Well, near the start of our service this morning, we sang from the Psalter, Psalm 125, which says that those who trust in the Lord are like Mount Zion, which cannot be moved, but abides forever. As the mountains surround Jerusalem, so the Lord surrounds his people from this time forth and forevermore. That psalm speaks to a sense of longing and desire that lies deep at the core of every human heart. It is a longing for security, for peace, for permanence. And it's a good longing, even a God-given longing. But sadly, it is one that humanity often seeks to fulfill in all the wrong ways, in all the wrong places, in all the wrong people, in all these idols that can never deliver. What Isaiah has been emphasizing throughout the first half of this book is what that Psalm 125 makes abundantly clear. that the safety, security, permanence, and peace that we so long for and were even created to desire is all found in one place, in one person. in God alone, and it will be enjoyed by those who ultimately depend on God alone. Those who trust in the Lord are like Mount Zion, which cannot be moved, but abides forever. Those who trust and depend on the Lord will never be disappointed and never be shaken. That has been Isaiah's message to Judah all along, hasn't it? At least since chapter seven when he had that fateful meeting with King Ahaz. In one sense or another, almost the entire book of Isaiah from that point on up until now has been one long series of exhortations to the people of God to hope in the Lord, to trust in him, Do not run to false saviors. Do not look to the nations, to the mighty, to the powerful, to the wise of this world and think that somehow they will provide for you the salvation that you seek. No, Isaiah says, do not hope in them. Do not depend on them. Do not admire them or envy them because God has appointed their end. and we know their end, because the previous chapter gave us an awesome and awful vision of it. What it showed is that on the final day, all the nations That is, all of those who are not God's people, all of those who stand outside the walls of Zion, who do not give allegiance to Zion's king but foolishly align themselves against him, in that final day, they will be consumed like a sacrifice by the fire and fury of the wrath of God. And all of their greatness, all of their wealth, all of their accomplishments, all that they have built and achieved and boasted in and delighted in will come crashing down. It will all be reduced to a burning pile of rubble. in the greatest and saddest of ironies, what the pride of man will finally achieve on its quest to find life and joy and fulfillment and peace and permanence apart from God, will be the forfeiture of all of that. What the judgment of God will leave them with instead is all that one could ever expect or hope to have apart from him. Just one eternal, hopeless, meaningless, joyless, miserable existence, devoid of all that is good, of all that is precious, of all that is beautiful. the Lord will turn the garden of human pride into one vast, barren, smoldering wasteland. Every last vestige of human flourishing will be erased and transformed into a hideous, terrifying habitation of wild beasts. That is the picture that we saw last week from the last half of chapter 34. God's judgment upon the wicked. They wanted life apart from God. And in the end, they'll have it. He will give them everything they asked for. And what a horrible, miserable existence that will be. Now chapter 35, which we'll be considering this morning, continues on this theme of God's final judgment. But as I said last week, the picture it provides serves as a direct counterpart to what we saw last week in the previous chapter. Chapter 34 described what the day of judgment will mean for the enemies of God. Chapter 35 describes what it will mean for the people of God. And what it will mean in a word is salvation. The day of judgment will be a day of great salvation for those who are his. And so it is that salvation that God has promised for his people that we are going to be focusing on now this morning. And as this chapter is not very long, I want to begin by reading it in its entirety for us. As always, I'd encourage you to follow along in your own Bibles as I do. This is Isaiah chapter 35, beginning at verse one. The wilderness and the dry land shall be glad. The desert shall rejoice and blossom like the crocus. It shall blossom abundantly and rejoice with joy and singing. The glory of Lebanon shall be given to it, the majesty of Carmel and Sharon. They shall see the glory of the Lord, the majesty of our God. Strengthen the weak hands and make firm the feeble knees. Say to those who have an anxious heart, be strong, fear not. Behold, your God will come with vengeance, with the recompense of God. He will come and save you. Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened and the ears of the deaf unstopped. Then shall the lame man leap like a deer, and the tongue of the mute sing for joy. For waters break forth in the wilderness, and streams in the desert. The burning sand shall become a pool, and the thirsty ground springs of water. In the haunt of jackals where they lie down, the grass shall become reeds and rushes. And a highway shall be there, and it shall be called the way of holiness. The unclean shall not pass over it. It shall belong to those who walk on the way. Even if they are fools, they shall not go astray. No lion shall be there, nor shall any ravenous beast come upon it. They shall not be found there, but the redeemed shall walk there. And the ransomed of the Lord shall return and come to Zion with singing. Everlasting joy shall be upon their heads. They shall obtain gladness and joy, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away. If you think about how