Let's hear the word of the Lord, Isaiah 30, verse 18. Therefore the Lord waits to be gracious to you, and therefore he exalts himself to show mercy to you. For the Lord is a God of justice. Blessed are all those who wait for him. For a people shall dwell in Zion, in Jerusalem. You shall weep no more. He will surely be gracious to you at the sound of your crying. As soon as he hears it, he answers you. And though the Lord give you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, yet your teacher will not hide himself anymore, but your eyes shall see your teacher. And your ears shall hear a word behind you saying, this is the way, walk in it. when you turn to the right or when you turn to the left. Then you will defile your carved idols overlaid with silver and your gold-plated metal images. You will scatter them as unclean things. You will say to them, be gone. and he will give rain for the seed with which you sow the ground, and bread, the produce of the ground, will be rich and plenteous. In that day, your livestock will graze in large pastures, and the oxen and the donkeys that work the ground will eat seasoned fodder, which has been winnowed with shovel and fork. And on every lofty mountain and every high hill, there will be brooks running with water in the day of the great slaughter when the towers fall. Moreover, the light of the moon will be as the light of the sun. The light of the sun will be sevenfold as the light of seven days in the day when the Lord binds up the brokenness of his people and heals the wounds inflicted by his blow. Behold, the name of the Lord comes from afar, burning with his anger and in thick rising smoke. His lips are full of fury and his tongue is like a devouring fire. His breath is like an overflowing stream that reaches up to the neck to sift the nations with the sieve of destruction and to place on the jaws of the peoples a bridle that leads astray. You shall have a song as in the night when a holy feast is kept and gladness of heart as when one sets out to the sound of the flute to go to the mountain of the Lord, to the rock of Israel. And the Lord will cause his majestic voice to be heard in the descending blow of his arm to be seen in furious anger and a flame of devouring fire with a cloudburst and storm and hailstones. The Assyrians will be terror-stricken at the voice of the Lord when he strikes with his rod, and every stroke of the appointed staff that the Lord lays on them will be to the sound of tambourines and lyres. Battling with brandished arm, he will fight with them. For a burning place has long been prepared. Indeed, for the king it is made ready, its pyre made deep and wide with fire and wood in abundance. The breath of the Lord, like a stream of sulfur, kindles it. This is God's holy word. Let's pray now for his help as we come to study. Our God, you tell us that these things that were written down long ago were written for our instruction, that we might be taught and also that we might be encouraged and have hope. And so we pray, Lord, that through these words of Isaiah, your people might be encouraged and have hope. We pray for your spirit. Without you, Lord Jesus, we can do nothing. And so we pray that you would give us of your spirit to teach us and to apply these words to our hearts, to give us guidance in how to live. We pray through your name. Amen. Well, they say that today, in our day, we live in the information age, the age of the internet where information is available at the click of a mouse or the opening of your phone. And many people also say today is the day of the misinformation age. where there is a lot of information online, and I think we've known that you can't always believe what you hear on the internet or see on the internet. But it seems that especially in our day, you really, really can't believe everything that you see. And you wonder if the latest news or the latest story or opinion is actually even based in fact Or is some AI bot in Russia or somebody trying to just pump out a story? It's hard to know what to believe and who to listen to. And it might be even in your own life, you might wonder if you are getting the right information or getting the right advice. We have all kinds of advisors in our lives. We have a financial advisor, and you pay that person money to tell you what to do with your money. And you wonder, is this person going to advise me in the right way? You have a doctor, and sometimes doctors are helpful, and sometimes they are not helpful. And you wonder, do I need to get a different doctor? There are all kinds of nutritionists with their advice and diets that seem like contradictions. One diet says don't eat any of this and the other diet says only eat that. or you might go to get legal advice. You might wonder if you should file some sort of charge or make some sort of claim and you pay a lawyer to give you advice, but how do you know if you're getting the right advice? There are all kinds of philosophies on parenting. There are all kinds of styles about parenting that you can look up and people will give you all of their advice on parenting, but how do you know which one to do? Which style of parent are you supposed to be? And the same is true spiritually. A lot of people will watch people on the Internet, be taught the Bible on things, people that they watch on the Internet. They might spend years and years in a church and then come to realize that this church they've been going to is telling them all of