Well congregation, whose truth? We just sang it, thy truth? Giving testimony again to that which we are about to see, that is in the Word of God, that His Word is faithful and true. I would invite us this morning then to open our Bible to the book of Isaiah in chapter 2, noted here to be on page 722. Now, were we going through a series in Isaiah, which is common for me to do, you would have had in the first sermon or so a good deal of background information about the setting and the context. Perhaps we'll remember that Isaiah, one of those great prophets of the Lord, is prophesying 739 to 686. And children, we count that way. like the countdown to a great launch. That is, we count down in the Old Testament era, and that's a remarkable thing in and of itself. He's counting backwards like that. He began in 739 and ended in 686. Reminds us of what is zero day and the hope and the promise that was for the arrival of the Lord Jesus Christ. So as we think about that, Isaiah is prophesying in those years just before serious and significant dilemmas would befall the church of the Lord Jesus Christ and the covenant people of those days. And yet, as we're about to see, great hope and great delight in what the Lord's work will bring about in terms of His promises. So this morning, then, in the second chapter of Isaiah, and we have before us the first five verses, the living, true, and errant and faithful word of God. The word that Isaiah the son of Amos saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem. It shall come to pass in the latter days, that the mountain of the house of the Lord shall be established as the highest of the mountains, and shall be lifted up above the hills, and all the nations shall flow to it. And many peoples shall come and say, Let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob, that He may teach us His ways, and that we may 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 shall decide disputes for many peoples, and they shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nations shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore. O house of Jacob, come, let us walk in the light of the Lord. As far, dearly beloved, the rich and living Word of God, I would encourage you to keep your Bible near to you as we'll pay very careful attention to the text of the Word of God. But let's ask His blessing as we continue this morning in prayer. Our Father, now how thankful and grateful we are for the Word of God. We praise You for the truth of Scripture. That wondrous Word applied to the lives of your people, of benefit to your church. Thus, Lord, we also believe it will be of help to us this morning. We pray now that you grant to us ears to hear, that you give to us minds able to understand, but especially that it would soften our heart, that your Word would be planted there, and it would bear rich and good fruit. Strengthen us by Your Spirit for these things, we pray in confidence, in Jesus' name, Amen. Well, dear congregation of the Lord Jesus Christ, this tremendous text given to Isaiah is exceedingly visual. What is revealed to us here of a great and glorious truth is set as a scene Even in verse 1, we are told that what is shown to us in these five verses was first, verse 1, notice it, shown to Isaiah. This revelation was to the prophet of God given as a vision to his mind's eye so that he might be able to feast on it. Because the scene was, given what was about to transpire, so improbable so sweeping the church of the Lord Jesus Christ in those days, about to be in great travail, as it were. In these verses is revealed something of God's plan for His church, but not in Isaiah's day. But really, beloved, as we understand these words, Something of God's plan for His church really in our day. If we don't see something of this text in our churches, we have hard questions to ask, needing honest answers. Beloved, the Lord will use His worshiping church to draw in the nations. Now that and the points I'm about to mention are included in the back of your bulletin This theme of the text, the Lord will use his worshiping church to draw in the nations. We'll see that in the following four ways. First, the prophet sees a time ahead of great glory for Christ's church. Second, in that time, there will be mutual encouragement to be taught by God. That's very significant, children, taught by God. His Word will grant peace with Him and also allow peace between peoples forth. To see that day, His people need to live in His glorious light. Beloved, again this morning, the Word of God does teach us this, that the Lord will use His worshiping church to draw in the nations. And so in this second chapter of Isaiah, the prophet sees a time ahead. It really is very important for us and significant to be able to grasp something of the key terms of this revelatory vision. There are several of those key terms that show to us, again in a visual form, something of the promises of God being brought about here. We notice words like mountains and flowing water. Rivers and paths and people. Later we're going to have to consider