Isaiah 41:8-13

0:01 All right, second hour, same chapter, Isaiah chapter forty one, Isaiah chapter forty one. In the first hour, well, last week we did an observational outline of all of Isaiah forty one, so we covered that that observational outline really taught the entire chapter. So we're kind of just walking kind of back through the observational outline to a certain level. This chapter is really not that complicated or difficult to understand. As I stated in the first hour, I'll stated again here because it's kind of a theme that I'm emphasizing today, is that, whether we like it or not, church history demonstrates this modern church, which demonstrates this. We do not study the Bible. We do not study church history because we are pursuing truth. We study it and pursue things for our own agenda. We have our own prejudices, we have our own so many issues because it should not be that complicated. Out of over now, I don't even know how many over one hundred sermons that I've listened to I'm dealing with Isaiah afforded Isaiah fifty five. I yet to find one that's handled this section and even where close to the text at all. They make it about us. They do all these hermeneutical things. This week, I've been studying the doing podcast episodes about the Salem witch Trials. I mentioned it in the first art. I'm not going to go through details again, and how Reverend Burroughs was executed in Salem and it was all messed up the way that went down in Cotton Mathers involvement.

1:31 And Christians today will defend Cotton Mather. Cotton Mathers the hero. Cotton Mathers here, there's no hero in Cotton Mather's the villain. But we study church history why because we got to defend the people who are on our team instead of studying history to find truth. Truth is no longer what anybody wants in any area of our any area of American society. We don't want truth in politics, we don't want truth in theology, we don't want truth in church. Nobody wants truth. Everybody wants what to be for what they want to hear. And if they don't like what they don't hear, well, if it's in the culture, then it's fake news simply because it disagrees with them. That's not the way that works, or it's false doctrine or I don't like it because well I don't like it, and that's not the way it's supposed to work. If you study truth, inevitably truth will do what slap you in the face. If you pursue truth, truth is not always going to agree with us. Theologically, it makes sense since we our heart is desperately wicked and above all things. Okay, well, if we believe that to be accurate, well then we should be expecting then truth will be constantly who will be constantly in conflict with truth? Us? We think we find truth so that I can prove you wrong. Truth

3:02 is designed to prove I'm wrong. Okay, So if we really are going to study Isaiah forty one and be fair, then we know Isaiah forty one just like Isaiah forty and the entire section is not about us. It's not about the church, it's not about America, it's not about Christianity. It's about Judah and Babylonian captivity. And we have to understand it that way. And if we try to make it about us, then we don't care about the truth of the text. We care about producing sermons so that we can have big churches to make money, and that's what it turns into. Well, if we pursue truth, well people don't necessarily want that. That's just the reality. So we covered verses one through seven in the first hour. Basically verses one through seven. For those who aren't here, it's pretty simple. It's a court case. God summons everyone to come to court and he's going to prove to them that he's in charge rather than human rulers or idols.

3:54 That's the simple way of describing it. So then this hour, our goal is to make it from verses eight too. If you remember the observational outline thirteen, eight through thirteen, we know if you look at the text, we struggled on whether we should break it up. Remember we had that big discussion. Should we stop it with verse thirteen? Should we continue it? Remember? Remember, well hopefully you remember that. All right, So our study is we're going to do an in depth exegetical study of Isaiah forty one, eight through thirteen. All right, now, let's just read it. Let's read verses eight through thirteen. But thou Israel, now I cannot stress this enough. Every time in Isaiah forty through fifty five, every time through Isaiah forty through fifty five.

4:44 Any reference to Israel needs to be just like you need to highlight it, market circle it, start it. I don't know everything you need to do. And why do we have to do that? Because all the sermons make it about everyone other than the people the text identifies, and so we have another identifying element of who's being spoken of. Right, But thou Israel art, my servant, Jacob, whom I have chosen the seed of Abraham, my friend. Everybody see that? Everybody got that? All right? All right, Thou whom I have taken from the ends of the earth and called THEE from the chief men thereof, and said, unto thee, Thou art, my servant, I have chosen THEE and not cast THEE away. Fear thou not. Now, everyone focus on that phrase, fear thou not. Fear the thy not are filled. Fear thou not? All right, everybody see that?

5:49 Focus on that. Why do I want you to focus on fear thou not. Well, if we are in any other church, you would be focusing fear thou not, because the time of my sermon on this section would be called fear thou not, and it would be a sermon about you, not fearing. There's nothing to do with you, all right, fear thou not? Who is being told not to fear Israel? Does it require seminary to figure that out? Do it require Bible College to figure that out? Sarah's a teacher? About what grade should someone be able to read that and determine who's being told not to fear?

6:33 About what grade? Should that occur? In third grade? So we need basically third grade reading comprehension. You could get Lincoln to do it, now, it's any link if Lincoln can do it in third grade? Right, If Lincoln can do it in third grade, why can't preachers do it? Why can't people sitting in the pew figure that out? Yeah? I guess, but in many cases, Oh yeah, I know. But I'm just saying all of that is just nonsense, Like anybody sitting there should be like then, I mean, I if basing on third grade reading comprehension and then you go to church, you should probably raise your hand, probably within about thirty minutes of being a Christian and go are Christians just incapable of reading? Because I don't know what's wrong here? Because something should immediately tell you you're in We're not in Kansas anymore. Right, It's like the house got picked up by the tornado and you got dropped in the Wizard of Oz and the Land of Oz, and you're like, where what happened here? Because reading no longer works the way reading does in the classroom, and it's that is so mess up. In fact, the sermon that I listened to church today on the way here was called fear Thou or not Now for some weird reason, it was on Isaiah forty one, and then they spent most of the time in Exodus. But then they made day Exodus about and so then I just wanted to

8:06 drive my car off the road, you know, into a tree, because this will that there's no trees around here. But okay, drive my car off and hit a cow, okay something. But because there's it's so like, why is that so complicated? It's not that it's not complicated. It's like when we read in Romans, all Israel will be saved? Is that complicated? But no, no, no, no, no, I mean I've preached it in this church, all Israel will be saved. And then have someone come right to this pulpit five seconds after the sermon saying Israel is it Israel? And I'm like, what in the world when did Israel not become Israel?