the wrong things. And then sometimes the person on the Internet might contradict the pastor in person of the church that you go to. So how do you know who to listen to? The Apostle Paul told the Corinthians, you have countless guides in Christ, but not many fathers. And we could say that we have countless guides, guides throughout life in every area of life, people that we pay for guidance, and then spiritually countless guides available on the internet. So how do we know if we're getting the right advice? How do we know if we're getting good guidance? Well, it's hard to know sometimes. And Isaiah knows and God knows that this is a struggle of human nature. And so in this passage, he encourages the remnants, the people of God, that they will have a perfect guide, that the Lord himself would be their guide and be their teacher. And this passage about God as teacher comes right after what we looked at last week about Judah. And the leaders of Judah were blind guides. They are terrible guides going down to Egypt and rebelling against the Lord and trying to lead the people in rebelling against God. And so it's in that context that Isaiah says, no, the day is coming when you won't have these useless blind leaders giving you advice anymore. But the Lord himself will be your teacher. And this passage is an encouragement to us that although God's not going to tell you which IRA to open or which diet to go on, you can trust that you're not getting misinformation from God. You can trust that God will be your teacher. and He won't give you bad guidance. You can trust that when you go to the Word of God and you hear the commands of God, you can know that this is God Himself guiding you. And he will be your guide even unto death. God will be your guide throughout your life. And this is what you as a Christian need to put your confidence in. This is what you need to bank your hope on throughout this life is that God will be your guide and your teacher. Well, let's look at the passage. We're going to start by going to the end in verses 27 to 33. for our time together, we're really going to focus on verses 18 to 22, but we'll cover the end of the chapter as well. And so in chapter, verse 27 to 33, we have the immediate context, the near context for Isaiah and Judah, and it's in that context that Isaiah talks about God as teacher. And so the context, as we've been looking at, is that Assyria is coming to destroy Judah. And Assyria, the king of Assyria wants to come and destroy Jerusalem. And so God is going to destroy Assyria. That's what verses 27 to 33 are about in short summary. God says in verse 31, that the Assyrians will be terror stricken at the voice of the Lord, that God's fury is about to be kindled. And so he's going to come and he's going to kindle his fury with his breath that's going to light the fire of his wrath. So Assyria is coming and Assyria is going to be defeated. We're getting closer and closer to chapter 37. And in chapter 37, we're gonna finally see that this is actually gonna happen. The king of Assyria, the armies of Assyria are gonna be destroyed, 185,000 soldiers. God gives the reason for this in verse 33. He says, for a burning place has long been prepared. Indeed, for the king it is made ready, its pyre made deep and wide with fire and wood in abundance. The breath of the Lord, like a stream of sulfur, kindles it, kindles the fire. God is going to not allow the king of Assyria to destroy them because God is against the king. He has wrath towards the king. Maybe you remember back in chapter 10 how God said that the king of Assyria was the axe in his hand. It was the rod of his fury. God was going to use the king to accomplish his judgment against the people of Israel. And back then, that was 30 years ago, before chapter 30, back then that was Tiglath-Pileser. And so that's what happened. God used Tiglath-Pileser to come and attack the nation. But then God said, you Assyria, you Tiglath-Pileser, are yourself going to be cut down. And so that's what happened. And so now here we are 30 years later. The empire of Assyria has gone up and down and is now a mighty empire again with King Sennacherib. And King Sennacherib is coming to Judah with a mighty vengeance. And he has entered into Judah. He has conquered 45 cities of the kingdom of Judah. He has taken 200,000 citizens captive. And he and his great pride thinks that he's now going to come conquer Jerusalem. You can imagine why Judah would be scared. You can imagine why they would want to flee for help to Egypt. They would want to try to make some way to protect themselves. Because they're about to die, they think. But God says, no, the reason all of this is happening It's just like in Chapter 10. The king is he's just the axe in my hand. The reason all this is happening now is because Sennacherib is walking into his own funeral pyre. So I'm letting him come and I'm letting him defeat these 45 cities because it's going to lead to his own destruction. So, in verse 33, it says there's a burning place that has been prepared. Literally, the word there is topheth. It's a reference to the place outside of Jerusalem where there's a valley, and this valley was where child sacrifices were offered to the false gods, and so it represents a place of being cursed by God, and it represents a place of fire, because they were sacrificed in fire. And this is what Jesus is later going to talk about as Gehenna. He's referring to hell with the word Gehenna, which is the name