The sermon, 'The Desire of the Soul and the Judgment of the World,' delivered by Scott Brown, explores Isaiah 26:9-15, focusing on the power and significance of singing within the Christian faith. It emphasizes that singing is not only a form of worship but also a transformative act that can move emotions and inspire actions. Brown highlights the role of God's judgments as a means through which the world learns righteousness, suggesting that judgment rather than mercy often leads to change and repentance. The sermon discusses the importance of longing for God both individually and as a church community, and how this desire manifests through singing. It draws parallels between historical events in the Bible where singing played a crucial role, such as the Israelites' song after escaping Pharaoh. Furthermore, the sermon contrasts the city of God with the city of man and examines the themes of judgment, grace, and the expansion of God's kingdom. Ultimately, it calls believers to recognize the blessings of God even amidst calamity and to let these truths shape their lives.

Today's scripture, the message is from Isaiah 26 verses 9 through 15. With my soul I have desired you in the night. Yes, by my spirit within me I will seek you early. For when your judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness. Let grace be shown to the wicked, yet he will not learn righteousness.

In the land of uprightness he will deal unjustly, and will not behold the majesty of the Lord. Lord, when your hand is lifted up, they will not see, but they will see and be ashamed for their envy of people. Yes, the fire of your enemies shall devour them. Lord, you will establish peace for us, for you have also done all our works in us. O Lord our God, masters besides you have had dominion over us, but By you only we make mention of your name.

They are dead, they will not live. They are deceased, they will not rise. Therefore, you have punished and destroyed them and made all their memory to perish. You have increased the nation, O Lord. You have increased the nation.

You are glorified. You have expanded all the borders of the land. Let's pray. Lord, we thank you for your word. We praise You for all that You've given us in the Sabbath, Lord, for the rest that we find in You in it.

And we pray for our pastor today as he comes that his words would be Your words, that the Gospel would be on His lips. I pray that You would pour out Your Spirit on Him, or that You would pour out the riches of Your mercy through those words, or that You would save those among us who are lost. In Jesus' name I pray, Amen. Here in Isaiah 26 and verse 9 we find ourselves right in the middle of a song. We left that song off last week and picked it up again and then we're going to pick it up again next week.

And what we find in Isaiah 26 is a picture of people singing. And it explains in this context how one ought to sing when the walls are falling down. So It's a remarkably beautiful song. It's very detailed, and it covers so many different kinds of subjects. And it just has heightened, in my own mind, the importance of singing, as I've gone through this over the last, you know, several days, and how important it is that we sing.

And how important it is that we understand that what we sing is a blessing to our souls. Here's a reality. Songs change your life. Songs move your emotions. Songs actually take you into action.

And they're designed by God that way. God has given songs as a blessing. We should be singing. In fact, what distinguishes Christianity is really its singing. What kind of songs it sings.

And so here we're in the midst of this song. And we've only made it to verse 9 so far. But the Bible is actually full of singing. And you know, whenever we're in a passage of Scripture, of course the question on our minds is, how is this going to change my life? How is this going to shape the way I think?

How is it going to form the way I feel about myself, or about life? Or how is it going to make me think about the world, and politics, and economics, and all this kind of? How is this going to help us? And I pray that somehow this song will have some mind-shaping, life-forming effects upon us. Because it really does bring some remarkable thoughts to us, thoughts that don't normally come to mind.

This is one good thing about a song. It brings things into your mind that aren't already in your mind. And then it draws other things out of your heart and your soul. And so this song is like that. And This is why the Bible is so full of songs.

You know, when the children of Israel escaped from Pharaoh, that terrible, abusive leader, what did they do? They sang. They broke out in singing in Exodus chapter 15. You know, when the children of Israel gathered around the tabernacle and later on in the temple, one of the things that they did was that they sang. And it's a distinguishing mark of the people of God that they sing.

And, you know, it's a tragedy today in many churches where the people don't sing anymore, they just listen. There's a fantastic band cranking on, but if you just shut that band down, no one would be singing. It's because they're not doing what's Christian, and it's Christian to sing. And you know, even in the last few days of Moses's life, he's getting ready to die, And God commands him to write a song. I'm pretty sure he wrote the song either the very last day of his life or maybe the last two days of his life.

It's hard to tell, but it seems to me It could have been on the very last day of his life. And he wrote a song in one day and taught it to the children of Israel. And he said, you keep on singing this song. And there's the song of Deborah. There's the song of Mary.

The Bible tells us in Job 38 verse 7 that even the stars sing. We read there, when the morning stars sang together and all the heavenly beings shouted for joy. Now I don't know what that was all about. How are the stars singing along with the heavenly beings, the angels? Somehow there's singing going on in heaven and even physical objects sing.

