Good evening, if you would open up to the book of Isaiah. We're gonna read Isaiah 1, 1 together before we begin. Isaiah 1, 1. This is God's word. The vision of Isaiah, the son of Amos, which he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah. Let's pray together. Oh, Heavenly Father, we come before you as a people who are in awe and often surprised by your providence. What can we say other than the fact that you surprise us by the things that you have done in our lives and the things that you even haven't done? It's surprising that you would redeem a people for yourself, a sinful and broken and depraved people, but you've done that, and it's surprising to us. And in fact, it's even more surprising how you've done it, by coming for us and shedding your precious blood on our behalf, so that it might not be by works or by our merit, but by your own merit, by your own glory, by your own goodness, that you've even granted us grace and faith And because we have faith in you, we have favor. So may we trust not in our own power or the power that this world has to offer, but may we trust in your power. Teach us what it means to be your servants. Lord Jesus, it's in your name we pray. Amen. Foreign armies. will be knocking at our children's and grandchildren's doors. All of the institutions that we presently know will become undone. Family life, reputation, family wealth, reputation, all of it will be gone, completely undone. Homes will be burned, cities will be destroyed, Even the families that we hold so dearly will be torn apart. This will happen not in our generation, but in our children and grandchildren's generation. Powers so strong that they could come in this room right this instant and put us all in prison and carry us away to a foreign land will be around in this generation. What will become of God's people? What will become of our children and our grandchildren? Will they be plagued by hopelessness and despair? How will they answer these deep questions? Does God still love us and how do we relate to God? Does God still love us and how do we relate to God? Brothers and sisters, while I can't say definitively that this is our imminent future, this was the imminent future in Isaiah's day. This is the message that God gave to Isaiah to speak to the people of Judah. He was speaking to a people who were desperately sick in their souls, who were far from God, and who were on the brink of destruction. Isaiah was looking through the corridors of time because God had given him a vision, and what he saw was tremendous disaster for Judah. Now this is significant, not only because it's destruction, but in particular because of one promise. One promise made 1,000 years before this prophecy that Isaiah was giving to the people of Judah, and that promise was to Abraham. God promised Abraham, and he said, you will be my treasured possession, and I will make your descendants as the sand of the seashore look into the sky. As the stars are in the sky, so will your descendants be. And these people held on to this promise for 1,000 years. But now they were on the brink of destruction, utter ruin and destruction. If the people did not repent, God's chosen city, God's chosen people, Judah and Jerusalem would experience hostile takeover by Babylon. God's chosen people would be raided, families would be separated, people would be murdered in the streets. The promise of Abraham would fade into a glimmer in the Judeans' mind as they faded into hopelessness. God's promise to Abraham a thousand years ago would become very small. Babylon would be looming large in their minds. If the people didn't change, they would be taken away into exile. This is what Isaiah is about, but there's something peculiar going on in the book of Isaiah. Something surprising, and it's actually supposed to be surprising. It's not just surprising to us because we live 2,000 years, 3,000 years separated from this prophecy, but it was supposed to be surprising to the people in Isaiah's day. And here's the surprising nature of Isaiah. It's that God is speaking through Isaiah not to change hearts, not to turn them back to God, but to harden them. God is speaking through Isaiah to harden the people so that they might go into exile. We need to look at Isaiah six with me, Isaiah six. This is Isaiah's commission, Isaiah's commission. What is this all about? Why does God speak through Isaiah not to turn but to harden? And here it is, here's the big idea we're gonna see. Brothers and sisters, it's not because God does not love His people. It's not because God does not keep His promises. It's not because God somehow forgot who He was and forgot who His people were. It's because God intends to refine, refine His servants. And in refining His servants, He makes them holy servants. God refines His servants to be holy servants. Let's look how this is Isaiah's commission. It's surprising. Isaiah 6, 9 through 13. Isaiah 6, 6. Isaiah says, here I am, and then in verse 9, God says, go and say to this people, this is the message that God is giving to Isaiah. Keep on hearing, but do not understand. Keep on seeing, but do not perceive. Make the hearts