minds to study his word, let's offer another prayer. Father, we recognize that we are people who started as enemies of you. We are people who started off as the bad guys, and yet you love us so much that you found us where we were, that you opened up our eyes so we could see, our ears so we could hear. So do that again for us this morning, because it is your message, your wisdom, your power and truth we want to be celebrating today, not just our human creativity. Father, let Your Word be what is spoken through us. We pray this now in Jesus' name. Amen. Friends, I invite you now to stand in body or in spirit as we honor God's Word, looking together at Isaiah chapter 42, starting with verse 10. Hear now the words of the Lord. Sing to the Lord a new song, his praise from the ends of the earth. You who go down to the sea and all that fills it, the coastlands and their inhabitants. Let the desert and its cities lift up their voice. The villages that Kadar inhabits or inhabits. Let the habitants of Selah sing for joy. Let them shout from the top of the mountains. Let them give glory to the Lord and declare his praise to the coastlands. The Lord goes out like a mighty man. Like a man of war, he stirs up his zeal. He cries out. He shouts aloud. He shows himself mighty against his foes. For a long time, I have held my peace. I have kept still and restrained myself. Now I will cry out like a woman in labor. I will gasp and pant. I will lay waste mountains and hills and dry up all their vegetation. I will turn the rivers into islands and dry up the pools. I will lead the blind in a way that they do not know, in paths that they have not known. I will guide them. I will turn the darkness before them into light, the rough places into level ground. These are the things I do, and I do not forsake them. They are turned back and utterly put to shame who trust in carved idols, who say to metal images, you are our gods. Brothers and sisters, the grass withers, the flower fades, but the Word of our God will stand forever. And you can be seated. Friends, there is an important distinction to make in life. We are actually, as elders, Just happened to be talking about that a little bit before we came in here, but there is a big difference between have to and get to. The things that we have to do and the things that we get to do. And what's the difference between them? Well, let's think about this in certain contexts. Does anyone ever say, guess what? I get to serve jury duty. You laugh because you know. Even if you are so grateful for the legal systems that we have, that doesn't mean that you necessarily want to be the person who has to sit there in the jury, right? No, we say, I have to serve jury duty. Or let's think about this another way. Does anyone say, You know, I won a raffle, and now I have to go to a week-long, all-expense-paid vacation to Hawaii. Does anyone say that? No, you say, I get to go on an all-expense-paid vacation! This is amazing! There is a massive difference between have to and get to. And when we speak in one way or another, does it also not affect the way that other people think about the things that we talk about? Let's put this into another context, but we'll swap the language out. If we said, my cousin is having a birthday party and I have to go. Do you want to come with me? Do you want to go to that party? Probably not if I say, I have to go. What if I said, my cousin is having a birthday party and I get to go. Would you like to come with me? Would you like to go to that one? Yeah, the same sentence, pretty much, you just swap out the half to get to. And so, when we think about the way that we are followers of Jesus Christ, the way that we talk about the offer of grace, the mercy that comes through Jesus Christ and the cross on which he died for us, how do we talk about that? How do we think and act about this new song of joy that's given to us? Do we say that Jesus Christ, he gives you the offer of new life, but you have to give up your sin? All those things that you love to do, the stuff that have been your favorite things up until now, you have to give those things up first. Or do we say, Jesus Christ gives us an offer of eternal life and you get to give up your sins. You know, so there's a big difference there when you realize that, like, these sins, they have been my sorrow and my misery. And Jesus Christ, not only does he give me a new life, but I get to give up those sins that have made my life so difficult up to now. Amen, yes. There's a massive difference between have to and get to. And so when we are people who are called to proclaim the good news of Jesus Christ, as we are the people who are called to sing a new song of praise to him, do we think of that as a have to or a get to? Because my friends, We get to be the children of God. We get to proclaim His good news to others. And He gives us a song that is truly worth singing. And the sooner we recognize that us following Jesus is a get-to, not a have-to, the sooner we are going to enjoy what we do as God's people. And the sooner other people are gonna say, That party that you guys are having over there sounds like a good time. Can I get to do that with you too? The sooner we enjoy being the people of God, the sooner we will see the world change. And so Isaiah chapter 42 is a great example of this and what we're studying this morning. Verse 10 says, Sing to the Lord a new song, His praise from the end of the earth. You who go down to the sea and all that fills it, the coastland and their inhabitants. So God is telling the people that he gives a new song, and he calls us to sing that song