All right, if you would, Isaiah chapter 28. It's been a while since we fellowshiped with our old friend Isaiah. Preparing for this morning was like getting ready to have a chat with an old buddy from many years ago, the prophet Isaiah. This morning, we're going to look at chapter 28, which actually begins a new section. Remember, I kind of planned it that way. I knew we'd have some weekends off. So this begins a new section in the great prophets. What do they call them? Magnum opus. That's a good word. This section versus chapters 28 through 35 is actually quite similar to the previous section. There are some differences, of course. The previous section was 13 through 27. That's the way Isaiah breaks down a little bit. A little bit of a quick comparison to help us understand what we've got. In chapters 13 through 27, Isaiah dealt mostly with Ahaz's reign. Israel is tempted to trust Assyria and not trust Yahweh. In chapters 28 through 35, it'll be mostly Hezekiah's reign. And Judah will be tempted to trust Egypt, not God. More things change, the more they stay the same, right? In chapters 13 through 27, the emphasis was on Yahweh's sovereignty over other nations. God moves and works in other nations and moves them around. In chapters 28 through 35, the emphasis will be, instead of Yahweh's sovereignty, but it'll still be there, will be Israel's choice whether or not to trust Yahweh. Overall, both sections do address both issues. It's more a matter of, how did Paul used to say it, putting the emphasis on the right syllable. You didn't get that. the emphasis on the right place. This can tend to appear or to appear to make Isaiah's writings somewhat repetitious. And this is also the section in which Isaiah's six woes, w-o-e-s, six woes will appear. Both the northern and the southern kingdoms of Israel, This is one of those things that is always in the writings from the time that Solomon died. Historically speaking, from the time Solomon died all the way through the rest of the Old Testament, Israel's a divided country. What you can say Israel and you can mean all of it. You can say Israel and mean Ephraim or the Northern Kingdom. You can say Judah and mean the Southern Kingdom or you can say the Southern Kingdom. But all the way from the time Solomon dies, the rest of the Old Testament, it's a divided nation. And we're gonna see both of them in this chapter. There are also, before we start, in chapter 28, and you heard me read them, that couple of verses that you've heard us use, we've used them before, I quoted one of them not all too long ago. Unfortunately, they are used quite often out of their context. Thankfully, the message of those verses is a universal truth. We'll see that in a few minutes. So chapter 28, verse 1. Woe to the crown of pride, to the drunkards of Ephraim. So who are we talking about? Northern kingdom, whose glorious beauty is a fading flower, which are on the head of the fat valleys of them that are overcome with wine. Now, obviously, the first word there is woe. So this is the first of Isaiah's six woes. Woe means a lament or a threat. It'd be like saying, if you burn dinner today, woe unto you. I'm going to go to Dusina's. No, they're closed on Sunday. It's a lament or a threat. And it is addressed to who? The northern kingdom, the first woe. And just as obvious here in verse one is the problem, the crown of pride. and the specific addressees of the problem, the leaders of Ephraim. Pride is one of those sins, or the sin, the one sin, from which all other sins emanate. It's that one sin that is specifically pointed out by God when the first sinner, Lucifer, was cast out of heaven. We won't look at it, we did in the past. Isaiah 14, we have Satan's or Lucifer's five I wills. And in Ezekiel 28, we learned that his heart was lifted up. That's a way of saying pride, when he said, I am God. That's Satan. Look at verses three and four with me. Skip verse two for now. The crown of pride, the drunkards of Ephraim shall be trodden under feet. And the glorious beauty which is on the head of the fat valley shall be a fading flower. And as the hasty fruit before the summer, which when he that looketh up sees it, While it is yet in his hand, he eateth it up. In other words, they will no longer have glorious beauty. They will no longer be the glorious people or nation that they once were. They are now going to be fading flowers. We planted zinnias at the mailbox this year, and they really did well. But I still have to go out and deadhead the faded flowers. The crown of pride. Twice that expression is in there. And when something's in there twice, if a pastor or a preacher doesn't address it, he's negligent in his duties. So here it comes. How often do we begin sentences with I? How often do we begin a thought with I? This is still July. I wore my last. red, white, and blue tie. So one of my favorite founding fathers