And turn with me, please, to 1 Thessalonians chapter 5. And if you would like to have a Bible, please hold up your hand and the ushers will see that you have one. 1 Thessalonians chapter 5. We're reading the Bible backwards this morning, beginning with the epistles and then going back through the Gospels to the Old Testament. 1 Thessalonians 5, beginning in verse 1. But of the times and the seasons, brethren, ye have no need that I write unto you. For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night. And when they shall say, Peace and safety, then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child, and they shall not escape. But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief. Ye are all the children of light, and the children of the day. We are not of the light, nor of darkness. Therefore let us not sleep as do others, but let us watch and be sober. For they that sleep sleep in the night, and they that be drunken are drunken in the night. But let us who are of the day be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love, and for an helmet the hope of salvation. For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, that whether we wake or sleep we should live together with him. Wherefore comfort yourselves together, and edify one another. even as also ye do." Now turn back with me to Luke chapter 19. Particularly today, the Lord is speaking here about the city of Jerusalem. Here in Luke 19, we have Jesus speaking about that city. Luke 19, beginning with verse 41. And when he came near, he beheld the city and wept over it, saying, If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things which belong unto thy peace, but now they are hid from thine eyes. For the days shall come upon thee, that thine enemies shall cast a trench about thee, encompass thee round, and keep thee in on every side. and shall lay thee even with the ground, and thy children within thee, and they shall not leave in thee one stone upon another, because thou knewest not the time of thy visitation. And he went into the temple, and began to cast out them that sold therein, and them that bought, saying unto them, It is written, My house is the house of prayer, but ye have made it a den of thieves. And he taught daily in the temple. But the chief priests and the scribes and the chief of the people sought to destroy him, and could not find what they might do, for all the people were very attentive to hear him. And now let's turn to Isaiah chapter 29. Isaiah chapter 29. Please continue your own study of the chapters of Isaiah. but Rich and I will be going into some character studies shortly now. Some of these having to deal with the book of Isaiah. Chapter 29, beginning in verse 1. Woe to Ariel, to Ariel, the city where David dwelt. Add ye year to year, let them kill sacrifices, yet I will distress Ariel, and there shall be heaviness and sorrow. and it shall be unto me as airy ale. I will camp against thee round about, and will lay siege against thee with a mount, and I will raise forts against thee, and thou shalt be brought down, and shalt speak out of the ground, and thy speech shall be low out of the dust, and thy voice shall be as of one that hath a familiar spirit out of the ground. and thy speech shall whisper out of the dust. Moreover, the multitude of thy strangers shall be like small dust, and the multitude of the terrible ones shall be as chaff that passeth away. Yea, it shall be at an instant, suddenly, Thou shalt be visited of the Lord of hosts with thunder, and with earthquake, and great noise, with storm and tempest, and the flame of devouring fire, and the multitude of all the nations that fight against Ariel, even all that fight against her, and her munition, and that distress her, shall be as a dream of a night vision. It shall even be as when an hungry man dreameth, and, behold, he eateth, but he waketh, and his soul is empty. or as when a thirsty man dreameth, behold, he drinketh, but he waketh, and behold, he is faint, and his soul hath appetite. So shall the multitude of all the nations be that fight against Mount Zion. Stay yourselves, and wonder, cry ye out, and cry. They are drunken, but not with wine. They stagger, but not with strong drink. For the Lord hath poured out upon you the spirit of deep sleep, and hath closed your eyes. the prophets, and your rulers, the seers, hath he covered? And the vision of all is become unto you as the words of a book that is sealed, which men deliver to one that is learned, saying, Read this, I pray thee. And he saith, I cannot, for it is sealed. And the book is delivered to him that is not learned, saying, Read this, I pray thee. And he saith, I am not learned. Wherefore the Lord said, Forasmuch as this people draw near me with their mouth, and with their lips do honour me, but have removed their heart far from me, and their fear toward me is taught by the precept of men. Therefore, behold, I will proceed to do a marvellous work among this people, even a marvellous work and a wonder. For the wisdom of their wise men shall perish, and the understanding of their prudent men shall be hid. Woe unto them that seek deep