Isaiah 40:1-2 Pt 2

0:01 All right, Isaiah chapter forty. Our goal this morning is to finish verses one and two. We are starting the actual study of the text itself. In the first hour, we did a number of things. I'll go through all the things we accomplished in the first hour, and then we'll move on and not spend too much time going back over it. All right, So in the first hour, obviously, we read Isaiah chapter forty, verses one through two, which we have read now countless time since we began to study of Isaiah forty through fifty five, because this began as a whole new section. We looked at the textual context. We talked about how Isaiah forty one through two serves as the opening to Isaiah forty through fifty five, how there's a major dramatic shift in its tone from one through thirty nine, which is judgment and warnings. Forty through fifty five is about comfort, hope, and restoration. We looked at the immediate context, which is Isaiah thirty nine, six through seven, showing us that the immediate context is Babylonian captivity.

0:57 We talked about the broader text, which is Isaiah forty through fifty five is addressing Judah, specifically in their Babylonian exile, which was historically fulfilled in five thirty nine BC when Cyrus allowed the Jews to return. So we talked about that. We talked about the historical context, which is the Babylonian exile itself, which goes from six Zho five PC to five point thirty nine BC. We talked about the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple and five eighty six PC. We talked about how they lost their land, their national identity. Basically, they are suffering. In the midst of that suffering, they're going to be their offered comfort, reassurance, and hope. We talked about all the philosophical problems they may struggle with this message considering what was going on. We talked about the grammar and the language that is used. We looked at the phrase comfort, comfort my people. We took it apart comfort comfort. We talked about what that emphasized my people, reminded them that they were still a part of God's covenant.

2:00 We talked about speak tenderly to Jerusalem, which really indicates how this message was to be delivered. It was to be spoken tenderly. It's spoken to Jerusalem because that's the capital of the Southern Kingdom. We talked about the phrase her warfare is ended. This indicated that her hardship has come to an end, even though they were still experiencing it. We talked about all that confusion that could lead to her iniquity is pardoned and she has received from the Lord's hand double for all her sins. We looked at historically, there's debate on exactly what that means. We looked at all the different possibilities. That was all the first hour. That's the quickest review I've ever done. All right, are you good? All right? Hopefully, and of course it'll be uploaded as soon as I get home, so you can go listen to part one. All right, here we go. Now, let's deal with the exegetical insights from this section again Isaiah forty one through two. All right, so let's just point out some basic things. The first I want you to see, look carefully, comfort ye, comfort ye, my people.

3:04 Look at those last three words, saith your God. What I want you to see here is the divine initiative that is being utilized here. This comfort comes not from human effort, but is a declaration from whom God This emphasizes the sovereignty of God and initiating the reconciliation and the restoration. This is divine initiative, right. God is the one initiating this. God is the one bringing the message. God is the one who's going to bring the comfort. God is the one who's going to bring about the restoration. God is the one in charge of the whole situation.

3:44 So immediately, right from the beginning here we see the divine initiative. Comfort ye, comfort ye, my people, saith your God. In fact, if you think about it, God is the one initiating what the message to be taken to the paper. He's initiating the message to be taken to the people, and he's initiating what the comfort that's going to be given to the people. As far as the actions are concerned, this shows that God is the one initiating all of this. Okay, it's not well, we could get into a lot of discussion here, but for now we'll just continue with that. All right. Second, I want you to see the divine initiative. Secondly, I want you to see the covenantal faithfulness. I'm gonna mention the covenants over and over and over and over again, I cannot stress the importance of that. Okay. The only way I can state this is the minute you forget when you're reading the Old Testament, that you're reading God's interaction with a nation whom he has made a covenant with.

4:46 The minute you seem to forget that, then you just take it and you turn it into I don't know what you do. You turn it into moralism, you turn it into somehow promises that are somehow applicable to us. It's not the same. Let me, I'll try to remind you of this. And I know this was controversial when I said it, but I don't care because it's true, all right. It's just true. So many times when Christians talk, and we talked about the concept of prayer, right, and that prayer from a philological perspective is very From a philosophical and theiological perspective, prayer makes literally no sense, all right.