things like farm tools and weapons. These all serve as brilliant images meant to teach us concrete truths about God's ways. All of the things revealed in these images of this vision will be happening, as we've said, not in Isaiah's day, but verse 2 says the text, in quote, latter days. Now these are the days following the advent of the promised Messiah. The days to come in terms of Isaiah's day, the promises and the certainties of the Messiah's arrival and the significance of those latter days. In terms of all of the various mountains of religions that existed in Isaiah's day being represented here by mountains, one will be exalted to the highest place. One mountain will rise high above all of the others. And beloved, we don't have to work very hard to make some of those connections today. As we send our young people off to certain colleges, they have to engage, as some of us did, in a so-called class of comparative religions. And we hear about those other religions in the day in which we are called to live, the day where there's one overarching rule in society, that rule being tolerance above all else. of comparative religions. Dearly beloved, the Word of God tells us about one glorious truth which rises above all others. It will continue to be the desired destination for God's covenant people. And across all the sweep of human history and in the context of comparative religions, there is no comparison and no competition In this day, Isaiah's day, when so very few across the globe knew anything of Israel and his people, oh dearly beloved, there's a different day coming. The day in which we live. The church of the Lord Jesus Christ rises high. Yet we have today particular challenges when it comes to a prophetic passage like this one. Where God is giving a certain and clear and true and unbreakable revelatory promise of the future. Our particular challenge is that of assessment. Of assessment. We're going to do a little bit of that this morning. The truths of this text are no longer mainly future. Only certain aspects of what is promised here wait yet to be fulfilled and come to their sweeping conclusion. In terms of the flow of human history, many of these things have been and are coming to fulfillment, aren't they beloved? The central figure of all human history has come, hasn't he? The Lord Jesus Christ. We just talked in terms of counting backward, a countdown timer to that zero day, and now we begin, as we've just entered a new year, in counting forward in respect to what event? To that central mountainous event of the sweep of human history. It's interesting that the notes of the original Geneva Bible of 1560, the original Geneva Bible notes of 1560 say about this text that what is being set forth here is that image of something of the restoration of the church. Calvin and his fellow co-workers there in Geneva were thinking about this text. They were saying that what this represents is something of the restoration of the church. In Isaiah's forward-looking latter-day vision, the church of Christ would be the mountain to which all the nations would flood in. What this means needs assessment as we move along this morning secondly now. Secondly, to consider that in that time there will be mutual encouragement to be taught by God. Verse 3, And 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, that He may teach us His ways, and that we may walk in His paths. For out of Zion will go the Law, and the Word of the Lord from Jerusalem. When the Bible here uses this word, peoples, it means a broad term. We might understand nations. We might understand the peoples of the world. Those various nations, it's shown here to be of significance that they will come to the mountain of the Lord. Beloved, what we're beginning to see here is the reversal already of that event of Babel, aren't we? Where the nations were sent away. The promise of the latter days of the arrival of the Lord Jesus Christ, who then as He ascends will send His Holy Spirit, will be then the in-gathering of the nations. The reversal of the languages so that we might have one gospel language again. These things being promised to Isaiah here. But a people gathering in, note it well, not to sacrifice. It's not what the text says. But rather it says to be taught. We might have a bit of trouble this morning in our context and in our setting getting that, understanding the weightiness of that. Isaiah still lives in that day where if a person comes to the temple of the Lord, comes to worship God, he does so, the covenant head does, bringing that sacrificial animal for himself or his family. So that in seeing that blood spilled and that blood applied, they are pointed to and reminded of the promises of the Messiah. But here in the latter days, they will not come bringing those sacrifices. Why? Because dear ones, that sacrifice will have been made. The one whose blood is perfect, whose atonement is perfect, who is righteous in all of his ways. Who is our hope? Those people when they then flood to the mountain house of the Lord will come to be taught of God. It's interesting