Or maybe it's just a figurative way of saying that all of creation declares as a glory because the heavens do declare the glory of God and maybe it's not in words But there are songs everywhere. This is why J.I. Packer said that any theology that does not lead to song at a fundamental level is a flawed theology. And I think that's true. That's why there's so many songs in the Bible.

That's why when you get to heaven, guess what we do? We sing with all of our hearts and it will not be a boring song at all. It'll be a song that you will not want to stop singing. And I expect that it'll be such a diverse song. It'll be about so many things.

It won't be about one thing, except it'll be about the salvation in the Lord Jesus Christ. But there are so many categories that this song will touch. It'll touch every heart string that you ever had, and it'll speak to you about every issue that you ever faced, and it'll tell about this infinite and glorious God who saves sinners. But it'll be a very, very dense and detailed and very powerful song that will explain things like this song does here. It's amazing how many things this song explains in Isaiah chapter 26 and because it covers so many different kinds of subjects and it goes from personal expressions to corporate expressions to views of time and eternity and all kinds of things so it's a wonderful it's a wonderful song it is the song about two cities also remember that we've been saying that all along Isaiah 24 to 27 is a testimony of two cities.

What will happen to those cities? And this song is also a song about two cities. It's about the city of God, and it's about the city of man. I've been reading a little bit in Augustine's The City of God. In the last couple of weeks, he wrote this book to declare the differences between the city of God and the city of man.

And of course, he says many things in the city of God that really relate to what we've been studying here in Isaiah chapter 26. But here's what Augustine said about singing, only he who loves can sing. Only he who loves can sing. And I think that that's right. God has given us singing to declare whom we love and what we love and this is why in Christianity singing is such a fundamentally important thing is because you sing about what you love every song is a love song in that sense it's It's a testimony of the love of God.

And so when we sing, it always matters how we sing and whether we sing with all of our hearts. Now, let's just keep drilling down here in Isaiah. Isaiah talks about singing many, many times. In Isaiah, Isaiah is either singing himself or he's talking about someone singing 16 times in the prophet of Isaiah. In Isaiah 5 verse 1, he actually sings a song himself, and it's a song of love for the keeper of the vineyard.

And I love the way this chapter starts out. He says, now let me sing to my well-beloved, A song of my beloved regarding his vineyard. My well-beloved has a vineyard on a very high hill. That's a love song. He's singing to God.

He's really fulfilling this principle that Augustine spoke of as only he who loves can sing. And then if you go to chapter 12, in that great summary chapter of this wonderful section on which is really a call to repent, In Isaiah 12, Isaiah calls for the saved to sing. And he says, sing to the Lord, for he has done excellent things. This is known in all the earth. So there, in 12, he commands the people to sing.

It's what we should do. In Isaiah 23 verse 16, the prophet speaks of the defiling and discouraging song which he calls the song of the harlot. And he says, you know, take a harp, go about the city, you forgotten harlot. Well, everybody sings something. It really matters what you sing.

And so he not only speaks of the song of the harloty, in chapter 24, he speaks of this remarkable scene. He's describing this great sea of humanity. He actually calls it a sea. And there's this great sea of humanity and there's this little tiny expression of the people of God in this great sea, in this great evil sea of humanity. What is happening?

Well, there are people who are singing of the majesty of God. It's the church in the midst of a wicked and perverse generation. Wherever they go, they sing. Wherever they are in the midst of the sea of humanity, when they're at work, when they're driving, when they're doing whatever they're doing in this great stream of ungodly humanity. There are people in the world who sing of the majesty of God.

What a wonderful thing it is to move throughout this world, which in many ways can be discouraging and heartbreaking, but yet you are singing of the majesty of God. And you don't have to be caught in the trap of the despair of this world, but you sing of His majesty." It says, they shall lift up their voice there in chapter 24, verse 14, and they shall sing, for the majesty of the Lord they shall cry aloud from the sea. What a picture. In Isaiah chapter 27, where we're headed in a couple of weeks, the prophet tells the people of God to sing to Leviathan. In other words, to sing to the devil.

How about that? Sing to the devil. And what do you sing to him? Well, you tell him, you tell the devil in this song, how wonderful God is and how well he takes care of his vineyard, how he personally waters his vineyard. This is the song you sing to Leviathan, the devil, the one who's destroyed so many.

You say, no, that's not the end of the story, Leviathan. God is watering his people personally. He's caring for them. In chapter 35, Isaiah speaks of the joyful song of the redeemed, and it says that the lame shall leap like a deer, and the tongue of the dumb sing. For water shall burst forth in the wilderness, and streams in the desert.