5:26 And here's I know you're not supposed to say that in church, but it doesn't. Right. So someone says, hey, this horrible situation happened, let's pray. Does everyone understand how confusing that, at least in my brain, how confusing that is? Because we are praying about a horrible situation, but we are praying to the God that at the very least allowed it to happen. And if you hold a more sovereign understanding of God's, a more reform view of God's sovereignty, not only did he allow it to happen, he decreed it to happen. So then that makes it very difficult to know what am I supposed to pray? Am I supposed to pray to make something better that he decreed?

6:14 That seems confusing. Am I supposed to pray to the God who at the very least allowing it to happen? That's very confusing, And a lot of our concepts of prayer is people will run to the Old Testament and take concepts from there. Well, you get we got to slow time out. When we have people in the Old Testament praying, they're praying to God about these situations, but their prayers are completely controlled by which concept the Covenant. They can pray for specific things because God made a covenant with them, right, so their prayer is in accordance to what the covenant. God promised very specific things to Israel, right protect provision all of these things. So when they're encountering something that seems to be contradictory to the Covenant.

7:07 They can pray specifically for things, knowing that they're praying in accordance to God's sovereignty because God made promises to them. When we come to pray about something, we don't have those same specific promises as laid out in the Covenant for Israel. They're very different, right, And we got to be very careful how we pray because in some cases are we praying in accordance to God's sovereign plan or are we praying actually in opposition to it? It raises lots of questions. But so in the Old Testament, understanding the covenantal situation makes sense of some of it. Right, Well, why are they praying that way? Can I pray that way? Well, they have specific promises about the situation that I don't necessarily have. Now, we love to try to find those promises for us in the New Testament and make it about us, which leads to all kinds of confusion, right because when people like, well God should do this, and God, you do this, and then when God doesn't do that, it leads to a lot of disillusionment and confusion, and that's why you have many people who are just like Christianity doesn't work, justless, so waste of time and they find no comfort in it. Everyone else has to convince themselves that something is happening, but some people just can't.

8:18 So we talked about that covenant is important, and it's important here. So we have the divine initiative say it's your God. But where do we have the covenant language showing up in verse one? We talked about it earlier, let's just mention it again. Where does the covenant tool language show up in verse one? My people, my people, my people. God is reaffirming his unbreakable covenant with them. Despite them being unfaithful, God is remaining faithful. He promises comfort, forgiveness, and it highlights God's grace. Comfort you, comfort you, my people.

9:01 In other words, he's almost telling the messengers who are to bring the message, the people you're bringing the message to is still my people. And there's a covenant relationship, meaning they can then believe that God will operate in what and accordance to those covenantal promises. Right Israel can still believe God's going to fulfill those covenantal promises. We talked about this in eschatology in many other areas. All right, So we have the divine initiative, We have the covenantal. We can say covenantal promises, and I guess we could call this God's covenantal faithfulness. He's remaining faithful, still referring to them as his people, even though they have been unfaithful.

9:43 All right, So we see the vine initiative, we see covenantal faithfulness. What else do we have? We have restoration beyond judgment, restoration beyond judgment. The proclamation that our warfare is ended and her iniquity as pardon indicates a turning point in Israel's history. God's judgment has achieved its purpose, paying the way for their restoration. So they have judgment, but now they're going to get restoration beyond that. They've got the judgment. But now by saying your warfare is ended, your sins have been pardoned, You've received the Lord's hand double for all your sins. He's going to go above and beyond just the judgment. And that's a good thing for them, is it not? Because it's a great thing for them? All right? Now, we could argue, and I separated number four from those other three divine initiative. Nobody can deny that, right my people, No one should be able to argue that that's pointing to God's covenant unless you want to make my people us, which is what preachers do. That's not us. Okay. I know the Heidelberg Catechism and the first question about what is your only comfort and death in life? It references Isaiah. But that's it's not it's not us, okay, that's them, okay. But because we're we're entering where yeah, I don't know why preachers do that, but okay, and we see a restoration that goes above and beyond their judgment. That's the entire