for this place, this valley outside of Jerusalem. Topheth or the Valley of Hinnom is this burning place. And so we have this image of Sennacherib as he gets closer and closer to Jerusalem. It's like he's getting closer and closer to that valley that is full of fire. or get to chapter 37, where all those soldiers die, and you can imagine that when those soldiers die, they're not just left there, they're not just bird food, but they're most likely, they're gonna get shoveled into that big valley, and a fire would be lit. And so, seems that this is literally what would have taken place in the context of what Isaiah is talking about. Sennacherib himself doesn't get killed in that battle, but he goes home and because he looks so defeated and so pathetic that he lost to this tiny city of Jerusalem, his sons kill him. And so Sennacherib is walking into his own destruction and death. Verse 33 is not exactly the most pleasant thing to think about, but as I was thinking about this, it does remind me and I hope it would remind us of the judgments that God has prepared for leaders who oppose him. And it's easy to get frustrated with our leaders. It's easy to be baffled and even to get angry at the evil that happens in our nation. But we need to remember that even though they are responsible for their own choices and their own actions, God holds them responsible. they are working under the sovereignty of God in a mysterious way. And yet God, just as he holds Sennacherib accountable, he will hold accountable our own leaders and their wickedness. And so that should affect the way we pray, the way we talk about them, the way we think about them. It's right to be frustrated and to be even outraged by a lot of evil that happens. But we need to remember that leaders are also human beings with souls. And they are going to a burning place if they do not repent and turn to God. And they will have a high accountability for the decisions and the wickedness that they lead a nation into. And so we should pray as Paul commands us to pray for our leaders. If we have wicked leaders, we pray for them to repent that they would not end up in that burning place that has been prepared. So that's the end of the chapter. We're going to focus though on verses 18 to 22. And it's in this context of the coming Assyrian king that God gives a message of grace for the remnant. God says in verse 18, the Lord waits to be gracious to you. He exalts himself to show mercy to you. This is a passage about grace. It's about how God desires to save his remnant. And I think as we look at this passage, there are some aspects of it that are way far away, as in the end of time. And I think a lot of verses 23 to 26, which we're not really going to look at, but a lot of that is looking forward to the very end. It's kind of a picture of a new earth and a fruitful Eden-like kind of world. I think some of this is looking forward to that day, but also more to our day. what we could call the gospel days, the age of Christ and after Christ has come. So in verse 19, it says a people shall dwell in Zion in Jerusalem. And there are one sense you could say that's looking forward to heaven. But in another sense, we can also say Zion, the people of God is the church of God. And so as Christ comes and he establishes his church, Some of these things will be taking place in the days of the gospel. So there are future days for Isaiah, 700 B.C., but these are things that Isaiah is saying about us and the days that we live in now. So we have a lot of things that we can apply to our lives even right now. So first, I've called this section Waiting for Grace, but there's God waiting and there's us waiting. First, we see God waits again, verse 18, the Lord waits to be gracious to you. Now you might wonder about those words. How is God waiting to be gracious? The Bible is full of us waiting for God. It says the picture is more as if God is right there, always ready, always available in his compassion and help. And he's just waiting for us to call out to him. But no, this is saying God waits for us. God waits to be gracious to you. And you can't take that in the hyper-literal sense, as if, you know, some people with ideas of free will, God is just sitting there just waiting for you to choose Him. God is there knocking on the door, and He's just waiting for you to open the door so that He can come in. God doesn't literally wait for us. God accomplishes his decree, whatsoever comes to pass is because God has already decreed that it would come to pass. The sense in which God is waiting, though, is that he's allowing, he's decreeing that time would go by. Time goes by before God does something. by God's plan, he is allowing this time to go by. And so as we sit here on earth, we're saying, come on, God, let's let's show up here with some grace. You see that God is waiting. To be gracious to us. The next line, he exalts himself, it's like literally he he's getting up. It's like he's sitting in a chair, but he gets up out of the chair so that he might show mercy to us. So what does this mean? Well, we have to look at the logic, the logic of God in verse 18. There's the word therefore. Verse 17 says, that there is a remnant left. After Judah is destroyed, a small group of people is left, and they're like a flagpole on top of a mountain. In other words, there's hardly any of them left. And then the next word is, therefore. So in other words, God is waiting for the destruction to come. He's waiting for