Did you know? You've probably heard that phrase, streams in the desert. There's a book that's titled, a popular book called, streams in the desert. Did you know that that phrase actually comes out of a context of a song that the redeemed are going to sing as the tongues of the dumb begin to sing? And then in Isaiah chapter 38, he speaks of the people of God singing with stringed instruments all the days of their lives.

And in chapter 42 verse 10 He speaks of singing a new song to the ends of the earth in Isaiah 42 verse 11. He speaks of pagan nations and wilderness people and the city dwellers and what are they doing? Well, they're singing now because they've been saved. It says, let the wilderness and the cities lift up their voice. The villages that Kedar inhabits, let the inhabitants of Selah sing.

Let them shout from the top of the mountains. In chapter 44, verse 23, and in chapter 49, verse 13, Isaiah calls for the heavens and the mountains to sing and the trees. In Isaiah 52 verse 8, the watchmen lift up their voices and they sing when God delivers His people. In Isaiah 52 verse 9, it's the people of the waste places that are singing. Why?

Because out of their wasted lives, God comforted them. He rescued them. He picked them out of their despair. And so now what are they doing? They're now singing.

In Isaiah 54 verse 1, Isaiah speaks of the singing even of a barren woman. And then in chapter 65 verse 14, he speaks of the joyful singing of the servants of God compared to the sorrows and the griefs stricken and their singing. And he says, Behold, my servants shall sing for joy of heart, but you shall cry for sorrow of heart and wail for grief of spirit." Well, all of this that Isaiah speaks regarding singing is really so consistent with what Augustine said, he who loves sings. And it's such a marvelous picture. So this song here in chapter 26 is a song, and the song is part of an answer to a question and the question is how should I prepare myself for a time of judgment because I say it's prophesying a time of judgment and and he's describing what what will happen with the people of God and and And when this time of judgment comes, how will you be prepared for the reversals and the calamities that will come?

And so Isaiah is giving us a song to sing. He's helping us to know how we ought to sing during that time. So let's pick up where we left off in verse 9. I'm going to speak again of verse 9. We left off about in midway in verse 9.

I'm going to go back to the beginning of verse 9 and pick up this song. And in verse 9, with my soul I have desired you in the night. Yes, by my spirit within me I will seek you early. So in that time of trouble, what should you do? Sing in the night and in the morning." And he speaks of, you know, what is he talking about?

He's talking about what's happening in his soul and in his spirit and his soul desires and his spirit seeks and his soul desires in the night. And there's this term that he uses, soul, my soul. It's the term nephesh, and it has to do really with your life, your mind, your appetite, your emotions. It has to do really, I think of The whole desire of your will, what you long for, what you love, because he who loves sings. And it's this desire.

And I think This word includes both the understanding of the mind and also the inner recesses of the heart and the will. And he answers, when do you do this? In the night and early in the morning. And it's this reminder again of the rhythmical way that God has designed the world. There's the morning and the evening.

And God collects up His worship often around these two terms. And this is why in Psalm 63 verses 1 through 11, David, as he was in the wilderness of Judah, he says, Oh God, you are my God. Early will I seek you. My soul thirsts for you. My flesh longs for you in a dry and thirsty land where there is no water.

So I have looked for you in the sanctuary to see your power and your glory. Because your loving kindness is better than life, my lips shall praise you. Thus will I bless you while I live. I will lift up my hands in your name. My soul shall be satisfied as with marrow and fatness, and my mouth shall praise you with joyful lips when I remember you on my bed I Meditate on you in the night watches you see how David shifts he shifts her morning to the evening to the night watches and even Really after bedtime and he says because you have been my help Therefore in the shadow of your wings.

I shall rejoice my soul follows Close behind you or the King James my soul follows hard after thee. Your right hand upholds me. And this is why David said, you know, as the deer pants for the water brook, so my soul pants for you, O God, for the living God. And this is this idea of the spirit rising up within you It's a mark of a person who loves It's a mark of a person who loves and as a result they sing. Well this terminology of morning and evening is found all throughout the Psalms and we could we could we could speak of it in many ways even even Psalm 1.

I mean most of us know Psalm 1 for a different reason you know blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stands in the path of sinners, nor sits in the seat of the scornful. But then he says this, but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in his law he meditates day and night. This pattern morning and evening, night and day, seeking you continually. This is all through the scriptures. Here's something that is so wonderful to know.

Solomon spoke of it in Proverbs 8. I love those who love me, and those who seek me diligently find me. That he is accessible. And Jeremiah 29 says, Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you. You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart.

And then he says, I will be found by you. Isn't that wonderful? Not only does God seek you, but he is also findable. So what about us? How do we apply this?

Here's a question for us. Are we as a church longing for the presence of God? When we're gathering together, is that what we're longing for? Are we longing for God? I feel like our church has such marvelous fellowship and hospitality.