to hide their counsel from the Lord, and their works are in the dark, and they say, who seeth us? Who knoweth us? Surely your turning of things upside down shall be esteemed as the potter's clay. For shall the works say of him that made it, he made me not? Or shall the thing framed say to him that framed it, he had no understanding? Is it not yet a very little while, and Lebanon shall be turned into a fruitful field, and the fruitful field shall be esteemed as a forest? And in that day shall the deaf hear the words of the book, and the eyes of the blind shall see out of obscurity and out of darkness. The meek also shall increase their joy in the Lord, and the poor among men shall rejoice in the Holy One of Israel. For the terrible one is brought to naught, and the scorner is consumed, and all that watch for iniquity are cut off. Then make a man an offender for a word, and lay a snare for him that reproveth in the gate, and turn aside the just for a thing of naught. Therefore thus saith the Lord, who redeemed Abraham concerning the house of Jacob, Jacob shall now be ashamed, neither shall his face now wax pale. When he seeth his children, the work of mine hands in the midst of him, they shall sanctify my name, and sanctify the Holy One of Jacob, and shall fear the God of Israel. They also that erred in spirit shall come to understanding, and they that murmured shall learn doctrine. It's the 18th verse that I'd like us to focus on. The deaf shall hear out of the words of this book, and the eyes of the blind shall see out of obscurity and out of darkness. Now from Isaiah 1, chapter 1 to Isaiah 29, Isaiah has been prophesying about 40 years, from 740 to about 702. Remember, we're counting backwards down to the year 1. He's been prophesying about 40 years. And the people do not want to hear what he's saying. And they do not want to see what God is doing. And they're not seeing. in the world around them, international diplomacy. They're not seeing God in any of that. To them as a nation, among the nations of the world, they don't see how they relate to the world picture, world diplomacy. Or to them as individuals or families, as a church, they don't see God working among them. If you remember in the very first chapter of this book, Isaiah begins by bringing them and us into God's courtroom and suing us because we don't think. When we come to church, we don't think. We sing because somebody calls for the number and we sing it. We listen to the prayers. We don't really pray them. And we give, but it's not really with our heart. And we're in the same position that Isaiah is when he's saying, you know what I'm suing you for? Come now, let us reason together, saith the Lord. That's what I want. I made you my own image so we could run out to encourage him to trust in God because they were liable to be under attack very shortly. He simply brushed him off. He didn't have time for it. And then when Isaiah pressed him a little further and said, well, will you ask God for a sign to see whether or not I'm telling you it's true? He said, I will not tempt God. He was already trying to make probably two covenants or treaties, one with Assyria and the other with Egypt. And so he was trusting in those things. Instead of the covenant, the covenant that God had made with Israel, instead of trusting in that, he's not reasoning with God. He's reasoning outside God and in spite of God, really. The king brushed him off. I will not ask the Lord. I can handle this myself. I'll trust in my treaties with other countries instead of God's covenant. And all through these 40 years of prophesying, the kings and the people have been giving Isaiah the brush off. They did not want to talk with him. They did not want to hear God's word from him, God's word they weren't interested in. In fact, there in Isaiah 28, they have actually come to the place of mocking him, telling him to go home and shut up. I want you to look with me for a moment at Isaiah 28, back at the very first words there in Isaiah 28. We talked about this the other evening, but I don't think we've talked about it in the pulpit here. Woe to the crown of pride, to the drunkards of Ephraim, whose glorious beauty is a fading flower. And these were supposed to be the leaders in that northern kingdom, Samaria in that northern kingdom. These were supposed to be the leaders. But look in verse 7. They also have erred through wine and through strong drink. They're out of the way. The priest and the prophet have erred through strong drink. They're drunk. They're swallowed up of wine. They're out of the way. They err in vision. They see double vision. And they stumble when they try to walk. Have you ever watched a drunk man? This is an accurate description, very, very, very vivid. Whom shall he teach knowledge? And whom shall he make to understand doctrine? Them that are weaned from the milk and drawn from the breast. I learned this stuff that you're talking about when I was still in the crib in kindergarten. You're not telling me anything, except that they're also drunk. Their words were flooring. And then he goes on down here to say, precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept, line upon line. For with stammering lips and another tongue will he speak to this people. And if you could hear the Hebrew words that God uses here, you would hear them vomiting upon the tables that are full of vomit. Chogu, chogu, chogu, chogu, chogu. The Hebrew words were chosen by God for the purpose of communicating the very thing that was taking place there. And they're mocking the word and the very idea of worship that Isaiah is calling them to. They are mocking all that. Forty years of rejection. Don't let anything hinder you, please. When you come into God's house to worship, don't let anything hinder you. It's been a short time now since a young man in this congregation was mocking God. and he would go into that restroom there and write cursings of God and then come back and not long after that he killed himself don't allow anything to cause you to mock God or distract you from reasoning with God. Don't allow anything to do that. Another man would mock God by the sounds he made during the worship service. Distracting. Terribly distracting. And he died very unexpectedly. And that's not the only way that God brings destruction. I know, though, that Satan will do everything he can to cause people to be distracted in the worship service. Just as these people were being distracted from that reasoning with God, which God's heart reaches out for. He says, that's why I created you the way I did. in my own image so that we could reason together the very posture with which a person sits pays attention to what God saying not to what I'm saying but to what God saying whatever that is seeing things that I never saw in a week of preparation or year preparation or 30 years preparation 40 now seeing things in that scripture because they're alert, expecting, wanting to give, not to get just, but to learn with God. Children, the outline for this morning is going to be the historical setting, the international situation in the world around Israel, and the meaning of those words, Ariel, Ariel, Ariel, Ariel, in those first 12 verses. And then second, the reason for God's warning, what God is going to do about it, since they're really mocking Him and His worship, what God's going to do about that. And then third, our application of all this today. How can we begin to hear God's word and to see God in action and to recognize what He wants of us in this time in history? The historical setting and the meaning of this word Ariel repeated four times in two verses. Sargon, the old king of Assyria, had died around 705, and his number two son, Sennacherib, was on the throne now. And all these other little countries that had been paying tribute to him, huge taxes, saw this as the great opportunity now to get out from under Assyria. And so they're revolting and stopped paying that tribute. The two largest nations especially, Babylon at the north and Egypt at the south. Babylon at the north and northeast and Egypt at the south. And so Sennacherib liked to challenge. And so he went after it in order to subdue them. And he went after Babylon first. And according to some of the records, he thought it would not take him very long, but it took him three years to bring Babylon to her knees. And so meanwhile, Egypt was spared for three years. Egypt was the weaker of the two because the Egyptians had been fighting among themselves, and they were much weakened because of that. The lobby from Egypt in the courts in Jerusalem was a very heavy, strong lobby. And they were lobbying Judah to join with other small countries in a treaty with Egypt. And Isaiah had warned them not to do that. In fact, the very next chapter, in that 30th chapter, Notice that he says there, in the first verse of the 30th chapter, If you think that Egypt is going to protect you against Assyria, you have another thing coming. Look down in verse 6, They will carry their riches upon the shoulders of young asses and their treasures upon the bunches the camels For the Egyptians shall help in vain. They're taking all kinds of valuable things riches down to sign this treaty with Egypt for the Egyptians shall help in vain and to no purpose therefore if I cried concerning this their strength is to sit still and There's a lot of knowledge behind the scenes here. One of the words that Isaiah uses to describe Egypt is rehab. That's big mouth. Egypt is the big mouth that sits still. You're not going to get any help out of him. But he's saying that he'll bring help to all these small countries if they'll just sign a treaty, a treaty with him. And Isaiah is saying it's wrong to enter into that kind of a corporation. or confederacy or relationship. It's wrong morally to forsake God's covenant and to make your treaty with strangers. God's people do not pay tribute to others. God's people pay tribute or give tribute to God. And it's wrong politically. If you're going to pick a partner, pick a winner, not a loser. And Egypt has always been a loser. She promises the world, and she never delivers anything. Isaiah says in verse 7, their strength is to sit still. They're the big mouth that sits still. It's stupid. That diplomacy