Well, please turn in your copy of God's Word to Isaiah chapter 2. Isaiah chapter 2, if you're using the Pew Bible, this is on page 605. Isaiah chapter 2, we'll just be considering the first five verses this evening. This is the word of the living God. The word that Isaiah the son of Amos saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem. Now it shall come to pass in the latter days that the mountain of the Lord's house shall be established on the top of the mountains and shall be exalted above the hills and all nations shall flow to it Many people shall come and say, Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob. He will teach us His ways, and we shall walk in His paths. For out of Zion shall go forth the law and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. He shall judge between the nations and rebuke many people. They shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore. O house of Jacob, come and let us walk in the light of the Lord. This is God's word. Let's look to him now in a time of prayer. O gracious God, we ask even as we have sung your praises, we ask now that as we come and sit under your word, that we would receive this Word, not as the Word of men, but as it really is the very Word of God. Father, we pray that by the power of Your Spirit, You would revive us this night for the sake of Jesus Christ, our Savior. Amen. Well, one of the cries that often is heard in the mouth of Christians throughout the centuries is that of the psalmist in Psalm 13. How long, O Lord, how long O Lord, and even as we already considered this Lord's Day morning, one of the great trials which the Christian faces is seeking to match God's Word with God's world. That is, we have the Word of God, we know the Word of God cannot err or fail, and yet when we look around in the world, it may appear, from our perspective, that God's Word cannot be trusted. Isaiah 2 describes for the Christian a day of blessing that the Lord promises which will come, but in this very book, first there must come judgment. And so even as it was in Isaiah's day, many may doubt whether God's Word can be trusted, given the fact that they're in the midst of what seems to be never-ending judgment. This evening, the Lord calls upon us to trust in His Word, knowing that this Word will be kept by the Lord. So as we look at these five verses, we just want to consider two things this evening. First is the future blessing of the Lord upon His people in verses 1 through 4, and then a fundamental calling upon God's people in verse 5. So let's first begin and consider this future blessing which the Lord promises upon His people. You see, this comes to Isaiah, the son of Amos, concerning Judah and Jerusalem. Now, it shall come to pass in the latter days. Dot, dot, dot. This signals to the reader the time upon which this blessing will come to God's people. As Isaiah says, it will come in the latter days. Now if you've spent any time reading through the Bible, you may have come across this phrase, the latter days, or the last days, as you have spent your time reading the Bible. The phrase latter days first appears in Genesis 49 verse 1. In this context, Jacob is giving a blessing upon each of his sons, and he says this will come about in the latter days. And so it's proper to say that in that sense, latter days can just refer to days in the future. And yet, what we learn in Genesis 49 verse 10 is that the blessing upon which Judah will receive is something which takes place not just in a few days ahead, but actually comes to fruition in that great seed of the woman, the lion of the tribe of Judah. And so this period of time then, these latter days, is when God's promises reach their full and final fulfillment. And as you turn the pages into the New Testament, We find the author of Hebrews, for example, using this phrase, the latter days, in reference to the age in which Christians now live. He says, in times past, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days, God has spoken to us by his son. And thus, according to the mind of the writers of the New Testament, the days upon which the Church lives from the first coming of Christ to the second coming of Christ can be rightly seen as the latter or last days. These, then, are the very days in which we live, the days which have been inaugurated in Christ's first coming but will be consummated at Christ's second coming. And so the time then is important, but what is the blessing which the Lord promises upon his people in the latter days? Well, it takes three different forms. If you read the text, it takes the form of worship, it takes the form of instruction or teaching, and it takes the form of ruling or dominion. So I want to spend a few moments this evening considering each of these three things, the three blessings which come upon God's people. The first is in verse two. Now it should come to pass in the latter days that the mountain of the Lord's house shall be established on the top of the mountains and shall be exalted above the hills and all nations shall flow to it. What Isaiah sees and records for us is that God's dwelling place, the house of the Lord, will be established. And it will be established on the mountain. Now, again, as you read through the Bible, we recognize that oftentimes God is found meeting with his people upon the mountain. Think back to the Exodus narrative. We see God meeting with Moses on Mount Sinai. It was seen that, in those days, the gods dwelled on the mountains. And so what Isaiah sees here, what he records for us, is that the Lord's dwelling place, the Lord's place of habitation, will be exalted high above all of the other gods who dwell on these other mountains. As Calvin points out, this would have really been a little bit ironic for the people of the Jews because the mountain upon which the temple was built is really not much