I mean, I think it's amazing what happens here in that area. You know, I think probably I've only been in five churches in my whole life, but I'll tell you this, I've never seen a church like this that practices hospitality the way this church does. And it's a blessing. And I don't think we should diminish that at all. But here, but there's another question is our longing for the presence of God.

Not just when we're gathering, but in the morning and in the evening, when we sit in the house, when we walk by the way, when we lie down, when we rise up. Our corporate worship is really only an expression, it's only a function of what our private worship has been. And if you, if we come into the congregation we say, well this isn't working for me, usually it's because it wasn't working for you in the morning and in the evening on Monday and Tuesday and Wednesday and Thursday and Friday. But what happens to a people? What happens to their lives when they sing these words, I desire you in the night and early in the morning?

What happens to a person that has that in their heart? It's wonderful things happen to that person. Now Isaiah shifts to singing about singing in the morning and the evening, and then he speaks of what the judgments of God will accomplish. And it seems like it's out of character. Right in the middle of the verse, he seems to change the subject.

Please look really carefully at verse 9, because I want you to see how this works. Now remember this whole section began with praising God for judgment. And this is a song about praising God for His judgment. And we often need sort of an attitude adjustment about judgment, because we don't think rightly about judgment. And God is sort of helping us think differently about judgment.

But notice the connection between the first part of verse 9 and the second part of verse 9. I don't want us to miss this. Because it seems like he changed his subject right in the middle of that verse. Then in the first half of the verse, he's singing about he desires the Lord in the early and late. Do you see that?

And then in the second half, He speaks of the inhabitants of the world learning righteousness. And when I first read this, I thought, these must be disconnected. He's changing the subject here. And the verses don't really mean anything. I'm not sure that's right.

I think he is continuing to speak along the theme. So I don't think he's introducing a new idea. He's singing of what happens in the world when there are souls that long after God in the night and in the morning. Like when you have a people who long for Him in the morning and the night, then something actually happens in the world. Like there's a world impact of those who seek Him.

You might seek Him in the secret place, no one even knows about it. You might be praying to him as you're walking. No one will ever know about it. But what will happen as a result of that? I think that Isaiah is saying there is a direct impact in the world for those who seek him early and those who seek him late." So it says here in the second half, four, now that is a connecting word, it connects with the previous.

In other words, I seek you in the morning and the night, for, and so because of that, because I do that, when your judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness. So there's an impact in the world of your seeking Him early and late. And so he's singing about how the world learns righteousness, how the world learns what is righteous and what is just. And when a person desires him in the night and early in the morning that he and the inhabitants of the world learn justice and righteousness or judgment as he speaks of here and this is one of the ways that the knowledge of God gets known in the world because you have a person who has a genuine belonging, a person who has a love, a person who has a song, and as a result of that they speak of it in the world And it comes out of the wellspring of the heart that desires the Lord. But I don't think that's all here.

Because judgment can be understood in two different ways. It can be understood in terms of truth. There's, like, God's judgments are God's truths in one way. And the word judgment is sometimes used that way. God's judgments are also used as actions, actions of God, where God judges by bringing a specific punishment against people.

Now Isaiah's been speaking of that all along, because there's judgment coming. Sometimes you think he's talking about Sennacherib coming in 722 BC, sometimes you think he's talking about Nebuchadnezzar in 586 BC, Sometimes you think he's talking about Sennacherib coming in 722 BC. Sometimes you think he's talking about Nebuchadnezzar in 586 BC. Sometimes you think he's talking about some other judgment, perhaps 70 AD or the coming of the gospel, where the power of death is broken by the resurrection. Sometimes you think he's talking about the coming judgment, the final judgment, the great white throne, where everyone who's ever been born is brought before God and the sheep are separated from the goats.

But whatever it is, there are these two kinds of judgments. There are the judgments of God, in other words, the commandments, the principles, the statutes of God on the one hand. And then there are also the actions of God to judge. Those are the two ways that judgment is used in the Bible. I'm not sure if he's just using one or both.

I think he could be using both. That, you know, God, they're Out of this life of seeking the Lord in the morning and in the evening, the judgment of God comes. But the context here is of God's physical judgment. Like in verse 11, he sings of God's hand being lifted up. He's speaking of a specific judgment that God is bringing about.

But here's a, if he's speaking about the physical actions of judgment, here's what I don't want us to miss. If he's speaking of that, then he's talking about judgment that changes the course of the wicked. It turns them around. And the idea is that when God judges, when God acts, people learn, they are taught. In other words, the judgments of God are designed to teach something.

So it says, for when your judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness. So Judgment is instruction as well. And I think we've talked about this in different ways over the months being in Isaiah, because Isaiah is constantly talking about judgment. He's giving us an education about God's judgment. Now, so in other words, you know, the judgments of God are designed to teach the wicked something, okay?