11:15 section of Isaiah forty through fifty five. But the fourth one, I'm just I separated it because this is what others would say, right, these are not mine words? Is what someone others would say, foreshadowing redemption, that this foreshadows redemption. This is how they would put it. The language of pardon that is used in verse two, is it not all right? And reconciliation foreshadows the ultimate redemption in Christ and the broader narrative of scripture. The comfort extends beyond Babylon, a Babylonian exile to the spiritual restoration of humanity. I'm gonna say time out, Let's not go there, because the main thing we need to do here is understand who it's written to. Right. I know, as Christians, we love to come in there and just say, hey, move out of the way, my sins have been pardoned like and we just want to put us all right there. We can't do that. So I'm gonna say, from an exogetical standpoint this, these words are for whom, the people and the Babylonian captivity. All right, any foreshadowing, we'll talk about that as we move forward in the book, all right, or in this section? Does that make sense? So the main three things I want you to see from an exogtical is the divine initiative. We see that, the covenantal faithfulness.

12:40 You are still my people. You don't feel like my people. I may not want you to pay my people at this point, but you're still my people. And at number three, hey, I'm gonna restore you and go above and beyond your judgment. Does that sound good? All right? Now, let's look at the significance for the original recipients. That's what I think we need to do here. Let's look at the significance for the original recipients, because that's important, right, yes, right, So I think we can see three things here. Do you agree that we can see some hope amid their exile for the original recipients. For those in exile, Isaiah forty one through two provided tangible hope that their suffering was not permanent. It reassured them that God had neither abandoned them nor forgotten his promises. It does offer hope.

13:36 Now we talked about the confusing part of it, but there's at least some hope. Put it this way, the fact that someone shows up, it says comfort, ye comfort email people say it you're God, and they say God has sent us with a message. If they truly believed the message was from God, right, if they truly believe that, that would at least offer them at least hope to this extent, God has not forgotten us, at least to that. Now they may not understand all of this, My warfare is ended. Well, what are you talking about? I'm still in captivity. Depending on what year you hear that message, it can be confusing, but at least they know God still knows where we are. That would at least offer them a little bit of hope. Can we at least acknowledge that at least a little bit of hope. Right Second, it would offer them some form of encouragement, right, and encouragement to trust the certainty of God's pronouncement her warfare is ended, encourage the people to trust and his sovereign ability to deliver. So basically, it's encouraging. God is telling you your warfare has already ended. Now you're encouraged to do what trust it even though you can't see it.

14:45 This is an encouragement for them to trust that which they cannot see. And that's really the Christian life. We live in a world where everything around us, circumstances can cause us to question the existence of God, to question anything, but we are to trust in that which we cannot see, in which we are not typically experiencing. Yes, So they're in the same situation that if you want to see parallels, We've already talked about this. You know the parallel I'm going to draw here before we're done, But you can see this. So we have hope, we have encouragement to trust, and I think this is interesting. What is one of the things they lost in the Babylonian captivity. I mentioned it briefly in the first hour. You probably weren't even paying attention. I talked about the things that they that happened to them as their temple was destroyed, Jerusalem was destroyed.

15:43 They lost their land, and I said, they lost something else, their national identity. Well, guess what happens here for them? There's a ref there's a reaffirmation of their identity by saying, what comfort there you go, Bobby, my people, my people. He's addressing them as my people. We've already talked about this. This reminded Israel of their unique relationship with God, restoring their sense of identity and purpose. Hey, they have almost lost their identity. They don't have a temple, they don't they don't have anything. They're slaves, and God is like, no, no, no, you're my people. You haven't lost your identity. You haven't lost this relationship, you haven't lost the covenant, you haven't lost anything except for land, temple, But you haven't lost God.