of this people dull and their ears heavy and blind with their eyes, lest they see with their eyes and hear with their ears and understand with their hearts and turn. and be healed. And Isaiah asks, then I said, how long, O Lord? How long? Isaiah is asking the question, how long am I to preach this message of doom and destruction? And here's God's reply. God says, until cities lie waste without inhabitant, and houses without people, and the land is a desolate waste, and the Lord removes people far away, and the forsaken places are many in the midst of the land. God is speaking through the prophet Isaiah, not to turn the people to God, but to harden them, so that they might be refined. God refines his servants in order to be holy servants, but why? But why would God do this? Why would God seem to forsake the promise to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob? Why would God forget Mount Sinai speaking to the people of Israel? Why would it seem that God has forgotten David, the man after his own heart? Why would it seem that God would forget all of those men, all of those promises, and forsake his people at this moment in time? It's because God refines his servants to be holy servants. And in Isaiah, God refines his servants. How? Through judgment. God refines his people through judgment in order that the holy servant, the remnant, the holy seed might come about. Let's continue reading in Isaiah 6.13. Here's the reason. And though a tenth remain in it, It will be burned again like a terebinth or an oak whose stump remains when it is felled. The holy seed is its stump." God refines his servants to be holy servants. And we see this all throughout the book of Isaiah. Cycle after cycle after cycle after cycle. If we were going to sum up the book of Isaiah in one word, it would be this word, servant. Servant. And if we're going to bring it out into a sentence, I'd put it this way. God refines his servants to be holy servants. You could add in a host of other adjectives as well. Because God is holy, because God is glorious, because God deserves all praise and honor and glory. But what we see time and time and time again in the book of Isaiah, is that God is refining His servants to be holy servants. And we see five examples. There are more, but we see five in particular. And here are the five examples we're going to look at. Isaiah, Ahaz, Israel, Hezekiah, and Messiah. Let's look at these. We'll see five servant examples in Isaiah. Isaiah, Ahaz, Israel, Hezekiah, and Messiah. Isaiah. Now that we're in Isaiah 6, I just want you to look at Isaiah 6-1. Isaiah 6-1. We're going to walk through this very quickly because this is an overview. I really wrestled whether I should do this chronologically, if I should do it exegetically, or if I should make it a survey, but then I just decided I would pick up a theme, the main theme of the book, and then when you read it next time, perhaps it will help you structure the book. And I would love to talk with you about it afterwards as well, but here's the big idea. God refines His servants to be holy servants. Isaiah is our example we're looking at. In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and the train of His robe filled the temple. Above him stood the seraphim, each had six wings. And the two he covered his feet, and the two he flew. And one called to one another, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. The whole earth is full of his glory. And the foundations of the threshold shook at the voice of him who called. And the house was filled with smoke. And I said, Woe is me. For I am lost, for I'm a man of unclean lips and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips. For my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts. Then one of the seraphim flew to him, having in his hand a burning coal that he had taken with the tongs from the altar. And he touched my mouth with it and said, behold, this has touched your lips. Your guilt is taken away and your sin is atoned for. Here we see the call and commission of Isaiah, and it's interesting here that Isaiah, we see his present reality as a servant, and what is that before he meets the living God? Oftentimes we actually see this as Isaiah's conversion moment, that he sees God, that he's undone, his heart is changed, and God atones for his sin in this moment in time. But what is Isaiah? What kind of servant is Isaiah before his lips are touched with the coal? He gives us a description. He says of himself, woe is me, I am lost. I'm a man of unclean lips and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips. But what immediately takes place? God refines his servant to be a holy servant. Verse 6, The burning coal is the refinement that takes place for Isaiah that turns him into, that makes him into, what God intends him to be. We see the contrast between who Isaiah was before he was refined by God and who Isaiah was after he was refined by God. He goes from potential servant of God to holy servant of God. And this is a picture of the cycle that we see over and over and over in the book of Isaiah. This is a picture of what God is doing with the very