We're in the second major section of the book of Isaiah. This section, which runs from chapter 13 in Isaiah to chapter 24, announces the ultimate day of the Lord at the end of the age, at the end of time. But it also, in it, Isaiah announces God's judgments to come on Gentile nations during his time and in the years and decades following the time of Isaiah. Back in chapter 13, where this section began, Isaiah wrote of both the final judgment on all men on the last day and of God's judgment on Babylon in the 6th century BC. At the time Isaiah is writing, Assyria, which is in the area of what would now be Turkey and or Iran, was still in power. It was the major world power. Babylon wasn't going to become a world power and therefore fall for another hundred years after the time Isaiah is writing. So he's writing of Babylon's fall a hundred years before it ever became the leading world empire. But Isaiah prophesies of its fall here and he wrote around 700 BC. Babylon fell in 538 BC. Babylon became an earthly kingdom in 612 when it defeated Assyria. But remember, Babylon is also a symbol of the wickedness of all earthly kingdoms. And I put those passages in from Revelation again in your scripture sheet. I'm not going to read them again tonight. But we see Babylon here as a symbol of all of the wicked kingdoms of the earth, and it falls when Christ returns. Isaiah had a fourfold calling, to reveal things about the promised Messiah, which he's done in chapters 7, 9, and 11. Secondly, to assure the faithful of that blessed assurance of the glorious victory God would bring and the glorious future and kingdom that awaits those who trust in Him and believe Him. Third, Isaiah was called to announce a day of the Lord, a day of judgment on the whole world would come. And fourth, that during this time of this age, God would come in judgment against wicked nations on the earth. These judgments, though he uses other nations, are coming from God. If you look at chapter 13, verse 17, we have the Lord speaking through Isaiah saying, I am going to stir up the Medes against them, the Babylonians, who will not value silver or take pleasure in gold. So God is going to stir up the Medes against the Babylonians. In Jeremiah 25 9, he says, I'm going to send Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, against Judah. So God is using even wicked earthly kings to execute judgment against wicked earthly nations. The message, of course, is directed to the people of Judah, the people from whom Christ would come. It's a warning to them. There's going to be judgment. And it should have caused them to understand that severe punishment would come upon them if they didn't repent. Now, we have a really interesting passage here. And beginning in verse 9 of chapter 14, Isaiah presents this imaginative vision of a visit to Sheol. Now, Sheol is the realm of the dead. And it's a realm where the dead spirits are, in effect. And I'm going to read our passage. Let's just start in verse 9. Sheol from beneath is excited over you to meet you when you come. Now, this is the Babylonian king. It arouses for you the spirits of the dead, all the leaders of the earth. It raises all the kings of the nations from their thrones. Now they, speaking of those in the tombs, in the grave, in the realm of the dead, will all respond and say to you, even you have been made weak as we. You have become like us. Your pomp and the music of your harps have been brought down to shale. Maggots are spread out as your bed beneath you, and worms are your covering." Now this is the king. This is what's happening to the highest-ranking person on earth at that time. how you have fallen from heaven oh star of the morning son of the dawn you have been cut down to the earth you who have weakened the nations but you said in your heart i will ascend to heaven i will raise my throne above the stars of god and i will sit on the mount of assembly in the recesses of the north i will ascend above the heights of the clouds i will make myself like the most high this is a pretty arrogant guy nevertheless you will be thrust down to shale, to the recesses of the pit. Those who see you will gaze at you, they will ponder over you, saying, Is this the man who made the earth tremble, who shook kingdoms, who made the world like a wilderness and overthrew its cities, who did not allow his prisoners to go home? All the kings of the nations lie in glory, each in his own tomb, but you have been cast out of your tomb, like a rejected branch, clothed with a slain, who are pierced with a sword, who go down to the stones of the pit like a trampled corpse. You will not be united with them in burial, because you have ruined your country, you've slain your people. May the offspring of evildoers not be mentioned forever. Prepare for his sons a place of slaughter, because of the iniquity of their fathers. They must not arise and take possession of the earth and fill the face of the world with cities. I will rise up against them, declares the Lord of hosts, and will cut off from Babylon name and survivors, offspring and posterity, declares the Lord. I will also make it a possession for the hedgehog in the swamps of water. I will sweep it with the broom of destruction, declares the Lord of hosts. bad things coming for Babylon and this king this is a picture this is not a literal description necessarily probably isn't it is used to teach readers some truths about the realm of the dead concerning the dead and first