Nov. 19, 2024

Plural Comfort

Plural Comfort

A discussion about Isaiah 40:1

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A discussion about Isaiah 40:1

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Looking at our world from a theological perspective. This is

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the Theology Central podcast making Theology Central.

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Someone, please make it stop. Please, I'm begging you. I'm

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really I'm begging you. I'm just I'm pleading with you.

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Make it stop. Now, I know. Really the person I

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should be talking to is myself. I should be looking

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in a mirror right now, going please make it stop.

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Please just stop. Just give up, just retire, just delete

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your podcast, sell the microphone, flip over the table, and

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just give up. Just go home. That's what I should do.

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But here I am and I can't stop. I just

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can't stop. What am I talking about? Well, I guess

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I will tell you here in just a minute, But

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right now, I guess I probably should tell you this.

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It is Tuesday, November the nineteenth, twenty twenty four. It

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is currently two fifty four pm Central time, and I

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am coming to you live from the Theology Central studio

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located right here in Abilene, Texas. Now, what am I

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saying needs to stop? Well, one needs to stop, I

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think is all churches need to receive. I think this

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is what needs to occur. Someone needs to send a

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memo to all churches across the United States of America

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and around the world and say you're no longer allowed

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to preach from the Book of Isaiah. You have been banned,

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you have been prohibited to do so due to all

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of the misinformation, wrong information, the spiritual malpractice that has

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occurred because of your preaching of Isaiah. It has now

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been banned. You can no longer preach from it. That's

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what I need to happen, and what I need to

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stop is pastors touching the Book of Isaiah. Do you

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think I can make at work? Do you think I can't? Obviously, yeah,

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that's ridiculous. I know that's that's that's even insane to say.

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But please make it stop. Please now, As many of

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you know, I have been going through a dark, dark,

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dark valley that I've been I've been going. I have

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fallen off the cliff into it an abyss in which

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I cannot get myself out from. I cannot crawl myself out.

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It's over, it's helpless, it's hopeless. And it all has

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to deal with preaching on Isaiah forty forty one, forty two,

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forty three, Isaiah forty to fifty five, which is so

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ironic that I feel I feel so discouraged, so defeated,

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and so depressed. Because Isaiah forty through fifty five is

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supposed to be the Book of comfort, the Book of

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consolation show, So all this preaching on Isaiah forty through

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fifty five should bring me great comfort. It should bring

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me great consolation. It should make the dark clouds part

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and the sun shine through. It should turn night into day,

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my sorrow into joy, my tears and the laughter. It should,

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but it's having the absolute opposite effect. It's taken the

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sun and blotted it out. It's taken joy and turned

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it into sorrow. It's taken contentment and turned it into discontentment.

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You just every positive thing has gone the other way.

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And I know this sounds exaggerated and hyperbolic and over dramatic,

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but really it's had a I've just kind of just

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wanted to throw my hands up and say, I don't

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get it anymore. And I think in some ways it's

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causing me even I think it's caused such a negative

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impact that it's making it difficult to broadcast about anything.

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I'm second guessing everything. It's just gone so horribly wrong.

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And we know what's happened, right, Isaiah these passages in

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Isaiah forty to fifty five, just simply put. Pastors go

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to it and they insert us into the passage within

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thirty seconds, forty seconds, fifty seconds. I don't think anyone

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makes more than a minute. But or even in the title,

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they make it about us, and I know people like, wow,

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it's not that big a deal. It is a big

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deal because when you offer comfort, when you offer peace

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to people, you offer promises to people. And that comfort

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and that peace and those promises aren't for people that

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you're giving it to. You're ultimately hurting them. You're ultimately

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going to lead them disillusioned, disgruntled, disappointed, frustrated, deconstructing. They're

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going to just it's going to hurt them in the

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long run, short term gain, Oh I've got this comfort,

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I've got this piece, I've got these promises, Thank you, pastor.

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But then sooner or later and all falls apart. If

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you just listened to the last broadcast that I did.

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Once again, we're talking about how the church says, oh,

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because you're a Christian, you have this, this, this, this, this,

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and this, but the reality contradicts everything those pastors say,

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and sooner or later people are confronted with reality. So

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we've been talking about Isaiah forty through fifty five. I

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spent two hours Sunday talking about Jeremiah and the religious

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leaders of the time saying peace where there was no peace.

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How that connects to Isaiah forty. We got into Isaiah

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forty verse one. We looked at the word comfort comfort.

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It's repeated twice, right. We talked about the meaning of

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the of the Hebrew word. We talked about how it's

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choosed in other parts of the Bible, we talked about

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how it's used in Isaiah. I was not I mean,

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I don't at this point, I don't know what I

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can do anymore and be happy with. But I wasn't

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really happy with it. Put it this way, once again,

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they weren't very good. They weren't very good messages. I

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don't know why I can't get to good right now.

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I can't even get to I can't even get to

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okay right now. But I'm doing my very best trying

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to address these issues that I think are so important.

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But I'm starting to get this overwhelming sense that I'm

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the only one who thinks it's important. I think most

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people are like, yeah, okay, get it, we get it.

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Other people take the passage and make it about us.

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Get it, you're upset about it? Move on? Nobody cares. Okay,

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I get it. I get that nobody else cares. I

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just don't understand why nobody else cares. When you go

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to a passage that says comfort ye, comfort ye, my people,

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you insert us in there so that we can steal

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the comfort. First, it's not fair to the original recipients

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because you move them out. And if you move us

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in and the comfort is not really for us or

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about us, doesn't that bother everyone? So I spend all

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of that time on Sunday again, I still feel like, Yeah,

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I think I can't really explain it. It's like it's

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like you. In my mind, I see exactly what I

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want to accomplish. I see exactly how I want to

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present it, but it seems like every time I try,

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I can't quite get there. It's like having that dream

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where you're you're walking down a hallway towards a doorway,

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but every time you get close to the doorway the

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doorway the door gets further away, and you keep walking

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and and then you start running, but you just can't

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never get to the door. It feels like I'm chasing

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this how to talk about this, how to move forward,

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but I just can't get there. And it feels like

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every time I were moving forward, then we we we

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kind of fall back. So we we got to talk

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about all of this false comfort. We gotta, we gotta,

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we gotta deal with all of it, because well, I'm good.

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I'm just gonna keep doubling down talking about it until

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I feel like I have reached the door that I

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may never be able to reach. But here we are

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once again, and we're gonna be talking about Isaiah forty. Now.

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I have listened to I don't even know how many

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sermons at this point on Isaiah chapter forty, Isaiah chapter

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forty one, forty two, forty three, and it's just become

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maddening because I don't think I can find any sermon

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it even attempts to try to do. I mean, they

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give the illusion that they're putting it in historical context,

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they pay lip service to the historical context, and then

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almost instantaneously, boom, it's about us again. So I try

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it on Sunday to try to show how it can

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relate to us. I think I don't know if that

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was of any value. But we have another sermon on

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Isaiah forty. This one's called Comfort, Comfort My People. And

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in this sermon about the fourteen fifteen minute mark, between

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thirteen and sixteen minutes, the person off is kind of

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an interpretation here that I had never heard. I don't

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even understand where it's coming from. But I think if

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I'm going to if we're gonna do this work on

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Isaiah forty through fifty five, then I have to try

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to present to you every possible interpretation I stumble upon,

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or you stumble upon an email to me whoever may

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find it, so that at least everyone can go, well,

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here's an interpretation, here's an interpretation. Now what this should

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show you, what this should demonstrate. This is what I

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want you to take away, is I don't care. Look

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you name the passage of scripture. If you start digging,

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you're gonna find not just one interpretation, not just two interpretations,

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not just three, not just four, not just five, not

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just six, not just seven, not just You're it's almost

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as the amount of possible interpretation seems to be there's

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no end to them, and that that can drive you crazy,

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right because everyone preaches as if this is the right interpretation.

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But that's according to you. I can find thirty other

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people who interpret it a completely different way, and they're

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just as dogmatic and assertive as you are. And that's maddening,

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because don't we just want to find truth? Don't we

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just want to know what the scriptures actually say? But

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if no one can agree on what it says, that's maddening.

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But I feel like I'm not doing my job if

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I just well, here's a new interpretation. Well okay, thanks,

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let's just move on. Now I have to say, well,

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we got to at least share this right and again,

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you with the listener, you're gonna make the ultimate determination.

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You're gonna have your own interpretation. You may agree with

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the interpretation I'm about to play, you may agree with

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my interpretation. Who knows, but at least you have to

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be informed. So are you ready? I wish I could

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say I'm excited for this, but I'm not. Now the

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the actual part. What I was going to do is

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just fast forward it to like thirteen minutes and just

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play thirteen fourteen fifteen between thirteen minutes to sixteen minutes

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and just kind of talk about it. But then as

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soon as I do that, I knew I would get

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an email. You took it out of context. You took

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it out of context. You took it out of context.

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You're a heretic. You're going to burn in hell, You're

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an idiot. Okay, So instead of getting all of that nonsense,

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I get enough negative emails per day. I thought I

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would at least play the context. But that means I'm

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not going to try to do a lot of interrupting

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the context. Unless I stumble upon something here that who knows.

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We'll just going to see what happens. The goal, though,

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is to get to the thirteen minute mark and between

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thirteen minutes and sixteen minutes. That's what we really want

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to focus on. Everything else is just to ensure that

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you've heard the context and then you can determine what

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you think about their interpretation. All right, I've got I

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did have AI analyzed the sermon, So I do have

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AIS come complete analysis of the sermon. But I don't

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think I'm going to break it down because AI breaks

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it down into they break it down into a lot

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of parts. They see me let me go through all

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everything AI did. AI first gives me a summary that

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includes one, two, three, three points. Then it gives me

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an analysis which breaks it down into one to two points.

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Then it gives me a critique. It breaks it down

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into one, two, three, four five parts. Then it gives

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suggestions for improvements, it breaks it down into one, two,

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three four parts, then it gives a conclusion. So if

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I just go through AI's analysis of the sermon, that'll

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be an hour long right there, right, So I'm not

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going to go through AI's analysis of the entire sermon

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because the entirety of the sermon is not as important

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as what he does around the fourteen thirteen fourteen fifteen

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sixteen minute mark, where he offers a kind of an

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interpretation of Isaiah forty verse one that leaves me baffled

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and confused because I've never heard of it before, and

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I can't find any commentaries that support it, And to

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be to be fair, even AI doesn't even know where

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it's coming from. Nobody seems to know where's coming from.

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But according to the sermon, there's commentaries that support it.

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So if you know of the commentaries that support this idea,

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please send me the name of the commentary the page number.

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Send me a screenshot something so I can at least

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come back on and say everyone, here's the two commentaries

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that support it, or the three or the four, or

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the five or the ten. But as of right now,

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I'm not aware of where this comes from. But I

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have not to be fair, I haven't spent you know,

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I've spent. I've spent a little bit of time. I

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could spend much more. But well, we'll see if do

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we need to. You can draw your own conclusions. Are

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you ready? So here we go?

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What else that you would turn in your bibles? First

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to the Gospel of Matthew. Matthew chapter three. Matthew chapter three,

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I'm just gonna read the first six verses. This ties

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in with what we're looking at both this week and

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next week with Isaiah chapter forty.

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And I can understand why the kid is crying in

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the background, because anytime I hear someone say we're going

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to be preaching on Isaiah chapter forty, I start weeping

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as well. If I was visiting your church and your

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pastor said, turn to Isaiah forty, I would just fall

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on the floor, curl up in the fetal position, and

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start wailing and crying. And people would be like who's

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this visitor you brought. He seems to have I think

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he has a demon, And yes, I have a demon

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that says no, no, no, Isaiah forty no. Okay, right

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does that sound Does that sound scary? All right? People

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are like, we need an exorcism, we need a deliverance. Now,

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we just need to stop preaching on Isaiah forty Okay.

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Here we go.

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At least the first portion of Isaiah chapter forty Matthew

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chapter three, beginning at verse one, This is the word

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of our God. In those days, John the Baptist came

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preaching in the wilderness of Judea repent for the Kingdom

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of Heaven is at hand. For this is he who

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was spoken of by the prophet Isaiah when he said,

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the voice of one crying in the wilderness, prepare the

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way of the Lord, make his paths straight. Now John

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wore a garment of camel's and a leather belt around

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his waist, and his food was locust and wild honey.

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Then Jerusalem and all Judea and all the region about

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the Jordan were going out to him, and they were

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baptized by him in the River Jordan, confessing their sins.