the previous chapter ended with that picture it gave of the abode of the wicked being reduced in God's judgment to a vast, desolate wasteland of burning pitch and sulfur, its streams turned to tar, then you can see very obviously that the salvation of God's people here in chapter 35 is depicted in terms that reflect the complete opposite of that. The fruitful land of the wicked was made a barren desert. But for the Lord's people, the wilderness will be transformed into a fertile valley. The desert will blossom and bloom and streams of water will gush forth, giving life to what had once been just a dry and weary and thirsty land. Now obviously the language of this section is all very poetic. It's filled with very powerful and vivid imagery. And so recognizing that this is poetry, we would be wrong to reduce all of these statements to strictly their literal interpretation. Instead, we should be trying to think about what these images all together are being employed to convey. And especially taken in light of what we saw in the last chapter, considered in contrast with what we saw in chapter 34. And when we do that, we can step back and see that at the very least, the salvation of God that he has promised and prepared for his people is to be understood as a life of abundant joy, characterized by fruitfulness, fullness, flourishing, satisfaction, beauty, peace, security, the enjoyment of every blessing. This is the salvation that God will come in power and might to deliver to his people. Now for those living in Isaiah's day, this salvation could only be understood in terms of a coming future reality. But what about for us? What about for God's people today? for us who have been already saved from the wrath of God, like we considered last week in the previous chapter. If we are in fact saved, if salvation has come to us already, then does what we see in Isaiah 35 represent the salvation that we now possess? In other words, does this chapter describe for us our present reality? Well, the answer, of course, is yes and no. We have come to enjoy this salvation already and not yet. Now, I recognize that for some of you that may sound like a non-answer and one that you find completely unsatisfying, maybe a little bit unintelligible even. How can it be yes and no? Already and not yet. Not yet. Well, here is how. Because as the New Testament authors all attest, the last days that the prophets foretold, that Isaiah even here foretells, the last days have in fact come. They were ushered in by the appearing, by the coming of the Son of God. There is a true sense in which the day of judgment, the day of salvation, and the new creation, these eschatological realities, these end-time realities, have broken in to the present age through the life, death, resurrection, and ascension of our Lord Jesus Christ. And ever since, the people of God have been living in this overlap of the ages, in the already and not yet. Already our King has come. Already He has come and He has brought salvation for His people. And not surprisingly, he described that salvation in much the same way that we see described here in Isaiah 35. In terms that speak of the abundance of joy, fruitfulness, fullness, satisfaction, permanence, and peace that his people would enjoy. I have come that you might have life, Jesus said. and have it abundantly. These things I have spoken to you, he said, that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be full. Peace I leave with you. My peace I give you. Joy and peace are gifts of God's salvation that Christ has made our present possession. We have them, don't we? If you're a Christian, you do. And fruitfulness, too. Abide in me, Jesus said, and you will bear much fruit. I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide. By virtue of God's salvation, we have been transformed to a fruitful people who bear the fruit of good works, the fruit of the spirit to the glory of God. And then on top of that, as we see conveyed in Isaiah 35, the salvation that we have in Christ has also brought into our lives a wholeness, a fullness, a satisfaction that the idols of this world could never deliver. In fact, this world, in spite of all of its promises, had only ever left us wanting and empty. But then Jesus came with a promise that is true, a promise that he would never break. Whoever comes to me, he said, will never hunger, and whoever believes in me will never thirst. So whoever is thirsty, let him come to me and drink, for as the scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water. Our Savior is the one who makes water break forth in the wilderness and streams in the desert. He turns the burning sand into a pool and the thirsty ground into springs. The salvation that Jesus came to accomplish for his people makes all of these gifts of wholeness, satisfaction, fruitfulness, joy, and peace a present reality. And Jesus certainly saw his ministry in this light as well. He knew that he was that Savior who would usher in these last day salvation promises of Isaiah 35. You remember when John the Baptist was in prison? He sent two of his disciples to Jesus to ask him, are you the one who is to come? or should we be looking for someone else? And how did Jesus respond? Well, borrowing words from Isaiah 35, verses five and six, Jesus said, you go back and tell John what you have seen and heard. The blind received their sight The lame walk and the deaf hear. This is what Isaiah said would happen when God comes to bring salvation to his people. And he has come. He has. But I wonder if any of you sitting here this morning don't feel a little bit like John the Baptist. You don't feel like the salvation that you are sure you have come to possess in Jesus Christ is yet a far cry from all that Isaiah 35 seems to convey, or what Jesus' own