as we began to see last week the dead are still alive physical death is simply the separation of the spirit from the body the spirit stays alive In the Bible, death is never the termination of life, as strange as that sounds. Death is never annihilation. It's a change of place and condition. One's personal identity continues. One's body goes into the grave, it decomposes, but one's spirit remains alive. in this realm of the dead. And so here goes this king, his spirit, into the realm of the dead and these people are there to greet him. Now whether they're greeting him, mocking him, it's a matter of some discussion. But in verse 8, if you look back, we see that Isaiah attributed speech to the trees. He says, even the cypress trees rejoice over you in the cedars of Lebanon. Since you were laid low, no tree cutter comes up against us. And so now, here are the dead, and they rise and mock at the arrogance of this tyrant. With sarcasm, really. Now, kings. We're seeing, you know, we have a great example of this in North Korea right now. I don't know if we're aware of this. They don't talk about it on the news like they should. This man believes he is God, or a god. He believes he is possessed of deity. deific quality, and it's hard to deal with somebody who is so irrational. Nero was one who believed in the deity of kings. There were many of these throughout history. There are more than Kim Jong-un in the world today who believe in the divine nature of all kings. But we see here that the bodies of kings and nobles undergo decay just as do the bodies of common people. Now, that doesn't come as news to us, but it does come as news to some in this time and today, and in those days when kings were thought of as being gods, it came as some news. We learn something else. Not only do kings also go where the rest of us go, but we also learn that the spirit of every person lives after death. In Sheol, the realm of the dead, there is a continuation of everyone's personal identity. And there's recognition of others. Notice he is recognized by others when he goes into this realm of the dead. Also understand this is before the time of Christ, and we know from Paul that when a believer dies, now believing in Christ, his spirit goes to be with the Lord. But an unbeliever likely still goes here. And here we have this recognition of this king as he arrives in Sheol, the realm of the dead. It's not hell. It's a realm of the dead. Hades is the same thing usually. A couple times in the New Testament it refers to hell, but usually both Hades and Sheol refer to this realm of the dead. And the same idea appears in 2 Samuel 12.23, which I think is in your scripture sheet. Here we have David with his infant son dying and he's praying and hoping he'll be alright but he's looking forward to joining his infant son in the realm of the dead he knows he will go to him and be recognized so in verse eleven we get to the meat of what they are saying about this king as he comes into this realm your pomp and the music of your harps have been brought down to Sheol Maggots are spread out as your bed beneath you, and worms are your covering. Now, yes, that sounds like the physical grave, but there's more to it here. This is the end of pride, pleasure, arrogance, self-indulgence, self-importance. The picture that's painted is that of spirits aroused from their coffins. Some say to mourn, others say to celebrate. But they're reacting to the fall and death of this wicked Babylonian king. He's now rendered as weak as and no different than all the others who have died. His glory has disappeared. The splendor of the court has disappeared. His majesty's gone. Maggots and worms. That's what the realm of the dead is. His corpse is being eaten away by these things. And the message for both Isaiah's audience then and now, every earthly king will fall before the Lord. This pompous Babylonian king is just like everyone else. And even the dead know this. We see the same message in Revelation 6, beginning in verse 15. and hide us from the presence of Him who sits on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb. For the great day of their wrath has come, and who is able to stand? The answer is no one, only those trusting in Christ in this age. So every tyrannical rule will come to an end. We've seen it play out throughout history. First Assyria, then Babylon. Then the Medo-Persians, then the Greeks, then the Seleucids and the Ptolemies of Egypt wrestled for power. And then came the Roman Empire. Rome was in power when Christ was born. And one by one, all those empires fell. And other evil empires have come and gone since then. And Isaiah reminds them and us that the day of judgment on all wickedness will come. Right now, Satan's empire remains for the present, but his reign, too, will end. Revelation 20, verse 10, And the devil who deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and false prophet are also, and they will be tormented day and night forever. The Bible doesn't speak about the annihilation of the wicked. It speaks of eternal torment of the wicked. Well, those in the realm of the dead continue to speak to this king, How you have fallen from heaven, O star of the morning! Now, if you have a King James, it says, How you have fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the dawn! You have been cut down to earth, you who have weakened the nations. Now, this reference to a morning star may well draw on an old Canaanite myth of a revolt in