16:46 Now that's going to be a very important lesson for Israel, because if you think about it, that same lesson is going to have to be show up in which book in the New Testament? Hebrews? Right, everyone misinterprets Hebrews. Hebrews can not be interpreted unless you understand it's written to Jews right around sixty five sixty six sixty seven a d. And the entire purpose of the book is to tell them you're gonna lose what the temple, You're gonna lose it all forever. Okay, but you still have God. You still have Christ, Christ distilled, right, That's that's who. And around up my way it's a repeat of this. You're still my people. Still that promises, So everybody have that has that right? So is there any application for today?

17:37 Is there any application for today? So let's read the two verses again. To read the two verses again, Comfort ye, comfort ye, my people, saith your God, speak comfortably to Jerusalem and cry unto her that our warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned for she has received of the Lord hand double of all her sins, for all her sins. Now, here's what I'm going to do. Before we do some application and they're going to really try to apply it. Let's just walk through this now and see when you leave here, if anyone ever asks you about Isaiah forty one through two, or if you ever hear another sermon on Isaiah forty one through two, you can immediately identify when they don't handle the text correctly. Right, everybody ready to walk through it. Isaiah forty verse one, Comfort ye, comfort ye, my people. That is God calling for someone spiritual leaders profits anyone who gets this message to take the message to whom my people? Who are my people? Those in Babylonian exile? They are identified where chapter thirty nine. Very good? All right? So comfort the idea is calling someone to bring comfort to his people.

18:49 His people are those in Babylonian exile. Right, that's the call to bring comfort. Everybody got that? Not for us, that's for them. Second, what do you see in verse two, the very beginning of verse two speak tenderly or speak comfortably? What is that? Okay? Those who are bringing the message, this is how you are to bring it. You are to bring it with tenderness. You are to show empathy, you are to show compassion. Everybody see that, Who specifically are you to bring these tender words to to well Jerusalem in verse two, which identifies to the capital of Judah, which is interesting because Jerusalem has been destroyed. So in a sense, symbolically, you could say, tenderly, speak to those and what do you want to see? By saying speak to Jerusalem, the messenger should see not just a person, but see the suffering that that person is experiencing. That can be hard to do, right, When we see people, we just see a person, right, we may see emotions.

20:03 Sometimes it's hard for us to see beyond the person there's something more going on. You never can just seeing a person. You don't have a clue, right, you don't really know this. By saying, speak it to Jerusalem, they can see what do you see when they saw Jerusalem at that time destroyed, a burnt, destroyed temple. Speak tenderly to the suffering. Understand the suffering is there. It's so easy for us to just we can speak to a person in a very kind of like clinical, academic kind of way. Right. It's it's when we can speak past the person to the actual suffering that changes the tone of our words, does it not. Some people are good at that. Some people are not good at that. Right.

20:57 Some people just see the person and just say, well, especially if Christian, all things work together for good love God, Believe God, God, God's go fix your problem, and just say it in a very academic way. You speak differently when you're speaking to Jerusalem, to a burnt, destroyed city, you may be a little bit more you know, you may be a little bit more quiet and not saying exactly what to say. Right That's that's more difficult. So I want you to I want you to really grasp that. Right now, what, then, tenderly, are you to speak to these individ to these people that are suffering. You're to speak three things? Are there to speak? Three things? What are the three things? Come on their verse two? I'm gonna I'm gonna make this until we have these two verses memorized. We will not leave Isaiah forty one through two until we have these memorized. Okay, we will be here for fifty years. The warfare is ended, Your hardship is ended, declared to them, so that as if it's already ended. Number two, your sins have been parton, which is very key to this. Right. They're there because of their sin. Number three you received from the Lord tend double. Now, remember there's two ways of interpreting that we interpreted in a positive way. You are receiving far more by God's grace than God has done more for you because of

22:28 his grace, right in a positive way. So that's very simple. Right, everybody got that message? Now what are we tempted to do? Try to make it about us? All right? Now, I'm going to break this down into greater detail. I've got two I got two different parts here that could break this down. Let's just take a step back and try to apply it in a in a very just general way, and then I may give you some specifics. Let's apply it in a general way. Are you ready? All right? How do we relate to the entire Babylonian captivity narrative? How do we relate to the Babylonian captivity narrative? Well, we relate to it in this way. They're in Babylonian captivity where they're suffering pain, death, failure, and sin. Right where do we live our lives? We live our lives in a fallen world. We are captive here are we not?