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And now turned to Isaiah chapter forty. I'll be reading

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verses one through eleven. We'll be looking at, actually both

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this week and next week versus one through eleven. Thought

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originally it was going to do one sermon with this,

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but no, so think of this as two parts. And

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in many respects, his first part will seem incomplete. But

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the passage at least verses one through five that will

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be looking at certainly stands, but it certainly helped next

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week when we look at the rest of six through eleven.

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A couple of thoughts. One, it's amazing that he can

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make it through eleven verses in Isaiah forty and two sermons,

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and that's insane that he thought he could do it

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at first and one sermon. Secondly, I'm confused about the breakdown.

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He's gonna do Isaiah forty one through five, almost as

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if it's its own self contained section. My argument is

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Isaiah forty should be broken down. Isaiah forty one through

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two is kind of the prologue, the introduction, Then you

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go three through five, then you go six through eight,

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then maybe nine through eleven, then maybe twelve through seventeen.

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Like I would break it down, I keep one and

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two separate from verse three. I think three something's going

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on in three and that we've got to figure out.

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And not only that he started in Matthew three. Now

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he started in Matthew three, because obviously there's something in

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Isaiah forty verse three through five that would take you

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to Matthew three, mark to the New Testament. Now, this

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is where it's going to get hermeneutically very complex, because

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we then have to consider a hermeneutical understanding of how

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New Testament writers utilize Old Testament passages. And they utilize

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Old Testament passages in a variety of ways that can

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be almost perplexing, confusing, confounding from a hermoneutical standpoint, You're like,

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what are the rules. It's like, the New Testament writer

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can just go back and use Old Testament passages anyway

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they want. They can only quote a part of it,

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they can kind of in some ways seem to rip

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it out of its original context. They can paraphrase it.

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They basically can do whatever they want. Now, on one hand,

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you've got to be very careful because you can't look

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at how New Testament writers use Old Testament passages and

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then establish a hermeneutical principle from how they do so,

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because that will be very, very problematic. What you have

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to remember is that New Testament writers are using Old

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Testament passages under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, so

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that gives them a freedom to do so that I

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may not have because they are doing so under really

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the direction of God, when we are doing so under

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the direction of our own study. Okay, now, I know

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pastors like to claim, no, this is what God told

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me to say, this is what God's leading me. But

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if God is leading and guiding and telling preachers what

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to say, then we would only have one interpretation of

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every passage of scripture. And so while we can get

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on and on and on to show that the reality

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clearly contradicts any claims that God is telling you what

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to say, guy, no, he guided the New Testament writers.

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We do believe that because we believe the New Testament's

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written under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. Right, it's

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inspired scripture, it's an errant, it's infallible. Our preaching is

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not an errant. It's not infallible, and it doesn't come

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from God. It comes from our own study of the text. Therefore,

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it is filled with misunderstanding, misapplication, misinterpretation.

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It is.

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It is flawed at his very best. All right, So

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there's a lot of principles here. But I do find

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it interesting he's going to take Isaiah forty one through five. Now,

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maybe in the sermon he's going to break it down

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into two parts, and he's going to say one through

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two is its own separation, and then three through its

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own section. Three through five is another section. Maybe he's

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going to do that, but I would just like, for

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our outlining purposes, Isaiah forty one through two, I think

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it belongs in its own separate sections. Now I may

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change my mind an hour from now, but that's where

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I stand right now.

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Isaiah, chapter forty, beginning at verse one, Comfort, comfort my people,

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says your God, speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and cry to

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her that her warfare is ended, that her iniquity is pardoned,

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that she has received from the Lord's hand double for

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all her sins, a voice crime in the wilderness. Prepare

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the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert

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a highway for our God. Every valley shall be lifted up,

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and every mountain and hill be made low. The uneven

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ground shall become level, and the rough places a plain,

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and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and

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all flesh shall see it together. For the mouth of

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the Lord has spoken, a voice says, cry, And I said,

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what shall I cry? All flesh is grass, and all

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its beauty is like the flower of the field. The

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grass withers, the flower fades, when the breath of the

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Lord blows on it. Surely the people are grass. The

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grass withers, and the flower fades. But the word of

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our God will stand forever. Go on up to a

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high mountain, Ozion, Herald of good news. Lift up your

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voice with strength, O Jerusalem, herald of good news, Lift

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it up. Fear not, say to the cities of Judah,

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behold your God. Behold the Lord. God comes with might,

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and his arm rules for him.

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Behold, his reward.

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Is with him, and his recompense before him. He will

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tend his flock like a shepherd. He will gather the

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lambs in his arms. He will carry them in his bosom,

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and gently lead those that are with young. May the

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Lord add his blessing to the reading of his holy word.

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So we come now to.

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And to the kid crying in the background. I'm right there,

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with you, right there with you. I want to weep,

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I want to cry. I want to gnash my teeth.

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I want to tear my garments. I want to throw

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ash upon my head. I want to put sackcloth on

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because it's Isaiah forty all right, and because I'm not

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finding any comfort in it. But all right, we'll see

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where this is going to go. All right, so far

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we have he's going to break the sermon. There's going

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to be a two part sermon that's going to cover

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Isaiah forty one through eleven. He's going to cover eleven

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versus and two sermons. And the sermons really not even

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that long. I think it's about forty minutes so, and

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it sounds like he's going to cover verses one through

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five as its own section, which I but our focus

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is not on where he's going to go. We're just

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focusing on what he's going to say around the fourteen

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minute mark, right, So let's just let this go. If

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I interrupt it too long, we're never going to get there, right,

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But let's I want to make sure we at least

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have context. I don't want anyone accuse me of taking

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anything out of context. He's going to put forth his hypotheses.

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I may disagree with the hypotheses. I'm not here to

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criticize his hypotheses. I may disagree with it, but it

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really I all I want to do is just like,

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here's another interpretation. Now just forget the Then at that point,

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it's no longer about this preacher, is no longer the sermon.

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It's just about here's this idea that's been presented, and

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then we'll challenge the idea. All right, So here we go.

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The second half, so to speak, of Isaiah. It is

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interesting because a lot of critical scholars get to chapter

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forty and they see that chapter forty on was written

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by somebody else, a dudo Isaiah, that's what they call him.

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It sounds fancy and academic, and a lot of it

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is because they really can't settle on the reality that

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prophecy actually happened in the Old Testament, predictive prophecy actually happened.

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Many of these critical scholars see a much later date

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that these were written in so that they can read

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their stories of the news, of what they've already seen

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and and experience and write it into the text as

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though somehow it becomes prophecy that way, but that's not

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really the case. In fact, though, chapters forty and especially

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through fifty five and really to the end of the

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book seems very different in some respects. The first half,

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as we went through chapters one through thirty nine, while

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there was comfort, while there was hope that was presented,

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there was a lot of warnings of judgment. As we

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move into chapter forty and really to the end of

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the book, it sort of flips on its head. There's

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a lot more hope, a lot more comfort, a lot

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more looking forward to the grace that God is going

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to bestow, but there will be warnings. Those won't be absent.

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But most especially as we move into chapter forty to

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the end, we start seeing more and more the one

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who is to come, the one who is the servant

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of the Lord, the one who would be the suffering servant,

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the one predicted from of old, none other than our

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Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

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Okay, now immediately he's going, he throws in, he goes

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directly to Christ. Now let me just state again, when

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we get to the idea of the servant, let's make

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it very clear we cannot forget Cyrus. I mean, I've

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talked about this in our overview of Isaiah forty through

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fifty five. I mean, he just immediately, we're gonna have

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this one, the servant, and immediately it's Jesus Christ, who

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wha wha wha wa. Wait a minute, Wait a minute,

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Wait a minute, wait a minute, there's gonna be a

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servant of God. There's gonna be this anointed one that's

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going to be raised up by the name of Cyrus,

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who's going to be instrumental in actually doing the actual

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deliverance that these people actually need in a tangible, physical,

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material way. I know we want to into the text

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immediately make it about Jesus, and make it about salvation,

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and make it about us. But slow down when we

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talk about the servant in what ways when you go

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to Isaiah forty through fifty five and you see the

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servant being described, how many times is it clearly referencing Sorrus?

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And when can you say it's referencing Christ? Now whatever

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you say that it's referencing Christ, you can't forget Cyrus

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in it. He's key to all of this what's going on.

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And Isaiah forty this is prophe this is comfort that

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was given, that was written before they ever go into captivity. Remember,

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Isaiah in a sense is given this comfort and he

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shares this. He's given this comfort by God to give

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to the people, but he gives it. You know, he's

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long dead before they go into captivity. He's long dead

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before they come out of captivity. But this comfort is

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waiting for them. It's it's kind of like, you know,

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predictive comfort. It's prophetic comfort waiting for you to go

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into this situation. And they get this comfort, But what

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do they need. They need a comfort that's about them

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coming out of their captivity. And who's going to be

462
00:28:13.720 --> 00:28:17.079
the one who lets them go. It's going to be Cyrus.

463
00:28:17.359 --> 00:28:21.960
So we cannot forget Cyrus in this, Okay, So I

464
00:28:21.960 --> 00:28:24.559
cannot stress that. That's why I when we did our

465
00:28:24.640 --> 00:28:27.279
overview and everything I talked about right down the name

466
00:28:27.319 --> 00:28:29.079
of Cyrus. I think I said circle it and put

467
00:28:29.160 --> 00:28:32.799
seventy five exclamation points, put it in all caps. I went,

468
00:28:33.000 --> 00:28:36.359
you know, over dramatic and hyperbolic over it. But I

469
00:28:36.400 --> 00:28:40.039
cannot stress that because I mean, you just do it yourself.

470
00:28:40.039 --> 00:28:42.200
You just for yourself. You don't remember I told you

471
00:28:42.200 --> 00:28:44.319
you're supposed to be reading Isaiah forty through fifty five,

472
00:28:44.319 --> 00:28:46.079
over and over and over and over and over. You're

473
00:28:46.079 --> 00:28:48.640
supposed to be listening to sermons on it. Just take

474
00:28:48.839 --> 00:28:51.319
go through Isaiah forty through fifty five, look up anything

475
00:28:51.319 --> 00:28:54.359
that references the servant and see if you can determine

476
00:28:54.359 --> 00:28:57.799
which references are clearly to Cyrus and which references may

477
00:28:57.839 --> 00:29:02.640
be pointing to Christ. We've already talked about this, but

478
00:29:02.960 --> 00:29:05.440
I have to emphasize this because he immediately went to Christ,

479
00:29:05.480 --> 00:29:07.720
and he just kind of left Alsirius, didn't he.

480
00:29:10.960 --> 00:29:14.559
And even as we look at these first eleven verses

481
00:29:14.599 --> 00:29:18.440
both this week and next week, and as we look

482
00:29:18.480 --> 00:29:21.319
at the rest of this second half of Isaiah time

483
00:29:21.359 --> 00:29:24.440
and time again, we'll see something that we saw before,

484
00:29:24.880 --> 00:29:29.920
how the passage has in many respects a certain contemporary

485
00:29:30.000 --> 00:29:34.200
meaning that was useful for the time of Isaiah, useful

486
00:29:34.400 --> 00:29:38.079
for the days of Israel of old, but yet also

487
00:29:38.319 --> 00:29:42.559
has an eschatological side, that is, it points to the

488
00:29:42.720 --> 00:29:48.000
end of all time, and our texts today verses one

489
00:29:48.039 --> 00:29:52.119
through eleven today and next week bears that out. Now

490
00:29:52.240 --> 00:29:55.640
verses one through eleven of chapter forty, it really is

491
00:29:55.720 --> 00:30:01.359
kind of a prologue to this whole section. It opens

492
00:30:01.400 --> 00:30:04.039
it up. It opens up the idea of comfort. Well,

493
00:30:04.039 --> 00:30:06.079
why does Israel need such comfort?

494
00:30:08.119 --> 00:30:10.880
Okay? Now, he says, Isaiah forty one through eleven is

495
00:30:10.880 --> 00:30:12.759
the prologue. I kind of put verses one through two

496
00:30:12.799 --> 00:30:15.279
in a prologue. But he just asked a great question,

497
00:30:15.920 --> 00:30:23.000
why does Israel need comfort? Okay? That's that's great. At

498
00:30:23.079 --> 00:30:26.680
least we have a sermon that is making it about Israel.

499
00:30:27.000 --> 00:30:30.799
All right, that is awesome. Praise God for that. I

500
00:30:30.839 --> 00:30:34.920
am happy. Whoo, the clouds have parted, the sun has

501
00:30:34.920 --> 00:30:38.319
come out, all right, the rainbow is Their skittles are

502
00:30:38.319 --> 00:30:41.799
falling from the rainbow. And I'm getting, you know, buckets full. Oh,

503
00:30:41.880 --> 00:30:45.200
there's a unicorn that you're run by. There's butterflies. Oh,

504
00:30:45.359 --> 00:30:50.279
the rain has parted. Oh it's wonderful. Okay, because he

505
00:30:50.359 --> 00:30:54.440
actually asked the question why does Israel need comfort? Okay? Great,

506
00:30:54.640 --> 00:30:57.440
And we know he's gonna immediately go to Isaiah thirty nine.