with him. And this song is one that's described as a song of praise here, but then later on in the verses that we read, it's also a song of joy, it's a song of glory, it's a song of zeal. If the new song that we sing through the Lord is all these things, then what does that tell us about the old song that we're singing previously? It's a song of sorrow. It's a song of suffering. It's a song of shame. It's not a song that we want to be singing. It's not a, all right, you have to sing a new song. When the old song was one of misery, my friends, this is a, we get to sing a new song. There's a new tune. That old earworm that was going through my head and making my life miserable, that's gone. He's given me a new song, one of joy, one of life. And so we get to sing a new song. And who are the people that he's offering this new song to? In this context, it's a song that is being given to the coastlands. Who are the coastlands? This is one of the things that I love about reading the Bible verse by verse because we know the context of what we've seen. in the previous couple of chapters. That the coastlands, these are the furthest people that were known to Israel, the furthest people on the edges of the earth, where the ground stops, the people who live out there on the coastlands. Think as far away as you can go. And these people, too, were enemies of God. Because we saw in the previous chapter, He's saying, we've got a challenge here. You bring your best that your God has, and I'll bring my best, and we'll see who wins. and he's saying you better be scared because i'm coming and so the coastline who are the coastlines these are the enemies of god these are the ones who are going to be dashed you know their their previous hopes that they had in their gods are going to be destroyed and yet what does he say to the people who were his enemies i'm going to give you a new song i'm going to give you a song of joy You who are my enemies who are going to be defeated, I'm going to give you a song of victory. So this is a great context right here. There is going to be a change in the world. Those who are in misery will be given something new. He says in verse 11, Let the desert and its cities lift up their voices, the villages that Kadar inhabits. Let the habitants of Selah sing for joy. Let them shout from the top of the mountains. Let them give glory to the Lord and declare His praise in the coastlands. So we see that we're not just sticking in the coastlands, but we're going all over the place. We're going from the desert to the coastlands and even to the mountain places because this message of glory is for all the nations of the world. all people, in all places. God has the mission to have followers of all peoples, all tribes, all tongues, all languages. He is not going to leave any inch of this world unreached with His glory. And so we see that this gospel of Jesus Christ is a message for everyone. And that right there is pretty remarkable because how many things in this world are equally loved and appreciated by people of every different country? Can you think of anything that you'd be able to get every culture in this world on board with? I try to think of this in a different context. We here in the Americas, we love our constitutional republic, our form of government that we do, and we see this as the best imperfect form of government we have yet seen in this world. And so what have a lot of diplomats done? They said, we need to try to take our government and then drop it into other countries in this world because who doesn't love freedom, right? Has that always worked out? It hasn't. Because what have we found out? Not every culture loves freedom. Not every people see that as a virtue to attain. Some people say, I value loyalty more than freedom. No, I would rather serve a tyrant than to be rebellious. And we just see things like, I don't understand you people. So what is there that would be a message that you could take to all the nations of the world that they would receive it when they understand it, that it would become a song of joy? I think you'd be hard-pressed to find something that all people would love. And yet, why do we know that the message of the gospel is something that truly belongs throughout all the world, that it would become a joy for all people? Because regardless of the nation that you're from, the culture that you're from, we're all dealing with the same root issue. We all have the same father, Adam, who sinned and rebelled against the Lord. And because of that, there is the same curse that has been brought upon us all. And we all have the same threat. which is the righteous, holy glory of God that none of us have the right to stand in front of Him. We all have the threat of God's holiness. How can we come before His presence and live? And so there has to be a way that we can be freed from the judgment of our own sins. But because all of us deal with the same problem, then this message of God becomes the solution for all people and for all nations. Because the reality is, because of our sins, we have to die an eternal death if we stay in those sins. But this passage is saying there is another way. You get to sing a new song. You get to have life. You get to give praise to God. How is that? How is that possible? Well, we see a clue that this is possible because of the way that this promise is made. We see that this new song is given to Kadar and to Selah. Who are these people? These were other nations that were historically enemies of God. They were people who gave trouble to Israel. But now we're seeing that the ones who were enemies of God, in