heaven. Now, the Old Testament writers sometimes alluded to these myths, which were myths, they weren't truth, but they would allude to them because the people were familiar with them, without affirming the reality or truth of the content of the myth. And in this Canaanite myth, we had an imaginary god, Atar, morning star, revolted against the imaginary God Baal. And this coup failed and it resulted in the fall of Attar. And being cut down to earth here implies what? It implies a loss of all his power, all his status, all his influence, all his self-determination. both political and religious leaders today who claim for themselves undue authority. I would say to you that applies to those in power who feel free to change the law of God. We have this in our country. This is a serious problem, and it put this country in serious danger when the law of God is altered. Because when somebody says, no, God, we're going to set aside your law and make our own, what are they saying about themselves? And what are they doing? They're putting themselves in the place of God. This is the real problem we have with all of these court decisions that go against Scripture. And unless such a leader repents, this will be his fate. That's taking God's place. You've weakened the nations. That's part of what he's done here. The weakness of leadership leads to what? It leads to the weakness of nations. Now, what about this Lucifer business? Well, it's common by now to find Satan referred to by some as Lucifer. We shouldn't do that. Lucifer is not a name for Satan. But here's what happened. The Latin word Lucifer means morning star. So, morning star in Latin comes out Lucifer. Some of the early church fathers who were familiar with Latin, some spoke Latin, such as Tertullian, saw this verse here speaking of Satan. They thought this verse, speaking of Morning Star, spoke of Satan and applied the name of Lucifer, Morning Star, to Satan. That's how that came about. And so, if this is about the Morning Star, and if Morning Star is Lucifer, and if in this passage he's talking about Satan, then Lucifer is Satan. And the King James still translates the word here, which we have in most of our Bibles as Morning Star, as Lucifer. But Lucifer is not a name for Satan. It's okay for the King James to use the term Lucifer as long as people understand it's not referring to Satan. Some say that when Jesus says, I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven, is a reference back here. It's not. Here's the problem. You have to look at the context. And the context here plainly shows that these statements here have to be in reference to an earthly king. Why is that? Because what's pictured here is the end of a guy's reign. It's all over. But Satan's reign isn't all over. And what happens, people read, they'll take these couple of verses, read them, and say, aha, this is about Satan. You can't do that. You've got to read within the context of what's going on. And this whole context is the fall of a wicked Babylonian king. And we don't know which king. Well, we understand that that's what it is, and that his reign comes to an end. The fall of Satan wasn't the end of his reign. While he is bound right now so that he can no longer deceive those called by God from among the nations, he does remain the ruler of this age, and he continues to tempt even the people of God. But he can't deceive us. The gospel's not hidden anymore. Gospels all over the world. And Satan is bound in the sense that he can no longer deceive the nations. That's what Revelation 20 tells us. But until Christ came, Satan did deceive the nations. Only the Jews and few of them were believing in the promise of the Messiah. Satan is a deceiver. He's called a deceiver in Revelation 12. And this is what lies behind his power over tyrannical regimes, such as Babylon and in the world today. And yet there goes onward this spiritual conflict, a battle against the rulers, the authorities, the powers of darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the spiritual or heavenly realm. Ephesians 6, 12. Now, though Satan is not the one who's referred to here in verse 12, the actual reference being the king of Babylon, it is true that this king may be seen in a sense as a type of Satan, in the same sense that Babylon is a symbol of all the wicked kingdoms of the world. Satan's kingdom. Babylon is a term for Satan's kingdom. So to that extent, as a symbol, maybe yes, but this is not speaking directly or literally of Satan's fall. The king is seen as somebody here who, like Satan, sought to usurp this title of Christ. Morning Star. If you look at Revelation 22, 16, you see who is the Morning Star. It's Christ. I, Jesus, have sent my angel to testify to you these things for the churches. I am the root and the descendant of David, the bright Morning Star. Christ is the Morning Star. But there are many who seek to mimic and counterfeit and steal from Christ. And one of the sins of this king was what amounted to his attempt to steal what rightly belonged to Christ. And we see in verse 13 and 14, what this all amounted to. And so that's why the name Morning Star is applied derisively to him here. Whether he actually used it or not isn't important. And yes, the devil himself is always seeking to take what belongs to Christ. That's his nature. But it's also characteristic of those who follow him, who are held in his power, like this Babylonian king, like Kim Jong-un, and like many other world leaders