recognized the difficulty with pride. Ben Franklin wrote, in reality, there's perhaps no one of our natural passions so hard to subdue as pride. Disguise it, struggle with it, beat it down, stifle it, mortify it as much as one pleases. That means kill, mortify means kill. It is still alive and will now and then peek out and show itself. G.K. Chesterton, and I've used this quote before, if I had only one sermon to preach, it would be a sermon against pride. C.S. Lewis, he wrote about pride. As long as you are proud, you cannot know God. A proud man is always looking down on things and people. And of course, as long as you're looking down, you cannot see something that is above you. That raises a terrible question. How is it that people who are quite obviously eaten up with pride can say they believe in God and appear to themselves very religious? I'm afraid it means they're worshiping an imaginary God. Ouch. I think Lewis has hit something there. Far too many Christians do not live like biblical Christians because they really don't know very much about God. Think they do. They're too busy placing I before him. What can your church do for me? What programs do you offer my family? You have hurt my feelings. You have offended me. I does not always indicate pride. We understand that. But perhaps we should be a little more judicious in our use of I. These Jewish leaders of both kingdoms did not really know Yahweh. This was the problem with their leaders of Israel, Ephraim, Northern Kingdom, of the Southern Kingdom. But it's not just the Northern Kingdom. Isaiah is now, in the passage, going to switch his, move his addressing to the Southern Kingdom as well. It is subtle here. Most conservative scholars believe that it occurs somewhere between six and seven, verses six and seven. The point is mild. There's actually a mild debate about where it occurs, but most there. So look at verse seven, and notice how verse seven begins. But they also, oh, who also? have erred through wine, and through strong drink are out of the way. The priest and the prophet have erred through strong drink. They're swallowed up of wine. They're out of the way through strong drink. They err in vision. They stumble in judgment. For all their tables are full of vomit and filthiness, so there is no place clean. Two indications of the change here. There are some other subtle ones. First, the words they also. He's adding others to his argument in the first six verses. And the second statement, the priests and the prophet. Only Judah would have had priests recognized by Yahweh as being legitimate. Because the north created a synchronous religion. When Jeroboam, he created his whole synchronous religion up there. And he said, no, they're going to go down to Jerusalem and worship, and I'll lose my kingdom. And so he made a fake religion. God never recognized it. So when God addresses the priests and the prophets, he's including Judah now. Why are both nations in danger? Is it just because of sin? No. Now look at verse two. It's because judgment is coming. Behold, The Lord hath a mighty and strong one, which is as a tempest of hail and a destroying storm, as a flood of mighty waters overflowing, shall cast down to the earth with the hand. They are in danger because a judge is coming, one sent from the Lord, a mighty and strong one, the text says, who will judge Ephraim. Now don't misunderstand. This is not the coming of the Messiah. This is not long-term prophetic. It is short-term prophetic. This judge is not a person. This judge is the nation of Assyria, that horrible, wicked nation known for its brutality and its oppression. Remember, we've learned in Isaiah that God uses other nations to judge his nation. Assyria will be used to judge the northern kingdom, and Babylon will be used to judge the southern kingdom. This is a confirmed fact of the Bible and history. The dates are well established, 586 and 7, 698, 702. God may be about to use another nation to judge this nation. Although, we appear to be doing a pretty good job of self-destructing all on our own. In fact, the issues that are within Judah's leadership sound like the issues that are within our own leadership today. And verse seven tells us that their ability to properly interpret and teach the law of Moses, the writings, the prophecies, are terribly hindered. It says they are envisioned, they stumble in judgment. That's what that means. Verse eight tells us that in Isaiah's day, the leaders were so self-absorbed that they were drunken and defiling their own habitations. No place was clean. All the tables are full of vomit and filthiness. The truth is that Israel was little different than the pagan nations God was gonna use to judge them. Little different than many of the nations in our world today. How sad. Isaiah is making a powerful case that physical indulgence saps spiritual discernment. Physical indulgence