also that this same, almost exact same revelatory vision is given to another prophet of the Lord, Micah. Check that out in Micah 4 verses 1 to 3. Of such great weightiness and significance is this hope and this promise that it is given to two prophets. The day when those sacrifices would be fulfilled and put behind them, and instead of that bloody system, people would want to be taught. Notice this before we get a little bit later to verse five, where we'll need to do even more significant assessment, but notice it, that in verse three, the peoples of the nations say one to the other, Come, let us go and be taught. There was in this day, in Isaiah's day, almost an overwhelming, significant majority of the people who would worship the Lord being of one stock, yes? One bloodline, right? But the promise would be sort of like having airplane load full of Christians from China land at the airport and come in here and worship with us this morning. Another plane load from Iceland, some from the South Pacific Isles, some from the Middle East of Christians coming in to worship here this morning with us. We wouldn't think it too odd, would we? We wouldn't really be surprised by that, that there are believers in China, there are believers in the Middle East, there are believers in every country speaking every language. We say, well, that's not surprising. But, oh beloved, do we see why they would come? And how? And through whom? The nations, where there are Christians even today on the Lord's Day of this particular week, gathering in China before we were awake perhaps, Some of them in secret, as we know. And what were those Chinese Christians saying this morning when they got up? They were saying to one another, come, let us go to the house of the Lord. Let us go and worship. Those promises are glorious and fulfilled, even that we would see it likewise in Ezekiel chapter 47. Of water flowing out from under the altar and then growing deeper and wider as it goes. That water of the gospel of the healing mercies of Jesus Christ flowing out to make the waters pure. A granted grace of ours living in these latter days. So that we understand that what is set forth here to Isaiah is a preview of our day. Better yet, a preview of the power of God's rich grace in Jesus Christ when people will flow, as we heard in our call to worship, from north and south and east and west, wanting, wanting to know of Jesus Christ. Wanting to learn law and gospel. To the God who saves us from our sins. Isaiah sees a world coming where the Word will go forth from the mountain house of the Lord. So that we begin to realize this morning that we are this day at the mountain. So that we begin to realize this morning, if we can think of it in these terms, that we are the mountain. Calvin says here about this text, quote, the doctrine of the gospel by which God has gathered to himself a church indiscriminately out of all nations preceded from Mount Zion. And that is key. A people preceded from Mount Zion going out, as we'll see in a few moments, from Mount Zion And as we begin to realize this morning that Jesus Christ makes His church to be the mountain to which He draws the nations, so also must the assessment continue. Do a study sometime of how many times the word mountain occurs both in the Old and the New Testament, and how significant is that term mountain or hill. Where was it that Jesus gathered his disciples after his resurrection, just before his ascension? Do you know? To the mountain. It's interesting that in Matthew 5 verse 14, the Lord himself calls his church and the proclamation of the gospel here a what? City on a hill where light cannot be hid. What does the Christian want? What does this text tell us, even in verse 3, about what the believer wants? He, she, we want two things. First, the believer, and by way of assessment, ask yourself the question in terms of these two, if this is true of you. The believer wants to come to the house of the Lord. All other things aside, all of our significant trials and difficulties and challenges and busyness of life, we look forward to the Lord's Day. We say, yes, I get to go back to the house of the Lord. I get to worship Him. That's the first thing. I want to go there. It's where I belong. But secondly, and is this also true of us, the believer wants to grab his neighbor by the arm if he must and say, you come with me. We say it to our coworkers and how we carry ourselves on the job site. We say it in the way we use our monies in terms of our shopping practices. We say it in terms of the significance of what we watch and choose to not watch, of how we behave in public, how we behave in private. We say to our neighbor, grabbing them as it were lovingly, firmly, come with me, this is where you need to be. In the house of the Lord. The language here in verse 3 is plain, and thus powerful. It says, if we're using both arms to those around us, come, let's go! Come on! You and I will go again, because God's Word only comes forth from the place we are going. Do you believe that, beloved? Notice the significance of the weightiness