507
00:30:57.519 --> 00:31:00.359
He's gonna put this in context. Things are goin about,

508
00:31:00.400 --> 00:31:02.799
things are looking up, things are getting better. Why have

509
00:31:02.920 --> 00:31:05.920
you guys been so discouraged and so defeated and so

510
00:31:06.119 --> 00:31:09.480
negative and so cynical? How shame on all of you?

511
00:31:09.519 --> 00:31:12.359
Now I'm hitting my microphone. Why, all right? Because you

512
00:31:12.400 --> 00:31:14.480
should have been you should have been much more positive.

513
00:31:14.480 --> 00:31:14.720
All right?

514
00:31:14.759 --> 00:31:16.440
So here we go, we get to the positive, right,

515
00:31:16.519 --> 00:31:16.960
here we go.

516
00:31:19.759 --> 00:31:21.440
Well, there's a couple of ways that we can look

517
00:31:21.480 --> 00:31:23.119
at it. First of all, think of it from the

518
00:31:23.160 --> 00:31:25.599
perspective of what we saw last week at the end

519
00:31:25.680 --> 00:31:30.440
of chapter thirty nine. What was the warning there everything

520
00:31:31.200 --> 00:31:34.279
in the House of the Lord was going to be

521
00:31:34.400 --> 00:31:39.960
taken everything a doom and gloom type of scenario, and

522
00:31:40.000 --> 00:31:43.759
Hezekiah's response was just simply, well, I'll have peace in

523
00:31:43.839 --> 00:31:50.319
my day. The prediction was that essentially Jerusalem would be destroyed,

524
00:31:51.200 --> 00:31:53.680
everything taken from the temple, and the people would be

525
00:31:53.720 --> 00:31:58.400
carried off, and we know that happened. So you move

526
00:31:58.440 --> 00:32:02.480
into chapter forty and you have words of comfort in

527
00:32:02.680 --> 00:32:07.000
stark contrast to the so called doom and gloom of

528
00:32:07.079 --> 00:32:12.519
chapter thirty nine and its prediction. But it's also important

529
00:32:12.519 --> 00:32:17.920
to understand that Isaiah is already writing here from chapter

530
00:32:17.960 --> 00:32:24.279
forty one, to a people that are yet to be exiled.

531
00:32:24.920 --> 00:32:29.519
It's a fascinating thing. The people are not yet exiled,

532
00:32:29.559 --> 00:32:33.039
and yet Isaiah is writing to them as if they

533
00:32:33.079 --> 00:32:39.559
will be because they will be and the reality is

534
00:32:39.839 --> 00:32:46.200
it's preparation. They will need to turn back to words

535
00:32:46.240 --> 00:32:52.000
of comfort when the exile comes. And that's what much

536
00:32:52.039 --> 00:32:55.119
of the second half deals with words of comfort to

537
00:32:55.200 --> 00:33:01.519
an exiled people looking forward to the day when they're Messiah.

538
00:33:02.119 --> 00:33:05.240
Well we move into chapter forty and as I mentioned versus.

539
00:33:06.960 --> 00:33:11.400
Yeah, to an exiled people when their Messiah comes, and

540
00:33:11.519 --> 00:33:17.480
their Messiah their deliverer is Cyrus, because he's the one

541
00:33:17.480 --> 00:33:20.920
who's going to deliver them from captivity. I know that

542
00:33:21.079 --> 00:33:23.079
I got to keep mentioning out because Cyrus is going

543
00:33:23.119 --> 00:33:25.759
to get And what does it mean so called doom

544
00:33:25.799 --> 00:33:29.240
and gloom? I don't know. If your city is destroyed,

545
00:33:29.279 --> 00:33:32.200
your temple is destroyed, everything inside the temple is carried away,

546
00:33:32.200 --> 00:33:34.480
and you go into slavery and people die and suffer,

547
00:33:34.599 --> 00:33:36.720
I don't know if that's so called doom and gloom.

548
00:33:36.839 --> 00:33:39.440
I think that's actual doom and gloom. Okay, I don't know.

549
00:33:39.440 --> 00:33:41.079
It's kind of weird, do wa he say? You know, well,

550
00:33:41.079 --> 00:33:44.279
if so called doom so called doom and gloom, it's

551
00:33:44.759 --> 00:33:47.920
can it get worse than everything being destroyed and you

552
00:33:47.960 --> 00:33:50.640
get taked off? You're taken off as a slave, which

553
00:33:50.640 --> 00:33:52.559
you're going to be there for seventy years, meaning a

554
00:33:52.680 --> 00:33:55.079
large portion of these people are going to never get out.

555
00:33:55.119 --> 00:33:57.400
They're going to die there. Like I think that's more

556
00:33:57.440 --> 00:34:00.000
than so called doom and gloom. That sounds like Sirius

557
00:34:00.200 --> 00:34:03.920
doom and gloom. Okay, all right, so all right, so

558
00:34:04.200 --> 00:34:06.160
we're I'm with him here. So if I didn't like

559
00:34:06.200 --> 00:34:08.360
the so called part, but I understand I say things

560
00:34:08.400 --> 00:34:10.039
in sermons that I look back and go, I probably

561
00:34:10.039 --> 00:34:11.480
wouldn't have said it that way, So I don't think

562
00:34:11.480 --> 00:34:13.360
he meant it that way. But all right, I get it,

563
00:34:13.400 --> 00:34:17.400
all right, Okay, to an exile people who are looking

564
00:34:17.400 --> 00:34:19.840
for their messiah. I think it's for the exile people

565
00:34:19.840 --> 00:34:23.159
looking for deliverance. And who's going to be the delivery

566
00:34:23.239 --> 00:34:24.840
is going to be Syrus? Okay, all right, all right,

567
00:34:24.840 --> 00:34:26.159
all right, let's let's continue.

568
00:34:27.400 --> 00:34:31.079
Does one through eleven really form a prologue to much

569
00:34:31.159 --> 00:34:34.039
of the second half, and in fact, if you want

570
00:34:34.039 --> 00:34:36.679
to look at verses one and two, they sort of

571
00:34:36.719 --> 00:34:39.320
form a prologue to the prologue.

572
00:34:41.920 --> 00:34:44.960
Right now, that's good, all right, So he says forty

573
00:34:45.400 --> 00:34:48.079
In one sense, forty one through eleven is a prologue,

574
00:34:48.079 --> 00:34:50.280
But In another sense, forty one through two is the

575
00:34:50.280 --> 00:34:52.559
prolog to the prologue. And I love that because I

576
00:34:52.599 --> 00:34:55.559
think forty one through two, Chapter forty verses one through

577
00:34:55.559 --> 00:34:58.800
two have to be separated from everything else. I think

578
00:34:58.840 --> 00:35:00.960
that's the only thing that may sense. So all right,

579
00:35:01.480 --> 00:35:05.119
I may not his way of arguing. Okay, great, forty

580
00:35:05.159 --> 00:35:07.480
one through eleven is a prologue, but forty verses one

581
00:35:07.519 --> 00:35:09.840
through two is a prologue to the prologue. Okay, great.

582
00:35:09.960 --> 00:35:12.159
I still think three through five has to kind of

583
00:35:12.199 --> 00:35:17.480
be separated from six through maybe eight, and then maybe

584
00:35:17.559 --> 00:35:19.400
nine through eleven. I think I would break it down

585
00:35:19.440 --> 00:35:22.440
a little bit more. Well, next Sunday we'll probably break

586
00:35:22.559 --> 00:35:24.800
I'll probably try to come to some kind of conclusion

587
00:35:24.800 --> 00:35:27.440
in how I want to outline the chapter. Right. But

588
00:35:27.440 --> 00:35:30.800
but okay, so there's a lot of agreement here. There's

589
00:35:30.840 --> 00:35:33.239
a lot of agreement. This is a good thing. We're

590
00:35:33.280 --> 00:35:35.840
finding some agreement, all right, So what's going to happen?

591
00:35:35.880 --> 00:35:36.639
Let's find out.

592
00:35:39.000 --> 00:35:42.639
It sets the stage for the rest of chapter forty

593
00:35:42.719 --> 00:35:49.480
verses one through eleven. What do we need this for? Well,

594
00:35:49.880 --> 00:36:00.119
the church at large today, the church at large today

595
00:36:00.519 --> 00:36:03.719
is in many respects in a lot of trouble.

596
00:36:05.760 --> 00:36:13.599
Okay, what just happened? What just happened? The so called

597
00:36:13.639 --> 00:36:17.280
doom and gloom for them, but for us in many aspects,

598
00:36:17.360 --> 00:36:19.960
the church is in serious trouble. Hey, the people going

599
00:36:20.000 --> 00:36:23.000
into captivity, so called doom and gloom. But hey, hey,

600
00:36:23.119 --> 00:36:26.199
now all of a sudden, it's about us. Now, Wait

601
00:36:26.239 --> 00:36:31.159
a minute, so Isaiah forty, does Isaiah forty have any

602
00:36:31.239 --> 00:36:34.719
words of comfort for you and I and the church

603
00:36:35.199 --> 00:36:45.960
that is in serious trouble? Okay, all right, let's we

604
00:36:50.519 --> 00:36:53.639
How do we do this? How do we do this?

605
00:36:53.840 --> 00:36:58.159
He even acknowledges to some point the historical context, but

606
00:36:58.280 --> 00:37:02.960
he he almost was dismissive of it. Hey, so called

607
00:37:03.000 --> 00:37:05.320
doom and gloom. And then there's some comfort from them. Hey,

608
00:37:05.639 --> 00:37:07.039
but why do we need this?

609
00:37:07.199 --> 00:37:07.639
What do you mean?

610
00:37:07.679 --> 00:37:10.559
Why do we need this? They needed it? What where

611
00:37:10.559 --> 00:37:12.519
did we come into play? But all of a sudden,

612
00:37:12.519 --> 00:37:15.920
now it's about the church. It's in serious trouble. All right,

613
00:37:16.280 --> 00:37:18.719
Let's see how he takes the church being in serious

614
00:37:18.760 --> 00:37:25.559
trouble and somehow inserts this sorry, let's see. Let's see.

615
00:37:25.559 --> 00:37:27.480
I'm gonna be patient. I'm gonna be patient, I'm gonna

616
00:37:27.480 --> 00:37:30.320
be optimistic because just a little while ago. I was saying,

617
00:37:30.320 --> 00:37:33.320
the sun was coming out, there was a rainbow, Skittles

618
00:37:33.360 --> 00:37:39.239
were falling, a unicorn, butterflies. Everything was wonderful, right, I know,

619
00:37:39.360 --> 00:37:41.960
I see I see some storm clouds gathering there. Do

620
00:37:42.039 --> 00:37:45.119
you see them? I see the lightning. Oh, that looks like,

621
00:37:45.199 --> 00:37:48.039
oh it's gonna be Let's hope there's not an F

622
00:37:48.039 --> 00:37:50.679
five tornado in that. Let's hope. Come on, come on,

623
00:37:51.320 --> 00:37:53.440
come on, I'm gonna watch. I'm gonna be a good

624
00:37:53.440 --> 00:37:56.639
storm watcher. I'm watching. I'm tracking the storm. Maybe it's

625
00:37:56.679 --> 00:37:59.079
gonna slide off to our north or to our south,

626
00:37:59.440 --> 00:38:01.679
or east or west, depending on how the storms move

627
00:38:01.719 --> 00:38:04.719
in your local area. Okay, maybe maybe it's gonna slide away.

628
00:38:04.760 --> 00:38:07.119
It's gonna it's gonna bypass us. All right, let's let's

629
00:38:07.280 --> 00:38:09.960
I see the clouds forming. But I'm going to be hopeful.

630
00:38:10.000 --> 00:38:10.760
All right, here we go.

631
00:38:15.639 --> 00:38:22.119
The church at large today has been making nice with

632
00:38:22.280 --> 00:38:27.079
the world, has tried to make alliances with the world,

633
00:38:27.639 --> 00:38:33.719
has compromised its message for the sake of not offending

634
00:38:33.760 --> 00:38:37.960
the world. The very thing that was worn throughout this

635
00:38:38.079 --> 00:38:42.800
first half of Isaiah. Don't make alliances with other pagan

636
00:38:42.920 --> 00:38:48.280
nations is what the church at large is doing today,

637
00:38:48.840 --> 00:38:51.239
and there may come a point where the church in

638
00:38:51.320 --> 00:38:54.519
this land will have to read through this second half

639
00:38:54.559 --> 00:38:56.880
of Isaiah itself.