of a mountain, is it? It's more of what we would consider a hill. Mount Zion was no grand mountain, but here God is saying, That mountain upon which I dwell with my people will be, as it were, lifted up, exalted above all of the other mountaintops. But the people of God, of course, could hear that and say, there's no way that's going to happen. There's no way this small mount is really gonna be lifted up over all of the other mountains. And so the question initially brought up before the people of God is will we trust God's word or will we trust man's reasoning? Will we trust what God has clearly told us or will we say that can't happen and then begin to alter what God has said? So God tells us plainly, his mountain, the place of his dwelling, will be exalted. And then at the end of verse two, Isaiah also records that all the nations shall flow to it. No longer, Isaiah says, no longer will this place of worship be confined primarily to the Jews. But there will come a day in the future when all the nations will flow up to Mount Zion to worship the Lord. Now, we have hints of this, don't we, throughout the Old Testament? Think back to when the Lord speaks to Abram. And in that context of the patriarch, We have this prediction, this promise, that through Abraham, all of the families of the earth will be blessed. Not just Abram, not just the Jews who would follow, but all of the families will be blessed through this one man. Also, in Psalm 87, you can turn back in your Bibles Psalm 87 depicts this glorious worship service where all nations are brought to it. Psalm 87, most familiar probably because of John Newton's great hymn. Psalm 87 says this, his foundation is in the holy mountains. The Lord loves the gates of Zion more than all the dwelling places of Jacob. Glorious things are spoken of you, O city of God. I will make mention of Rahab and Babylon to those who know me. Behold, O Philistia, entire with Ethiopia, this one was born there. And of Zion, it will be said, this one and that one were born in her. And the Most High himself shall establish her. The Lord will record when he registers the peoples, this one was born there. And so already we see glimpses in the Old Testament of a day which would come when people from nation and nation would come and join these chosen people of God to worship the Lord on His mountain. This would be the international worship service of all time. I don't know if you've ever had the experience of gathering with hundreds, hundreds, or even thousands of other Christians, and you get that wonderful glimpse of what heaven will really be like when people from all over the world are gathered together to sing praises to God We get it, of course, every Lord's Day. We get a glimpse of it here. But there are other special times in God's providence when we see the international scope of God's people. And so the worship of God is the first thing that Isaiah records that will be the blessing in the latter days. The second pertains to the instruction which God's people will be given or the teaching they will receive. In verse 3, many people shall come and say, come and let us go to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob. He will teach us his ways and we shall walk in his paths. For out of Zion shall go forth the law and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. In other words, what's being said here is that the people of God are going to have a Sinai-like experience. As Moses ascended Mount Sinai and received the instruction and the word of the Lord, but it was only Moses. Here, God is saying, a day will come. A day will come when all of my people will gather at my mountain and I will give my law. I will give my instruction. The teacher par excellence will be speaking to all of his people. And notice the Word of God will have centrality in this worship service. That's why our forefathers before us recognized the importance of the centrality of God's Word being proclaimed. There will be another day, as it were, of when Moses was given the law, of when David was writing the Psalms, But when Solomon recorded the wisdom literature, all of God's people will hear the voice of God proclaiming the instruction for their lives. And then the people respond in humble faith and covenant faithfulness and walk then in His ways. You may remember in the Old Testament when Israel was facing, we could call them the dark ages, And King Josiah takes the throne. And you remember in 2 Kings, the recording there, Josiah and others rediscovering the law of God. You remember the response of the people upon that rediscovery. Oh, how we've sinned. Oh, how far we have fallen short. Oh, but let's come together and let us re-covenant ourselves with this God and let us walk in humble faithfulness before Him. Well, here we see again a day will come when all of God's people, no longer in exile, no longer under the wrath and judgment of God, but all of God's people will come and hear his instruction and his teaching and will respond in proper obedience. And then the third, the third aspect of the blessing comes in verse 4. And it pertains to the ruling or the dominion of the Lord. He shall judge between nations and rebuke many peoples." Here we see the Lord as the judge of all the nations. We've sung about it in Psalm 72. The Lord Himself will rule all peoples. And particularly, there will be just judgment of the king. This is what, for example, as we sung Psalm 72, this is what Solomon was to be modeled after. A true, righteous, just king. There's a lot of discussion in our own day about what true justice is, but here is true justice. It is justice which is modeled after the just one. Biblical justice, then, to the poor and needy. True justice is modeled after and in accordance with God's character, and anything short of that is injustice. As James records for us, true religion is