8:50 Can anybody show me when that occurred? And what's even made that more frustrating is I preached that sermon after we spent what three months, four months looking up every use of the word Israel, and the best we could come up is maybe one maybe that wasn't referring to the nation of Israel. And it's like, after all of that, then Israel doesn't mean. At that point, you just have to start questioning if we can't read the Bible, then then we could basically then call into question what why does church even exist? Right? Like? Where do I want to go to church? Or do I want an atheist who can read? I almost prefer the atheist who can read.

9:37 I'd rather go to the Satanic Temple that that knows reading comprehension, then Christians who can't seem to figure out what the text may But almost every sermon you look up in this section is going to be about you come to church and you're going to be taught about not fearing. That's not what it's fear thou not for I am with who's the THEE. They're literally identified right, be not dismayed, For I am thy God, who is the thy Israel. Okay, I will strengthen THEE who is the thee Israel. Jay, I will help THEE who is the It's gonna get redundant, is it not. You're gonna get irritated after along, go move on. I will uphold THEE with the right hand of my righteousness. Behold, they that were incensed against THEE shall be ashamed and confounded.

10:36 They shall be as nothing, And they that strive with THEE shall perish. Thou shalt seek them and not find find them, even them that contendeth with THEE, that thy war against THEE shall be as nothing, as a thing of not. Really, what churches need to do, and I'll just throw this in for what what churches need to do all of their children's departments, like from nursery all the way up to say maybe their sixth grade. All it should be is reading comprehension. Reading comprehens It's all all you should do in Sunday school is reading comprehension. And then you need to tell the kids, now you're gonna go listen to that pastor preach and he doesn't know how to read. Now you say it, that's mean, Well, it's all those adults out there can't read. So maybe the next generation need to be taught how to read so that then when they take over the pew they can kick out all the old people and say, well, since none of you know how to read that, I'm gonna because back in the old days when school taught us how to read, well, obviously not because clearly there's a reading comprehension problem. I will say, we don't have a theology problem. I think we have a reading comprehension problem.

11:43 Remember when we were studying Augustine on Hermeneutics, where did he say hermautics begin our basic learning to read and write in school. That's where it comes from. That's where it comes from. It's just it's magnet. It's so frustrating to have to spend this much time trying to assert this, but after listening to over one hundred sermons, I know I have to assert this. So we have to learn to read everyone, So there's no difficulty there, right, If you don't even understand verse eight through thirteen, what is the one thing a third grader should be able to understand about verses eight through thirteen. It's about its right.

12:25 If you don't understand anything else, you could understand that, right. So do we have at least have that down. I think we should have that down, all right. So there is the text, okay, So let's look at the context and structure. Here we go. Context and structure will break this down just like we did and we've been doing in all these We're going to look at the immediate context, and then we'll do a structural breakdown of the verses themselves, all right. Immediate context verses one through seven, it's God's sovereignty over history and the nations. Isaiah forty one. I'm sorry, Isaiah forty one, one through seven, God's sovereignarante over history in the nations. That's the immediate context. One through seven is God's sovereign and over history and all the nations Isaiah forty one. Eight through thirteen obviously focuses on God's relationship with whom Israel, because in forty one one you have what the coastlands or the islands, everybody see forty one one the coast and then all of a sudden, what immediately happens in verse eight Israel. All right, you see that, that's not difficult. Correct, Now, what happens in verses fourteen through twenty? What happens in verses fourteen through twenty? Okay? Yeah, Israel basically is now viewed as a powerful instrument. Is that a fair way of describing that? Now? How do we know fourteen through twenty is speaking of Israel being to do these things? Okay? Well I know that, but

13:59 I have to add ify that because once again preachers turn that into something other than us. Okay, I have at the end of this, I have fifteen fifteen different ways this section is hermeneutically misunderstood and misapplied. Like why should there be fifteen different ways that can occur? Why there's nothing here to I know, and no one nobody does, And it's just crazy context. Yeah, and even those who say we do exegetical preaching will still make it about us, make it about us. That's not exegetical preaching. All right, So the immediate context forty one one through seven is the immediate context, agreed, that's God's sovereignty over history in the nations. Then eight through thirteen, our section obviously deals with God's special relation with Israel, and then what follows, which will be immediate context. It's God's transformation of Israel into a powerful instrument. The immediate context the before the section we're studying, and the section after that deals with the immediate context. Everybody okay with that? Right now? The structural breakdown verses eight through nine. Everyone, look at Isaiah forty one, eight through nine. What would you take from Isaiah forty one, eight through nine. If we're doing a structural breakdown, what would you call that section forty one eight through nine? Forty one eight through nine. I think

15:33 this is Israel's identity, is God's chosen servant. Whatever may be okay with that? Is it identifying Israel as God's servant? I think it literally says that, does it not? Now? Why is that important? Because another servant's being spoken of in this section or kind of get leading up to it. It's gonna Cyrus is also God's servant, right? And then we have the suffering servant in fifty three right, correct, which many believe is Christ. So whenever our servant is mentioned, then what do we have to learn to do in this entire section? Identify which servant? Right? That's an hermeneutical clue. Right, servant is mentioned multiple times in this section, so are in Isaiah forty through fifty five? We always have to identify it here? Is there any doubt which servant's being spoken of in Isaiah forty one eight through nine? Which verse which give me the verse in the statement, Hey, what does it say? Israel? Alrm I sir? Okay, right, there's no question. All right, there's no question. Everybody see that? Okay?