23:31 We are in it even though we are not of it. We're not of it. Positionally, we're very much in it. Practically, and what do we encounter in this world? Do we encounter pain, suffering, trial and tribulation? Are Christians exempt from pain, suffering, trial and tribulation? No, we are not all right. We suffer, right, and we're kept here we depending on how long you live, maybe seventy years, maybe seventy five if you're lucky, maybe a little longer. Right, there's a certain amount of time. Now, what are we promised after our captivity? Well, okay, now you can kind of see we're guaranteed after this as a believer, our hardship will be ended, not in here, not now there? And then what will happen? No more pain, no more suffering, no more death, no more sin because we get a glorified body. But it's not now, when is it there? That's the hard and justice. That's why I spent the first hour trying to get you to understand how frustrating and confusing it could have been for them hearing this message. I mean, some of them may have been. I mean, you may want to just say stop talking to me, stop with your stupid words, get out of my face. There is no comfort, there is no hope. I've been here for forty years. My kids I have died in captivity, Get out of my face,

25:02 and you can't blame them for saying that. And the same thing can be said of our lives. Right, Oh, yeah, God's great, wonderful. Yeah, tell me all the wonderful things you see. My mom's dead, I was raised in an abusive home. My father died. Yeah, things are great. Doesn't feel that way, does it. But the same words are in a roundabout way, we can see them being applicable. My hardship will come to In fact, it has been, it's done, it's finished, it's accomplished. I just don't yet see it or experience it. But that doesn't change its certainty.

25:47 But there will come a time there'll be no more pain, no more suffering it, no more death. That still leaves me lots of philosophical questions of why it takes this long? Right, okay, why? But that's the real that's the difficulty of faith. Faith is not the pretending that reality doesn't exist. Faith is believing something and acknowledging the reality. Christianity loves to try to almost create a Hallmark movie of reality. It's no Christianity is like the city is burnt, the temple is gone, everything's on fire. People are burning, and it's horrible. But yet I believe see that, you see how it fits within reality. It's not the rewriting of reality. It's acknowledging the reality. Christians love to pretend to a reality that doesn't exist. Some Christians are good at doing that. They live their life just oh great, everything's wonderful, great, great, great, great great great. But they're always those who tend to be more realistic, like, man, I can't handle this. Christianity is a lie. Well, I feel bad for those people, because it's not that Christianity is a lie. It's just you've been given the used car cells version, the infomercial of Christianity. Stop listening to the people selling you the infocommercial. Right, Christianity, the reality of Christianity does not can fit in within our reality, just like it had to fit in with them.

27:15 Can you imagine seventy years? Can you even comprehend that some people never saw the end of it? That's what I love about Hebrews. Hebrews talked about how that many of those people, by faith, they never saw the fulfillment of those promises. That's the way life work. We don't Sometimes they just as they many of them never saw them being delivered. You know how many people received who possibly heard these words, your warfare is ended, and they never actually saw the end of their warfare. Now you could say, well, they ultimately did right when they died, but at the time, so we have to see ourselves in that same light. Right, So our warfare will end, but it's spoken of as it has even though it hasn't.

28:06 What's the second thing that was said to them? Sins are pardoned? Well, their sins are being paid for and pardoned. And guess what, that's something we can cling to, can we not? We can say our sins have been pardoned by Christ. Yes, that's good news. Right now, what's the reality again? I'm going to once again demonstrate this. My sins have been pardoned and I've been declared to be righteous even though I am still sitting. Just make sure we understand, as Christians what is the normal? I know this is going to go against every church in America, but I'm sorry. They can lie to people. I'm not going to lie to you. What is the normal Christian life?