is stupid. Can't you see? Egypt knows her own weakness better than anyone else knows it. She's been in a civil war, and she can't defend herself, let alone defend anyone else. But she wants all these treaties with all these other little countries that come between Assyria in the north and Egypt in the south. And the Assyrians will have to fight their way through Judah and through all these others who signed up with Egypt in order to get to Egypt. And these other little countries are the buffer that Egypt knows she needs when Assyria comes to the point of attacking her. And it's I almost hesitate to name this because we have a person by that name here in the congregation. But he was a very savvy boy. He was a very wise boy. And he persuaded the other boys around him that they needed to help him whitewash that fence. And they actually brought him money. Well, whatever they had. for the privilege of whitewashing his fence. That's exactly the kind of diplomacy that the Israelites were seeing carried through. All these other little countries were giving Egypt money, riches. for the purpose of fighting her battle, being that buffer through which Assyria had to come in order to get to Egypt. There's always been an infant variety of stupidities. And State Department policymakers, then and now, seem to have been acquainted with every one of those varieties. It's hard to see Judah paying Egypt for protection against Assyria. It's hard. without remembering this story about that other Tom Sawyer. But why look to Judah and Assyria and Egypt to suggest that a requirement for the diplomats in our State Department and in our Senate that makes our treaties and in our presidents who sort of spearhead and carry through those treaties to suggest that they would use Isaiah's book has mandated reading for the basis of their policies, suggest that down in Washington today. And get laughed out of town to suggest that, that we could give our nuclear secrets to those who could very well be our enemies. It's to do what we did in World War II and World War I, and other times, and to trade some of our best information for campaign contributions. We're seeing in case after case after case, I became quite distracted this past year because I was particularly interested in the causes leading up to World War II, and then those following afterwards, and I found Policy after policy laid out in the book of Isaiah that had been violated back then, this past week as I was looking into these. And then we go on. This is the international setting into which Isaiah wrote these four words, Ariel, Ariel, Ariel, Ariel. Woe to Ariel, the city David once besieged and conquered. Do you remember that? When David conquered Jerusalem, to begin with, do you remember that? Remember that, he's saying, because now God Himself is promising that in just a year from now, He Himself will be besieging Adyea year to year, he says there. this Jerusalem. I myself will besiege this city, he's saying, and it shall be to me as Ariel. And God goes on in verses 3 and 4 and 5 and 6 and 7 then to describe how it is that He will oversee the building of those siege ramps and the battering rams against the whole city and He will distress it. It doesn't say He will destroy it at this point. It says He will distress this city. And the troops surrounding Jerusalem would just cover the ground like dust, overwhelming it. And then in verse 7, all that siege will suddenly disappear into thin air. And people will wake in one morning and think, was I dreaming? That was the siege. That was the siege. We didn't have enough to eat. We were eating our own refuse. But it's all gone. Was I dreaming this? where did it go? like a bad dream and then in verses 9 through 12 people cannot read the book that would explain all this to them 184,000 men killed in one case and in another case the besieging general just heard that he was being attacked from the rear and he just suddenly left. He fled from Jerusalem. And verse 13, the reason for it all, the siege and the distress of Jerusalem, the flight of the enemy and the armies, the reason for that and the misery and the distress, same as in chapter one, these people draw near me with their mouth and they honor me with their lips, but they've removed their heart. from me, and their fear toward me is taught by the precept of men. They would not reason in their heart with me. And so now I will do a marvelous work. I won't cut them off." We'd think that at that point he'd say, I've tried and I've tried and I've tried, you've had it. That's it. That's all of it. But look what he's saying there. Look what he's saying there. I won't cut them off. But I will bring them to see, in verse 18, the time when even the deaf shall hear and even the blind shall see. That's our God. That's the grace of our God. After over 40 years of mocking Him, He says that time will come when you'll get your eyes open and you will see and you will hear. You will hear and you will see. And verse 23, their experience of me will be as real as the one Jacob had when he left the promised land to go back down to be surrounded by his son and his grandchildren. Then