640
00:38:59.159 --> 00:39:04.159
Okay, so the church has played nice with the world

641
00:39:04.320 --> 00:39:07.320
and there's gonna come a day where the church is

642
00:39:07.360 --> 00:39:09.800
gonna have to read through Isaiah forty through fifty five.

643
00:39:10.000 --> 00:39:11.679
Why are we going to have to read through it?

644
00:39:11.719 --> 00:39:14.480
Because somehow you're telling me the words of Isaiah forty

645
00:39:14.519 --> 00:39:17.000
through fifty five that was written to us specific people,

646
00:39:17.159 --> 00:39:20.239
and actual captivity is not how, somehow going to apply

647
00:39:20.320 --> 00:39:22.880
to us. Somehow, We're just gonna rip this out of

648
00:39:22.920 --> 00:39:25.320
it to context and go, hey, guys, the church is

649
00:39:25.360 --> 00:39:27.960
in trouble. Now here's some comfort. I know it has

650
00:39:28.000 --> 00:39:29.960
nothing to do with you. I know it's not written

651
00:39:30.000 --> 00:39:32.800
about you, but go ahead and steal the comfort because

652
00:39:32.840 --> 00:39:35.480
we can steal comfort because we don't care about the

653
00:39:35.519 --> 00:39:50.440
stinking context. Man. Okay, the dark clouds have come back. Man,

654
00:39:50.559 --> 00:39:57.960
I don't understand this. So I guess if we're gonna

655
00:39:57.960 --> 00:40:00.599
take Isaiah forty through fifty five and say, well, the

656
00:40:00.719 --> 00:40:02.400
church is going to read through this, does that mean

657
00:40:02.559 --> 00:40:04.679
the church, because we play nice with the world, we're

658
00:40:04.719 --> 00:40:08.159
gonna go into captivity into Babylon for seventy years or

659
00:40:08.199 --> 00:40:09.679
are we just going to turn this into one just

660
00:40:09.760 --> 00:40:12.840
gigantic allegory. Well, we're not going to really go into captivity.

661
00:40:12.920 --> 00:40:15.079
I mean, it's not going to really be Babylon. I mean, well,

662
00:40:15.079 --> 00:40:17.320
it's gonna be Babylon, a spiritual Babylon. And it's not

663
00:40:17.360 --> 00:40:19.400
gonna be really a seventy years because seventy years doesn't

664
00:40:19.400 --> 00:40:21.760
really mean seventy years, and it's not Israel, it's really

665
00:40:21.800 --> 00:40:24.199
the Church. And we get comforted, Well, we're not gonna

666
00:40:24.199 --> 00:40:26.400
get a cyrus well, I mean, and we just start

667
00:40:26.480 --> 00:40:29.119
I don't know, just turning this into I don't know,

668
00:40:29.239 --> 00:40:31.679
let's just everyone grab a piece of paper and make

669
00:40:31.760 --> 00:40:38.360
up your own story. We need the.

670
00:40:38.320 --> 00:40:41.599
Comfort of the Lord because we, of all people should know,

671
00:40:41.719 --> 00:40:44.599
especially on this side of the cross and this side

672
00:40:44.599 --> 00:40:48.320
of the resurrection, that when God says he will do something,

673
00:40:48.360 --> 00:40:54.079
he will do it, and that includes judging wickedness.

674
00:40:55.440 --> 00:40:56.360
I don't know what.

675
00:40:56.280 --> 00:40:59.199
The immediate future holds for the Church here on earth.

676
00:41:00.079 --> 00:41:04.639
Reason to believe, as a amillennialist myself, that Jesus will

677
00:41:04.639 --> 00:41:06.719
come back soon he could.

678
00:41:09.039 --> 00:41:11.920
I had to know it was an amillennialist, didn't you.

679
00:41:12.159 --> 00:41:15.559
I had to know. I had to know it was

680
00:41:15.599 --> 00:41:17.800
an amillennialist. I had to know. I mean I could

681
00:41:17.800 --> 00:41:21.360
have guessed it. As soon as they start leaving Israel

682
00:41:21.559 --> 00:41:24.480
and making it about the church, you almost inevitably know

683
00:41:24.880 --> 00:41:27.800
you're listening to an ammillennialist. You can just guess. Look,

684
00:41:27.840 --> 00:41:29.880
you don't even knowed to go to seminary, you don't

685
00:41:29.880 --> 00:41:34.000
need Bible college. Just listen. Listen. How quickly does it

686
00:41:34.079 --> 00:41:37.599
become about us? How quickly is the church inserted where

687
00:41:37.719 --> 00:41:42.079
Israel once stood? Insert the Church, replace Israel with the Church,

688
00:41:42.320 --> 00:41:45.960
and you know you're listening to amillennialism. You know it.

689
00:41:45.960 --> 00:41:59.280
It's a guarantee. Oh man, okay, But we don't know.

690
00:42:02.159 --> 00:42:05.360
And so the church at large needs to remember these

691
00:42:05.440 --> 00:42:08.840
words throughout the rest of Isaiah, these words of comfort,

692
00:42:08.920 --> 00:42:12.719
these words of hope.

693
00:42:13.079 --> 00:42:18.039
So the church needs to remember the words of comfort

694
00:42:18.559 --> 00:42:23.480
that wasn't given to them. Now, if you see some

695
00:42:23.639 --> 00:42:27.679
sections in Isaiah forty through fifty five that you could say, well,

696
00:42:27.760 --> 00:42:30.519
I think that clearly is referencing. I think that clearly

697
00:42:30.599 --> 00:42:35.679
has implications beyond I'm all ready to accept that when

698
00:42:35.719 --> 00:42:39.119
we get there. But comfort, ye, comfort ye, my people.

699
00:42:39.400 --> 00:42:42.760
That has nothing to do with you or me. The

700
00:42:42.880 --> 00:42:47.719
context is Isaiah thirty nine. It's for people in Babylonian captivity.

701
00:42:47.920 --> 00:42:50.480
You haven't been in Babylonian captivity. I haven't been in

702
00:42:50.519 --> 00:42:54.440
babylon captivity. They were in Babylonian captivity. The comfort is

703
00:42:54.480 --> 00:42:59.239
for them and their real real life not so called

704
00:42:59.320 --> 00:43:05.280
doom and glue. They're real life tragedy. They're real life suffering,

705
00:43:06.639 --> 00:43:09.920
and they need to be comforted. This is their their

706
00:43:10.639 --> 00:43:12.800
you know there, their comfort given to them before they

707
00:43:12.840 --> 00:43:16.159
even face the tragedy, and the words are ready now

708
00:43:16.199 --> 00:43:18.960
when they're there. Someone needs to take these words to them.

709
00:43:18.960 --> 00:43:21.559
It can't be Isaiah, he's dead. These words have to

710
00:43:21.559 --> 00:43:25.199
be taken by someone to the people. Comfort ye, Comfort ye,

711
00:43:25.639 --> 00:43:29.400
my people, saith your God. This is God's words of

712
00:43:29.400 --> 00:43:32.639
comfort to his people. His people is identified in Isaiah

713
00:43:32.719 --> 00:43:35.760
thirty nine as the people who are in Babylonian captivity.

714
00:43:36.159 --> 00:43:38.519
That's who the words are for. That's who they have

715
00:43:38.599 --> 00:43:40.760
to be applied to. If you're going to apply him

716
00:43:40.760 --> 00:43:43.559
to anybody else, you need textual bases in order to

717
00:43:43.559 --> 00:43:46.519
do that. You just can't take your awn millennial eschatology

718
00:43:46.639 --> 00:43:49.000
and to just cram it into the Bible and just

719
00:43:49.079 --> 00:43:52.159
remove people and replace people because your theology says so,

720
00:43:52.519 --> 00:43:55.079
I don't care about your stinking theology. I don't care

721
00:43:55.119 --> 00:43:59.760
about dispensational theology, all millennial theology, pre millennial theology. Stop

722
00:43:59.800 --> 00:44:04.280
allowing your theology to guide your hermeneutics. Your hermaeneutics should

723
00:44:04.280 --> 00:44:06.920
not be guided by your theology. Your theology should be

724
00:44:06.920 --> 00:44:09.039
guided by the text. And guess what if you go

725
00:44:09.119 --> 00:44:11.880
by the text, sooner or later, you're gonna find yourself

726
00:44:11.880 --> 00:44:17.480
at odds with every theological system unless you just forget

727
00:44:17.599 --> 00:44:30.119
this text and you just follow the philological system.

728
00:44:25.239 --> 00:44:28.079
That you and I may keep our eyes fixed heavenward,

729
00:44:28.159 --> 00:44:33.480
no matter how bad things might get for us. So

730
00:44:33.719 --> 00:44:36.199
as we look at verses one through eleven, this is

731
00:44:36.239 --> 00:44:38.559
going to be a two part sermon. Part two is

732
00:44:38.639 --> 00:44:42.400
next week. We're looking at basically the same thing as

733
00:44:42.400 --> 00:44:45.079
a whole. It's four points. We'll look at the first

734
00:44:45.079 --> 00:44:49.280
two points today, the next two points next week. Well,

735
00:44:49.280 --> 00:44:51.960
what I have to show out of this text Versus

736
00:44:52.000 --> 00:44:54.280
one through eleven, part of it today, part of it

737
00:44:54.320 --> 00:44:59.280
next week. It's simply this that the promised glory and

738
00:44:59.480 --> 00:45:07.639
present of Jehovah will bring great hope and consolation. The

739
00:45:07.760 --> 00:45:12.920
promised glory and presence of Jehovah will bring great hope

740
00:45:13.159 --> 00:45:16.360
and consolation. I'll tell you all four points. So we're

741
00:45:16.360 --> 00:45:18.239
only going to look at the first two this evening.

742
00:45:18.880 --> 00:45:29.000
First of all, God's comfort, secondly God's glory, thirdly God's Word,

743
00:45:29.760 --> 00:45:37.159
and finally God's gentleness, God's Comfort, God's glory, God's Word,

744
00:45:37.519 --> 00:45:39.000
and God's gentleness.

745
00:45:39.039 --> 00:45:44.119
So, now that's an interesting outline you may want to write.

746
00:45:44.199 --> 00:45:46.199
You may actually may want to write that outline down

747
00:45:46.400 --> 00:45:48.280
and you can then see what you would do with

748
00:45:48.320 --> 00:45:56.079
each point. Comfort, Glory, Word, Gentleness, God's Comfort, God's Glory,

749
00:45:56.199 --> 00:46:00.000
God's Word, God's gentleness. Now you can take those four points,

750
00:46:00.400 --> 00:46:04.760
break it down. Now, what does each section then say

751
00:46:04.920 --> 00:46:10.480
to the original people and the original context. Don't don't

752
00:46:10.480 --> 00:46:12.400
turn around and make it about you or I don't,

753
00:46:12.480 --> 00:46:16.920
don't don't be a narcissistic textual hijacker. We keep talking

754
00:46:16.920 --> 00:46:18.800
about this over and over and over and over and

755
00:46:18.840 --> 00:46:21.360
over and over and over again. Now let's see what

756
00:46:21.360 --> 00:46:22.960
he's going to do with the comfort part. I know

757
00:46:23.000 --> 00:46:26.719
we're already at forty six minutes. Okay, I knew see

758
00:46:26.719 --> 00:46:29.440
when I when I when I provide the fuller context,

759
00:46:29.480 --> 00:46:31.800
it can become much more frustrating. But at least we

760
00:46:31.920 --> 00:46:34.599
now know this is coming from an ameal perspective. And

761
00:46:35.280 --> 00:46:40.960
I hate to be so dismissive, but if it comes

762
00:46:40.960 --> 00:46:44.239
from an ameal perspective, you just know the Church is

763
00:46:44.280 --> 00:46:47.360
going to replace Israel almost instantaneously. It's what's gonna happen.

764
00:46:47.400 --> 00:46:51.400
And there's going to be an allegorical leaning and allegorical

765
00:46:52.000 --> 00:46:56.519
propensity to take text and turn it into some spiritualized,

766
00:46:57.239 --> 00:47:01.199
allegorical thing that somehow is fulfilled in the Church because

767
00:47:01.360 --> 00:47:06.960
Israel gets the boot. All right, that's ah.

768
00:47:07.400 --> 00:47:12.000
This evening, Justic's first two points God's comfort and God's glory.

769
00:47:12.079 --> 00:47:15.280
So first of all, God's comfort. Look again at verse one.