there to be a small remnant, and then God comes in. and God shows grace. You still might wonder, how does that make sense? Would a fireman come along and say, excuse me, ma'am, your house is burning down and we received your 911 call and I have arrived here and I see your house is in flames, therefore, I'm just gonna sit here and wait. I'll just wait for it to be almost totally burned down and then I will come and put the fire out. Still doesn't seem to make much sense to us. So what's the logic here? Well, we have one reason. The next line, the reason is that the Lord is a God of justice. And so one reason God waits to show grace is because God must show his justice. He has to show his justice towards Judah and bring the judgment upon them because they have continued in unrepentant sin. If they were just to continue in unrepentant sin and then God saves the whole nation just because of a few faithful people, then those unfaithful people, they would have gotten away with their sin. So God is a God of justice. He must bring judgment upon Judah, and then when that's all done and there's a remnant left, then God intervenes and He saves. But there's more we can say about it. God waits, not just for justice, but for grace. The Lord waits to be gracious. Now what is, how can we make sense of that? Imagine you're playing chess. Maybe you've played chess, and maybe you're really good at chess. You're playing against an opponent, and you've got about eight pieces on the board, and your opponent has a pawn and a king. Now, you maybe will want to attack that pawn and corner that king, and you want to wipe out your chess opponent as quickly as possible and as brutally as possible. You just want to make clear that you creamed them in chess. That's one way to play chess. Or maybe you want to be gracious. And so you see they only have a pawn and a king on the board. And you might just move your pieces around in non-threatening ways. And you might even let the pawn defeat your rook and defeat your bishop. And you're still gonna win in the end, but you're just waiting around to, you know, just make them feel a little better. Well, that's just an analogy of how God is waiting to show grace. In other words, the way that he's waiting is his grace. It's his grace to not wipe out the people. It's his grace to not totally destroy Judah, to not destroy the remnant. God shows grace by his waiting. And so this is what God is doing. God waits through time through history. He is patient with the world to show his grace towards his elect. God makes a covenant with Noah and puts a rainbow in the sky to show that he is patient with the world. And so God is putting up with a lot of sin and a lot of rebellion in the world. And God is waiting and waiting and waiting. Why is he waiting? Because he wants to show grace to you. and he wants to show grace towards his elect. We think about our nation, and we think about all the ways that our nation deserves the judgment of God, and you could think about it as, wow, it's just unbelievable how terrible our nation is. We deserve the judgment of God. You could also think, how gracious of God. How gracious of God that he has yet to completely wipe us out because of a remnant like us, because he has his elect in this nation. Therefore, God waits to be gracious. Think about yourself. God is very patient with you. God waited a long time maybe for you as you walked in your rebellion, your hostility to him. And yet God saved you. And even as a believer, as you're walking in Christ, I'm sure that if God was like us, he would get really tired of us. He would get really impatient with us. He would say, uh, didn't I tell you that already? Haven't I given you enough warnings to stop sinning in that way? And yet why do you keep returning to your vomit? Why do you keep going in your life of sin? God waits and he is patient with you because he is gracious to you. So you could complain about all the things in your life, in the nation, in the world. You could complain about all your problems and you can be tempted to be impatient with God. But think about how patient God is with you. Think about how God waits to be gracious towards you. So God is waiting. Now let's look at how we are waiting. The end of verse 18 says, blessed are all those who wait for Him. Blessed are all those who wait for Him. Now, the remnant was waiting for God to intervene and to save. They were waiting for the Messiah and God's ultimate salvation in Christ. We have received Christ. Christ has already come to earth, but we are still waiting. waiting on our final salvation. Paul says in 1 Thessalonians 1 verses 9 and 10 that to be converted, to turn from idols to the living God, he says conversion is two things. It's turning to the living God and it's waiting for his son from heaven. That's how he describes conversion and what it means to be a Christian. You worship the living God and you wait for his son. So we can think about our life right now as waiting for his son from heaven. Do you think about your life that way? What if you thought in your perspective on life was that life was one big wait? My son and I, a few weeks ago, we went to a baseball game. And at the baseball game, it was near the end of the season, they were giving out a lot of free stuff. I guess all their overstock of shirts and hats and everything. And so they called it a free yard sale. And so when we went to the game, there was this free yard sale, giving away stuff. And so as