16:41 All right, yeah, yeah, it's multiple times. All right, now that eight and nine Israel's identity is God's servant. How about verse ten? We have the call to fear not. Some would say that there's a threefold promise with that fear not. Do you believe there's a threefold promise there? Okay? Do you see the threefold Diane just found three well, and just in verse ten itself, verse ten, there's a threefold promise. Does everybody see a threefold promise? In ten?

17:24 I'm seeing cow nong fingers, use a calculator, whatever, use a friend, it's math. I feel comfortable with threefold promise there? All right, So fear not, But again the fear not and the threefold promise is to whom Israel? And it's based off what what is the foundational principle throughout all your entire understanding of the Old Testament when it comes to promise and praying? Who they are and the covenant God made with them? Remember, everything is fun functioning off that covenant. Right? What are the three threefold promise in verse ten? Well, fear not, okay, I am with thee?

18:13 Has God promised to be with Israel basically going all the way to the time of Abram? Okay? Right? Next? Does he not promise to strengthen Israel over and over and over and over and over in covenant language? Yes? Does he not promise to uphold Israel? I mean yes? So all of that is is very at least covenant like language. And if it's covenant like language, then we know, okay, all right, that we understand the basis of it. Right? Everybody got that? Oh? Yes? Right? Then? How about verses eleven through twelve. What do we get from verses eleven through twelve God's victory over Israel's enemies? Do you think that that's a fair way of looking at eleven through twelve?

19:04 Everybody okay with that? Right? How about verse thirteen? Well, is kind. We'll just say, a personal assurance of divine help. Right, personal assurance of divine help. I think that's pretty simple. So what is the structural breakdown of Isaiah forty one eight through thirteen? Eight through nine. Israel's identity is God's chosen servant. Everybody, okay? With that number two? Verse ten, the call to fear not and the threefold of promise verse eleven through twelve, God's victory over Israel's enemies verse thirteen, A personal assurance of divine help. There's the structural breakdown.

19:45 Right now, we go to the exegetical analysis. We're just going to work through this section. You've already have it broken down for you, right, Okay, So the first section is Israel's identity is God's chosen servant. I'm gonna read from the ESV. But you Israel, my servant, Jacob, whom I have chosen, the offspring of Abram, of Abraham, my friend, you, whom I took from the ends of the earth and called from its farthest corners, saying to you, you are my servant. I have chosen you and not cast you off. Will break this down into well a number of parts. A number of parts. First, the contrast with the nations. Right, the first thing we're gonna see is the contrast from the nations. But you Israel. Everybody see that, but you Israel?

20:36 Is that not really how the section starts, depending on your translation the NIV. But you Israel? All right, I'm sorry, that's the ESV. How does the NIV start verse eight? But you Israel? The king James, okay, all right, ready to get that. So when you see that, that shifts focus from the fearful, idolatrous nations that five through seven ended with the nations are scared. Now they're building idols or may receive that. And now it changes, But which does what basically negates everything that comes forth? Where it's a major shift, it's a major transition. Right now we're transitioning.

21:17 But you Israel, and contrast to them, they're scared to death, but you Israel. What does he wants them to know? He's gonna but now it's gonna go from the fearful, idolar trist nations to God's chosen people. While the nations rely on false God, Israel belongs to Yahweh. That's how it starts, right, I can find it but thou Israel, art my servant, Jacob, whom I have chosen the seat of Abraham, my friend. As a direct contrast the previous section, the nations are scared to death, they're trying to build idols. But you Israel, Israel, Israel. You don't need to worry because you belong to me. Everybody see that. So we have the contrast with the nations. That's the first thing we see in this section. The significance of my servant Israel.

22:10 My servant a title of covenantal relationship. It is a title of covenantal relationship. Everybody got that. It is a title of covenantal relationship. In Uh. A servant in Isaiah refers to different figures, as we've already kind of alluded to, right, A servant can refer to as Israel, as God's servant, a suffering servant, and I think it can also reference whom Cyrus. I think it can also reference Cyrus. Right.

22:54 So there, whenever is so the main thing we need to learn from this Whenever we see servant in Isaiah, what do we have to do? We have to the significance of servant in this section is it tells us that Whenever we see the word servant, it usually well, in this particular case, it deals with their covenantal relationship, but it also identifies to us that we have to stop and identify who the servant is being spoken of. That's a basic pharmonutical rule there, all right, everybody got that? So we see we're looking at the Isaiah forty one eight through nine, Israel's identity as God's chosen servant. We've broken this down into the contrast with the nations, the significance of my servant and the number three Jacob, whom I have chosen. This highlights Israel's frailty and dependence on God, whom I have chosen, reinforces divine election. Israel's not chosen because of their greatness, but because of God's grace. Right Jacob, whom I have chosen. The idea is that by referring to Jacob, it's referring to their frailty. That's the concept that they say that they're taking from all right, because Jacob later on in this section and that this section, Jacob's referenced as what a worm? Right? What versus that? Fourteen? Okay, what's the next section? It's the next section. Yeah, next section, he's referred to as a worm. So me, now, if