And So when something happens, we should always ask, what is God trying to teach me? What is God trying to teach me? Now, Isaiah is singing a truth. When God judges, people learn. This is part of the song, that people learn and they change.

They are made better. Now one of the things that we have to ask here is, what is it that makes people change? But here, It's his judgments that make people change. Now, it's either his judgments in terms of statutes and judgments, or it's his actions, and I think it's both. Actually, the Bible teaches both.

Whether he's talking about both here, I'm not sure. He absolutely, though, is talking about physical judgments. And you know, what is it that makes us change most of the time? Does favor, Does God's favor change the wicked? Does a disclosure of God's beauty change the world?

Like have the heavens that have been declaring the glory of God, has it changed the world? Or is most of the world still rejecting God? Does mercy change the wicked? Does your, does, how about this, has your good example changed the wicked and caused people to be saved? Some people think that it's their good example that's going to cause other people to be saved.

I really question that. There are greater forces at work. Does the sending of a prophet change the wicked? Sometimes it does, sometimes it doesn't. Does some miracle change the wicked?

Usually not. And there are many places in the Bible that you can go and demonstrate that, that the miracles don't change the hearts. They do testify to the power of God. But often people don't care about the miracles. Well, here's what we're learning from Isaiah.

It's judgment that causes the world to learn righteousness. It's judgment. The heart of man resists the truth of God. But when God brings a chastisement, often a man's mind changes. It's the pressure that changes a man.

It's not often the mercy and the sweetness and the glory and all the wonderful gifts of this world that turn men and women around. It's the hard wind that they're running against. It's the ways that they've gotten so bloody as a result of their sin. It's the terrible consequences of the sin that has come and fallen upon them that changes them. That's why so many people turned to the Lord in a time of calamity.

Did you turn to the Lord because there was some calamity? Or did it turn your face? You were running in one way, and God brought a roadblock so great you couldn't comprehend it. And He broke you. He broke you through His judgment.

Has that ever happened to anyone here? Well, I think that Isaiah is giving us this slice of truth in the kingdom of heaven that God uses judgment to change people. Now, we have to ask the question, does he use judgment more than sweetness to change us. I think he uses judgment more than he uses sweetness. You know, God causes His rain to fall on the evil and the good, the sun comes up.

You know, the wicked of the world get to drink in as much beauty as the godly. They see it all. Sometimes they get very wealthy. Sometimes remarkably wonderful things happen to them. But that doesn't change their hearts at all.

And often they don't change until they reach what? The end of their rope. Sometimes you have to be hanging on the end of your rope before God will change you. It's possible this is what Isaiah is speaking about, that a great calamity will come. Now, there are a number of things that we could say about this.

Here's one thing that I think was being discussed on Tuesday morning. It has to do with withholding judgment or punishment. And Sometimes the withholding of judgment is a recipe for failure. Like for example, governments that withhold judgment will fall. Companies that withhold judgment will always falter in meeting their objectives.

Churches that withhold judgment actually cease to become churches. Families that withhold judgment always produce ungodly children. That's the way it is with judgment. That's why God commanded parents to use the rod. It's a portent of greater judgments to come.

It's a warning of coming judgment. So I think that what Isaiah's saying here is that it is God's judgments that make people learn. Now sometimes people don't learn with judgment. In Amos chapter 4 we learn that even judgment doesn't always turn the wicked around. In Amos 4-7 he says, I withheld rain from you when there were still three months of harvest.

I made it rain in one city, I withheld rain from another city, one part it was rained upon and where it didn't rain, the part withered. So two or three cities wandered to another city to drink water, but they were not satisfied. Yet you have not returned to me." In other words, God said, I'm going to have it rain over here, but not over here to drive these people to repentance but they didn't do it they just went to another city he says I blasted you with blight in mildew when your gardens increased your vineyards your fig trees and your olive trees the locusts devoured them yet you have not returned to me, says the Lord. I sent among you a plague after the manor of Egypt. Your young men I killed with the sword.

Along with your captive horses, I made the stench of your camps come up to your nostrils. Yet you have not returned to me. The stench was horrible, and yet still no turning. As God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah, and you were like a firebrand plucked from the burning, yet you have not returned to me, says the Lord. And then he says, prepare to meet your God, O Israel.

So sometimes we don't respond to the judgment that God has brought us to make us learn something. Here's the question. Has God brought some judgment into your life to make you learn something and are you listening to it? You know, Augustine in the City of God, he talks about the fall of Rome and he talks about this culture of entertainment that they built And he speaks of their, he calls it madness and blindness. And he says, he says, even the Eastern nations are bewailing your ruin.