words seem to convey. I mean, how many of us would say that our Christian life is characterized by fullness of joy, God's perfect peace, perfect wholeness, fruitfulness, and satisfaction. Mine is not, and yours isn't either. How many of us like John the Baptist have been discouraged, expecting and hoping that we would see and feel and experience something more, Well, if that is you, if you are discouraged and feel more empty than full this morning, if you are disheartened, weary, anxious, even fearful, the message of this chapter is especially for you. And its promise is that, yes, there is something more. You weren't wrong to be expecting that. The salvation that we have come to experience in Jesus Christ is real. We have it already. But at the same time, we have it not yet in its fullness. And what this chapter shows us is that we won't come to experience all that God's salvation entails in its fullness until we arrive at last to our final destination. See, Isaiah 35 describes for us the salvation of God, but it describes that salvation in terms of a journey, More specifically, in terms of an exodus, like the one the Lord led Israel on all those years ago, out of Egypt, through the wilderness, through the desert, to the promised land, that fertile, flourishing, fruitful land, flowing with milk and honey. God provided for his people along the way. He opened up streams in the desert. He made rivers gush from a rock. He fed them with manna from heaven. He protected them from wild beasts. He even kept the soles of their sandals from wearing out. God had saved them from the bondage in Egypt, and he was saving them from the perils of the wilderness. But neither of those things represented the end or the goal. No, instead, as Moses put into that song that he taught Israel to sing on the far banks of the Red Sea, the goal of their redemption lay still further ahead. And it would not be realized until they were brought finally through the wilderness and planted safely in Zion. That's what Moses sang in Exodus 15. You will bring them in and plant them on your mountain. The place, O Lord, which you have made for your abode, the sanctuary, O Lord, which your hands have established. In other words, the goal of the Exodus was not simply Israel's deliverance from Egypt's chains. but their deliverance into the sanctuary of God, into the presence of God in the land of promise. As Moses would later say, he brought us out in order to bring us in, in order to bring us in. And for you and I who have been saved already, There is that same reality that the fullness of our salvation will not be realized until our exodus through this wilderness world is over. And we are brought home safely to Zion, safely into the presence of God. And so it is not until then that our joy will finally be made full, our hearts be finally fully and forever satisfied, our fears stilled, our souls and bodies eternally safe and secure, out of reach of every danger, of every harm, of every threat. That's not our reality yet. As long as we are still on this exodus through the desert, it's not our reality yet. As I'm sure I don't need to tell you, journeying through this wilderness can be very hard going. Sometimes the distance between the wells and springs seems impossibly far apart. as we long for a place to rest, as we long that God might quickly bring us to a place where we can just stop and drink deep from the wells of salvation and be refreshed. Life in the desert can be wearying, discouraging, frightening, and it can feel so very barren too. which is why we need this word of exhortation addressed to us as it is here in verses three and four. Strengthen the weak hands and make firm the feeble knees. Say to those who have an anxious heart, be strong, fear not, Behold, your God will come with vengeance. With the recompense of God, he will come and save you. Could a more encouraging word be spoken to those who have a heavy or anxious heart? Behold your God. He will come and save you. If you are his child, don't you ever forget he will come and save you. He will not abandon his children on a desert road between Egypt and Zion. He will come and save you. And I think that there is nothing that you are facing today, no burden that you are bearing that will not be made lighter by remembering and clinging to this awesome promise that your God is coming to save you. Some of you here this morning may have just come through your hardest week. Or maybe you're in the middle of your hardest years. Your body may be throbbing with chronic pain. It may be falling apart, shutting down with a terminal disease. Maybe you're a young mother, exhausted. discouraged, struggling alone all throughout the day, every day to train and teach your children. Maybe you are old parents with hearts that break for wayward and estranged children. You may be in a difficult marriage. You may be in a difficult job. You may be under financial stress that feels suffocating. You may be dealing with sin or shame from your past that feels excruciating. I don't know what all of your trials and burdens are, but I think I do know the promise that is sure to strengthen weak hands and make firm feeble knees and speak peace to an anxious heart. Your God will come and save you. And I'm speaking to those of you who are his. If you are his, he will. He will come and save you. And what is that salvation, ultimately? Where does this exodus through the wilderness lead? What is the end or goal of our redemption? Well, verse 10 shows us. The ransomed of the Lord shall return and come to Zion with singing. Everlasting joy shall be upon their heads. They shall obtain gladness and joy, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away. Far, far more important than what God's salvation brings us is where God's