24:25 we take that Jacob's been seen as weak, frail, what do we typically think about Jacob? Do we? Okay, a liar deceiver? He wrestled with the angel and then he basically was hip thrown out a place, right, so he's he's not seeing it. Whenever we talk about Jacob and Esau, we typically we walk away saying Esau is the good guy and Jacob is trash, right right? Yeah, so the idea what a so and the AI is the one who identified it that way that Jacob highlights Israel's frailty independence on God right, whom I have chosen. Basically, they were not chosen because they were great. They were not chosen because they were powerful. They were chosen because of God's grace. I don't know if this crush reference will help us. Look at Deuteronomy seven and you can tell me what you find. Deuteronomy seven seven through eight. Deuteronomy seven seven through eight. I don't want to make any assumptions here. Deuteronomy seven seven through eight. Deuteronomy seven seven through eight, what do we find there? Deuteronomy seven seven to eight. That's Israel. I mean, I don't know, if

26:03 there's any it's got to be Israel, right, Okay, yeah, okay, clearly? All right? So that's in what verse eight? Oh? Yeah? So dude, Verse eight identifies who it's referenced. He did not choose them because they were the greatest number. He didn't choose them because of anything. He chose them out of grace, out of grace, And that means he didn't choose them because they were more holy or because they were more righteous. In fact, and inevitably they were wide not more godly or more righteous. He chose Jacob. Was Jacob more righteous? No? Okay? Over and over and over. That's the key here, right, So Jacob whom I've chosen, This is just demonstrating the Israel's frailty in God's divine grace.

26:47 All right? Does that make sense? All right? So we're breaking this section down. We've got the contrast with the nations, the significant of my servant, Jacob, whom I've chosen. And then what's next in this the offspring of seed of Abraham, the offspring of Abraham. And then he refers to Abraham as my friend. This links Israel to Abraham. Emphasizing God's covenant to faithfulness and the promise of blessing and protection. My friend Abraham had a unique relationship with God. What I want to what is its demonstrating Israel, you were mine, not because you did anything, but because I did anything, and based off a covenant that I made with my friend, going all the way back to Abraham. Everything is based off the covenant. The covenant, the covenant, the covenant, and that covenant was made with Israel. I know, we want to insert ourselves into it, okay, but it's about Israel.

27:47 Everybody understand that, all right. So I think that the main thing is this is reassuring them. At the previous section, the nations are scared to death. They're building idols. He's like, guys, calm down, I'm right here, right, everybody got That's that's verses eight through nine. We broke that down pretty good, right. Israel's identity is God's chosen. We broke it down in the contrast with the nations. The significance of servant Jacob, whom I've chosen, and Abraham or the offspring of Abraham. Now verse ten, this is the call to fear not in the threefold promise, fear not, for I am with you.

28:28 Be not dismayed, For I am your God. I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will hold you with my righteous right hand. The call to fear not a common divine command. Now you hear everyone say that there is a fear not for every day of the year. That is not true. Okay, that is a that is not if you even counted out it doesn't Ai. The best Ai gives me is that a common divine command fear not appears over one hundred times in the Bible. Well over one hundred times. Is a way far from every day of the year, is it not? And not only that, even if you were able to fight a fear not for every day of the year, most of those fear nots have what nothing to do with you. Yeah, specific context and the fact this fear not here has nothing to do with us some In fact, I've already tried to drive that point home. All right, Okay, So what is the anidote for fear for Israel in this particular section fear not for I'm with you? What is the antidote to their fear God's presence? God's presence is supposed to be the anidote to their fear. All right, God's presence is the anidote to their fear. Now that sounds that preacher is good. Right, So I could have said that in a preacher voice, what is the anidote

30:00 to your fear this morning, ladies and gentlemen, My dearly beloved God's presence is the antidote to your fear? And you would write that down and going ooh, that's a good, good message. Let's make it very clear God's presence is the antidote to their fear. But God's presence doesn't always help us. Right, Let's make it very clear. Was God present with job? Was God? Did god presence stop what happened? No? God has been with Israel. Has it stopped all the things that's happened to them? No? All right, so let's make it very clear. God's presence with us is not the anecdote to bad things happening to us. God's presence with us is supposed to be an antidote to fear, only in so much that at some point there will be a we'll say, a resolution to the problem. But for Israel or Judah, it was going to take them seventy years, right, and for us it takes when we enter into eternity. So God's presence as an antidote to fear only letting me know that God is the one and charge of it. But it does not mean that I shouldn't fear bad things are going to happen, because bad things can happen. Does everyone understand how we should

31:32 process that? Because Christians, man, we do weird things with this concept. Right? Then it says, so the call to fear not everybody see the call to fear not in verse ten, pretty simple, be not dismayed, for I am your God. Dismayed means to look around anxiously. Israel is called to fix their eyes on God, not their circumstances. Hey, don't be dismayed, because the previous section has the nations doing what being dismayed? What do they look to? Idols? Israel, don't be dismayed. I'm right here. Look to me now, remember looking to God. Remember that faith is the we talked about it, we talked at about a million times.

32:20 Faith is that thing where we look to a God in whom we cannot see while we are surrounded and being impacted by circumstances. Which we very much can see. Those circumstances which we can see, they scream at us, what God doesn't exist. So we have to believe by faith a God in whom we cannot see exists and will ultimately give us all those promises of eternity. But in the here and now, the God whom we believe in may not intervene to make one thing better. In fact, things may actually get worse. That is a hard concept to wrap your mind around, Fiel logic. Because you become a Christian, you're almost giving this idea, Well, now you have God, everything's gonna work out, or God's gonna intervene.