the end, will become His children, will become His people and His nation. How is that possible? How can the enemies of God become children of God? Now, spoiler alert, the answer is Jesus, but let's get there in the text. How does the text lead us there? Verse 13, the Lord goes out like a mighty man, a man of war, he stirs up his zeal, he cries out, he shouts aloud, he shows himself mighty against his foes. So we see a picture of a man of war here, but the focus isn't actually on his warfare, but a zeal, a passion at which He speaks, the passion by which He cries out. Because God is speaking to the nations because He recognizes that we as the nations Our lives are at stake. Not just our physical lives, but our eternal lives. Our eternity is at stake if we are not freed from the darkness of our sins. And so He speaks out. He shouts as one would shout in war because there is a battle that takes place. The battle for our souls. And He is not going to be meek. He is going to be meek, but He's not going to be weak. And He's not going to be mild. But we see that God does proclaim His message for us in powerful ways. And so we as Christians, as we think about the example of the passion of God, it's sometimes convicting to me of saying, do I shout this way, you know, the glories of God into the hearts of those who are still in darkness? Do I shout with this kind of confidence realizing that there is a spiritual war that is at stake? I don't always live as God himself lives. But then what's also convicting to me is as we think about that, how about those who live against the Word of God? Those who love what is evil. Because, you know, I'm very grateful that Roe v. Wade was overturned this summer, but those who loved the evils of Roe v. Wade, did you see the people, how they were shouting in the streets? Some of the raging and the rioting that was taking place because of their passion for evil? Have you ever seen the church of Jesus Christ speak with as much passion as some were shouting for abortion? Now, I'm not saying we need to go out there and riot, but if people are more passionate for evil than we are passionate for the righteousness of Jesus Christ, are we not in a dangerous place? Should that not be convicting for us? So we should be a people of zeal. We should be people who shout all the more gladly. We shout loudly, but for us it's not one of anger, but it's one of joy. Friends, there's life, there's peace. Come know my God. Know who He is. Don't live in misery any longer. And so there's this challenge to stir up our zeal. Don't be weak, be passionate for the Lord. But then we're also given another image of crying out. This time in verse 14, we see of a mother who's in labor. For a long time I have held my peace. I've kept still and restrained myself. Now I will cry out like a woman in labor. I will gasp and pent. And so we're given the image now of a mother who's been waiting for the day of birthing to come, and now she's at a place where she cannot stop herself. She must shout out. She cannot be silent. And there's a similarity between these two images. The warrior shouting out before battle and the mother who is shouting out as she is giving birth to a child. Both of these are examples of one who is enduring pain so that another can have life. We are looking at examples of one who is willing to shed their blood so that another can have life. And this is where we get a clue, the bigger clue to the mystery of how do the enemies of God turn into those who are declaring from the mountaintops a new song of praise to God. Because Jesus Christ is the one who is willing to endure pain for us. He was the one who is willing to have his blood shed for us. And I love the way that Romans chapter five puts it. For while we were still weak, the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person, though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die. But God shows his love for us and that while we were still sinners Christ died for us. Since therefore we have now been justified by his blood We much more shall, much more shall we be saved by Him from the wrath of God. Because again, what is our great big danger? It's the wrath of God. How can we stand in the wrath of God? How can we be pure and right? We see verse 10, for if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his son, much more now that we are reconciled shall we be saved by his life. More than that, we will also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ through whom we have now received reconciliation. We recognize as we're reading about the enemies of God in Kedar and Selah, now being those who proclaim His glories, we are born as enemies of God. We are born into sin. We have done evil that has set us apart from the glory of God. We are ones who have delighted in what is disgusting in the eyes of God. And yet what does He do for us? He took on the horrifying death of the cross. Jesus, who lived in the glories of the throne room of heaven, he came and took on our human flesh so he could suffer as we suffer. He died the death that we should have died so that we don't have to die in our sins, but that we get to have the offer of new life. Jesus' blood. like the blood of the warrior, like the blood of the mother. Jesus' blood pays the debt of our sins so that we get to be made new and set free. And so we see that this message of Jesus Christ truly is the solution to the great problem that afflicts all nations of this world. And through Jesus Christ, this world will be changed. We see a picture of this world-changing effect now in metaphor, but we see this world-changing