He said, even the most of the, the remotest parts of the earth are mourning your fall. I'm quoting him. He says, but you're crowding the theaters. Why are you going into the theaters? You are crazy.

You're mad. He says, while you're being judged, yet you still run into the theaters instead of repenting of your sin. Life just keeps on going on. What does it mean that his kindness leads us to repentance? That's a question that we should probably engage.

Because in Romans chapter 2 verses 4 through 11, we get a picture of this. Let's turn there. I think it's helpful to read what the context is here. Romans chapter 2 verse 4, or do you despise the riches of his goodness, forbearance and long-suffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance? But in accordance with your hardness and your impenetrable heart, you are treasuring up for yourself wrath in the day of wrath and revelation for the righteous judgment of God who will render to each one according to his deeds eternal life to those who by patient continuance in doing good seek for glory, honor, and immortality, but those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth but obey unrighteousness, indignation and wrath, tribulation and anguish on every soul of man who does evil of the Jew first and also of the Greek." Now, what is Paul saying here?

He says it is the goodness of God that leads to repentance. But what is that goodness? The goodness is not the removal of judgment. The goodness of God is waiting and holding back certain kinds of judgment before he finally judges. This is not a commitment that God will not judge.

What God is saying is that He is delaying final judgment out of mercy. It's that kind of goodness that leads to repentance. You know, I think what it means that it's God's kindness that leads us to repentance is that the sum total of what God does in the most outward manifestations of His goodness, in the causing of rain to fall, on the evil and the good, his forbearance for us in our waywardness, all of these things are part of the goodness of God. But his judgment is not different compared to his kindness. Compared to his kindness.

In fact, God is kind to judge, and he judges because he is kind. But what, you know, what happens to your thinking, you know, and your life and your emotions when you sing words like this, when you sing of His judgments that teach righteousness. In other words, you're going about your life and you're recognizing that God has brought calamity to your life for a reason. He's brought judgment to teach you. He's brought two things, the Word of God to teach you and He's brought judgment to teach you.

And the question is, are you listening to the instruction? And then in verse 10, he continues this thought, and it's, there are lyrics that sing of God's grace toward the wicked. Let grace be shown to the wicked, yet he will not learn righteousness. In the land of uprightness he will deal unjustly and will not behold the majesty of the Lord." Now there are three things that God gives to the wicked. First is grace.

Let grace be shown. By the way, the word shown is also a word that means grace. It means mercy. So It's an interesting, let grace be shown. It's actually literally saying, let grace be graced to the wicked.

And the second is a land of uprightness. They're given grace on the one hand, and they're given a land of uprightness and the third thing they're given is majesty the majesty of God this is what God gives the wicked to to make their observations of the world this is common grace this is not saving grace Nobody ever got saved looking up in the sky and giving thanks for how wonderful the stars were. This is common grace that God gives to all mankind. But he declares that God shows grace to the wicked, but whatever graces that he graces them with, they will remain insensible. That's what that verse means.

And so that's why the lyrics turn toward the hardness of heart of the wicked. Yet, he will not learn righteousness. In other words, grace is given, But the grace doesn't make him learn. In the land of uprightness he will deal unjustly and will not behold the majesty of God. They will not learn.

They will not hear the instruction. It's such a sad thing to have the instruction but not hear it. And that's the picture that he's speaking of here. And how many times have you heard something but you didn't listen to it? That God brought something to you, either by His word or by some calamity or some judgment, and you just kept walking by.

And you didn't pay attention to what God was trying to teach you. That's what He's speaking of here. How many times do we need to hear a lesson? Now, when you have little children, you realize that, you know, they need to hear it more than once typically. And that how many times do adults need to listen to a rebuke, And that rebuke just keeps coming around and around and around.

How many times does God need to send you a message, but you do not hear it, and He keeps sending it again. Isaiah, in this song, is identifying this issue. We should sing about this. In other words, these are helpful lyrics because if we keep singing them, maybe we'll recognize, maybe we'll listen to the judgments that come to us and actually make a turn, have them turn our heads in the right direction. Or else we'll just keep reliving the same nightmare over and over and over again.

Now when you look at the history of Israel, you kind of see this. It seems like they fall into the same nightmare, don't they? And God sends one prophet after another and they don't deal with all that different issues. So I think, you know, the question for us is, is there something that the Word of God and the Spirit of God has been bringing to our attention as a church, and are we dealing with it? Or how about each one of us individually?

Are we dealing with brought to us in an honest way. It says also that they will not behold the majesty of the Lord. Even though they're living in the land of uprightness, even though everywhere they look they can see the blessings. It's hard for me not to think about America. It's hard to live in this land and not see many, many blessings.