you can imagine, the line was thousands and thousands of people long. We were in the line for a really long time. And someone in the line nearby, not me or my son, got really frustrated. They were frustrated and angry that the line was taking so long. And so they took out their frustration on us, and they had some words for us that were not very nice. And so I said to my son, we can get out of the line if you want, But if you want the free stuff, we're going to stay in line. And then I said, but you know what? There's no point in us getting angry. There is no point in getting frustrated about how long this line is and how these people are acting, because it doesn't make the line any shorter. So you get out of the line or you stay in the line. We're going to decide. You can't be frustrated. Now, you've probably thought about that. in your own life. No matter how angry you get at the red light, it's not going to make the red light turn green. No matter how much you honk at the person in front of you who's got the green light and they're not going at the green light, they're still not going to press the gas pedal and go forward. No matter how irritated you get at the doctor's office and how long the doctor makes you wait, it's not going to make the doctor go any faster. You know all this stuff. But my point is, have you applied this to your whole life? What's the point of getting frustrated? Why get so angry when things don't go our way in life, when we're not getting the things that we want in life? No, we're not gonna be fully satisfied in this life and in this world. It's like we're just waiting here. It doesn't mean we sit around doing nothing, but we're waiting. For the eternal life to come, we're waiting for the sun to appear from heaven. That's when it'll be good. That's when there will be no weeping, when there will be no pain or sorrow or death. And if we could just get that perspective. And we can deal with a lot of these things that in life can so easily bring us down. It's amazing how easy it is for us when the next difficulty comes to just so easily get down and not realize that life is really about waiting for his son from heaven, persevering, persevering through tribulations and not expecting everything to go the way we want now. So we wait, and in that day, verse 19 says, you shall weep no more. God will surely be gracious to you at the sound of your cry. As soon as he hears it, he answers you. Verse 19 is a reference to the people who were in Egypt back in the days of Exodus, at the beginning of Exodus, when God's people were in slavery in Egypt, and it says that they were groaning, and they groaned, and they called out to God, they cried out to God, and Exodus 2 says, God heard their cry, and he remembered his covenant with Abraham, and God looked upon them in their slavery, and God knew. And so Isaiah is presenting a similar situation here that God's people, the remnants are groaning under the sin of the world and the destruction of Judah, but they call out to God and God hears their cry and he remembers his covenant towards his people and God will answer and God will save. God remembers his covenant. Isaiah will later say, can a mother forget her nursing child? Even so, I will not forget you. God hears us and he answers us. The focus of this verse isn't necessarily that as soon as God hears that right away, he's going to answer. That's not really what the verse is saying. It's just literally all it says is he hears and he answers. God does hear. He hears all of our cries. And when he hears our cry, he does answer. The apostle John in Revelation 5 was weeping when he thought that there was no one worthy to open the scroll, to break the seal. And one of the elders came to John and said, weep no more. The lion of the tribe of Judah has conquered. Weep no more. And so for us, although we could say, well, we still live in this world of suffering and pain, and it doesn't seem as if God answers my prayers when I pray them, and it sure seems that he takes quite a long time to answer those prayers, We can say what the elder said to John, weep no more because the lion has conquered. Although we still live in this life where we do weep, there are reasons to stop weeping. Christ has already conquered. Christ has defeated death. And we're waiting for his son, for Christ to come from heaven so that there will be the day when finally we will weep no more. And so we cry out, we pray. You should keep praying, knowing that God hears your cry. One day the son will return and you will weep no more. There's another blessing. that comes to God's people. Verses 20 and 21, he says, your eyes will see your teacher. Verse 20 says, though the Lord give you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, yet your teacher will not hide himself anymore, but your eyes shall see your teacher. The Lord gives the bread of adversity and the water of affliction. There's another reference to Exodus and how the people after they came out of Egypt were given the bread from heaven, the manna to eat and God gave them that bread to survive and then God gave them water out of a rock to drink. but here the image is turned around to say that God is not giving manna and water from a rock, but the bread of adversity and the water of affliction. In other words, your daily provision, your daily guarantee in life is adversity and affliction. Just as you depend daily upon bread and water, God gives us daily troubles. Jesus says sufficient for