33:06 God's gonna fix it. Christians will constantly tell you that you go through a problem, God's gonna fix it, God's gonna make it better. I want to punch him in the face and go, well, did God make that better? That's what I want to do, Just break their nose and say, hey, did God fix that? No? Okay, because it doesn't work that way. We want it to work that way. Now. The only thing I can be assured of is that there will come a time the skies will part, Christ will come back, destroy all the enemies set up a kingdom after a thousand years, release Satan. Bam boom. Then you have a new earth. No more pain, no more suffering, no more death in eternity. Now, I know that's not what we want to hear, because I want that to somehow impact. Now, well, the only impacts by giving me a hope that this is not the end.

33:57 But it does not mean that God's going to intervene in any way, shape or form, all right, But it means don't we don't look around anxiously. We look to where where things are going, all right. So there is the call to fear, not be, not dismayed the threefold promise. AI breaks down the threefold promise this way, I will strengthen you, I will help you, and I will uphold you. All right, provide inner strength to endure trials. Now, this is what God is going to do for them, right, not for us. I will help you. God is actively involved in their deliverance. God is going to help them in a what kind of way, physical, tangible, material way? Right, I will uphold you with my righteous hand. Right hand symbolizes power and authority. Righteous implies God is just and faithful.

34:46 So for Israel, God's presence guarantees protection, strength, and help, so therefore fear is unnecessary. But just remember I don't even like that God's presence does guarantee that God is going to do something for them, but it doesn't mean and He's going to do something for them in every situation, because in some situations they still suffer, do they not? And the answer is yes. So it's kind of a complicated thing to understand there. All right, next section is Isaiah four. So that section was ten was verse ten. It's the call to fear not be not dismayed in the threefold divine promise. I know I went through the divine promise relatively quick, but we've already looked at that. Now what will most pastors do here? Try to take that divine those threefold promises and apply them to who to us. And that's where it almost inevitably becomes problematic.

35:39 Right now, do we have similar promises? But they point us to eternity and to our salvation, not to material physical protection and deliverance and strength. I know every pastor wants to say that if you believe in God, you get strength. If you believe in God, you get strength. If you believe in God, you get strength. There was no tangible way to There is no evidence to prove that. Are Christians stronger than lost people. No, we're not stronger than lost people. We may want to believe we are, but where we sin, we fail. Christians need, Christians have need, counseling, therapy, medication. We have all the same problem. Christian marriages fall apart, This, churches fall apart, This happens, this happens. We're not better than anybody. We like to believe it all the time.

36:29 There have been people of other religions who've endured horrible trials and come through it stronger, better, just like Christians. Christians will say the reason we do is because we have God, But an atheist goes through things and can do it. That. We love to try to imply we get some kind of supernatural power. If we had supernatural power, it would be able to be measured in some way, shape or form, and whatever we try to say that's measured in I can find other people who don't have my faith who've endured similar or worse things and probably handle them better than me. Look, I knew, I knew plenty of people who went through far worse things than I went through as a kid, but I ended up kneeling on the floor with a gun to my head and got ready to kill myself. Well guess what people will tell me, Well, no Christian will do that, because a Christian will never do that. I'm so sick and tired of telling me what Christians will or will not do, because I've got two thousand years of church history seeing Christians have been guilty of doing pretty much anything and everything because we are just like everyone else. What are we?

37:34 Flesh bone sinners? All right? So, but in their particular case, specific strength, specific indoor, specific things for their specific situation. All of this is a reference to what their captivity and their deliverance. That's what this is referencing. But people will ride a devotional that on Monday. Oh, my devotional was in Isaiah forty one. God's gonna do these things for me. You just want to like that has nothing to do with you. Nothing. Everybody got that? All right? Now? The next section is eleven through twelve, God's victory over Israel's enemies. All right, we'll read the section I'm gonna read from the ESV again. Behold, all who are incensed against you shall be put to shame and confounded. Those who strive against you shall be as nothing and shall perish.

38:30 You shall seek those who contend with you, but you shall not find them. Those who war against you you shall be, shall be as nothing at all. All right, So we're gonna break this into two sections. The fate of Israel's enemies and sensed against you. Those hostile to Israel will be shamed everybody. See that, those incensed against you shall be put to shame. Everybody. See that pretty simple, pretty straightforward. You don't really need much help on that, do you. All Right? What does he say after they're gonna be they're gonna be confounded, right, and then those who strive against you shall be as nothing and shall perish. See that God will remove them from history. Those who are coming against Israel going to be removed from history.

39:16 And while that ultimately happened right where the Babylonians today, right God God? And then you could even say the Persians, I mean, I mean, I guess that's kind of modern day Iran, right, but but I mean for those kingdoms are pretty much gone right as we know, as we know them, and Israel, though it still exists now, Israel small, but they still exist. God preserved and kept Israel through everything. Right, you shall see, you shall see. So that's first the fate of Israel's will. Breaking this into basically two parts. So God's victory over Israel's enemies first, the fate the fate of their enemies. Well, we see them. They're gonna be shamed, They're gonna become basically nothing. You shall see them, but not find them. Total victory. Enemies will vanish as if they never existed. Israel does not need to fight for survival because God fights for them. All right, there we go, basically God's victory over Israel's enemies, the fate of their enemies, and they're gonna be You're gonna seek them, but you're not gonna find them. Right now. That brings us to verse thirteen. A personal assurance of divine help.