saps spiritual discernment. How can a believer in the throes of sinful behavior make godly decisions and exercise spiritual leadership? When we are consumed with ourself and with pride, how can we judge correctly? How can we advise others biblically? Well, there's a response from the leaders to Isaiah's message. This is where those familiar verses come into play. These leaders, in their pride and their blindness, are actually the speakers in verse 9 and 10. And they are mocking Isaiah. And they're mocking God when they say this. To whom shall he teach knowledge, meaning God? To whom shall God teach knowledge? And to whom shall he make to understand doctrine? Those that are weaned from the milk, little kids, and drawn from the breast? It's actually a rhetorical question, not a sentence. For a precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept, line upon line, line upon line, here a little, there a little. I think that too many Bible readers miss what's actually happening. I know that I did for many years what's actually happening here. Verses 9 and 10 are words of mocking spoken by the drunken priests and prophets, criticisms of Isaiah and his teachings. They're criticizing him. They're saying, your words are simplistic. Your words are silliness. Your words are just, you know, like you would teach little kids in Sunday school. One scholar wrote this. Verses nine and 10 give us the jeering reply of the pro-Assyrian party of King Ahaz, who resisted the impact of Isaiah's words recorded in the previous paragraph. They scoffed at his remarks as Sunday school moralizing, appropriate for infants, but quite irrelevant to grown men who understand the art of practical politics. Another wrote, his, God's, laws are like little petty annoyances, one command after another, or one joined to another, coming constantly. And Motyer, who is really a conservative, down-to-earth, good writer, The sophisticated worldly priests and prophets of verse seven thus dismiss the thought that anyone can add to their store of information or be their teacher in the things of God. Least of all, one whose teaching seems to them so elementary as to be mere play school material suitable for those in the earliest stages of learning weaned from their milk. And is not this precisely how the world treats the teachings of the Bible today? Oh, that's a foolish book of myths and stories. It's not possibly true. It's for weak-minded people. Is that not the same kind of mockery that our children are exposed to in the governmental school systems? The esteemed Ivy League universities in the upper echelons of elite graduate schools, isn't it? Is this not the very same attitude that those graduates come out of school with? Oh, the Bible? Well, that stuff is for the ignorant masses. Religion is a crutch for feeble thinkers who cannot appreciate the wonders of the great philosophers of the age. Let me tell you, I'm not making that up. I heard almost a sentence like that when I was down at UNCG. You know, you Christians just aren't deep thinkers. you've built a structure of the Bible verses to support your antiquated positions. Those priests and prophets of Ahaz's court mocked precisely what good pastors and good Bible teachers aim to accomplish. Line upon line is good teaching. Ask Marianne. This is how one learns math. You don't get a quadratic equation in first grade. It's line upon line, precept upon precept, and you know what it does? It teaches you order. It teaches you logical thinking, a progression from a simple thing to a complicated thing. Right, Marianne? I knew she'd back me up. Paul said that Jesus gave to the church some apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastor teachers. Why? Next verse. For the perfecting, it means the complete furnishing of the saints. Why? For the work of the ministry, for the edifying means building up of the body of Christ, Ephesians chapter four. This is what the leaders of Israel, north and south, rejected. So Isaiah responds. Look at verse 11. For with stammering lips and another tongue will he, God, speak to this people. To whom he said, he said to the people, this is a rehearsal of a promise God had made. This is the rest wherewith you may cause the weary to rest. This is the refreshing. Look at the colon there. Yet they would not hear. The first word in verse 11 is the word for, it's translated for. But it's actually much more powerful. It harkens back to verse 10, which started with the same word. This is why translation work in the Bible can be difficult. In verse 10, the word for is meant as a rebuke by the men of Isaiah. and a rebuke of God for that matter, we should understand it as for he says, meaning for God says, and then it's dripping with sarcasm. So Isaiah responds almost in an identical way with the same word, an equal rebuke, which we should understand as, very well then, For God said, and they say