And many of those blessings really have come out of a foundation that was laid long ago in our nation. We're losing many of them now for sure, but they live in the land of uprightness, but they will not behold the majesty of the Lord. And There's nothing sadder in the world than a person to miss the majesty of God. And so Isaiah, here again, he's pleading with the people to recognize what has happened. And then he sings of their blindness in verse 11.

Lord, when your hand is lifted up, they will not see. They're living in the land of uprightness, all these blessings are surrounding them, But they will not see. That's the theme of these verses that's here. And so this is a lament for the blindness of the wicked. They just can't see the hand of the Lord.

They're like the people all around us when there's a disaster. They just think it's a natural disaster. God's not in control of the weather. God's not in control of anything. It just happened.

It's just a fluke. It's just bad luck, an unfortunate situation. It's just another challenge to make you better. When actually God is speaking through it. But here in verse 11, he's acknowledging that they will not see the glory of the Lord, that they're both blind and they are deaf.

They're deaf. And I liken that to being dead in trespasses and sins, where you just cannot see. There's no argument that can change that person's heart. There's no abundance that can change that. There's no example that can change their heart.

Nothing will do it. And then there would be lyrics that really are singing of the shame of the wicked at the end of verse 11. Look at it. But they will see and be ashamed for their envy of the people. Now they won't see it experientially and glorify God, but they will be ashamed.

They'll see how foolish they've been. They will be able to sort of get it in some way. They'll see that they're idiots. They'll see that they'll languish as a result of it. The wicked don't appreciate common grace, but in a way they will see what they are doing.

And it says that, you know, what does this mean? For the envy of the people, in verse 11. It means that they'll envy the people of God. They'll envy those who were doing well before God, whose countenance was bright, who was singing this song. They'll be jealous of those people.

They'll see the goodness of God toward them and they'll be jealous as a result. John Gill framed the problem like this. He said, it was envy at the happiness and prosperity of the Lord's people. And the only thing that they'll see is green, the green of envy. And it's the envy of those who repented and who were delivered of their troubles, who had a song in their hearts and who were praising God, who had love in their hearts, like real love.

They weren't just trying to be somebody. They actually had a real song in their hearts that was so different. And they'll see how wrong they were about righteousness, but it will be too late. And they'll mock, they'll mock the people of God in their jealousy. And the Lord will give them anguish of soul when they see who they really are.

And then the lyrics turn at the very end of verse 11 to the destruction of the wicked. It says, yes, the fire of your enemies shall devour them. That's kind of a strange sentence in a way. The fire of your enemies shall devour them. There's fire and it's coming from God's enemies.

So in other words, God's enemies destroy God's enemies. They turn on one another. The fire is terrifying, but this is the picture that's here. And then the lyrics turn in verse 12. Again, Lord, you will establish peace for us.

So now they're singing of God's gift of peace. They're singing of God's marvelous sovereignty. And this is an expansion of verse 3, you will keep them in perfect peace whose mind has stayed on you. And this is their promise that they will have peace. They've already learned that God would bring peace to the human heart whose mind has stayed on him.

Now he's speaking of this establishing or ordaining the piece, which means it's something that's put in place. It's an investment. It's an ordaining of something. And it's peace that is being ordained for them. And it's, again, he uses the word shalom, which means a complete peace from the tip, the tip, the top of your head to the tip of your toes.

And so it's this picture of peace for the people of God. Notice that it's a peace for us. It's a snapshot of the people of God. It's a big family together at peace. Not a family in turmoil, but a family truly in peace.

Envy disturbs peace. There are all kinds of things that disturb peace and that can cause a evil in a church. But here, He has established peace for us. And so in the midst of the conflict, in the midst of the breaking down of society, there's peace. And then there's this singing of dependence, this amazing statement in verse 12, "'For you have also done all our works in us.'" This could have been the entire sermon.

For you have also done all our works in us. This verse speaks of our dependence on God. That We cannot praise ourselves for anything. That He's accomplished whatever is good in us. And that we should never be deceived about our lives.

What do we have that wasn't given us from heaven? That's what the apostle Paul said. He says, what do you have that you did not receive? Jesus says a man can receive nothing unless it's given him from heaven. He said, without me you can do nothing.

That's the theme of Scripture, that God has man in His hands. And there's no reason to be proud about anything, that our self-confidence should not exist. We should have no confidence in ourselves at all and so you you you should not look to your health and have confidence You should not look to your well for your security or your energy and your productivity to have any confidence in it. Don't look to your friendships for your affirmation. People change.

People sin. People will fail you. You cannot look to any of those things. God, look to God. You have done all our works in us.

That's such a critical matter. And then the song turns towards deliverance from your old masters. Verse 13, Oh Lord our God, masters beside you have had dominion over us, but by you only we make mention of your name. So now the song is about the old masters. The song was about your inability, but God's ability.