770
00:47:16.079 --> 00:47:22.800
Comfort comfort my people, says, your God, speak tenderly to Jerusalem,

771
00:47:22.880 --> 00:47:26.639
and cry to her that her warfare is ended, that

772
00:47:26.679 --> 00:47:30.239
her iniquity is pardoned, that she has received from the

773
00:47:30.280 --> 00:47:35.360
Lord's hand double for all her sins. As I mentioned

774
00:47:35.400 --> 00:47:37.800
at the end of chapter well, really chapter thirty nine

775
00:47:37.880 --> 00:47:39.840
was not all that long, but at the end we're

776
00:47:39.920 --> 00:47:45.079
left with the sad reality that judgment was coming, exile

777
00:47:45.280 --> 00:47:48.920
was coming. After the warning of doom to come given

778
00:47:49.000 --> 00:47:56.159
to Hezekiah. Come now these words comfort, comfort my people. Now,

779
00:47:56.239 --> 00:48:00.519
unfortunately the ESV kind of masks it of us are

780
00:48:01.159 --> 00:48:05.400
familiar with more of the King James and even well

781
00:48:05.800 --> 00:48:12.400
the Messiah know that it's comfort, ye my people. No,

782
00:48:12.639 --> 00:48:18.280
we also have to understand that even there, that the

783
00:48:18.400 --> 00:48:25.519
subject of the command to comfort is the plural you

784
00:48:25.519 --> 00:48:31.920
you all, comfort my people. So it's important to understand that.

785
00:48:32.760 --> 00:48:35.199
And we also see here that what we've got is

786
00:48:35.280 --> 00:48:36.559
a dual command.

787
00:48:36.639 --> 00:48:41.280
It's repeated. Okay, now now we're up to the point

788
00:48:41.320 --> 00:48:43.599
that we wanted to get to. All right, He's going

789
00:48:43.639 --> 00:48:47.920
to make a great emphasis that it's a dual command comfort, comfort.

790
00:48:47.960 --> 00:48:50.400
I got no problem with that. It's it's very important.

791
00:48:50.559 --> 00:48:53.960
It's emphatic comfort. Comfort. You look at the Hebrew word

792
00:48:54.000 --> 00:48:59.599
for comfort. It's it's it's showing its need. It's it's immediacy.

793
00:48:59.679 --> 00:49:04.159
It's needed. Now the consolation is needed. Now there's an

794
00:49:04.320 --> 00:49:10.440
urgency comfort comfort. He focuses on comfort ye, comfort yee,

795
00:49:10.480 --> 00:49:14.400
And that ye, he says, is plural. And he's gonna

796
00:49:14.440 --> 00:49:20.039
make a claim about the use of the plural that well,

797
00:49:20.079 --> 00:49:23.159
I have never heard before. All right, And so he

798
00:49:23.480 --> 00:49:28.000
says that's been it's other commentaries. Make this. You can

799
00:49:28.039 --> 00:49:30.239
see what you think here. Here's what we really wanted

800
00:49:30.280 --> 00:49:32.079
to get to a right. All that other stuff is

801
00:49:32.119 --> 00:49:33.920
just kind of stuff we've already talked about over and

802
00:49:33.960 --> 00:49:36.079
over and over. But every time I listen to sermons

803
00:49:36.079 --> 00:49:39.800
on Isaiah forty, it's the same problem that is presented

804
00:49:39.880 --> 00:49:42.119
over and over and over with how the text is handled.

805
00:49:42.280 --> 00:49:46.440
But here, now something unique occurs. His focus is okay,

806
00:49:46.440 --> 00:49:48.960
comfort comfort. It's a dual command. It's a double command.

807
00:49:48.960 --> 00:49:51.840
It's repeated. Okay, got it. But he wants to focus

808
00:49:51.920 --> 00:49:57.719
on the ye the plural comfort, yee you all comfort

809
00:49:57.960 --> 00:50:02.000
my people? All right? So this who is the plural?

810
00:50:02.360 --> 00:50:04.880
Who is this who is commanded to comfort? Who is

811
00:50:04.880 --> 00:50:09.000
this plurality that is supposed to comfort? And what does that?

812
00:50:09.480 --> 00:50:12.159
I mean, well, well, we'll see what he says, and

813
00:50:12.159 --> 00:50:14.039
then I think we can just work through it. And

814
00:50:14.079 --> 00:50:15.679
I think it kind of I don't know why this

815
00:50:15.960 --> 00:50:18.000
makes a lot of difference, but let's see where he

816
00:50:18.039 --> 00:50:18.480
goes with.

817
00:50:18.360 --> 00:50:24.840
This comfort comfort. It's emphatic, and when you see things

818
00:50:24.840 --> 00:50:28.840
that are repeated, it's intended to be emphatic to really

819
00:50:28.960 --> 00:50:37.519
emphasize the point. It also underscores the emotional intensity that

820
00:50:37.639 --> 00:50:42.320
is involved here. People that will be under such duress

821
00:50:42.679 --> 00:50:48.000
will need comfort. And again, as I mentioned, the command

822
00:50:48.079 --> 00:50:51.360
is actually plural. Hence where you see in the old

823
00:50:51.480 --> 00:50:55.880
King James, comfort e my people. The plural commands is

824
00:50:55.920 --> 00:51:03.280
a poetic expression really of the heavenly court of gone.

825
00:51:03.440 --> 00:51:08.719
All right, the plural is a poetic expression of the

826
00:51:08.880 --> 00:51:15.840
court of God. Comfort ye, because they use the plural,

827
00:51:16.199 --> 00:51:19.719
this is a poetic expression about the court of God.

828
00:51:22.840 --> 00:51:26.559
What just happened here, right, Let's see if he articulates

829
00:51:26.599 --> 00:51:28.840
that explain that seems to be what he's saying is

830
00:51:28.880 --> 00:51:33.840
God is telling the court of heaven to comfort his people.

831
00:51:38.519 --> 00:51:38.559
What.

832
00:51:38.920 --> 00:51:41.719
Okay, let's see if he explains.

833
00:51:45.920 --> 00:51:49.920
Comfort my people, says your God.

834
00:51:51.039 --> 00:51:51.199
Now.

835
00:51:51.360 --> 00:51:54.760
Commentators have noted that the grammar here of the Hebrew

836
00:51:55.320 --> 00:51:59.400
indicates that really it's not we really need to understand

837
00:51:59.440 --> 00:52:04.480
this as something that God keeps on saying. It's an

838
00:52:04.679 --> 00:52:09.880
ongoing message and that alone should give us.

839
00:52:10.039 --> 00:52:18.320
Comfort now, he says. Commentaries say that the grammar demonstrates

840
00:52:18.320 --> 00:52:21.559
that this is God saying comfort, comfort, keep on comforting.

841
00:52:21.719 --> 00:52:24.760
So therefore it goes beyond the people in Babylonian captivity

842
00:52:24.840 --> 00:52:26.719
and it goes all the way to us. So he's

843
00:52:26.760 --> 00:52:31.639
finding a way. He's arguing that the Hebrew grammar makes

844
00:52:31.679 --> 00:52:35.719
this goes beyond its historical setting. And I was a

845
00:52:35.719 --> 00:52:38.559
little confused by this. So I started looking and trying

846
00:52:38.559 --> 00:52:41.199
to see what I could find and try to understand.

847
00:52:41.239 --> 00:52:44.920
So I had to ask artificial intelligence. I'm like, so

848
00:52:45.159 --> 00:52:50.199
I gave artificial intelligence the entire sermon. I gave artificial

849
00:52:50.199 --> 00:52:54.320
intelligence the entire sermon. It provided a complete breakdown of

850
00:52:54.400 --> 00:52:58.679
the sermon, and it critiqued some of this, like even

851
00:52:58.719 --> 00:53:02.039
AI immediately caught like, m what about this? What about this?

852
00:53:02.119 --> 00:53:04.719
So I had to then get specific that he in

853
00:53:04.800 --> 00:53:08.039
the sermon makes a claim in the attached file that

854
00:53:08.119 --> 00:53:11.239
the command to comfort is the plural comfort yee. He

855
00:53:11.360 --> 00:53:16.679
makes claims about that. Are these claims accurate because he

856
00:53:16.760 --> 00:53:19.960
says commentaries, but he doesn't give the name of the commentary.

857
00:53:20.000 --> 00:53:21.960
So it's not like I could look up the commentaries

858
00:53:21.960 --> 00:53:24.119
and go where where are they getting this in the

859
00:53:24.119 --> 00:53:26.719
Hebrew grammar. I could go look at the Hebrew grammar.

860
00:53:27.000 --> 00:53:30.079
I don't I'm not qualified enough to be able to

861
00:53:30.119 --> 00:53:32.679
determine where where is this coming from. He's not relying

862
00:53:32.719 --> 00:53:35.559
on his understanding of Hebrew grammar. He's relying on some

863
00:53:35.679 --> 00:53:39.000
commentary and supposedly what they say about Hebrew grammar. But

864
00:53:39.119 --> 00:53:41.480
you don't know if the commentary writer has the knowledge

865
00:53:41.480 --> 00:53:43.840
of the Hebrew grammar, or if the commentary writer is

866
00:53:43.880 --> 00:53:46.480
relying on someone else's supposed knowledge. So you don't know

867
00:53:46.519 --> 00:53:49.400
what this is second hand, third hand, fourth hand, fifth hand.

868
00:53:49.519 --> 00:53:51.880
You don't even know where this whole thing originates from.

869
00:53:51.960 --> 00:53:54.480
You're kind of just left at Well, what he's saying

870
00:53:54.559 --> 00:53:57.000
is accurate. So this is his way of getting the

871
00:53:57.039 --> 00:54:00.000
comfort beyond the original people to you and I, because

872
00:54:00.239 --> 00:54:02.559
the whole thing is about hijacking the text to make

873
00:54:02.599 --> 00:54:07.360
it about us. That's all what preachers do. So the

874
00:54:07.519 --> 00:54:11.280
Ai said Isaiah forty verse one is indeed in the

875
00:54:11.280 --> 00:54:14.760
plural form in the original Hebrew, and then it gives

876
00:54:14.760 --> 00:54:18.679
me the original Hebrew. It says, this detail has implications

877
00:54:18.679 --> 00:54:22.960
for interpreting the passage, but the accuracy of his claims

878
00:54:23.440 --> 00:54:27.559
about its significance depends on how well they align with

879
00:54:27.679 --> 00:54:33.440
the textual, linguistic, and contextual understanding of the passage. So

880
00:54:33.800 --> 00:54:36.880
the Ai is like, look, he made these claims, but

881
00:54:37.000 --> 00:54:40.320
the accuracy of this claim really depends on how well

882
00:54:40.360 --> 00:54:45.639
they align with the textual, linguistic, and contextual understanding. So

883
00:54:45.760 --> 00:54:49.039
AI is a little easy? Is even going? We got

884
00:54:49.039 --> 00:54:53.679
to pause here, right? So the plural imperative in Hebrew,

885
00:54:54.679 --> 00:54:58.880
the repetition here of comfort ye, comfort ye, and the

886
00:54:58.920 --> 00:55:02.840
plural form indicat that the command is directed to multiple

887
00:55:02.920 --> 00:55:06.719
individuals or groups. This could suggest that God is addressing

888
00:55:06.719 --> 00:55:11.000
a collective audience. So if God is addressing a collective audience,

889
00:55:11.480 --> 00:55:16.039
comfort yee, all of you, comfort my people, who could

890
00:55:16.159 --> 00:55:19.960
all of the you plural? Who could that be referring

891
00:55:20.000 --> 00:55:23.079
to in the historical context. I don't think it's that complicated.

892
00:55:23.239 --> 00:55:27.400
It can't be referring to Isaiah. He's dead. So Isaiah

893
00:55:27.599 --> 00:55:30.960
gives the message, someone's got to take the message and

894
00:55:31.000 --> 00:55:32.760
give it to the people. Is that going to be

895
00:55:32.840 --> 00:55:36.239
one individual or is it going to be the prophets,

896
00:55:36.679 --> 00:55:40.760
the priest, the religious leaders, plural. It's not going to

897
00:55:40.800 --> 00:55:43.079
go to It's not like Isaiah handed this over to

898
00:55:43.280 --> 00:55:47.280
hear you, Bob, you're the man, got No. He was

899
00:55:47.360 --> 00:55:50.920
to write down give the message. The message then was

900
00:55:50.960 --> 00:55:54.679
to be given. God is calling anyone who has access

901
00:55:54.719 --> 00:55:57.599
to Isaiah forty through fifty five, anyone who has this

902
00:55:57.719 --> 00:56:00.679
prophetic comfort? You take it. This is not about the

903
00:56:00.719 --> 00:56:03.199
court of heaven for crying out loud. This is the

904
00:56:03.280 --> 00:56:06.960
people living at that time. They are to bring the message,

905
00:56:07.280 --> 00:56:11.000
so Ai said. This could suggest that God is addressing

906
00:56:11.079 --> 00:56:14.440
a collective audience such as wait for it, wait, wait wait,

907
00:56:14.440 --> 00:56:17.599
who could it be a prophets? Oh wait, who could

908
00:56:17.599 --> 00:56:21.159
it be? Spiritual leader? Or oh wait wait the nation

909
00:56:21.360 --> 00:56:24.800
of Israel causing them to bring calling them to bring comfort.