he would see the work of God's hands. When he saw them, he saw them, he saw God in history. And then he goes on to say down there in that verse, and sanctify my name and fear the God of Israel. That was real family worship. And it was Jacob, it was then and there that Jacob came to understand and he learned doctrine. As he read God's word and saw God's hand, I'm not putting history on a level with revelation as far as God's means of communicating with us when we begin to mock him even. I'm not putting it on the level, but I'm saying it is his story. And if we do not recognize his work in the world around us today, internationally, nationally, in the church, the family, and in personal life, as Carl was talking about there this morning as he wrestled with God, God wrestled with him. If we don't do that kind of reasoning with God, if we don't see God's hand moving a man's life and changing him, if we can't see that, if we're not seeing that, then we're missing one of God's ways of proving himself to us. We need to watch for that and recognize that. That doesn't take the place of scripture, but it does say it's a very, very important thing. And that's the other meaning for the word arieo. The two words are spelled the same, but they're pronounced differently. If you remember the other evening, I was telling you about how all those little marks above and below the letters can change the meaning of a word, not only how it's pronounced, the sound of it. We'd almost say that it was a pun today, but it's far more serious and important than just being a pun, because it's aerial, aerial, aerial, aerial. The word aerial can mean strong one, lion, fort, lion of the tribe of Judah. And Ariel means the hearth, the altar, the worship, the family worship, the temple worship. And so here in the first two verses of this chapter, God is saying, woe to you, Ariel, strong city, fort, Jerusalem, who prides herself on her own defenses, her military preparedness, her alliances, her treaties. Yet in all that fears the power of Assyria because you're fearing the power of Assyria because you're not reasoning together with me. You're not seeing my word and responding to my word. Therefore, you know that this other worship is almost a kind of hypocrisy. That's why you fear so much. I'm going to distress you. I'm going to besiege you. I'm going to starve you. I'm going to show you the weaknesses of the physical fortress of Jerusalem until you come back to the point of knowing that it is your altar. It's my altar. And that's where you worship me. Not just your fort, it's my altar. And so long as my altar is at the center of that and you're reasoning with me, then it'll be strong. But no matter how strong it is without that, then you'll be weak. especially this person-to-person communication with me, reasoning with me. That's the real protection. Without that, without that kind of altering, you cannot have the fork of protection and strength. That's why I had us change to sing Psalm 127a instead of the other one, except the Lord shall build a house, the builders lose their pain, except the Lord the city keep, the watchman watch in vain. unless the families are worshiping God in this way, with an eagerness, a reasoning with God, beginning with Dad, and then Mother, and then the children, reasoning with God. You see, when you're doing that in your home and family and as individuals, then you'll be doing that when you come into church too. You'll be wanting to learn things that I'd never thought of when I was working and writing and studying. You'll be finding things there because of the eagerness. with what you're thinking and singing and praying. You don't want to just be letting him pray while I just sit back. You don't want to just be putting something in the offering plate because everybody else is doing it. It's a hard attitude. That makes it an aerial, a hearth, God's hearth. The national and international importance But it begins with that heart communication with God. And then you'll see God working in history. You'll read the newspaper with one hand and the Bible with the other. And you'll be seeing what this means in terms of God's work in the nation and internationally. And you'll find your real protection at that point. And that's when you'll stop fearing the power that sometimes can be there. It's a case of his picking up your life and moving it through all these diplomatic relationships and international situations also, and through the situations in business and industry, occupation, work, and family, and school, and other things like that. It's a case of knowing that his hand is on you and that he is guiding you according to his course, the one he set up for you. I like William Cullen Bryan's poem, Ode to a Waterfowl. where he describes the lonely, it may have been a goose, it may have been a duck, but anyhow it lost track of the others that should have been in that V formation, and is flying alone, and how he's guiding it. And the bird has just flown out of sight. And William Cullen Bryan says, thou art gone, the abyss of heaven hath swallowed up thy form, Yet in my heart deeply has sunk the