effect in verse 15. The Lord says, I will lay waste mountains and hills and dry up all their vegetation. I will turn the rivers into islands and dry up the pools. Now, at first glance, this doesn't sound like good news. This sounds rather destructive, doesn't it? Like, he's going to lay waste to the mountains? You know, I like mountains. He's going to dry up the vegetation? Well, I like vegetation. You know, kind of important for food, right? Rivers? Water? We want water? Okay, what is going on here? This does not fit the rest of the context. unless we understand the greater context. Again, this is why it is such a wonderful thing that we read the Bible verse by verse and we read the Bible in its context. Because what did we see in chapter 40 and chapter 41? There's been this ongoing imagery that there is a king, a king of glory, a king of grace, a king that when he comes, he comes with peace and blessings for his people. But there's something that's getting between us and the coming of the king. Because if you think of an earthly king who wants to come and visit some of his faraway villages, if you've got big mountains that need to be scaled, or if there's valleys or marshes that are full of thick vegetation that you have to hack your way through, if the roads are weaving all over the place, if there's rivers that need to be waded through, it makes it hard for the king to come, does it not? So the imagery that we've seen here, what God is going to lay waste to is every obstacle that comes between us and God. That's our sin. That is evil. That is death. Everything that gets between us and the blessings of God God says, I see your sufferings, I see your miseries, but friends, I am going to lay those to waste. Everything that has been giving you agony, every fear that has kept you up at night, I will lay those fears and evils to waste. So this is a good thing. This is a glorious message that is being done for us. And so we see how he does this to all forms of obstacles, all forms of the things that would be slowing him down. And so he promises to destroy evil. And that is a good news for us. He says in verse 16, I will lead the blind in a way that they do not know. In paths that they have not known, I will guide them. I will turn darkness before them into light. The rough places into level ground. Because again, that level ground, it's going to make it easy for us to come to Him. These are the things I do and I do not forsake them. So again, this is good news. He's going to take darkness and He's going to turn it into light. Yes, we are born blind into our sin, but he will guide us to where we need to be and where we need to go. So he has a good plan, a good song for those who repent and believe in him. But for those who do not repent, verse 17, and there's a different song, a different story. They are turned back and utterly put to shame who trust in carved idols, who say to the metal images, you are our gods. So if we are people who cling to those sins, and we trust in those sins, when God comes to lay those sins to waste, what is gonna happen to us? Well, we will utterly be put to shame, and we will be cast away with those sins. And so my friends, my prayer is that you don't love your sins. They haven't done you any good. We've held on to them this far in life, but all the promises that they've made, have they actually fulfilled them? heaven. So don't love those sins, don't cling to those sins, but sing a new song. Sing a new song. And that's where I want to emphasize the joy, the overwhelming joy that is promised here in these verses. Because realistically, you don't have to follow Jesus. If you want to die in your sins, if you want to be destroyed, like those mountains of sin will be destroyed, you can cling to them. You can follow that eternity of hell, where the fire is not quenched and the worm does not die. If you wanna go that way, you can do that. You don't have to follow Jesus. But my friends, the good news is that we get to follow Jesus. because of what He has done for us, because He has laid waste those mountains of sin when He died on the cross, when He destroyed the powers of sin, darkness, and death, we now get to sing this song of praise with Him and for Him. That is an option that is made available for you. And my friends, I pray that you do. I pray that you repent of those sins, you turn away from them, and you cling to that cross of Jesus Christ so that you would have the new life that he promises here. That the prisoners, locked in chains, would be set free, that the blind would have their eyes opened and would see the lights. We have the message of joy. And this is why it is so important for us right now. As we live, as we in American society, as we have now shifted to a post-Christian society, where we are no longer the ones who navigate the language of the broader culture around us, we are now living in a place where the language that is being told of us as Christians is that we are the hateful bigots. You know, we don't care about people. We don't care about those who are poor. We don't care about women. We don't care about people who have different skin colors. We don't care about, like, they're gonna tell us that we're the hateful bigots who are guilty of all sorts of isms. But is that true? Are we the hateful people? No. No, what we see through Jesus Christ, that everything that our soul desires, everything that we truly need is found in Jesus Christ. And so they might tell us that we're people who've got that great big mean message to tell others, but don't fall for it. In fact, the things that people who currently hate Jesus