helping, is being there for widows and orphans. Why is this true religion? Because it is modeled after our just and righteous king, the Lord himself. And then as he rules, there will be widespread peace among the nations. Their spears will be turned into pruning hooks, their swords into plowshares. You can just imagine and even hear the sounds of troops coming to this mountain to fight and then realizing here is the king to which we must bow. And the swords drop. and the clanging on those old, hard, rocky roads. And they take up, they take up agricultural tools to begin to cultivate this land, this place, reminiscent even of the call of Adam and Eve, to be fruitful, to multiply, and to fill the earth. This language here, which Isaiah records of the pruning hooks is the way in which Jesus speaks in John 15 when he speaks about the vine and the vine dresser and the branches. He says that that the Father will come and He will use those pruning shears to cut away all that is no longer needed so that more fruit might be born. So this then, friends, is the blessing which the Lord promises upon His people. But as we've already alluded to, much of this book is concerned with the judgment first which comes at the house of God. But there is a day, there is a day coming and there is a day which already has come wherein all of these find their full fulfillment. All of the blessings of God, as Paul says, are yes and amen in Jesus Christ. He then is the one who fulfills all that is spoken here of Isaiah from the mouth of God. He then is the one to which we must come. He and he alone and no other way will do. So briefly, I just want to hint and touch on each of these three things to see how the Lord Jesus Christ fulfills all of these in his person and work. First, he is the one who John identifies as the true and end-time temple of the living God. As Matthew says, he is Emmanuel. He is God with us. Come to dwell so that those who would come to Him in faith would come and worship the true and living God. And then John records for us the story of Jesus meeting with a woman at the well. You remember the question which she poses, a good question, isn't it, to Jesus. Are we supposed to be worshiping where the Samaritans worship or where God's people, the Jews, worship in Jerusalem? And Jesus says to the woman, a day is coming, and that day has now arrived, when no longer will God's people worship according to those old covenant, Old Testament types and shadows, but here, in that final full fulfillment, here God's people will worship in spirit and in truth. This, then, is what true worship is. It's no longer bound up with the Old Testament forms. No, we come as God's people in the Spirit, and we come through our Savior, Jesus Christ, to worship the true and living God. And as Paul says in Ephesians chapter 2, it is for both the Jew and the Gentile. All nations come in Jesus Christ to worship the true God. And so, dear friends, if we are to worship God rightly, then we must come to Jesus Christ. All other worship, all other worship is will worship. All other worship is false idolatry if we neglect Jesus Christ. But it's so fascinating, isn't it, when you open up the pages of, for example, the book of Hebrews. Hebrews chapter 12 verse 22, the author records that we as God's people, we have not come to Mount Sinai like those of old, but we as those who are in the new covenant, we come to Mount Zion, to the place not in Jerusalem. but the heavenly Jerusalem. We come to Mount Zion, and this, dear friends, is what we do Lord's Day every time we gather. Yes, we worship here. Yes, our worship in one sense is bound to this building. But dear friends, what the author of Hebrews is saying is that true worship is by the power of the Spirit lifted up into the heavenly throne room of God. where all of the saints throughout all of the ages gather around that throne to sing praises to our God. And then, of course, Jesus is the one in whom all of God's teaching comes to its fullness. He is the true giver of the law. As Matthew records in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus first ascends the mountain to show us that He is the greater Moses. He has come, He has ascended the mount, but no longer is Moses needed, because now the Word of God comes from the Word Himself, as God teaches His people. And then, having poured out His Spirit, the Spirit of truth is given to the church in order that Jesus' teaching ministry might continue. Jesus still. As the Word of God is faithfully proclaimed, Jesus is our teacher. He is the one who instructs us in the truth. Dear friends, we have something that this world knows nothing of. This world knows nothing of the truth. They are shrouded in lies. But here, in God's house, we have the truth of his word. As Christ himself sets it forth for us through the ministry of his word, we have that which this world knows nothing of. My dear friends, why would we neglect this opportunity? Why would we turn and run when the Word of God, week after week, is set forth before us? Here is the truth. Here is what is needed for life and for godliness. Oh, that we would be like those disciples on the road to Emmaus. Remember that scene when Jesus is opening up the scriptures before them and they say, oh, how our hearts burned when he was with us. Oh, how our hearts burned when the Scriptures were being opened. May that be our prayers, dear friends. May our hearts burn as the Scriptures are set forth for us, and the truth of God's Word is put before us with clarity. And then, of course, Jesus is the true King of kings and Lord of lords. He is the ruler of all, and as Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15, this kingdom which Jesus is Lord over has already been established in his first coming, and yet it awaits that full and final consummation. As I love to reflect on this kingdom of God, this