lesson thou hast given, and shall not soon depart. He who from zone to zones guides through the boundless sky thy certain flight, in the long way that I must tread alone, will lead my steps aright. Read that last one again. He's got a very important point about how it is that God guides and directs us. He who from zone to zone guides through the boundless sky, the bird, will lead my steps. All right. You won't come to that conclusion that He is guiding my life, changing it from year to year and place to place, time to time. You won't come to that conclusion. You won't see that taking place. You won't know of the reality of that unless you're into this book and reasoning with God on a daily level. And then also, of course, in the church. Here in this chapter, God's saying, don't try to turn my altar into your fort. Learn to see the relationships between these two. without my altar, that personal reasoning with Him. You won't have any for it. Learn to see and to recognize my working, how it began with Mayflower. That's what he's tracing here, the history of Israel. We have a little different history. But have you seen the workings of God? in the life of your own nation, as he's teaching the Israelites to do in the life of their nation, the history of it. That Mayflower Compact, before they even got off the boat, we'd call it. It's not big enough to be called a ship. You could take it out of the water. It was just a boat. But on that little Mayflower Compact, they began, in the name of God, amen. God was in that. And continued with George Washington's prayer. at the crucial points, the very beginning of the nation. And with Abraham Lincoln's call for a day of prayer, your own person-to-person communication with me at my altar. And then in public worship, when you talk to me in prayer and sing to me in praise and give to me in offering, reasoning together with God. Almighty God, don't allow yourself to slip into the position of mocking Him. And it's an easy move when it becomes impersonal and just following along in the daily routine of the weekly routine and in family worship at my altar. When you talk with me the way Isaiah did in chapter 6, confessing your sins, receiving His forgivenesses, His cleansing, committing yourself to whatever it is he has in life for you. And in that day shall the deaf hear, the blind shall see, the meek and the poor shall rejoice in the Holy One of Israel." Father in heaven, we tremble in awe as we see how it is that you besieged that other Jerusalem the same way David had besieged it and you distressed it and then one day You even destroyed it. But Lord, we thank you for the way in which you said you would bring them that remnant that remained along with Isaiah to that point where the blind even would see and the deaf even would hear. God, we thank you for showing us this much of yourself, for being so clear and transparent. Thank you for showing us that you are such a God of grace. God, bless each one of us now as we would make a commitment that would go something like this to you. God, keep me alert every time I open this book. Keep me alert that I am reasoning with you, that you're speaking your word down to me and I'm responding to you. God, our desire, my desire right now is that I would always be reasoning with you. That when I sing, I'd be singing to you. When I prayed, I'd be speaking to you. And when I studied your word, I would be thinking with you. And when I gave, I would be giving to you. God to hear each person in his heart as he would, man and woman, boy and girl, as they would commit themselves to reasoning with you each time they stepped into this sanctuary, that we would be aware of your presence. And from week to week, we look forward with eagerness to being here. And thank you for inviting us to your house today. promising to meet with us, where two or three are gathered together in my name, there I'll be, you said, right in the midst of them, promising to speak to us, that your word would never go out and return devoid, but always accomplish precisely what you please, and prosper, I think, as you said it. God bless us, as we would learn to look forward with eagerness to reasoning with you, that this might be, first of all, an aerial, a hearth, worship center, and secondly, that it would help provide protection and defense against the forces from outside us, like Assyria was for them, that would intimidate us, cause us to fear. God, hear this as our commitment now. We commit ourselves to reasoning with you. In Jesus' name, Amen. In closing, let's sing together from Psalm 46a. God is our refuge and our strength in straits of present day. And therefore, though the earth remove, we will not be afraid. And you may recognize that tune as we go into it. And that may help with the understanding of the words. We'll sing stanzas one, three, and then five. Let's rise to sing. Ho, ho, ho. This our religion, our strength, and strength of every day. And therefore, O ye earthlings, we shall not be afraid. The hills summits, the seas we pass, the troubled waters roar. Yea, though the swelling billows shake, the mountains on the shore. The rain.