910
00:56:24.840 --> 00:56:28.079
So anyone in the nation, everyone in the nation, take

911
00:56:28.119 --> 00:56:33.719
these words of comfort and comfort one another with them. Everyone,

912
00:56:34.079 --> 00:56:37.000
anyone who has access to Isaiah forty through fifty five,

913
00:56:37.079 --> 00:56:40.360
anyone who knows these words of comfort, give them. It's

914
00:56:40.440 --> 00:56:43.599
not I don't understand why this is something like, oh,

915
00:56:43.639 --> 00:56:45.599
this is about the court of heaven. What do we

916
00:56:45.639 --> 00:56:48.400
even How did we get into some kind of mysticism here?

917
00:56:48.639 --> 00:56:54.079
It's to anyone who has access comfort one another. The

918
00:56:54.079 --> 00:56:57.679
common interpretation of the plural form directed at the prophets.

919
00:56:58.000 --> 00:57:00.559
Many commentators understand the plural and pair of his God's

920
00:57:00.559 --> 00:57:03.320
instruction to the prophets to proclaim his message of comfort

921
00:57:03.320 --> 00:57:06.480
to his people. It is a collective responsibility. It could

922
00:57:06.519 --> 00:57:08.760
also imply a broader call to any who would act

923
00:57:08.800 --> 00:57:12.239
as God's messenger to share his comfort and promises with Israel.

924
00:57:12.400 --> 00:57:14.480
I mean, it's it's not even complicated. Why don't we

925
00:57:14.559 --> 00:57:20.760
turn this into this represents the poetic expression of the

926
00:57:20.760 --> 00:57:24.159
Court of God, and this says that God is continuing

927
00:57:24.199 --> 00:57:27.960
to comfort way past the historical context. None of that

928
00:57:28.159 --> 00:57:32.039
is found here. The double command intensifies the urgency and

929
00:57:32.079 --> 00:57:35.960
importance of message and underscores God's deep desire for his

930
00:57:36.079 --> 00:57:39.800
people to comfort after the judgment of the exile. So

931
00:57:39.960 --> 00:57:42.920
even AI's like, it's pretty simple, and it's pretty straightforward.

932
00:57:43.000 --> 00:57:49.280
Comfort ye who is the Ye? Well, it's whoever has

933
00:57:49.320 --> 00:57:52.599
access to I is a forty through five prophets, people, priest,

934
00:57:52.840 --> 00:57:56.679
religious lators, anybody, and who are you to comfort my people?

935
00:57:56.840 --> 00:57:59.440
The whole name anyone in the nation is to comfort

936
00:57:59.480 --> 00:58:02.480
everyone in the nation, because the nation needs comfort because

937
00:58:02.519 --> 00:58:05.960
they are in Babylonian captivity. This has nothing with saying well,

938
00:58:06.000 --> 00:58:08.480
now this extends beyond this is the court of Heaven.

939
00:58:08.599 --> 00:58:15.119
I don't know where any of that even goes. Now,

940
00:58:15.199 --> 00:58:18.119
the speaker, well, well we'll we'll let him go a

941
00:58:18.159 --> 00:58:21.480
little bit longer. Ai Ai then says, okay Ai says,

942
00:58:21.519 --> 00:58:24.920
I'm going to access the the I'm going to access

943
00:58:26.280 --> 00:58:30.679
I'm going to examine the entire sermon, and especially on

944
00:58:30.719 --> 00:58:34.239
this particular point. So AI starts computing and does its thing.

945
00:58:34.440 --> 00:58:36.719
I'll get to that. Let's see where where else he

946
00:58:36.800 --> 00:58:39.639
takes this, because right now there I don't I don't

947
00:58:39.639 --> 00:58:41.480
even know where he's going. We've already made it pretty.

948
00:58:41.519 --> 00:58:44.800
I mean, it's not even that complicated.

949
00:58:45.840 --> 00:58:51.320
That God in his heavenly court is consistently and continually saying,

950
00:58:51.840 --> 00:58:53.079
comfort my people.

951
00:58:56.280 --> 00:59:00.599
That's because we need it. We need it.

952
00:59:02.679 --> 00:59:06.639
And God, because of his covenantal promises to Abraham, to

953
00:59:06.760 --> 00:59:10.599
Isaac and to Jacob, because of his love for us

954
00:59:10.840 --> 00:59:14.960
that is found in Christ Jesus our Lord, he continually

955
00:59:15.039 --> 00:59:18.960
in the heavenly court says, comfort my people.

956
00:59:20.920 --> 00:59:24.880
This is insane. So he takes this. He just makes

957
00:59:24.880 --> 00:59:27.079
some claim that in the Hebrew grammar, this means God

958
00:59:27.159 --> 00:59:30.760
is continuing to tell everyone in the heavenly court, comfort

959
00:59:30.800 --> 00:59:33.599
my people, Comfort my people. And he says, why because

960
00:59:33.639 --> 00:59:37.480
we need it. No, they needed it, not we. They

961
00:59:38.199 --> 00:59:41.079
unless you're in Babylonian captivity. Stop why did you just

962
00:59:41.159 --> 00:59:51.679
insert us they need comfort, not we? Man, This is

963
00:59:51.760 --> 00:59:55.480
the stuff that drives me crazy. With the Bible, we

964
00:59:55.519 --> 00:59:58.639
can literally make it say whatever we want. Hey, this

965
00:59:58.679 --> 01:00:01.320
is a poetic expression about the Court of God, and

966
01:00:01.360 --> 01:00:04.360
this somehow demonstrates that God forget them. This goes way

967
01:00:04.400 --> 01:00:07.320
beyond them, and God is every single day saying everyone

968
01:00:07.480 --> 01:00:11.159
in the heavenly Court, comfort my people, Comfort my people.

969
01:00:11.199 --> 01:00:13.320
And why is God doing that? Because we need it?

970
01:00:13.400 --> 01:00:16.880
Why because of Covenant of the Covenant promises. Wait, the

971
01:00:16.880 --> 01:00:20.400
Covenant promises made to Israel. Yeah, that makes perfect sense,

972
01:00:20.400 --> 01:00:23.960
and Isaiah forty, because Israel needs the comfort promises that

973
01:00:24.039 --> 01:00:27.400
come from the Covenant, where God promise them let me

974
01:00:27.440 --> 01:00:33.079
see land restoration. Yeah, specific promises. Are you going to

975
01:00:33.159 --> 01:00:35.920
go still these promises and then spiritualize them and then

976
01:00:35.960 --> 01:00:46.639
give them to us man Even Ai at this point

977
01:00:46.760 --> 01:00:49.280
says that the person makes the claim that the command

978
01:00:49.440 --> 01:00:52.840
is directed to all believers of the Church today. Ai

979
01:00:53.000 --> 01:00:56.840
says this is a misstep if it implies a direct application.

980
01:00:57.519 --> 01:01:02.679
If it implies a direct appleation, the original context addresses

981
01:01:02.719 --> 01:01:06.800
a specific audience, likely profits or messengers tasked with declaring

982
01:01:06.840 --> 01:01:10.000
comfort to Israel, and the context of the Babylonian exile.

983
01:01:10.320 --> 01:01:13.960
Applying this directly to the Church today overlooks the historical

984
01:01:13.960 --> 01:01:18.519
and textual context. However, by extension, one could argue that

985
01:01:18.559 --> 01:01:21.840
believers are called to reflect God's character, including offering comfort.

986
01:01:21.960 --> 01:01:26.159
But this is an application definitely not the text primary meaning.

987
01:01:26.440 --> 01:01:28.360
So if you're going to expand it, then you would

988
01:01:28.400 --> 01:01:30.880
be like, okay, as they were called the comfort, we

989
01:01:30.960 --> 01:01:33.599
are called the comfort. But the comfort they offer is

990
01:01:33.639 --> 01:01:36.119
different than the comfort we can offer because they can

991
01:01:36.159 --> 01:01:41.280
offer very physical, material, tangible promises that I can't offer

992
01:01:41.320 --> 01:01:44.559
to people because they are under covenant. Promises that are

993
01:01:44.599 --> 01:01:48.280
not directly are comforted promises. So I explained in church

994
01:01:48.320 --> 01:01:52.119
how this comfort could work. Right, we need to be comforted,

995
01:01:52.159 --> 01:01:54.679
but with what it's a different kind of comfort. We

996
01:01:54.800 --> 01:01:57.239
can be comforted with our all that Christ has done

997
01:01:57.280 --> 01:02:01.679
for us in our position. And then the engible, material,

998
01:02:01.840 --> 01:02:04.760
physical promises are for us in heaven where there's a

999
01:02:04.760 --> 01:02:07.039
new heaven, new earth, no more pain, no more suffering,

1000
01:02:07.119 --> 01:02:11.000
no more death. But in the meantime we're gonna have pain, suffering, death,

1001
01:02:11.000 --> 01:02:13.039
and there is no promise that God is going to

1002
01:02:13.079 --> 01:02:16.000
do any intervention to help us with any of our

1003
01:02:16.119 --> 01:02:21.840
daily suffering and tragedies. But if you immediately take this

1004
01:02:21.880 --> 01:02:24.079
and make it about the church. You're going way beyond

1005
01:02:24.239 --> 01:02:27.000
the intended meaning of the text.

1006
01:02:31.119 --> 01:02:35.639
Does that knowledge not give you some sense of comfort?

1007
01:02:36.639 --> 01:02:41.760
It should? And when God commands in the heavenly court,

1008
01:02:42.480 --> 01:02:49.519
guess what happens the command He commands comfort? His comfort

1009
01:02:49.840 --> 01:02:50.920
will come.

1010
01:02:51.519 --> 01:02:51.679
Now.

1011
01:02:51.679 --> 01:02:56.159
I realize all of us can go through things, hardships, difficulties,

1012
01:02:56.199 --> 01:03:01.760
whatever the case may be. But you can be assured

1013
01:03:03.639 --> 01:03:08.559
because your God in heaven is crying out comfort my people,

1014
01:03:10.039 --> 01:03:11.960
that that comfort will indeed come.

1015
01:03:14.639 --> 01:03:18.639
Oh my goodness, gracious he acknowledges we're going to suffer things.

1016
01:03:18.639 --> 01:03:21.119
But hey, hey, God is calling for comfort for you

1017
01:03:21.280 --> 01:03:23.079
right now in heaven. So you can be assured that

1018
01:03:23.079 --> 01:03:25.519
comfort is coming. Now, what do you mean by that?

1019
01:03:25.800 --> 01:03:28.119
I need you to define that, and I need you

1020
01:03:28.199 --> 01:03:31.840
to be very specific. Because there's some child being molested

1021
01:03:32.079 --> 01:03:35.039
week after week after week. Is God's comfort coming for

1022
01:03:35.119 --> 01:03:40.719
that kid? There's some kid right now laying in some

1023
01:03:40.840 --> 01:03:43.800
children's hospital, dying of some disease that he's never going

1024
01:03:43.880 --> 01:03:49.440
to see a sixtieth birthday. Is God's comfort coming for him? Now?

1025
01:03:49.559 --> 01:03:56.039
What do you mean? Do you mean any eternity? Now?

1026
01:03:56.079 --> 01:03:59.880
These promises in Isaiah forty are tangible. It's about them

1027
01:04:00.239 --> 01:04:04.559
and very specific time and real history being delivered from

1028
01:04:04.599 --> 01:04:07.519
a very tangible, I material thing. If you go take

1029
01:04:07.559 --> 01:04:09.559
these promises, no, wait a minute, or how are you

1030
01:04:09.559 --> 01:04:10.960
gonna apply them to us?

1031
01:04:11.079 --> 01:04:11.239
Oh?

1032
01:04:11.280 --> 01:04:14.280
I know you're going through different a difficult time, but hey, hey, hey, hey, no,

1033
01:04:14.400 --> 01:04:16.480
God's comfort is coming now. What do you mean by that?