40:27 This one is very simple for either Lord your God, hold your right hand. It is it is I who say to you, fear not. I am the one who helps you. All right. The personal nature of God's help I the Lord your God. See it's very personal, I the Lord your God. It's a direct covenantal affirmation. I'm gonna hold your hand I'm gonna hold In fact, it says hold your right hand. Does it say that in all translations? I will take hold of your right hand? Right? This is kind of like a fatherly image of grabbing your hand guiding right fear not is repeated. It reinforces the certainty of God's presence. Right now. I've got all kinds of other stuff here, but all right, we'll just summarize it this way. Isaiah forty one eight through thirteen shifts the focus from God's rule over the nations to his immediate care for Israel. He reassures them that they are chosen, not abandoned, that they do not need to fear because He will strengthen, uphold, and defend them. This passage is a powerful call to trust in God's sovereignty and faithfulness. So let's break this all down again. I'm just going to go through it really quick. Summarize everything, all right, Isaiah forty one eight through nine. Israel's identity

41:57 as God's chosen servant. We broke this down as the contrast with the nations, the significant of My servant Jacob and Abraham, the offspring of Abraham. Then we looked at Isaiah forty one ten. We broke it down into two parts. The call are three parts, the call to fear not, be not dismayed, and the threefold promise. Then we looked at Isaiah forty one eleven through twelve, God's victory over Israel's enemies. We saw the fate of Israel's enemies. You shall seek them but not find them. And then we have a personal promise, and that is the personal nature of God's help. That is Isaiah forty one eight through thirteen. Right, any questions about that? Now, I could go through all the hermeneutical errors that people make here, but you know the hermeneutical errors here. Right, If you look through Isaiah forty one eight through thirteen, what I've already told you, what is the sermon probably going to be called in Isaiah forty one eight through thirteen. It's going to be saying fear not, and it's gonna make all all that about us? Right? Why why is that not? Why not?

43:06 Only is it problematic because it's just hermoneutically incorrect and it's fraudulent way, it's not following basic rules of reading comprehension, But what makes it diabolical? What makes it almost evil? That pastors do this, well, they take the promises away from miserable. But what's more diabolical is they give you false hope. They give you some idea that God's going to intervene and fix your problems, make everything better. And you can't take that. You cannot do that. It's just wrong. It's just absolutely wrong for Christians to do that. And and I feel like in some I think in some ways and I cannot. I'm not gonna say that this is completely fair, but I'm saying in some ways I feel this way. When I I first became a Christian, I felt that I was given a million promises of what God was going to do, and he was going to do this, and he was going to do this, and he was going to do that. And now that God was on my side, right And the next thing you know, I'm being called from you know, the high school right down the road to Hendrick's Hospital, and then my mom dies. I'm a teenager. I'm like, what just happened?

44:22 So I stopped doing drugs, I stopped selling drugs, I stopped trying to do this. I stopped trying to do this. I go to church, I'm doing this I'm praying. Oh, I'm still a sinner, but I'm like, compared to what I was, I'm doing as good as I can do. Right. And So when my mom was in the hospital, every ready knows the story. I spent twenty four hours in First Baptist Church, Tuscola, Texas, praying, praying, praying, praying, begging, begging, begging, begging, begging, begging. All I wanted really was just God to wake her up so I could at least talk to her for five minutes. I just wanted to try to make some kind of resolution. Couldn't even do that, couldn't even allow her to come back to consciousness so I could talk to her. She dies, Well, I felt like, what is this trash? So part of the reason I put a gun to my head is like I didn't understand anything anymore. Now, I'm not saying that that's every pastor's fault, because I should learn how to have read and I should have done better with reading comprehension, right, I should have been able to challenge it better. But it's just your your soul.

45:24 You enter into Christianity, you just basically how does it work? Every word of this book it's true, and every word of this book is for you, all the promises, it's a love letter from God to you. It's and then you're told to do your daily devotions right and you get devotional guides, and every devotional guide does what makes it about you, makes it about you, makes it about you, and so you have you basically, I mean, I don't know, am I the only one? Is There not a time in your Christian life you felt like, oh, now now that I'm a Christian, God is on my side and he's going to basically do what take care of all my problems? Did it take care of all your problems? Now?

46:10 Maybe your life has been really good, congratulations, But that really has nothing to necessarily I mean that's good. There's lost people that everything goes great in their life. So you know, how it's gonna play out is dependent on a lot of factors. And we can say God's sovereignty, but I just know that for some people that there's that verse about it reigns on the just and the unjust. Well, for some people it's a torrential downpour with a tsunami, with a couple of volcanoes, a nuclear weapon drops on them and their life is a living hell other people. You know, Hey, son, you can do your homework on the boat. We're gonna go out on. We're gonna go, We're gonna go fishing. That's a quote from the Breakfast Club. Okay, for those who don't get it all right, that uh, that's everything is oneonderful. Everything is great. Look I made you a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and I cut the crust off and life is so wonderful. And it's a nice little, you know, little house on the prairie moment. Okay, well, not everyone has that, but say the people who have it, well, that will say because God does all of this. And the implication is if you were right with God, God would do it for you. And that's so messed stinking up.