we could name, Nero, Hitler, and thousands of others. And so what they and what Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, and Belshazzar, another king of Babylon, what all of them personified was the spirit of Satan, not the spirit of God. And they thought too highly of themselves. They were prideful. They were arrogant. Look at what this king actually was saying in his heart in verses 13 and 14. But you said in your heart, I will ascend to heaven. I will raise my throne above the stars of God. And I will sit on the Mount of Assembly. And I will sit on the heights of Mount Zaphon. In the recesses of the north. I will ascend above the heights of the clouds. I will make myself like the Most High. Well, you can see why people think of Satan when they read this. And apart from the context, that would make sense. In the context, this is a king who falls and whose reign comes to an end. So, why did this morning star fall? Well, here it is. He fell prey to the same lie as someone else had. Who else fell prey to these beliefs in Scripture? Eve. You can be like God. fell prey to the same lie as she did in the garden. And notice this term, I will, five times here, two sentences. I will ascend to heaven. I will raise my throne. I will sit on the Mount of Assembly. I will ascend above the heights of the clouds. I will make myself like the Most High. You said in your heart, to say in your heart was a Hebrew idiom meaning to think or resolve in one's mind. Here, the prophet Isaiah ridicules the pride of this Babylonian king. He's relying on his own greatness. He sees for himself this uninterrupted reign as if he had the power that God has, the power of life and death. Now, Isaiah has been warning against and preaching against the sin of pride all through this book. People openly say they're proud. The Bible openly says pride is a sin. And in this king, we are given a mirror to show where pride can lead us. He said, I will ascend into heaven. In these words and the ones that follow, the boasting is kind of absurd, isn't it? It's impossible to believe that this king even would say these words. Remember, this is a poem. The prophet isn't quoting any words of the king. He's writing a poem to teach us these truths. But he is displaying the thoughts of all of the prideful and the arrogant, all who claim to elevate themselves above what human nature will allow. Who does that? Who is it that elevates themselves above what human nature and human abilities would allow? What kind of ministers do that? those who stand up there and say they have the power to heal people now there's a difference between praying for God to heal someone and trusting in God and asking God and claiming that power for yourself that's what this king's doing he's claiming the powers of God I will raise my throne above the stars of God I will sit on the mount of the assembly the recesses of the north he wanted to sit on the mount of assembly he attempted to make himself equal with god now the niv which you have right joe it translates the mount of assembly as mount zafon i will sit on mount zafon well what do we know about that well in canaanite mythology Mount Zaphon in the north of Canaan was thought to be what? The home of the gods. So I will go to the home of the gods and I will sit there. This king saw himself as a god. He says so in the next phrase, I will make myself like the Most High. So self-deification, again a characteristic of Babylonian kings, of Roman emperors, still the case in North Korea and elsewhere in the world today. And what Satan whispered in Eve's ears at the beginning, he repeats over and over again. He isn't done with this little maneuver. And so, the thing is, those who are raised to a high rank in this life are called not to conduct themselves pridefully, but to conduct themselves humbly, to submit themselves to God. This is the great crime of our courts, not submitting to God. They can say, look, we have freedom of this and we're not going to have an established religion. Well, that's a dangerous position to take for any nation. Those who seek to be like God, what happens? Nevertheless, you will be thrust down to Sheol. King James says, hell, that's probably unfortunate. It's Sheol, the realm of the dead, to the recesses of the pit. Instead of replacing God in the heights of the sacred mountain, which he said he was going to do, or thought he would do, the king of Babylon is going down to Sheol with the maggots and the worms. Even to the remotest depths of the pit of Sheol. The result of his pride, he reached for the heights of heaven, but he fell to the bottom of the pit." And here the terminology refers to a very distant place in Sheol, the furthest place one can get from the heights of heaven. And then in verse 16 we seem to have this continuing dichotomy now between the physical grave itself and the spiritual realm of the dead. Those who see you will gaze at you, They will ponder over you, saying, Is this the man who made the earth tremble, who shook kingdoms, who made the world like a wilderness and overthrew its cities, who did not allow his prisoners to go home? Well, we see this tyrannical king humiliated, shamed. He once had the power to cause any nation to tremble in fear. Think about this. How many nations can any of us, on our own, cause to tremble in fear? He had this power. He was a ruthless tyrant. He could turn any city into a deserted place without inhabitants, Isaiah writes. He treated people unmercifully. Wouldn't