28:57 A perpetual state of sin? I know Christians like no, we've been set free from the power of sin positionally, not practically. Okay, so let me make it just. I'll help you show you that you're in right now. You're in a perpetual state of sin. You have been sinning twenty four to seven. And whether you want to admit it or not, okay, I'll give you. I'll just start with one command. Be holy as God, as holy? Is anyone here as holy as God? If you think you are, then we need to get you out of Christianity. We need to get you into some mental health treatment. Okay, because you're delusional. Okay, you're not as holy as God. You're commanded to be. That's called law. We can't I mean, I know this goes against everyone's concept. We can't keep God's law even as a Christian. The law is to show us our inability to keep it. So, because if you're not as holy as God, as holy, and that is a law, that means you're in a perpetual state of what. Oh we're not supposed to admit that. Oh wait wait, Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount, once again the most misinterpreted sermon in the history of humankind, he says, what in that sermon? Be perfect as your heavily Father is perfect. Is anybody here perfect? Not practically?

30:19 All right? Oh wait, love God with all your heart, mind, body, and soul. Love your neighbor as yourself. Do all things without grumbling and complaining. I can go on and on and on. If you look at a woman with lust, you've already committed adultery. Right, you could kill someone without actually killing. So I can go on and on and on and on. And you know what that law demonstrates to me. I'm a sinner. I'm a sinner. I'm a sinner. I'm a sinner. I'm a sinner. But what is the entire concept of the Protestant Reformation? By faith? What occurs my sins are pardoned? And then of righteousness is what imputed? Everyone? Please use that word imputed, not infused. All right, we do not. We reject infused righteousness. Right, that's Catholicism. That the entire Protestant Reformation is on this point. Right, And so guess what now? Once again, what's the reality then, of the Christian life? What's the reality of the Christian life? Sin?

31:14 That's the reality. Okay, Just we can pretend all day. You can say, well, I don't commit that sin, you're in a state of sin. Am I excusing any sin, not excusing it or acknowledging a reality. But by faith, my sins have been pardoned, and I am declared to be perfect and righteous, even though I am not. That's the whole Protestant referrement. Catholicism does not like that. It rejects that. I will argue many Protestants are more Catholic than Catholics. When I went went to a Catholic university, that was the big discussion we had is they talked about all the different Protestant theological systems, about Sotariology, and they're like, that's more Catholic than we are. And I'm like, well, I'm not a Catholic. Well if you believe that you are, no, I'm not, Yes you are. And then I'm like, well I gotta understand this a little bit better. So then you go, oh, imputed righteousness. This is we want to judge Christian someone's salvation based off what they do. You say, Well, the Bible gives a test to prove someone's salvation. Oh, it does give a test, And how is the test passed by Christ? Not by us? Because if you're going to prove my salvation by what I do. Then you're not judging me based off in imputed righteousness. You're judging me based off in practical righteousness, which destroys the entire Gospel. Okay, because the tests are classified as what theologically waw? What

32:45 is law supposed to show me? I can't do this? Now? What is it supposed to do? Take me by the hand and take me to the one who did? And then Christ says, I've done that for you in him I'm taking care of So they are in captivity. And what is the story of Israel from Genesis twelve all the way into the future? Sin? Wait, what is the story of the church? Sin? Okay, but our sins are what does the text say? Pardoned? How Well, in their case it's pardoned in a very historical sense because they've suffered for it. But in our sense, because Christ suffered for us, He suffered for us, my sins have been part even though I'm still a sinner. I'm still a sinner.

33:39 I know nobody wants to admit that because with Christianity we constantly sell something that denies reality. We don't need to deny that reality. You're a sinner, I'm a sinner. We're all sinners. Nobody should excuse it, but we should acknowledge it. Okay. And so what's my hope Christ is what if you're truly a Christian, you'll do this and this and this. Talk to Jesus. He did it for me. My salvation is not based on what I do. It's based on what you want assurance of salvation. What do you look to, not to yourself but to Christ. Everything you give me, you're giving me law. Who fulfilled the law for me. Christ? We gotta get that right. So, in a sense we can apply this because we are in our own Babylonian captivity. We are in the world.