47:26 I get so sick of that, right, I get so sick of that. You almost want to go kick someone's out door down, burn their house to the ground, and go, WHOA what happened? Man? Okay, because it doesn't fit that way for everyone. If you give promises to people that are not for them, you mess them over and a lot and that's where a lot of people reach out and go, Where's God? I don't kick God, and then everyone assists in church just like I just don't know what's wrong with them. I just don't understand. You just need to pray a little more, read your boy a little more, go to church a little more so, and they always give you thirty seven things you need to do. It's always about what you can do, and it's like, or you're doing something wrong and we can't do that.

48:12 We pursue that we approach things that way because on one hand we want to say God is in charge, but we really are trying to make ourselves in charge because we want a system in which we can understand it, we can control it. Well, if I do good, then God will do good for me. If I do bad, then well that's well, that's more covenantal language with for Israel than it is for us. Right, And it just becomes this major problem, and I'm just kind of tired of the way that constantly plays out. These promises are not for us, and if we try to apply them to us, they can only be applied in what way to our salvation. God saves us, he will keep us.

49:01 We can't apply these promises like this to my salvation, right, God's chosen me. He will keep me, he has delivered me, he will bring me into the Promised Land. Right Like I can apply this to my in a sotereio logical way, I can't apply this in my life in a practical way, in any way, shape or form. Does anyone know how this week's gonna go for you or me or anybody? We don't know. There's pain, suffering, death, disease. That's what happens. But we have a hard time facing reality. Now I'll end how I began this. So all week I've been because March the first was the three hundred and thirty three year anniversary of the beginning of the Salem witch trials when the three women were interrogated. And I've been just kind of going back doing all these podcast episodes, doing it almost like in a story form, turning it into a story. Since I know the Salem story so well, I can taking down each individual part. Well, if you study Salem, as I said in the first hour, you are confronted with a man by the name of Cotton Mather, m A T. H e Er. You're confronted with this man. Well, if you listen to sermons on sermon audio, if you just look up sermons on Cotton Mather. They all defend him like he's the hero. And I even in one of the podcast episodes, I'm like hero of the faith or villain in a horrible story. I think Cotton Mather is a villain in a horrible story. And I think the facts demonstrated. And the one thing that occurred, as

50:34 I stated in the first hour, is there was a pastor by the name of last name Burrows. He was a pastor in Salem. He had major problems with the congregation. I know, it's crazy. They get mad at him, some of them don't like him. He finally says, this place is trash. I mean, I'm not saying I'm paraphrasing, and he leaves. He goes to Maine. Now years later, he's in Maine hanging out come with us. He gets arrested, He gets taken back to Salem in chains. What did he do well? They accused him in Salem of being a witch, And how could they accuse him of being a witch because Cotton Mather supported this whacked out idea of spectral evidence, meaning that you, Bobby could be in you know, Kentucky, and then I could say, but Bobby's spirit came and tormented me and using it's called spectral evidence.

51:26 And so now Bobby's accused of being a witch, and even though he wasn't physically present, he's still guilty. So this pastor is brought back. They put him on the gallows, put a rope around his neck. They're gonna kill him, and he recites the Lord's prayer perfectly. Well, a witch is not supposed to be able to do that, according to the Puritans in Salem. Well, I mean, he's a pastor, he knows it. Everybody's like, maybe we should let the guy go. Cotton Mather there, the story goes. He's sitting on his horse and he's like, guys, guys, guys, this guy was found guilty. This is Satan appearing as an angel of light. Nick killing. That's not the hero in the story. That's messed up. And then in That's sixteen ninety two, sixteen ninety three is when the trials occur.

52:17 Seventeen hundred, a book is written outlining Cotton Mather doing that. Cotton Mather never refutes it. He just wants the book burned, So they do book burnings in Boston, right, Cotton Mather never apologizes. And Putnam Junior, she's the woman who she accuses everybody. She accuses like over sixty three people. She goes, she well, not woman, she's like twelve thirteen. She accuses everyone in tel She's just she's accused, accused, accused, accused of you. She in seventeen, it was August, like nineteenth seventeen. I don't remember the year she apologizes. Now, her apology is weird because I think her apology is blaming her father.

53:00 But that's a whole different story because that man. All right, the Putnam family went after everybody, okay, because and it was weird that they kind of go after people that her father had land disputes with and who wanted their land. Okay, kind of interesting, but all right, But all the good godly Puritans. But the point is when we look back at history, we can't even look back at history to pursue truth because oh, we like the Puritans. Puritans on our side. We got to defend the Puritans, right, Oh, we want the Bible to be about us, so we make passages about us. Are for some weird reason, the church locks the I'm gonna say again, we do not pursue the study of church history. We do not pursue the study of the text for the pursuit of truth.

53:47 We study these things for the pursuit of our own agenda and our own motivations, and our own selfishness. We want everything to be about us, and that's not what we do. We study this. Isaiah forty one is the story of Judah and Babylonian captivity and God fulfilling the very covenant promise he made with Abraham, and he does that for Israel. That's what it's about. Any application to us falls into which way we have been saved by God by his sovereign grace, and we currently, metaphorically speaking, we live in our own Babylon, where there's pain, suffering.

54:36 We are still in bondage, right because I can't be perfect, so therefore I'm still in bondage. But there will come a time that we will be delivered and we'll be in the new Heaven and a new Earth. We'll go into our promise land. There is the metaphor, if you want a metaphor, But the text is not about us, it's about them. I can see myself in it because I'm in captivity. I can say myself, because I live in a world surrounded by circumstances that can create fear, dismay, pain and suffering. But I cannot take from this that God's gonna intervene in my situation to make it better. And I can't promise other people that I can promise that it will ultimately be better in heaven and eternity.