salvation brings us. And as this verse just read explains, it brings us to him. The ransomed of the Lord shall return and come to Zion. To Zion, the city of the living God. That is where we are headed, to be at home with him. and everlasting joy will be upon our heads. And we shall obtain that gladness and joy in full that we had enjoyed but a small, small foretaste of in this life. For then sorrow and sighing shall flee away. If you remember, this is like the picture that we were given 10 chapters earlier in Isaiah 25, where it says that the Lord God on that day will wipe away tears from all faces and the reproach of his people, he will take away from the earth. There will be no more sorrow. There will be no more sighing. there will be no more crying. Why do we cry? Not tears of joy, but why do we cry? What is it that makes life so hard and so sad? It is sin and the effects of sin. If you and I did not sin, we would be the happiest of all people. Even granting the ongoing sin of others and the effects of sin in this world, still I think that we all know there is nothing that makes us more miserable than our own sin. I long to be free of sin. Don't you? But now just imagine a world where not only are you free of sin, but everyone around you, all of the redeemed are too. And then imagine a world where not only are we all free from sin, but the entire creation is free of it as well. set free from its bondage to corruption and decay. A world that is set free from the effects of that curse that filled the earth with thorns and thistles that turned it into a wilderness. One day we won't have to imagine it because one day it will be a reality. The wilderness and the dry land shall be glad. The desert shall rejoice and blossom. It shall blossom abundantly and rejoice with joy and singing. The glory of Lebanon shall be given to it, the majesty of Carmel and Sharon. They shall see the glory of the Lord, the majesty of our God. The new creation that dawned in the resurrection of Jesus Christ will at his second coming rise like the sun at midday, scattering all the shadows that remain of this old order. The wilderness that is this present world will be transformed. The city of man will be brought to ruin, and the whole of this world will become the holy city of God. And that is where the redeemed are headed. On that exodus through the desert, on that highway, as verse eight says, on that highway to Zion. The question is, are you on it? Are you on that highway to Zion? Verses eight and nine tell us who will be, who are. Those only who have been made holy. It is called the way of holiness. The unclean, Isaiah says, shall not pass over it. The fools will not wander on it. It will be traveled by those who are holy. That is to say, again, those who have been made holy. Have you. There is only one way that you or I could be. there is only one way that any sinner like you and me could ever be, and that is if God would do it. If he would make us holy, if he would cleanse us of all of our sin and remove from us all of our guilt, then we would be holy. He did it for Isaiah, remember in chapter six? Isaiah had fallen to his face and cried, woe is me for I am undone. I am ruined. For I am a man of unclean lips and I live among a people of unclean lips. But the unclean can't travel that highway to Zion. The unclean shall not pass over it. That's what verse nine says. and Isaiah was unclean. But then God made him clean. How? Well, if you remember, it was by means of a sacrifice. An angel came and took a burning coal from the altar, pressed it against his mouth and said, behold, this has touched your lips Your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for. And yours can be too. Every bit of it. All of your sin, all of your guilt can be taken from you. Again, by means of a sacrifice. By means of that one sufficient sacrifice for sin. the Savior, Jesus Christ, plead with God that he would apply to you his perfect life, his sin-atoning death, that he might say to you then, as he said to Isaiah, your guilt is taken away. Your sin is atoned for. You are clean. You are holy. And if that is true of you, then the day of the Lord will be a day of great salvation. Because on that day, the goal of our redemption will be finally complete. The destination of our Exodus journey will be finally reached. And there we will stand before the gates of Zion in the presence of our God. with the last tears that will ever stain our cheeks streaming down our face as we cry with joy that is deeper and truer than we ever thought imaginable. Behold, this is our God. We have waited for him that he might save us. This is the Lord. We have waited for him. Let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation. Let's pray. Father, would you make us glad this morning? Make us those who rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory as we see the promises of your word, not only of what you have done for us already, which is incredible, that you would for your people remove their guilt, take away all of their sin, make them, make us holy. But your word is full of more promises besides. Promises of that salvation that is yet in store for us, your people. You will bring us through. This journey, this exodus through the wilderness, you will bring us home to Zion. The city of the living God, the holy Jerusalem that your word says will descend from heaven to earth. The new, restored, perfected earth. And there we will dwell with you. There will be no more sorrow, no more tears, no more pain. No more sighing. The old order of things will have been put away, and there will be eternal gladness as we would be in your presence, basking in the joy of your presence forever. What a great salvation you have ordained for us. And we praise you for it, in Jesus' name, amen.