of the text. From out of Zion shall go forth the law and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem, from his place of corporate worship. As we heard this morning, we can say it to our neighbors, and we ought to say it to our neighbors, come with me, leave your life of sin, and come and hear of the reconciliation of Jesus Christ, but it first needs to be that truth ringing in our own ears. Thirdly then, third, His Word will grant peace with Him, also allowing peace between peoples. And verse 4, He shall judge between the nations and shall decide disputes for many peoples. And they shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nations shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore. The verse within the context of these five, which may challenge us this morning the most. It is indeed the most forward-looking of this revelatory vision given to Isaiah. Especially in days like ours, where there are wars and rumors of wars. And if you lived on the island of Hawaii, you were a little scared this week about wars and rumors of wars. And we look at the text and we say, where's the fulfillment? Where's the promise? Where's the filling out of these things? As people rise up and battle one against the other, whether it's on Division Street in Grand Rapids or in some place in Kansas City, we had the highest number of murders in our city there in Missouri ever this year again. And you begin to ask questions. We think in terms of the many cultural and societal evils that we're still fighting and battling against. We think of the growing, we might even think of it this way, the significantly growing approach of worldliness and its desire to control all things, the approach of it into the church. We think of wars and battles. We say, well, it seems quite distant. And true, true in certain aspects it is, yet not that distant when we begin to think about the church. Not that distant when we begin to think about the work of the gospel and the preaching of the gospel in the church. formerly warring family members, even husbands and wives brought unto the preaching of the gospel, who then eventually do, by God's grace, bring words of repentance and seeking of forgiveness. The truth, you see, beloved, and let's never forget this, we see it several times in the word of God in repeating cycles. We know it best from Acts, don't we? That the word goes from Jerusalem first to Judea and Samaria, and then finally where? To the ends of the earth. And yet we ask the question, is this peace to be seen in the church? Is this where your disputes are settled? So that you never consider taking brother to court, family member before another earthly judge. So that we ask the question, are my disputes settled? Is my war finalized in the preaching of the word of God in the church of the Lord Jesus Christ? Peace with God first, which then flows outward in a horizontal making of all things well and right between brother and sister. such that the assessment continues. Now it is true, on the other hand, that we look forward to a final conclusion, a fulfillment of these things, in a day which is not yet our day, in the new heavens and the new earth, when there will be no kinds of wars and no battles to be had. But beloved, if we're going to say such words to those on the outside, ought it be the case that first they can see the reality of that on the inside? We need to allow for the Spirit's work of assessment in terms of the Word of God and our lives, don't we? It must already begin in the church among covenant families, one with the other. Of all the people in the sanctuary this morning, Now we're going to hear more of this in a particular way this evening, which we need to be listening to tonight, but the basic question is before us this morning. Have you come to the mountain of the Lord expecting, beloved, expecting to have the righteous judge settle all of your disputes? To settle all of your disputes. Are you willing to have your interpersonal squabbles settled by the work of the Lord Jesus Christ in the preaching of the gospel, to be taught law and gospel? Are you a willing kingdom subject? How often do we bear grudges? Sometimes for generations in the church. What needs to be the reality, beloved, and this is the work of the Lord Jesus Christ in his gospel proclamation to have those wicked swords in the church beat into garden tools. And I think it's significant that that's the language used here in the text, because then when we think of garden tools, aren't we drawn back to the promises, the glories witnessed in the first garden? and the certainty of that joyful, fruitful life about which the Lord Jesus Christ speaks in John 10 and John 15 and prays for beginning in John 16 and John 17 and saying to His Father, oh, bring that glorious truth to bear. Sanctify them, us, in the truth in terms of what? Fruitful living. I'll give you a little assignment for this afternoon if you like. Read Isaiah chapter 5. Read Isaiah chapter 5 where we see the reality of that hope for in terms of the coming bad fruit of the divided kingdom Israel and