55:22 I cannot promise anything's gonna get better now. And the Salem's story is just It shows that our pursuit of that information is not one out of a desire for truth, because anyone pursuing the Salem story would be like, come on, the Puritans were out of their ever living mind here. Cotton Mather should have recanted and repented of what happened there, but he wrote books defending what happened there. He wrote the judges to keep going on. And the only reason that and guess what, the Salem witch Charles did not stop because of good Christians. They stopped because the governor in Boston his wife gets accused of being a witch.

56:02 And he's like, and this ends today. Not because someone was like, oh, as Christians, we only care about God. No, it was a politician going wait, you're gonna accuse my wife. These trials are over nothing. The Christians, the Puritans did not fix the problem twenty crazy right now that I'm just using the Salem witch trials, did you? And a roundabout way? That's serious. Getting Isaiah forty one is not near as serious as twenty people dying, But it's just as serious because we give people fraudulent hope, fake hope.

56:55 Whether the information is wrong and it kills people, or whether the information is wrong and gives people false hope, it's still damaging and destructive and dangerous. And the thing is, it doesn't matter what we pursue. We should pursue truth. And sometimes truth is what not comforting. Sometimes it's not even about us. Sometimes it's ugly. Sometimes we don't like it. The study of Salem is not pleasant. It's ugly. It should make all Christians ashamed that there's Christian nationalism at work. What do I always say when the church and state come together, it's always the case. It's always the case.

57:39 So that I just want you to see when we in our study of Isaiah forty one, I just want us to ask ourselves this question. I'll end when you pursue anything when you pursue whatever the issue is, whether it's cultural, political, philological, historical, you should care about truth above what to political party, loyalty to nation, loyalty to philological team, loyalty to anything. You should care about true When we study Isaiah forty one, we should care about truth and what should guide us and our study of Isaiah forty one basic reading comprehension, because basic reading comprehension, and if anyone online disagrees, they can contact Sarah. A third grader should be able to figure out how to read Isaiah forty one and at least establish what who it's about. They may not understand all of the complexities of Isaiah forty one, but they should be able to figure that out right and not only Isaiah forty one.

58:54 Did the same thing happen in forty comfort ye, comfort, ye, my people speak comfortably to Jerusalem in verse two. Everybody see that? Right? And then where else? Oh Zion? Verse nine, Oh Jerusalem, everybody see that? Say unto the cities of Judah? And verse nine how many different times does this need to occur? Right? Then we get to forty one. Oh wait forty verse twenty seven, say us now, oh Jacob speak us, Oh Israel. Then we start in forty one, and before long we're right there verse eight Israel. I mean over and over. It's almost as if God was concerned that people may not understand who it was about.

59:54 So I'm just I've grown tired. Look, I get tired of dealing with sermons on Isaiah forty to fifty. I really I'm grown tired. I'm getting very tired this week of listening to people tell me Cotton Mather was the greatest guy in the history of mankind. Right, I'm like, what is happening? What is good? Look, I've been to Salem. I'll be going back to Salem. I'll hopefully keep going to Salem for the rest of my life. But I'm gonna know everything about that place that I can possibly know. I just like, how can I study Salem? I can go to Salem, come back and listen to sermons and go Wait. So the Puritans were the good guys in the story. The good guys were the ones who killed the innocent people. Even though one of the girls who accused was willing to say some of the judges were willing to say, we got this wrong. The Puritans no now, obviously there would have been some Puritans have but I'm just saying, like Cotton Mather, the leader of the Puritans, are one of the he didn't like. That's just that's insane. Well, just demonstrate that what we have to constantly look at ourselves because we are motivated by what everything other. And I think sometimes our motives may appear to be good.

1:01:10 Look when a pastor stands before everyone on a Sunday opens up Isaiah forty one, trying to give people encouragement, trying to give people hope because of their difficulty. On one end, you can see that the motive comes from a good place. I'm not going to be mean, right, but it's still messed up. It's still wrong, right. I can understand wanting to encourage someone, but you know, Bobby or someone calls like, I'm going through a difficult time. Well, hey, open up your Bible. Let's look at Isaiah forty one. Fear not be not dismayed. I'm trying to encourage you. The only problem is I'm giving you a promise that has nothing to do with you. So in some ways I see the evil of it. But on the other hand, I can see the desire too, right, I can see and I know that in any situation, there's always that desire to want to you want to help sometimes, but it just shows even our good motives, we can do something from a good motive and it's still be wrong. Right.

1:02:13 Sometimes we can do something wrong, but our motives we're right. And that's ain't that confusing. Sometimes can have good motives but do the wrong things. Sometimes we can do the wrong things but have good Sometimes we can do good things and our motives are bad. It's like, because we are what sinful people, we just have to perceive. Whenever we're looking at something, why are we doing it? And so? What do we want? When we open the Bibles? Truth? We want truth? Do we want a sermon? No, we want truth? Do we want a Bible study? We want truth? Right? Do we want comfort? But we want truth? Right? We never want comfort at the expense of truth. We never want certainty at the expence of truth. We want truth at the expense of everything else. All right, there we go.

1:03:06 All right, let's pray, Lord God, we come before you this afternoon. Lord, forgive us for our wrong motives, forgive us for our wrong actions, Forgive us for our wrong thoughts. Lord, let us hopefully continue to try to understand this section of your word and what you are doing and saying to the people that it was meant for, and how we can apply it to ourselves. Let us do that correctly, with great humility and with great concern for being accurate. And we asked this in Jesus name, and God's people said