1034
01:04:17.840 --> 01:04:20.400
Is my situation going to get better? Is the cancer

1035
01:04:20.480 --> 01:04:23.239
going away? Is my dead mother going to be resurrected

1036
01:04:23.280 --> 01:04:25.480
so that I can talk to her again? What do

1037
01:04:25.519 --> 01:04:34.559
you mean by that? The people are the thousands of

1038
01:04:34.559 --> 01:04:36.960
people who starve to death every week in the world.

1039
01:04:37.079 --> 01:04:39.400
Are they gonna get food all of a sudden? Is

1040
01:04:39.400 --> 01:04:41.880
famine gonna go away? Is this gonna go away? Is

1041
01:04:41.920 --> 01:04:44.039
this gonna go away? What do you mean by comfort?

1042
01:04:44.480 --> 01:04:47.440
He's just some generic, vague thing. Hey, I know you're

1043
01:04:47.480 --> 01:04:49.800
going through a difficult time, but just know comfort is coming.

1044
01:04:49.880 --> 01:04:51.880
Well what does that mean? Well, you're gonna feel better,

1045
01:04:52.599 --> 01:04:55.880
You're gonna feel You're gonna get a feeling. What does

1046
01:04:55.880 --> 01:04:58.800
it mean now? Is he gonna clarify?

1047
01:05:01.519 --> 01:05:03.360
Of course, on this side of the cross and the

1048
01:05:03.360 --> 01:05:08.760
resurrection of Jesus Christ, whom did the Lord Jesus pour

1049
01:05:08.880 --> 01:05:13.639
out upon us? None other than the Holy Spirit, the peraclet,

1050
01:05:14.039 --> 01:05:20.000
the comfort as that down payment of the inheritance that

1051
01:05:20.159 --> 01:05:24.719
is to come. He is the one who is the

1052
01:05:24.760 --> 01:05:30.440
beginning of the ultimate fulfillment of this comfort.

1053
01:05:30.920 --> 01:05:33.719
Now what comfort does the Holy Spirit give? Is the

1054
01:05:33.719 --> 01:05:39.239
Holy Spirit the seal, the down payment of my salvation.

1055
01:05:39.719 --> 01:05:43.880
So doesn't the Holy Spirit comfort me and knowing that

1056
01:05:44.000 --> 01:05:48.079
I am sealed and kept until the day of redemption?

1057
01:05:48.480 --> 01:05:53.159
Is the comfort one about my security and eternity? Or

1058
01:05:53.239 --> 01:05:55.679
is it somehow he brings me comfort? Now? Is this

1059
01:05:55.840 --> 01:05:59.840
like he gives me good feelings during horrible trial tragedy?

1060
01:06:00.159 --> 01:06:03.159
It about a feeling like when you talk about comfort, Yeah, God,

1061
01:06:03.199 --> 01:06:07.679
I say something tangible, especially if you're stilling the comfort

1062
01:06:07.800 --> 01:06:16.199
from the people in Isaiah forty comfort my people.

1063
01:06:16.320 --> 01:06:22.079
But notice also how this goes speak tenderly to Jerusalem,

1064
01:06:22.159 --> 01:06:28.639
somewhat woodenly. It's speak to the heart, Speak to the heart,

1065
01:06:28.840 --> 01:06:31.559
a heart that is troubled, a heart that is in

1066
01:06:31.719 --> 01:06:36.280
duress and despair. We think about a people that are exiled.

1067
01:06:36.599 --> 01:06:40.920
If you want to understand the deep distress that Israel

1068
01:06:41.039 --> 01:06:43.639
was in, that Judah was in, just go through the

1069
01:06:43.639 --> 01:06:50.679
Book of Lamentations. That's the perfect setting for this, the

1070
01:06:50.719 --> 01:06:55.599
time of exile, taken away from the land. Is there

1071
01:06:55.679 --> 01:07:00.559
God with them comfort My people speak tenderly to Erusalem

1072
01:07:00.800 --> 01:07:06.280
and cry to her, call to her. Both of these,

1073
01:07:06.800 --> 01:07:10.639
the speaking tenderly and the calling or crying out to her,

1074
01:07:11.280 --> 01:07:16.559
carry the weight of persuasion. And if you think about it,

1075
01:07:16.800 --> 01:07:19.920
when we are in deep distress, it is hard sometimes

1076
01:07:19.960 --> 01:07:21.159
to hear words of comfort.

1077
01:07:21.199 --> 01:07:22.599
We talked about this earlier.

1078
01:07:24.960 --> 01:07:28.159
It is hard to hear those words of comfort.

1079
01:07:29.519 --> 01:07:33.159
Now. He did a good job by reverting back to Israel,

1080
01:07:33.199 --> 01:07:36.480
to Judah and Babylonia captivity. He did a really good job,

1081
01:07:36.800 --> 01:07:38.960
and then immediately came right back to us and immediately

1082
01:07:39.000 --> 01:07:41.480
just won't right back to us. Hey, I gotta throw

1083
01:07:41.519 --> 01:07:43.639
them in. But let's make it about us. Let's make

1084
01:07:43.639 --> 01:07:46.960
it about us now. So I had to continue talking

1085
01:07:47.440 --> 01:07:49.440
and trying to figure this out. But the grammar of

1086
01:07:49.480 --> 01:07:54.440
Isaiah forty one, specifically, the plural imperative, does not inherently

1087
01:07:54.480 --> 01:07:57.519
indicate that the command is ongoing or extends beyond the

1088
01:07:57.639 --> 01:08:01.039
historical context to apply universally. Let me read that again.

1089
01:08:01.679 --> 01:08:05.880
The grammar of Isaiah forty the plural imperative does not

1090
01:08:06.320 --> 01:08:12.760
inherently indicate that the command is ongoing or extends beyond

1091
01:08:12.800 --> 01:08:18.039
the historical context to apply universally. This interpretation of this

1092
01:08:18.159 --> 01:08:21.359
as an ongoing command or one that applies to us

1093
01:08:21.680 --> 01:08:29.840
relies more on philological inference than on strict grammatical artextual evidence.

1094
01:08:30.119 --> 01:08:35.000
Let me state that again, this relies on philological inference,

1095
01:08:35.520 --> 01:08:40.600
then on strict grammatical textual evidence. What did I say?

1096
01:08:40.920 --> 01:08:44.600
He indicated he's all millennial is a tech This is

1097
01:08:44.640 --> 01:08:48.199
a thiological inference to get it about to get it

1098
01:08:48.239 --> 01:08:51.439
about us. There's nothing in the grammar, there's nothing in

1099
01:08:51.479 --> 01:08:54.239
the text that would say, oh, this command is happening

1100
01:08:54.239 --> 01:08:56.399
in the heavenly courts, and it's for you, and it's

1101
01:08:56.399 --> 01:08:58.640
for me. And whenever you go through a difficult time,

1102
01:08:58.800 --> 01:09:01.199
you go to Isaiah forty and you read comfort, Ye,

1103
01:09:01.279 --> 01:09:03.920
comfort you. You say that comfort is for me. No,

1104
01:09:04.000 --> 01:09:16.920
it's for them, not you. Hebrew imperatives Hebrew and peratives

1105
01:09:17.640 --> 01:09:24.399
do not imply duration whether the action, whether the action

1106
01:09:24.600 --> 01:09:28.920
is ongoing or time bound. The command comfort is immediate

1107
01:09:29.079 --> 01:09:33.319
and specific, reflecting the urgency of the message rather than timelessness.

1108
01:09:33.520 --> 01:09:36.720
A Hebrew imperative does not say, oh, I'm about to

1109
01:09:36.760 --> 01:09:39.479
knock the microphone over the Hebrew imperative does not say, oh,

1110
01:09:39.720 --> 01:09:41.600
this means it goes on and on and on and

1111
01:09:41.640 --> 01:09:43.760
on and on. That is not the case. There's nothing

1112
01:09:43.760 --> 01:09:50.039
in the grammar that says that. The context of Isaiah

1113
01:09:50.039 --> 01:09:55.199
forty anchors this command within a specific historical setting, the

1114
01:09:55.239 --> 01:09:59.159
impending deliverance of Israel from Babylonian exile. God is commanding

1115
01:09:59.159 --> 01:10:01.920
his messengers to claim comfort to Israel at a particular

1116
01:10:01.960 --> 01:10:07.199
moment and redemptive history. There is no linguistic or grammatical

1117
01:10:07.279 --> 01:10:13.920
feature here that directly supports an extension beyond the context.

1118
01:10:23.640 --> 01:10:26.359
There's nothing in the grammar. There's nothing. This is just

1119
01:10:26.720 --> 01:10:35.800
being inferred because of someone's still a logical position. We'll

1120
01:10:35.880 --> 01:10:36.960
just now wrap this up.

1121
01:10:40.359 --> 01:10:42.319
But both of these words and the way it is

1122
01:10:42.359 --> 01:10:47.520
all structured here, there's an intended attempt to persuade us.

1123
01:10:48.079 --> 01:10:51.720
And even this is gracious on God's part because it

1124
01:10:51.840 --> 01:10:55.039
ought to be that. God says it, and that settles it.

1125
01:10:55.279 --> 01:11:01.199
But God is patiently working with us trying to persuade us.

1126
01:11:03.359 --> 01:11:08.000
Notice, now, us us us us, us, us, us us,

1127
01:11:08.319 --> 01:11:11.560
would it all become us? Not them? No, no, no, no, no,

1128
01:11:11.760 --> 01:11:16.439
forget them, forget they. It's us us. It's so funny. Christians.

1129
01:11:16.600 --> 01:11:19.800
We so we supposedly are all worried about pronouns, but

1130
01:11:19.840 --> 01:11:21.640
we're not really worried about pronouns when it comes to

1131
01:11:21.720 --> 01:11:25.319
the Bible, because them and they can become you, me

1132
01:11:25.600 --> 01:11:31.079
and us just like that, Just like that. See, we

1133
01:11:31.119 --> 01:11:35.439
can simply say I now identify as them, I now

1134
01:11:35.479 --> 01:11:39.119
identify as they. Oh no, no, you're gonna change your pronouns. Yes,

1135
01:11:39.199 --> 01:11:41.319
I'm at them and they. Oh what do you mean

1136
01:11:41.359 --> 01:11:43.680
by that? I'm all the them's and days in the Bible.

1137
01:11:43.840 --> 01:11:46.239
Anything that refers to them or they is about me.

1138
01:11:47.000 --> 01:11:49.560
I don't refer to me as me, don't refer to

1139
01:11:49.600 --> 01:11:53.079
me as No, No, I'm them and they. I'm everyone

1140
01:11:53.119 --> 01:11:55.920
in the Bible. Just the promises, Oh, any of the

1141
01:11:56.000 --> 01:11:59.800
curses for crying out loud, that's that's them. Now. I'm

1142
01:11:59.840 --> 01:12:03.159
me and I'm I and I'm he when it comes

1143
01:12:03.239 --> 01:12:06.960
to curses. But when it comes to promises, I'm them

1144
01:12:07.239 --> 01:12:10.600
and they because I don't care about them. I only

1145
01:12:10.640 --> 01:12:18.159
care about my stinking self.

1146
01:12:19.079 --> 01:12:24.199
To have hope in Him. What a god we serve?

1147
01:12:25.880 --> 01:12:28.000
I mean, after all, how many of us give up

1148
01:12:28.039 --> 01:12:30.279
after a while, and it seems like we can't get

1149
01:12:30.319 --> 01:12:34.039
anywhere with somebody who's wallowing in whatever pity, whether self

1150
01:12:34.079 --> 01:12:38.800
inflicted or because of situations outside of themselves. How often

1151
01:12:38.800 --> 01:12:41.000
do eventually we just kind of throw up our hands

1152
01:12:41.000 --> 01:12:41.600
and give up.

1153
01:12:41.800 --> 01:12:42.680
Well, I tried.

1154
01:12:44.439 --> 01:12:51.439
Our God does not give up. He does not give up,

1155
01:12:55.800 --> 01:13:00.000
and he will continue to speak tenderly to you.

1156
01:13:01.239 --> 01:13:07.720
So now it's gone to we to you. It's the game, man,

1157
01:13:07.840 --> 01:13:10.680
it's the game. It's the way sermons are played. Man,

1158
01:13:10.920 --> 01:13:19.760
It's just a game, all right. I have no idea

1159
01:13:20.239 --> 01:13:24.159
how comfort ye comfort ye turns into ye is now

1160
01:13:24.279 --> 01:13:26.800
the he It's a poetic expression of the heavenly court.

1161
01:13:27.079 --> 01:13:29.640
And now this means that God is continuing to speak

1162
01:13:29.640 --> 01:13:32.079
to the heavenly court to bring you comfort. I do

1163
01:13:32.239 --> 01:13:35.680
have no clue how that even occurred. I have no idea.