34:32 There is pain and suffering, but our warfare has ended. It is just guaranteed to happen then not now, Just like they experience had to wait. Their sins have been pardoned. My sins have been pardoned. But what is still the reality sin? And what's the third thing? They received? Double? Is not God's grace greater than all of our sin? Have we not received double triple million times more than our sin? Yes, my sin I should receive punishment, judgment, and hell, but I have received forgiveness, adoption, a guaranteed eternity. My name's written in the Lamb's book. Think of all the things we've received, we received far more than our sin, because God's greater, His grace is greater than our sin.

35:20 You see the correlation? All right? Does that make sense? Nah? That goes I gets a lot of I mean not, it goes against. It just goes in a different direction than all the things that I had here. But that's okay. I did write this. Isaiah forty verses one or two is a profound declaration of God's comfort and restoration for his people, rooted in his covenantal faithfulness. The grammar and language highlight the intensity and certainty of God's promise, offering hope not only for Israel's return from exile, but also pointing to the ultimate redemption that is in Christ for the original recipients. It's a message of immediate hope, well the believer today. It reveals the character of God that is both just and merciful. Now I go through, I have like I could break this down. I'll just show you how I did this. Just quickly take the phrase her warfare is ended. We know what that means for Israel? Right?

36:18 That the end of their suffering and the punishment of babylon exile is going to come to an end for us. The warfare is that we were at enmity with God. Were we not? Yes? Okay? But we have been therefore Romans five to one. Therefore, since we have been justified by Christ, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through the atoning work of Christ, the conflict caused by sin is resolved. Believers are brought into a state of peace with God. Even though we're brought into a state of peace with God positionally, practically we still sin, we still struggle, and they're still all the pain and suffering in life. Everybody got that, right? I think can we acknowledge that? All right? The believer, we can experience a peace with God positionally, but we still face struggles and trials in the Christian life. I think we can agree with that. So all right. So her iniquity is I have plenty of other notes here, I'm just skipping through some of these. Her iniquity has pardoned. We talk what that meant for Israel and their context correct for us.

37:21 We've talked about how that applies to say Ephesian's one seven. In him, we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses according to the riches of His grace. Right, we everybody remember that we if we confess our sins, it's faithful justin forgive us our sins and to cleanses from all unrighteousness. Yeah, I could break it all down. She received double We talked about what that means for Israel and for us while we've received an abundance of God's grace. Yes, all right, So I'll just stop right there. I made an entire chart here. I could break it down more, but I'm not going to go I'm not going to go through all of it. I think we Yeah, I've got like pages and pages of notes, but I think I summarized it relatively well. So do you understand the original message to Israel or to Judah? Everybody got it all right. It starts with a call for someone to take comfort to them. They're identified as His people demonstrating the Covenant. All right. He says to speak tenderly to them. So the whoever's to deliver the message is to speak in a comforting way, see and speak to Jerusalem so they see beyond the people and see the suffering, and then three things are said to be given to them.

38:37 What are those three things? What's the three things they need to be told? Warfare is ended, sins have been pardon you've received double right? Got that? And all of that makes sense within its historical setting? For us? What's the parallel? We are in our own Babylonian exile and we suffer and there's pain and death. What is the message we can hear? The warfare has ended, our warfare with God has ended, and our suffering has ended. Ultimately, in the meantime, we still suffer, just like they still suffer. But we can be sure of that our sins have been pardoned, even though we still sin and we're still in sin. Our sins have been pardoned, and we have been declared not just pardoners, we have been declared to be righteous positionally speaking right, and then we have received double Does that all make sense? All? Right? Then? That is Isaiah forty one through two. We could go to start verse three through five. But once we start that, ladies and gentlemen, everything becomes complicated, all right, So we won't even we won't even attempt to start it. But next week our goal is to go from verse three to five if we can. All right, just to give you a preview, we have in verse three, we have two words to start verse three. All right, this is where it's gonna get complicated. In a VI says a voice, ESV says a voice, the King, James says the voice. Right,

40:13 A voice is much more generic. The voice seems to speak specifically. So that what we're gonna have to figure out. Do we identify the voice or do we just see it in a generic way and just kind of a symbolic way. Right. If we identify it, do we immediately render the New Testament and identify it as John the Baptist. Well, if we do that, that's gonna destroy the historical context, so that we can't do that. If we try to identify it with someone in the historical setting, which voice could it be? Okay, oh, it could be Isaiah. Some may argue Cyrus. So one of the things we will do is we're gonna look at the decree of Cyrus, right, and then we're gonna compare it to Isaiah forty three through five. We'll do a comparent contrast. We'll make a chart.