what they say, and Isaiah says, very well then, God will speak. What people, verse 12, to those he had promised rest, but who would not hear, to whom he said, This is the rest wherein you may cause the weary to rest. This is the refreshing, yet they would not hear. And that last phrase has got to be one of the saddest sentences in the Bible. Think about this. God is speaking through his prophet, a Jewish man, to his people, the Jewish people, offering rest to the weary and refreshment but they would not hear. And it's not they could not hear, it's they would not hear. And the Hebrew there is particularly powerful. They were not unwilling to hear on just this occasion, they were totally unwilling to hear on any occasion. Just, God, go away. We're doing fine. We don't need you. We'll get along without you. That's what people in the world say today. The phrase in verse 11, stammering lips and another tongue, literally means babbling lips and a foreign language. If you will not listen to God speaking through his prophet in your own intelligible language, one you recognize and one you understand, then God will use the unintelligible speech and the rest and refreshment will be denied. The unintelligible speech of a foreign nation. You know, Paul had that thought in mind. when the Holy Spirit led him to write to the church at Corinth about the improper use of the sign gift of tongues. In chapter 14 of 1 Corinthians, Paul wrote, yet in the church, I had rather speak five words with my understanding than by my voice I might teach others also than 10,000 words in an unknown tongue. And then he said, brethren, be not children in understanding. children in malice, but in understanding men don't be children. In the law it is written, with men of other tongues and other lips will I speak to this people, and yet for all that they will not hear me, saith the Lord." You think Paul was thinking about Isaiah? I guarantee he was. Different tongues in the New Testament were for understanding the gospel message by lost people. Paul finished that short paragraph, where for tongues, foreign languages, are for a sign, not to them that believe, but to them that believe not. Why? So prophesying serve not for them that believe not, but for them which believe. Teaching is for them that believe. Different tongues were for understanding the gospel message by lost people in the first century, not for use today by errant, prideful Christians. That's another message. Isaiah now repeats, like a true teacher does, He repeats their very words turned against them. Verse 13. Pardon me. But the word of the Lord was unto them precept upon precept, precept upon precept, line upon line, line upon line, here a little and there a little, that they might go and fall backward and be broken and snared and taken. Therefore, hear the word of the Lord, you scornful men that rule this people, which is in Jerusalem." There it is. Yes, the word of the Lord is precept upon precept, precept upon precept. It is line upon line and line upon line. It is here a little and there a little so that they might be go and fall backward and be broken and snared and taken. All you leaders, with all of your intelligence and all of your pride, cannot understand even the simplest of teachings. Isaiah is actually repeating back to them their little ditty, their little jingle, that they thought was so cool to mock God and Isaiah with. Now, it will be the incoherent babble of the invading foreign armies that God will use to bring his judgment. And he does. They chose not to heed the word of the Lord. But you know, the word of the Lord, once it is uttered, cannot be taken back. Now it will cause them to stumble, to fall backward, to be broken, snared, and taken. These are the consequences of the blackened sinful heart. the heart filled with pride and self, the hardened heart before the very people who ought to know better. Now comes the penalty phase of Isaiah's message to the leadership. Verse 14, wherefore, hear the word of the Lord. you scornful men, that rule this people which is in Jerusalem." There's another confirmation that Isaiah has moved from northern to southern kingdom because Jerusalem is the capital of the southern kingdom. Both nations are in Isaiah's view and both nations are in God's grasp. So what follows? Verses 15 and following all the way down to 22 is both a description of what the leaders have done and the results of their actions. So we're gonna kind of race our way through here just a little bit. What follows is both terrible and hopeful. Verse 15, because you have said We have made a covenant with death, and with hell are we in agreement. Because you have done that. When the overflowing scourge shall pass through, it shall not come unto us. For we have made our lies our refuge, and under falsehood have we hid ourselves. In other words, they have said that when this comes, it