let the prisoners go home. But now in Sheol, he has absolutely no power to do anything at all. This is the power of God. Then another sign of his humiliation, his disgraceful burial. He's going to pay for his evil treatment of others. Verses 18 and 19, all the kings of the nations lie in glory, each in his own tomb, but you've been cast out of your tomb like a rejected branch, clothed with the slain, who are pierced with a sword, who go down to the stones of the pit like a trampled corpse. Isaiah now depicts this wicked king in Sheol as a rejected branch. This is in contrast to what we saw back in chapter 11, where the shoot of Jesse, Christ, in its fruitful branches. And this guy's corpse is cast from its stone. And he, his true self, lies in the realm of the dead with those who have been pierced with the sword. no gold-filled tomb, no elaborate burial chamber. He'll have no glory at all after he goes. You will not be united with them in burial because you've ruined your country. You've slain your people. May the offspring of evildoers not be mentioned forever. Because you've ruined your people, you don't get this burial. He has laid the earth desolate, and so he doesn't deserve that the earth should receive him. His forebears and other kings apparently had this family mausoleum. He's not going to be joining them. He's going to the stones of the pit. Now, weren't his forebears also wicked? And why are they allowed to remain in the royal mausoleum? Perhaps it's like what we saw with the scribes and Pharisees in Jesus' day on earth. Perhaps it was because in Him all their wickedness had filled up. And maybe He was a foreshadowing of the destiny of the scribes and Pharisees, as we see in Matthew 23, 35, "...upon them would fall the guilt of all the righteous bloodshed on earth." So the king's destiny is the fruit of his wickedness. He's getting justice. This is what justice looks like for all of us. What we seek in Christ is mercy. Well, what's the application? Well, the Lord punishes the pride of wicked men, whose object is their own fame, whose object is to leave a perpetual memory of themselves. But the Lord blots out their name. He blots out their memory. He blots out their life. this happens to all tyrants you know while they live many are applauded and flattered in korea they just applauding this guy but after they're dead they and their posterity will eventually be universally hated they can fool people for a time they're unconcerned about what they do to their nations and think he's such a great example here he doesn't care that he may put his entire nation in a grave He may be the cause of the death of maybe millions in South Korea. All because of his own pride, because of his desire to create a name for himself. It's what the Tower of Babel was all about, to make a name for themselves. The line of Cain did the same thing. Prepare for his sons a place of slaughter because of the iniquity of their fathers. They must not arise and inherit the land, NIV says, or take possession of the earth. We can't let this continue, God says. And so Isaiah concludes with God's words, I will rise up against them and I will cut off from Babylon name and survivors, offspring and posterity. I will also make it a possession for the hedgehog or the screech owls in some translations and swamps of water. I will sweep it with the broom of destruction, declares the Lord of hosts. and the Lord destroyed the land of Babylon so that no honorable remembrance of it would remain. Saddam Hussein tried to rebuild it foolishly, and you notice what happened to it. So does the Lord speak here of the Babylon of the 6th and 7th centuries before Christ? Or is He speaking of Babylon as a symbol of the city of man opposed to God, as the symbol of all the wicked kingdoms of the earth. Well, this is an earthly kingdom which stands as an example and symbol of all evil earthly kingdoms, all of which will come to a dreadful end on the day of the Lord when Christ returns. And what we see here, now that we've spent 45 minutes wallowing in the horrific destiny of this king. Now we contrast this with the ruler of chapter 9, verses 6 and 7. Because here's the other side. The government will rest on his shoulders. He will be called Mighty God. There will be no end to the increase of his government or of peace on the throne of David and over his kingdom to establish it and uphold with justice and righteousness from then on and forevermore. Well, it's obvious what path one should choose. And the latter path we find only in Christ and in following Him and entrusting in His sinless life and His offering of Himself on that cross to pay the price for our sin so we don't have to receive the justice of what our deeds have earned us. Lord, we're so grateful and so blessed by your grace, by your mercy. We know that we have been guilty of violating your law in so many ways ourselves. Yes, we may compare ourselves to others and think we may be doing okay, but we know in your word we're not. We know, Lord, that only by the sacrifice of the one righteous man can we enter into your presence. And so, Lord, we thank you for Christ. We thank you for sending him. We thank you for this word, which teaches us and warns us about the fate of those who do not come to him. And Lord, we pray that you'll impress this truth deep in each one of our hearts and that we will all of us respond rightly in gratitude, worship, and obedience by your mercy for your glory. Amen. Amen.