41:06 I'm not saying it's perfect. But we'll see now, just so that you know, Ai does not like it being Cirrus. Ai argued with me strongly, it's not Cyrus. But Ai also acknowledged when I said, do a compare and contrast between the decree of Cyrus and Isaiah forty three through five, it did admit they're pretty similar. Okay, so I'm not saying it works, but we will see. We may not even have to identify the voice, but we've got to identify. We've got to at least understand what's being said here, because there's some very specific things said here. Right, Prepare the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Now we see everyone wants to run to that and then run to Christmas time and John the Baptist. But the focus here is prepare the way for God to make straight in a desert, a highway for our God to come and do what for God to come in deliver them from captivity. That's the context here. New Testament writers use it, but just remember New Testament writers use Old Testament passages in a way that defies all hermeneutical rules. Sometimes they quote it exactly.

42:18 Sometimes they quote part of it. Sometimes they paraphrase it. Sometimes they rip things so far into context you're like, I don't even know what you're doing here. Okay, this is insane. But that we we don't base our hermoneutics on how they use Old Testament scripture because they're doing it under the inspiration of God, meaning that they can use it that way and be doing it correctly. We got to follow some kind of hermeneutical rules or the Bible becomes a free for all and crazy. So that's some of the things we'll be looking through in this section. We'll try to we'll look at it in its historical textual context, and then we'll see, well why did why did the New Testament writers refer to John the Baptist? Well, because in a similar way, he's doing the same thing. Right, if you think about it, who does John the Baptist go to Israel? Israel's where at the time under the hill of they're in the exact same situation, are they not?

43:18 Okay now, and in this particular case, they're never getting out of that captivity because they're going to be destroyed in seventy a d. So they're going to need a different kind of message, right, and that's the message that their Messiah has come. Right. So you can see you can see the parallels, can you not? So you can see why the New Testament writers would use it. But they're using it obviously acknowledging its original context is just the original context fits very well with what Israel's going through, does it not? I mean, I mean they're suffering and then they're going what's going to happen to them? So they're going to have to look for something different this time.

44:02 They're not about getting out of Roman captivity this time, well, they're going to need the message of Hebrews. Something better has come. But at the same time, their king has come, and it does not negate the promise of the kingdom that God made in the coming. We can get into eschatology and all of that, right, So I think it will make sense. But we got off to a good start. Any questions, all right, I did such a good job that you now understand it, right. So if you hear someone preach on Isaiah four, I was I was listening to a message on the way here. On Isaiah forty one through two. We spent two hours, They spent twenty minutes twenty minutes, and of course it became about whom.

44:52 It became about us. Now, we did make it about us ultimately, but I think we did so correctly. I think we did so correct I think the parallel was good. Everyone else wants to just make it about like what you get now, And it's not about what I get now. It's about what God has done for me now. But the practical working it out is in glory, and that's where Christians have a hard time acknowledging that. All right, let's pray, Lord God, we come before you. Lord, we thank you so very much for your word. We ask your forgiveness for the way it's been misapplied and taught it incorrectly, and all the ways that even as a church we have mishandled it and taught it incorrectly. Forgive us for that. But let us just be grateful not only for the wonderful, powerful work you demonstrated for Judah, but the powerful, wonderful work you've demonstrated for us in Christ, Jesus, let us hold on to the reality of our faith, even though the reality of life is completely different to what we believe. Let us hold on to our faith in spite of that, and be grateful for the promises that you've given to us. And we asked this in Jesus name, and gods people said Amen.