Then the song turns toward a sort of a memory blast from the past. Your masters, the masters that were not of God, who used to have dominion. Masters beside you have had dominion over us, But by you only we make mention of your name." This is praise for deliverance from old masters, the masters of the flesh, the old man. Here he's talking, you know, he's speaking of Pharaoh, you know, during the Exodus. He's speaking of, I think, the Philistines during the time of the judges and the Assyrians in Isaiah's day.

All these masters that master you, that tell you how to feel and what to do and how to guide your life, the evil influences in the world. And so sing about your old master and in singing about your old master you'll be reminded of the Good Shepherd. And this changes the way that you talk. He says, but by you only we make mention of your name. In other words, when you think about your old master, you talk differently.

You make mention of the Lord because the Lord is your strength. The Lord is your salvation. In this sense, you know, our afflictions are good for us because they cause us to make mention of His name. They drive us to consider His majesty. They help us to recognize our own frailty and have God's greatness.

And so we begin to mention His name. And then in verse 14, we sing of the death of the wicked. Verse 14, they are dead, they will not live. They are deceased, they will not rise. Therefore you have punished and destroyed them and made all their memory to perish." Now verse 14 is really an amazing verse if you look at it really closely.

Notice how many ways God, Isaiah, praises God for the defeat of the wicked. He uses seven different words. He says, they are dead. He says, they shall not live. He says, they are deceased.

He says, they shall not rise. He says, they are punished. He says, they are destroyed. He says, God made all their memory perish. I mean he says the same thing over and over again You know using all these different words.

It's It's almost as if his heart is so comforted by the knowledge that God will destroy the works of the devil, he's just going to jam up every way to speak about it, because he's so glad about it. My father-in-law used to tell me about a lawyer who died. And after his death, one of his old clients called the office and asked for the lawyer, not knowing that he died. The receptionist said, well, I'm sorry, John died recently. And he said, OK, Thanks for telling me.

Hung up the phone. A few minutes later, he calls back. The same receptionist, he says, I'd like to speak with John. The receptionist says, John has died. And the man said, thank you for telling me that.

And then he called back again. And the woman said, why are you calling? I've already told you he's dead. And the man said, well, I just wanted to hear you say it one more time. And that's kind of like, this is what I say, just over and over and over again, he's saying The wicked will be crushed.

In that one verse, seven different ways he speaks of the destruction of the wicked. And then in verse 15, there's the singing of the glory of the spread of the borders. You have increased the nation, O Lord. You have increased the nation. You are glorified.

You have expanded all the borders of the land." So here the song turns toward this picture of the remnant making progress in the world. At minimum he's speaking about the power of the gospel and the spread of the gospel throughout the whole earth. And I think he's saying, when the remnant seems so small and the people of God are like this little tiny dot in the sea of unbelievers, what is their hope? And the hope is right here, that God increased the nation. And even though you feel like your work is hopeless, you feel like it is so small, you feel like you can't make a dent, it's not hopeless, even though it might look hopeless.

Because God is increasing his nation. And he is expanding the borders of his land. This is a picture of missionary activity. This is really a picture of our church. How is it that any of us have come to faith?

It's because God was expanding his borders and he took us from so many different places. He spoke to us in all the different places that we were and he drew us together and he expanded his borders. His kingdom is coming, his will is being done. And so this portion of the song, you know, speaks of this expansion of the kingdom of God under his sovereign power. So in these verses here from 9 to 15, there's been this, the elements of the song of God's judgment in the world and why does God judge the world?

He judges the world to turn their heads. And the world doesn't turn its head by mercy. It turns its head by judgment. And then he speaks of the sovereign power of God in this song from verses 12-15 and ending up with this beautiful description of how God is expanding his borders. So This is a song.

It's a song about a strong city. It's a song about gates that have been opened to sinners. It's a song about the peace of God. It's a song about the fall of the lofty city. It's a song about waiting on God.

It's a song about a soul desiring Him and desiring His renown in the world. It's a song about God's judgment in the world and the hardness of heart of the wicked and the shame of the wicked and of the destruction of the wicked and It and and it is a song It's a it's a beautiful song that speaks of the power of the gospel that in Jesus Christ lost will be saved and that the borders will be expanded. And here's the thing about the borders. They expand to places you would never think. I mean they expanded to your life.

They expanded to my life. They expanded when a heart was dead and was made alive. And that's the power of this song. Would you pray with me? Oh Lord, we thank you for the clarity and the beauty of this song.

It covers so many things, Lord. I pray you would help us as a church to understand them and that you would help us to sing songs like this as we go through our pilgrimage. Lord, I pray you would come and pour your Spirit of blessing out upon our church that you would so comfort us with this song, that you would bring the words of this song to mind, that you would change our thinking about about all these things that it addresses. Amen.