Judah. and the coming fruitfulness that we ought to be looking for in the church of the Lord Jesus Christ today. Yes, there will be war with this fallen world. Yes, we must not give up fighting as soldiers for Christ in terms of all of the battles that we see going on outside. But dearly beloved, what about inside? As the apostle would put it, we must not bite and devour one another. The kingdom of Christ is a building. That is to say, it is a glorious structure of His grace to which we want to bring, invite others that they might say, why are you the way you are? Why so different? Peace and joy inside this mountain house of the Lord is what we are praying for and seeking in these days. And then now fourthly, Fourthly, to see that day, His people need to live in His glorious light. Our text concludes, beloved, at verse 5, O house of Jacob, come let us walk in the light of the Lord. It ends, this text does there at verse 5, with an impassioned, vibrant command. It's the connection in the Hebrew grammar of an imperative and a cohortative. That is simply to say, a command followed by an impassioned appeal. The command is, come to the covenant community. Come, and the impassioned appeal is, let us walk. Oh come, let us walk. There is for God's own covenant people the responsibility of leadership. You've been catching that all along this morning, haven't you? It's been kind of flowing under the text all along, but now in verse 5 it comes to the surface and we're given this shout of a command, come! Let us. Isaiah saw this, the meaning, of the sweep of God's work in covenant history, so that he uses here by the Spirit's direction in the text the sweet covenant name of Jacob, the favored covenant child, to reflect the call to the leadership the church is to evidence, the church favored by the Father, to lead. A covenant of people favored by God called to lead. The church beloved by Jesus Christ that He gave Himself for us to lead. The church the Father and the Son in glorious Trinitarian agreement sent the Spirit that we might by Him lead the nations. The covenant people seeing the need, the Gentiles, the nations have our friends and our neighbors have and leading the way as the text says in walking in the light of the Lord. Notice again, beloved, our theme statement of the text. The Lord will use his worshiping church. To draw in the nations, what are we doing here this morning? We're worshiping God, aren't we? To what glorious ends can we begin to enumerate the ends for which God has designed this time of corporate covenant worship? Which purposes of God include us drawing in the nations? To this end, we pray for rich grace, don't we? Because this leadership which the text is speaking of falls to us, Ephesians 5 verse 8. To quote Ephesians 5 verse 8, walk as children of the light. 1 Thessalonians 5 verse 8, to quote, walk soberly since we belong to the day. Romans 13, 12, to cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light. Let us walk properly as in the daytime. Beloved, we need not play blame shift games about why so many people are running to the stores this morning as we're sitting here this little brief amount of time they're running there. Let's not play blame games about why people so frequently dishonor the Lord's day. The responsibility, the calling rests squarely on our shoulders, doesn't it? This verse five, come let us walk in the light of the Lord, means let us live what we believe, practice what we preach. Young people, is that what your friends see from you? Is that the example that you set for them, covenant fathers? Is that what your children see from you in terms of your commitment of time? Is that what your coworkers see from you on the job site? And beloved, we say in terms of all of these things, oh Lord. Have mercy on me. Which brings us right back in the text to the beginning of it, doesn't it? Of coming to be taught. By the Lord. When we pray in terms of how this text ends with a command to the covenant people, come, let us walk in the light of the Lord. We are ending with an appeal to the glorious truth presented to us in the text. Lord. Teach me. Which is beloved what he's been doing this morning. Teach me that what marks me and that what all people see of me, around me, and know me by, is the salvation of the Lord Jesus Christ. So that then when we say to them, verse three, come walk with us to the house of the Lord, it will be because, verse five, we were here by grace first. To then lead. Amen. Our Father and our God, this morning how we praise You and thank You for grace abounding to the chief of sinners. And Lord, we know that means each one of us. That we believe because You first worked in our heart. That we are Yours because You first made us Yours. And then now send us to speak to others about the glories of the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. Those glories about which we are beginning to know better and better. O Heavenly Father, help Your church. Strengthen us. All these things now we do ask. It is our petition and our request. We ask, believingly, in Jesus' name, Amen.