kingdom of God is expanding, is expanding, is expanding as souls are brought into that kingdom. When the word of God goes forth, as souls are being saved, this kingdom of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, continues. As Watts so wonderfully captures, Jesus shall reign. Where'er the sun does his successive journeys run, his kingdom stretches from shore to shore. till moons shall wax and wane no more. And here in this kingdom, as Jesus reigns, all wars shall cease. No longer do God's people, like the Old Testament, take up the sword in order to defeat and conquer those in the land. For that was looking forward to the day when God's people now would conquer, not with military weapons, but with his word and with his spirit. As Jesus conquers, as the King of Kings, as we love to think about even around Christmas time, he is the Prince of Peace. And he comes to rule and to expand this once garden but now wilderness land in order to one day cause it by God's people with their agricultural tools in hand. conforming this into that one day renovated new heavens and new earth which Jesus will usher in at his second coming. But we can't leave it here. All of that sounds really great. The blessings of God come to his people in Jesus Christ. But as scripture always does, there is then a calling for the people of God. And yes, though in this age in which we find ourselves, where the kingdom of God has already been inaugurated and yet awaits its consummation, we too may find ourselves crying out with so many saints around the world, how long, O Lord? How long must we tarry? Must we work and labor here and not reach our final destination? And so the Word of God gives us a word in season. How shall we press on? Verse 5, O house of Jacob, come and let us walk in the light of the Lord. Scripture always places the indicative in front of the imperative. giving us the blessing that which God has done for us in Christ first. And then comes the command. Then comes walk in the light. First the blessing, then the response of God's people. Come and let us walk in the light of the Lord. And as you know, if you've been walking with the Lord for some time, this walk, doesn't it, it requires faith. Because as we've already alluded to, oftentimes what goes on outside or even what goes on within our own hearts does not seem to align with what we know to be true. And so we are called to live not by sight, but to live by faith. And it requires the Spirit of the living God to lead us into the paths of righteousness for the name's sake of the Lord. And it requires the Word of God as the Spirit and the Word work together in order to direct God's people into what pleases Him. Dear friends, this is what happens every time we gather Lord's Day to Lord's Day. Yes, we rightly emphasize that our worship is not primarily about us. But dear friends, even in the Reformed camp, we can think that worship has nothing to do with man. God says, worship primarily goes to me. But in the means of your worship, you as an individual will be lifted up. You will be encouraged. And this is why it is vitally important that we be in God's house, because here we can worship God and we can turn to our neighbor and say, come on with me, brother and sister. Let's walk in the light of the Lord. I remember one minister describing how wonderful it would be if we would be like Enoch in that Old Testament narrative. Enoch walked with God, and then he was not. Isn't that what we long for as God's people? Not the bells and whistles of fame and popularity. We long to be found faithful. And dear friends, we need one another. to come alongside us when life is difficult, when life is hard. We know that walking this way, which the Lord has called us to, is not always easiest, but it is best. And so as you gather, wherever it may be to sing God's praises, your brothers and sisters come along with you. Take my hand. We're going together to meet our God. And so whether it's trials, whether it's temptations, whether it's snares, whether it's sufferings, we know that this is the pathway that is best for us. And why? Why is it best? It's because it's the very pathway of Jesus. Our Savior, our Head, He too, He, too, followed such a path, suffering to glory, humiliation to exaltation, cross to crown. This is the Christians pathway. And so we do this all we do this all with the hope. We do this with the hope that one day the king who has already established his kingdom will bring it to completion. And as I love to think about, and I urge you to as well, thinking about that great prophecy in Habakkuk, that one day the knowledge of the glory of the Lord will cover the earth as the waters cover the sea. Isn't that so wonderful to think about? What a day it will be, a day of rejoicing as God's people. We gather all around the throne of the Lamb, singing praises unto our God as we observe on the new heavens and the new earth the glory of the Lord covering This world. Do you think often about this, the beauty of it, the majesty of it, the glory of it? Oh, may we do it and may we do it together as we call each other to come hold my hand and come let us walk in the light of the Lord and may by God's grace we do it. Amen. Let's pray. O Lord, again, how thankful we are for these wonderful words, wonderful words of life and blessing which you have given to your people. And O Lord, though this age is often a wilderness of woe, we recognize that the great kingdom to which we belong will be consummated and the new heavens and the new earth will be brought to fruition. And Lord, how we long for that day when we no longer with the eyes of faith, but we will see him as he is, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, the King of kings and the Lord of lords. For it's in his majestic name that we pray. Amen. Well, in conclusion, let's sing about this great king of kings and