won't affect us. They are self-deceived. Can you see that? They're self-deceived. Therefore, thus saith the Lord God, behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation, a stone, a tried stone, a precious cornerstone, a sure foundation. He that believeth shall not be hindered. There's the hope. We know that that verse is a messianic verse. We know that Isaiah has just now looked way far ahead. And he says that those who believe, which means the expression of faith, will not suffer. Judgment also, verse 17, will I lay to the line and righteousness to the plumb bob, and the hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies, and the water shall overflow your hiding places, and your covenant with death will be wiped out, disannulled, and your agreement with hell will not stand when the overflowing scourge shall pass through. Then you shall be trodden down by it. And that's exactly what happened to the northern kingdom when Assyria came. For the time that it goeth forth, it shall take you, for morning by morning shall it pass over, and day by day, and it shall be a vexation only to understand the report, even to think about it, even to hear the report of what Assyria has done will be vexus. The chapter will go on, but Isaiah's appeal, and that's what this has been, will come to a conclusion in just three more verses. That's why we only read to verse 22. Verse 20, for the bed is shorter than a man can stretch himself on it, and the covering, the blanket, narrower than he can wrap himself in it. Remember, Isaiah's prophetic, and he uses lots of metaphors. Verse 20 is a metaphor. It begins with for, probably best understood as therefore. You know, I hate it when my feet stick out of the blanket. I hate it when my feet hang over the end of the mattress. You know what it speaks of? Inadequacy. The blanket is not wide enough to roll up in. The blanket is not long enough to cover my feet. The mattress is not long enough for my feet to not hang over. It is inadequate. and inadequacy of Israel and of man's efforts to provide security for his nation or himself leaves them exposed. Every way and everywhere they turn, their blanket is too short. So Isaiah's use of the bed and the blanket reminds the reader of the rejected rest and refreshment. When you get up in the morning and you had a good night's sleep, you throw the blanket off and you get out of the bed. They've made their bed and now they must sleep in it. And now you know where that expression comes from. The next verse also begins with the word for, just like verse 20. Therefore, verse 21, the Lord shall rise up as in Mount Perizim. He shall be angry or wrath as in the Valley of Gibeon, that he may do his work, his strange work, and bring to pass his act, his strange act. For the Lord shall rise up. Ultimately, you know, all judgment comes from the Lord. He may use Assyria, He may use Babylon, He may use a political party, but all judgment comes from the Lord. He will act as He did in Mount Perizim. He will act as He did in the Valley of Gibeon. We're not going to look at those references, it's 2 Samuel 5. Verses 17 through 20 and 22 through 25. They were striking victories by Yahweh over Israel's enemies. They became the stepping stones for the coming glory of the nation of Israel under David. For the national security that Israel sought under the Davidic and Solomonic empires or kingdoms. Remember, here in this context, it is national security that both North and South are wanting. Isaiah concludes with a therefore statement. Look at verse 22. Now therefore, be ye not mockers, lest your bands be made strong. For I have heard from the Lord of hosts a consumption, a completion. even determined upon the whole earth. That phrase, be not mockers, is more precisely means do not show yourselves to be scorners. In the grammatical form that it's in means this is more than just an outward appearance. It means an inward problem. Do not show yourselves outwardly the scorn that you were inside thinking. As one writer says, deliberate action fixes character, and the point comes where there is no return, the point of bondage. You see, Isaiah heard from the Lord of Hosts. The Lord of Hosts' judgment is already determined. It's going to happen. But there's always a way out for those who believe. And in our lives before our Lord God of hosts, we always have a choice. Every morning we're given another day. We get out of the bed, rested and refreshed, and we have a choice. Ephraim had a choice. Judah had a choice. You have a choice. I have a choice. Our nation has a choice. Judgment is coming. Make your choice before the burden becomes too heavy. Believers made their choice. Praise God, we chose to believe. But every single morning, even believers have another choice. A choice about the day. Will I live for the Lord today or will I step in and pride and self-determination rule the day?