1164
01:13:35.920 --> 01:13:38.119
I don't know where that even came from. Supposedly it

1165
01:13:38.119 --> 01:13:40.840
comes from commentaries plural, but we're not given the name

1166
01:13:40.880 --> 01:13:43.399
of any commentaries, so I have no way of knowing

1167
01:13:43.399 --> 01:13:45.960
where this comes from. I looked in a number of

1168
01:13:46.000 --> 01:13:48.239
commentaries I could find that comes from an a mil position.

1169
01:13:48.760 --> 01:13:52.000
None of them stated anything like this. AI has no

1170
01:13:52.039 --> 01:13:55.800
clue where it's coming from. AIS like there is no grammatical,

1171
01:13:56.079 --> 01:14:00.000
linguistic argument about there's nothing. There's nothing there, there's nothing.

1172
01:14:00.079 --> 01:14:03.479
It even clearly identifies that a Hebrew imperative does not

1173
01:14:03.560 --> 01:14:09.119
speak of duration unless the text says, but it says

1174
01:14:09.159 --> 01:14:11.840
comfort ye, comfort ye, my people, sayeth the Lord, and

1175
01:14:11.880 --> 01:14:16.000
he immediately says, speak comfortably to Jerusalum. It's about them,

1176
01:14:16.319 --> 01:14:20.359
It's about their situation. It's about their situation. Now what

1177
01:14:20.520 --> 01:14:24.159
can apply? What can we apply from that? Yes? Are

1178
01:14:24.199 --> 01:14:27.119
there to talk of comfort to us in the New Testament? Yes,

1179
01:14:27.359 --> 01:14:30.119
but we can't can take our comfort and connect it

1180
01:14:30.159 --> 01:14:33.000
to their comfort. Their comfort and my comfort is different.

1181
01:14:33.239 --> 01:14:37.239
Their comfort was based on specific covenantal promises given specifically

1182
01:14:37.279 --> 01:14:41.760
to them that were about things that were tangible, material, physical,

1183
01:14:41.960 --> 01:14:47.399
about deliverance from a physical captivity. My promises are about

1184
01:14:47.399 --> 01:14:50.840
what I have in Christ Jesus, about my positional standing

1185
01:14:50.880 --> 01:14:54.000
before God, about an imputed righteousness. But at the same

1186
01:14:54.039 --> 01:14:57.439
time it Christianity acknowledges it in this life, pain, suffering, death,

1187
01:14:57.520 --> 01:14:59.439
and there's no hope that God's going to intervene in

1188
01:14:59.520 --> 01:15:02.640
any way perform to fix any of my temporal problems.

1189
01:15:02.680 --> 01:15:04.520
If I say that God's gonna bring me some comfort,

1190
01:15:04.640 --> 01:15:07.359
now you just make it some meaningless. Supposedly you get

1191
01:15:07.359 --> 01:15:10.479
a good feeling instead of a bad feeling. I don't know. Yeah, yeah,

1192
01:15:10.479 --> 01:15:13.279
that's so vague. I don't even know what that means.

1193
01:15:13.319 --> 01:15:16.159
But I can say that I can find comfort that

1194
01:15:16.239 --> 01:15:18.600
in the New Testament there are promises that there will

1195
01:15:18.640 --> 01:15:21.079
be a new heaven, a new earth, no more pain,

1196
01:15:21.159 --> 01:15:23.439
no more suffering, no more death. Now I get to

1197
01:15:23.520 --> 01:15:34.119
tangible promises. When you mix this all up and you

1198
01:15:34.199 --> 01:15:36.359
rip things out of context, what you're doing is you're

1199
01:15:36.399 --> 01:15:39.520
telling people, hey, you see how God jumped in and

1200
01:15:39.640 --> 01:15:42.479
helped these people out of their really bad situation. Well,

1201
01:15:42.479 --> 01:15:44.960
when you leave church today, you can believe that God

1202
01:15:45.000 --> 01:15:48.000
can step in and fix your bad situation. And the

1203
01:15:48.000 --> 01:15:51.279
people say, I have this expectation. And then your bad

1204
01:15:51.359 --> 01:15:54.159
situation goes from bad to worse and the cancer doesn't

1205
01:15:54.159 --> 01:15:58.560
go away, and your mom dies oh, or your brother

1206
01:15:58.680 --> 01:16:01.000
can never walk again, your daughter is killed by a

1207
01:16:01.079 --> 01:16:03.520
drunk driver, or you lose your job, you lose your home.

1208
01:16:04.039 --> 01:16:06.920
This happens, this happens, this happens, this happens, this happens.

1209
01:16:07.279 --> 01:16:10.359
But wait, wait wait, wait, deliverance is coming. Well, if

1210
01:16:10.359 --> 01:16:20.880
you're speaking of eternity, yes, all right there, you have it.

1211
01:16:21.680 --> 01:16:23.479
There's probably a lot more to it. You can look

1212
01:16:23.520 --> 01:16:26.359
it up if you want comfort, comfort my people. He

1213
01:16:26.880 --> 01:16:29.119
does mention in Israel a lot, and I'm very grateful

1214
01:16:29.119 --> 01:16:31.840
for that. But you saw how quickly it becomes about

1215
01:16:31.840 --> 01:16:33.920
me and you, me and you, me and you you us.

1216
01:16:34.760 --> 01:16:36.840
It's not about them, are they anymore? Them and they

1217
01:16:38.000 --> 01:16:40.560
is now turned into us? So we become to them

1218
01:16:40.600 --> 01:16:44.520
and they and the them and they they just get that,

1219
01:16:44.640 --> 01:16:47.279
don't even they just get eliminated? Oh no, no, they

1220
01:16:47.359 --> 01:16:49.640
take all the curses. Of course, you know they see

1221
01:16:49.760 --> 01:16:53.199
that them and they, they got the literal punishment. But

1222
01:16:53.359 --> 01:16:55.279
now that them and they is now us and we

1223
01:16:55.359 --> 01:16:59.960
get all the blessings. Isn't that wonderful? What a coincidence

1224
01:17:00.880 --> 01:17:06.159
we get the good and not the bad? All right?

1225
01:17:06.800 --> 01:17:08.520
I don't know what else to say. This is just

1226
01:17:08.680 --> 01:17:11.279
the I don't know how how many sermons do we

1227
01:17:11.319 --> 01:17:13.399
need to review to just show that this is just

1228
01:17:13.560 --> 01:17:16.880
never going to end. This is just how Isaiah forty

1229
01:17:16.920 --> 01:17:19.319
through fifty five is handled over and over and over

1230
01:17:19.359 --> 01:17:21.720
and over again. But the reason I had to review

1231
01:17:21.760 --> 01:17:23.920
this one is not because of everything else was said.

1232
01:17:24.159 --> 01:17:26.560
Just those first like two are those two or three

1233
01:17:26.600 --> 01:17:28.920
minutes right there about the fourteen minute mark, where all

1234
01:17:28.920 --> 01:17:32.840
of a sudden comfort yee ye becomes the heavenly court. Comfort.

1235
01:17:32.840 --> 01:17:35.199
Comfort means that God is speaking to the heavenly court

1236
01:17:35.279 --> 01:17:39.960
continually for you and me, and it bypasses them and they,

1237
01:17:40.079 --> 01:17:47.640
and it bypasses the What Now, there may be a

1238
01:17:47.680 --> 01:17:50.600
commentary out there. If I find a commentary that offers

1239
01:17:50.600 --> 01:17:52.199
that argument, it would be interesting one to see if

1240
01:17:52.199 --> 01:17:54.479
it's all millennial, because I have a strong feeling it

1241
01:17:54.520 --> 01:17:58.319
will be. And number two, where they supposedly get the information,

1242
01:17:58.960 --> 01:18:01.359
Like anyone can write a comentary says according to the

1243
01:18:01.359 --> 01:18:04.239
Hebrew grammar, it says this, and it means this. Well,

1244
01:18:04.279 --> 01:18:06.520
the average person's like, okay, I mean, the average person

1245
01:18:06.600 --> 01:18:08.079
is not going to go and enroll in a course

1246
01:18:08.079 --> 01:18:10.840
on Hebrew grammar to the determine if it's true or false.

1247
01:18:11.000 --> 01:18:13.479
So the church member has to rely on the pastor

1248
01:18:13.640 --> 01:18:16.319
telling them that's what the Hebrew grammar means. Well, in

1249
01:18:16.319 --> 01:18:18.319
many cases, the pastor doesn't know that what's the Hebrew

1250
01:18:18.359 --> 01:18:20.520
grammar means he took it from some book. But then

1251
01:18:20.560 --> 01:18:22.600
you don't know where the book got the information, So

1252
01:18:22.680 --> 01:18:25.840
does the person writing the commentary. Did they get that

1253
01:18:25.880 --> 01:18:27.800
from a study of Hebrew grammar or did they get

1254
01:18:27.840 --> 01:18:31.279
that from another source? Typically, the commentaries then don't cite

1255
01:18:31.319 --> 01:18:33.079
the source in which they're getting it, So then you

1256
01:18:33.159 --> 01:18:35.199
have to track down where did this even begin? And

1257
01:18:35.279 --> 01:18:37.119
sometimes you track it down and you're like, oh, this

1258
01:18:37.159 --> 01:18:40.520
started in a sermon in the seventeen hundreds. Nobody has

1259
01:18:40.520 --> 01:18:47.000
a clue where it came from. Now I don't know

1260
01:18:47.000 --> 01:18:50.479
where this idea supposedly originated from. I don't know. I know,

1261
01:18:52.039 --> 01:18:54.119
I mean, I know AI is not perfect, but AI

1262
01:18:54.199 --> 01:18:57.560
polls open, AI polls from all kinds of sources, and

1263
01:18:57.640 --> 01:19:00.399
it's like, I don't know what this is talking about.

1264
01:19:00.760 --> 01:19:03.680
And even IT challenged it going these claims would be

1265
01:19:03.800 --> 01:19:08.960
dependent on the linguistic textual grammatical proof, and it comes

1266
01:19:09.000 --> 01:19:13.680
to the conclusion that there's no textual linguistic grammatical proof

1267
01:19:14.000 --> 01:19:18.720
for any of the arguments being made. Now, I hate

1268
01:19:18.760 --> 01:19:21.399
to say it, I trust AI more than I trust myself,

1269
01:19:21.439 --> 01:19:25.319
okay at this point, because AI doesn't have a philological

1270
01:19:25.359 --> 01:19:28.479
dog in the fight right now, unless it's an AI

1271
01:19:28.600 --> 01:19:31.640
that's being fed a specific theology. Now I can tell

1272
01:19:31.680 --> 01:19:36.760
AI to only answer my questions from a specific philological perspective.

1273
01:19:36.920 --> 01:19:38.640
I can get AI to do that, but I'm always

1274
01:19:38.680 --> 01:19:40.439
like no, no, no, no, no no, don't give me one

1275
01:19:40.479 --> 01:19:42.840
theological answer. I want to. I want to hear how

1276
01:19:42.920 --> 01:19:45.039
everyone looks at it. I want to, I want to know.

1277
01:19:45.359 --> 01:19:48.760
I want to be confronted with every perspective. But this

1278
01:19:48.800 --> 01:19:53.720
one is about language, about grammar, and it even states

1279
01:19:53.880 --> 01:19:57.560
that this is pill this is being placed into the text.

1280
01:19:57.720 --> 01:20:01.520
From a philological perspective, this 's theology being read into

1281
01:20:01.560 --> 01:20:08.359
the text. And if you're dispensational, if you're a millennial,

1282
01:20:08.800 --> 01:20:12.239
I don't care. If you're pre millennial, post millennial, pre tribmit,

1283
01:20:12.560 --> 01:20:16.199
I don't care what your eschatology is. You can't allow

1284
01:20:16.520 --> 01:20:20.680
that to govern how you read the text. You can't

1285
01:20:20.840 --> 01:20:23.079
do that. I don't care if you're a Calvinist. I

1286
01:20:23.079 --> 01:20:24.960
don't care. If you're a non Calvinist. I don't care.

1287
01:20:24.960 --> 01:20:28.399
If you're a Pelagian, semi Palagian, Augustinian, I don't care what.

1288
01:20:28.560 --> 01:20:30.640
I don't care if you're calvinistic. I don't care what

1289
01:20:30.800 --> 01:20:35.520
you are. You can't let your theology control and guide

1290
01:20:35.520 --> 01:20:46.279
your interpreting of the text. The text wins, not your theology.

1291
01:20:47.159 --> 01:20:49.399
The end God bless