the day is its own trouble. Don't worry about tomorrow. You've got enough bread and water for the day. Your bread and water of adversity and affliction. You get through a problem one day, you'll have another problem tomorrow. You put out one fire and another fire is going to start. This is life in the fallen world. This is life as a Christian. God gives daily bread of adversity. But that's not all he says here. The contrast, though, is yet your teacher will not hide himself anymore. You see the contrast? He doesn't necessarily say, well, God will give you your daily bread of adversity, but don't worry. He'll also make it all go away at the end of the day or he'll make it go away tomorrow. No, no. He says, no, daily you will have your troubles. But good news is your teacher will not hide himself anymore. So this is what we put our hope in. not the elimination in this life of our adversities, but we put our hope in the fact that our teacher is with us to guide us. And he says he will not hide himself anymore, but your eyes shall see your teacher. In chapter 33, Isaiah is going to say, your eyes shall behold the king in his beauty. And this is one of the hopes of the Christian. As we've said already, as we wait for his son from heaven, we wait for our eyes to lay hold on him, that our eyes will see the king in his beauty. Your eyes shall see your teacher. Yes, day by day you will face adversity, but one day your eyes will lay hold on Jesus Christ, the king. And now Verse twenty one in our days, verse twenty one says, and your ears shall hear a word behind you saying this is the way walking when you turn to the right or when you turn to the left. The way I read this is interpret. This is that this is not talking about a future day in heaven But this is talking about us in our daily life as we walk through life Facing the bread of adversity. We also have the teacher with his word behind us saying this is the way Walk in it. He is our guide day by day Now, when he says, when you turn to the right or turn to the left, it's not that the voice is behind you saying, turn right, turn left. No, but this is a reference to keeping God's commandments. Deuteronomy five, after God gave the 10 commandments, he said to them, be careful to do all that you have been commanded. Do not turn to the right or to the left. So what verse 21 is saying is not, yeah, yeah, this is the way, go right, go right. No, no, now go left, go left. No, it's saying the straight path is the way to walk. The commandments of God are the way that you need to walk on. And when you turn to the right, your teacher will say, no, this way, walk this way. When you turn to the left, the teacher will say, no, don't go left. Keep on the straight path. So that's what verse 21 is saying. The way that a shepherd would guide his sheep from behind. Guiding them and calling out to them, whistling to them that they might not go off the path, the shepherd guides his sheep the way that a cattle rancher might ride on his horse behind the cattle and get the cattle to follow along a certain path. This is what the teacher will do from behind to guide his people. Now, a lot of people like this verse. At least people I've come across and talked to, things you see out in the world, people like to refer to this verse, and I think a lot of people interpret this verse to be something like a holy spirit whispering in your ear. God, should I move to Buffalo or Rochester? Rochester. A spirit whispers behind you. God should should I go to this college or that college? Go to that one. So you're praying, you're praying and you're listening. You know, people talk about like the still small voice. I need God. I need your guidance. I need your Holy Spirit to tell me what to do. Which way do I go? That's not what this verse is talking about. Here's my perspective on the will of God. It's summarized by a book someone wrote called Just Do Something. That's the will of God, just do something. Now what that means is the Bible gives clear directions about what's right and wrong. So you need to know the Bible, read the Bible, know the commands and all the principles of the Bible. And then the Bible says things like, in the abundance of counselors, there is safety. And so if you have a decision to make about Buffalo or Rochester, you should get an abundance of counselors. Go ask wise people what they think you should do. And if you're really reading your Bible and you're really trying to listen to wise counselors, then you might come to the point where going to Rochester is just as biblical and fulfills all the principles as going to Buffalo. And there's not necessarily in the Bible a right or a wrong of where to go. And so you don't need to wait for a Holy Spirit whisper in your ear. That's where the title of the book comes in. You just do something. You just pick one. In fact, if you're following biblical principles in both situations, and they're both equal, just pick the one you like best. It's not a sin. And so, this is, I think, overall, the perspective that the Bible gives on the will of God. The Holy Spirit is not behind you whispering about what house to buy, or what college to go to, or what city to live in. The teacher is guiding you to follow the commands of God. Read the Bible, read it over and over and over again, and the teacher will guide you into what the commandments of God say, and the principles of the Bible, and then these other things in your life, they sort of fall into place. as