nation of Judah. When God brings the judgment upon Judah in Babylon, what is he doing? He's bringing refinement, just like he does with Isaiah in bringing the coal and touching his lip. It has nothing to do with Isaiah. It has nothing to do with his good works, but it has everything to do with God's refining work. This is the first example. The second example that we see is Ahaz. Ahaz. Turn over to chapter 7, verse 1. Ahaz, the king, So we see Uzziah, he has passed away. Now Ahaz is reigning after Uzziah's son, Jotham. So Uzziah, Jotham, and now Ahaz. What happens here in this situation? Well, if you read the Chronicles and Kings, we know that Ahaz is an absolutely terrible king. Absolutely terrible. But in this particular scenario, what's happening is that Israel and Judah are already divided into the southern ten nations and Judah and Benjamin in the south. Or, yeah, southern and north. I'm sorry, northern and southern. So they're divided. Israel and Judah and Benjamin. They're already divided. So what is happening here is that Israel has made an alliance with a neighboring nation called Syria. And they're going to Judah and they're trying to wage war against Judah. And even if you read the other accounts, what's really taking place here is they're trying to build an alliance with Judah so that they might fight Assyria together. And what happens? Ahaz goes to Isaiah. And what does Isaiah say? He says, have nothing to do with Assyria. Don't be afraid of Israel and Syria, and build an alliance with Assyria, because that will come back to bite you in the end. But what does Ahaz do? He completely disregards Isaiah and the Word of God, and to use a modern idiom, he makes a deal with the devil. Ahaz makes a deal with Assyria, which ultimately ends up negatively for Israel because Assyria turns on them, turns on Judah later on. But what do we see happening? After Ahaz disobeys God, Isaiah goes to him and he gives him this prophecy that one day Assyria will turn on them. One day the waters of Assyria will flow over the other nations and come up to the people of Judah's necks, is what he says. But who does he bring with him? God gives him an act, a sign act. God says, Isaiah, have a son. And what is his name going to be? Chapter 8, verse 1. And what does that mean? A remnant shall remain. A remnant shall remain." This is a sign act against the people of Judah, which says, look, because of your constant disobedience, you will go into exile, but guess what? There will be refining that takes place in exile. A remnant shall remain. A remnant shall remain. So even through a wicked king like Ahaz, God is working to demonstrate that he's bringing refining to his servant, Judah. This is the second example that we see. There's a third one that we see, and this is with Israel. Israel in general. This is a cycle throughout the book of Isaiah. If you turn over to Isaiah 48, we'll see a very clear passage about this refining that's taking place throughout the book of Isaiah. Isaiah 48, verses 9 through 11. God speaks through Isaiah. For my name's sake, I defer my anger. For the sake of my praise, I restrain it for you. For I may not cut you off. Behold, I have refined you, but not as silver. I have tried you in the furnace of affliction for my own sake. For my own sake, I do it. For how should my name be profaned? My glory I will not give to another. Time and time and time and time again in the book of Isaiah what we see is Judah is making political alliances with all of the other nations around them. And what does that demonstrate about their trust in God? Isaiah would say, you don't actually trust God, you trust the political powers around you. You trust the political armies and forces to play around you. Like Egypt, or Syria, or Babylon, or Israel, or Tyre, and Sidon. All of these nations, Moab, they're all mentioned as political players in the ancient Near Eastern world in Isaiah's day as people that Judah should not trust in. But what have they done? They have constantly and continually scorned God by saying, we will not trust you, God. We will trust the powers at play that are surrounding us. And what does God say in the midst of this? He says, I will not share my glory with another. So what does God choose to do? He chooses to refine them in the furnace of affliction. This is another cycle, another sign that what God is doing is he's taking his servant. He's taking his servant and he's refining them to be his holy servant. This is the cycle in the book of Isaiah. God takes his servant and he refines him to be his holy servant. Because what Israel was did not compute with what Israel could be and should be. This is what the prophecies are looking forward to is after the exile, God will restore his people. After the exile, God will bring peace. After the exile, God will be their God and they will trust him. God will refine the people. That is number three. Number four is Hezekiah. The fourth example is Hezekiah. Why don't you turn over to Isaiah 36. Isaiah 36. In the 14th year of the King Hezekiah, Sennacherib, king of Assyria, came up against all the fortified cities of Judah and took them. And