Christ, those who do not yet know Him, but we pray are the blind ones who are led into the light, what are some of the things that they are shouting for? and are not the passions of their hearts actually perfectly fulfilled through Jesus Christ? Let's just think about those who are looking for anything else to shout other than Jesus Christ. Because we have people who go out into the streets and they're shouting on behalf of environmentalism. And they look at this world and they say, there is something wrong with this world. This is not the way that the world is supposed to be. This world needs to be healed. This world needs to be fixed. What is our response as followers of Jesus Christ? We'd be like, amen, you're right. This isn't the way the world is supposed to be. But let me tell you why. This world was broken because of sin. Because of the sins of Adam, because of the sins of you and me, this world has been broken. And how, if you love this world and you want to see this world made right, how's that going to happen? Sin needs to be dealt with first. That has happened through Jesus Christ, which he has already done for us. But he doesn't just stop there. He is going to come again and he's going to give us a new world. And so if you want to see this world restored, brother, sister, then you need to be singing the song of Jesus Christ. What about the people who go out in the streets and they are pleading for dignity to be given to women, pleading for dignity to be given to people of different oppressed groups, people of different skin colors or ethnicities. What do we, as followers of Jesus Christ, have to say about that? We say, Amen! We have the God who brings dignity to us all. Because who are we? We are people who are made in the image of God. But because of our sins, we have brought turmoil on ourselves. We have ripped the dignity of God away from ourselves. But if you want to see dignity restored to all people, That can only happen through Jesus Christ. Again, His death on the cross gives dignity to us all. That when we repent of our sins, when we believe in Him, His name is given to us. His identity is the one that we share. You can't lift people from the pits into any higher place than to be heirs of the kingdom of God. There's no better place. So if you care for those who feel small or slighted, then brother, sister, you need to be singing the song of Jesus Christ. And what about those who go out in the streets, and when they look around the world, and what they see are mountains of injustice that are raised up around us. Who's the one who lays waste to the mountains of sin, darkness, and death? That is our God. That is our business. That is what we sing a song about. And so when the people of this world are shouting, and they come with their passions, and they say, there's something wrong, there needs to be something better, we say, yes! Hear my song, hear my Savior, come sing it with us. So friends, we don't need to be shamed. When people tell us that we're these horrible, rotten people, do we not know better? And do we not know that everything that they're looking for, that their hearts truly desire, can be found? And so I've tried to quick picture this in a different light. Let's just say, let's say you're a car salesman. And let's say, you know, you work at like the best dealership ever where you've got access to every car imaginable. Doesn't that give you a bit of confidence in the way that you're gonna sell things when somebody comes like, well, you know, I'm looking for something a little sportier. Got that. You know, I'm looking for something that also has got really good gas mileage. I got that too. I'm looking for something in a different shade of blue. I got it. I got everything. I'm looking for a car that has square wheels. We don't have that one. You don't want a car with square wheels. Trust me. But we as followers of Jesus Christ, everything that people are looking for, if you're looking for hope, if you're looking for joy, if you're looking for justice, if you're looking for people to be lifted up and restored, everything, everything that the soul actually craves is found in Jesus Christ and proclaimed through his word. And yes, there are people sometimes, what they're calling for in life is that they're looking for square wheels. They're saying, just give me my sin, let me have my sin. I'm sorry we don't sell that here. We sell life. We sell joy and peace. That is the business that we're in. Friends, don't be afraid. They want to make us afraid. That's not our business. So friends, don't think of yourself as someone who has to follow Jesus. You are someone who gets to follow Jesus. We talk about share the word of God with your neighbors. Don't think that you have to share the word of God with your neighbors. You get to share the word of God with neighbors. Because the more we get to share this good news with others, the more we get to see this world change. And friends, this world has to change, does it not? Let's pray. Father, thank you so much for your love to your enemies. That's us. That's me. I am that blind man that you led through places that I did not know and could not have known has been given sight. And I pray for all my brothers and sisters here that you have done the same for each of us. Because even before we knew you, we knew that there was something that was wrong. Thank you for being the one who is right and who makes us right in the eyes of your Father. Thank you for that. And let us be a people, by our words and our actions, sing joyfully for you. Father, we pray this now in Jesus' amazing, wonderful name. Amen.