long as you're seeking to obey the commands of the Bible, as long as you are following wise counsel. So no, you're not getting a whisper in your ear to walk in this way. You're being taught by God. Walk according to his commands. And this is the blessing of the new covenant. Jesus promised in John chapter six that they shall all be taught of God. In the new covenant, everyone who's one of God's people is taught of God himself. That's what verses 21, 20 and 21 are talking about. They're not talking about a spirit telling you what to do about the details of your life. They're talking about this glorious promise of the new covenant that God himself will teach you and you will have ears to hear. See, we looked last week at verse 9. It said they are a rebellious people, lying children, children unwilling to hear the instruction of the Lord. Rebellious people are unwilling to hear the commands of God. But in the new covenant, Jesus promises that everyone who belongs to that covenant has ears to hear. The ears hear the word behind them saying, this is the way. Walk in it. So who is the teacher? Well, in one sense, we could say the teacher is Jesus Christ. Christ is the way, the truth, and the life. You wanna know the right way to live? You wanna know what path to walk down? Jesus Christ is the way. And a lot of problems will fall by the wayside if you just have your life centered on following Jesus Christ. Not that that'll make all your problems go away, but you will know how to live if your main focus in life is following Christ and pleasing him. Christ is the way. And when John the apostle, when he wrote his letter, his first letter, he says, what we're proclaiming to you is what we have seen and heard. Our eyes have seen him. The teaching of the apostles, the teaching of the New Testament and the Bible, John is saying this is the teaching that Christ is passing on to us, and we have seen him with our own eyes. Your eyes shall see your teacher. Well, that's fulfilled in Jesus Christ. In another sense, we can say that the teacher is the Holy Spirit. The Spirit is given by Christ to teach us the Word, and so we don't get to see and touch Jesus Christ personally here on this earth, but we hear the ways of Christ through the Word of God that the Holy Spirit has given. And the work of the Holy Spirit as the Spirit of Christ is that when you start walking to the right or to the left, if you're in the New Covenant, that Holy Spirit is going to tell you, stop it. Don't turn there. Don't walk down that way. And so if you are truly sinning and you're grieving God and you're sinning against his word, and if you're a true believer, you are eventually going to receive the conviction of that Holy Spirit. The Spirit is there to convince of sin and righteousness and judgments. He's not here to whisper about all the details of our lives, but to guide us in our sanctification. and to follow Jesus Christ. The last thing in the New Covenant, the blessing of grace we receive in verse 22 is repentance. It says you throw away your idols and see them as unclean and you defile them, those idols that were unclean. This is the work when you become a Christian, you throw away those idols, you seek to listen to the teacher, you want to follow the teacher, you want to receive the conviction of the Spirit and not rebel against it, not harden your heart to it, but you respond in repentance. Isaiah, 700 BC, and the remnant They were all looking to the future. They were all waiting for these things. Isaiah said, the Lord is waiting to be gracious to you. Isaiah says, one day the day will come when you will see the teacher. We still wait in one sense for heaven, when we will never weep anymore at all. But this is the day that Isaiah looked forward to. The day that you are alive. You are the remnant. You're this remnant that God waited thousands of years so that he could bring you to himself. God waited thousands of years so that in the fullness of time, the Messiah could come. You live in the days when the Messiah has already come and he has already made atonement for sin. You live in the days where God has already shown you his grace. You already have God as your teacher. You know the Lord Jesus Christ and you have the Holy Spirit in you and God has given you repentance to give you life. Peter says, these are the days that angels long to look into. It's like they were overhearing Isaiah's sermons, the angels in heaven, and they were thinking, when's that gonna happen? What's he talking about? How's that gonna be true? These are the days, Peter says, the prophets were writing about you. Isaiah was writing about you and about us. As you walk through this life with the bread of adversity in the water of affliction, think about all the grace that you have. Think about all that God has done for you. The day when you don't know who to listen to, what to believe, who to trust, You know that God is your teacher. God tells you this is the way. Walk in it. Let's pray. Our Lord, we thank you for your kindness. giving us the Lord Jesus Christ. He has made you the one true God known to us. We thank you for the Spirit of Christ that dwells within. Lord, help us to wait for his appearance from heaven. And Lord, we pray that You would be our great guide, help us to persevere with faith and hope through the bread of adversity and the waters of affliction. And may we listen to you, our teacher. We pray in the name of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.