the king of Assyria sent Rabshakeh from Lachish to the king Hezekiah at Jerusalem with a great army, and he stood by the conduit of the upper pool on the highway of the washer's field. And there he came out came out to him Eliakim, the son of Hilika, who was over the household, and Shebna, the secretary, and Joah, the son of Asa, who was the recorder. Now what happens here in verse 4 is, And what does he continue to say in verse 5? that you have rebelled against me. Behold, you are trusting in Egypt, that broken reed of a staff, which will pierce the hand of any man who leans on it, such as Pharaoh, king of Egypt, to all who trust in him. But if you say to me, we trust in the Lord our God, it is not he whose high places and altars Hezekiah has removed, saying to Judah and to Jerusalem, you shall worship before this altar, come now, Make a wager with my master, the king of Assyria. I will give to you 2,000 horses, and if you are able on your part to set riders on them, how then can you repulse a single captain among the least of my master's servants when you trust in Egypt for chariots or for horsemen? Moreover, it is without the Lord that I have come up against this land to destroy it. The Lord said to me, go up against this land and destroy it. What's happening here is Assyria is coming against Judah and saying, you've trusted in Egypt. You've done wrong. And he continues and says, now put your trust in Assyria. And he says, I even come in the name of God. I come in the name of the Lord. And what does Hezekiah do? Hezekiah seeks Isaiah's help. And what does Isaiah say? He says, have nothing to do with Assyria. Have nothing to do with Assyria. Do not make an alliance with Assyria. And what does Hezekiah do? He listens. He trusts God. Where Ahaz, his father, failed and didn't trust God, Hezekiah actually trusts God. He doesn't make an alliance with Assyria. So God blesses him. But Hezekiah, Later, in verse 38, becomes sick. God again heals him. And in 39, we see the refinement taking place again of God's servant. In chapter 39, what happens is, at that time, Babylon, king of Babylon, sent an envoy with letters and a present to Hezekiah, for he had heard that he had been sick and had recovered. And Hezekiah welcomed them gladly and showed them the treasure house, the silver, the gold, the spices, and the precious oil, his whole armory, all that was found in his storehouses. What becomes of this? Isaiah comes to Hezekiah and he says, what have you done? What did you show Babylon? And he says, I've showed them everything we have. I've showed them the treasure trove. I've showed them the glories and the beauties of the temple. I've showed them everything that there is to show. And Isaiah says, this will lead to exile. Babylon is going to be carrying all of that treasure you just showed them to their nation. Do not trust in the nations. And Hezekiah ends chapter 39 by saying these words. The word of the Lord that you have spoken is good. This is what Hezekiah thought. there will be peace and security in my days. Chapter 40 jumps ahead just over 130 years to people who are in exile. And what does it say? Comfort, comfort, comfort, my people, says your God. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem and cry to her that her warfare is ended, that her iniquity is pardoned, that she has received the Lord's hand double for all her sins. God has refined his people. And he refined them through judgment. Hezekiah was the fourth example, but we see another example. And this is our final example of a servant who was refined to be a holy servant in Isaiah. Why don't you turn over to Isaiah 61. Isaiah 61.1 says, And we need to look at this word anointed. Anointed here in chapter 61 verse 1 is the Hebrew word Messiah. Messiah. That's where we get our word Messiah. In the New Testament in Greek it's Christ or anointed one. This figure of the anointed one is all throughout the book of Isaiah. In other chapters he's referred to as the servant. Why don't you turn to chapter Isaiah 52 verses 13 through 53. 52, 13. Again, this anointed one, this Messiah, this Christ, this mysterious figure throughout the book of Isaiah, this servant of God, is referred to here as God's servant. Look at Isaiah 52, 13. Behold, my servant shall act wisely, shall be high and lifted up, shall be exalted. And many were astonished at you. His appearance was so marred beyond human semblance, for his form was beyond that of the children of mankind. So shall he sprinkle many nations. Kings shall shut their mouths because of him. For that which has not been told to them, they see. And that which has not been heard, they understand. Who has believed what he has heard from us? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? For he grew up before us like a young plant, and like a root out of dry ground, He had no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected by man, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. As of one, for men hid their faces. He was despised and we esteemed him not. Surely, he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows, yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. Upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed. All we, like sheep, have gone astray. We have all turned, every one, to his own way. And the Lord has laid upon him the iniquity of us all." This servant, this suffering servant, is the Messiah in the book of Isaiah. And what we see in Isaiah is that this Suffering Servant in Isaiah 53, this Messiah in Isaiah 61 has many names. The Holy Seed in Isaiah 6. This is the Suffering Servant. Wonderful Counselor. Mighty God. Prince of Peace. Emmanuel. God with us, the remnant, the rock, the stone of stumbling, is the Messiah, the suffering servant in Isaiah. What the people were looking for, what they were longing for after they were carried out into exile, and then God refined them and restored them and brought them back into their land. That's what we read about in Ezra and Nehemiah. They were looking for this Messiah. They were looking for him. But they didn't see him. Things weren't what they anticipated, weren't what they expected, and the cycle of rebellion for Israel continued, and it continued, and it continued, even after they restored the temple. But who comes onto the scene? And who documents that this is the Messiah? In the New Testament, what do we see? We see Jesus being born of the Virgin, and the New Testament author saying, look, This, this is Emmanuel. You know, all of the other servants that were refined, all of the other kings and leaders, all of the other Messiah figures, all of the other nations that we thought had power, They are nothing in comparison with this Messiah. This is Emmanuel. This is God with us. This is the remnant. This is the holy seed. This is Israel in the flesh. This is God with us. And Jesus comes onto the scene as a fulfillment of the prophecy of Isaiah, as a continuation of Isaiah's prophecy so much that what does Jesus say? Jesus says, my ministry is the exact same ministry that Isaiah had. In Matthew 13 verse 14, Jesus says, indeed, in their case, the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled. that says, You will indeed hear but never understand. You will indeed see but never perceive. For this people's heart has grown dull, and their ears they can barely hear, and their eyes they have closed. Lest they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and turn, and I would heal them. Jesus fulfills the prophecies in Isaiah. Jesus is the Messiah. He is the suffering servant, and he is the servant who was refined so that God might have holy servants unto himself for his own glory. Think about it this way. While God was refining the people in order to make them holy servants, in order to bring about the Messiah, Jesus Christ, through exile, through judgment, what does God do to Jesus? He punishes Jesus. He refines Jesus through the furnace of affliction, not because of Jesus, not because Jesus did anything wrong, but why? For us. He was bruised. He was punished. He was chastised and crushed for our iniquities. The Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. Jesus, the suffering servant, the Messiah, is the one who is refined. He's the servant who's refined so that we might be holy servants for the service of God. And this is what the entire book of Isaiah is about. And there are many things that lead to application for us even this evening. Some things that we should be considering is, Are we okay with the fact that this life, that this world is not our home? That our hope is not in some earthly kingdom? That the worldly powers at play, however great America might be, however wonderful freedom might be, however great the Declaration of Independence might be, those things do not hold our salvation. They do not hold water to carry our salvation. Are we okay Are we okay with that? Are we okay with the fact that our hope is hidden in Christ on high? That He is our secure anchor? That no matter what might happen to this country or the world or our own bodies or our families, we know that we have a surety, a secure anchor in heaven who is Christ. That's why the Apostle Paul can say, we are seated with Christ on high. It's no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. I've been buried with Christ through baptism. Now I've been raised with him. So what does this mean for us? It means peace. It means certainty and assurance. It means that this life is not our home. It means that the love of Christ for us cannot be taken away. So Romans 8 really comes into play. Can anything separate us from the love of God and Christ? Famine. Bills. Depression. Death. Loss of loved ones. Social decay? Political decay? Can any of these things separate us from the love of God and Christ Jesus? The answer is absolutely not. So what are our lives characterized by? They're characterized by an imitation of the suffering servant who was refined so that we might be God's holy servants. Let's pray together. Heavenly Father, we praise you and thank you. Lord Jesus, we thank you. It's amazing what you've done for us. You've shed your precious blood. You were refined through the furnace of affliction so that we might be your holy servants. We thank you for this, in Jesus' name, amen.