In his sermon, Scott Brown examines Isaiah 22, which calls for the people of Judah to mourn and weep for their sins rather than engage in revelry. This passage is a stark reminder of the dangers of ignoring sin and the spiritual sickness that results from such neglect. Brown contrasts worldly joy with spiritual mourning, emphasizing that recognizing and repenting of one's sins is a distinguishing mark of a believer. The sermon also highlights Isaiah's emotional involvement and empathy for the people, illustrating the prophet's own mourning. Through the lens of the valley of vision, Brown explores the idea that those who are surrounded by God's word and yet choose to ignore it are in danger of becoming spiritually blind and deaf. The sermon concludes by linking the call to mourn with the power of the resurrection, emphasizing that true repentance and belief in the resurrection of Jesus Christ lead to eternal salvation and joy.

Let's pray. Lord, we thank you for this text. We ask that it would impact our hearts and our souls. That we would be changed because of the hearing of it today and the exposition of it today. We ask that you be with Mr.

Brown and that you would give him the words and help him to be a conduit for you. Amen. Well in Isaiah 22 we find the people of Judah had created a culture of laughing off and ignoring their sin. And Isaiah 22 calls the people to weep and to mourn for their sin. And you see that in verse 12, And in that day the Lord of hosts called for weeping and for mourning, for baldness and for girding with sackcloth, but instead joy and gladness, slaying of oxen and killing sheep, eating meat and drinking wine.

Let us eat and drink for tomorrow we die." It's always a marvel to me when I consider the passages of Scripture that we're studying on any given Sunday. And the question is always in my mind, why are we here? And this passage of scripture, you know, has particular issues, I think, for all of us. Why in the world would we be here? Why would we be in a passage where the Lord of hosts is calling for mourning and for weeping.

That's not necessarily the thing that most people want to do when they come to church, is to spend their day mourning and weeping. You know, give us something positive. Give us something that would be inspiring and helpful to us and that type of thing. And so we come across this conflict when we enter into a passage of scripture like this. Why would God take us into mourning and weeping when so many marvelous things have happened to us.

You know, and I was asking one of the brothers here this morning to pray for me today, because you really have a difficult situation here. On the one hand, you don't want, by any means, to just leave people heavy and in their sins and depressed and despondent and all that type of thing. On the other hand, you don't want to leave them too lightly either. And this passage of Scripture kind of forces that conflict in terms of how we process this in our own lives. So I pray that God will give us a sense of the right mix here in the midst of this call from God to weep and mourn.

In Ecclesiastes chapter 3, Solomon tells us that there are times for particular responses and there are seasons in our lives. He says, to everything there is a season, a time for every purpose under heaven, a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance. But what we need to recognize is that for Judah this was a time to mourn and to weep. And Isaiah actually led the way. We've already seen him do that.

He puts on sackcloth and ashes. He's already been weeping for the people. He's personally involved in the emotional impact of their sin. It breaks his heart. He's not a hard prophet by any means at all.

He's fully feeling the weight of the terrors from turning away from God, and he's been mourning. In fact, God took him beyond, you know, sackcloth, and he took him into actually stripping himself naked in order to display the nakedness of the people as they tried to trust in things that had no ability to help them. And so here in 22, the Lord is calling for mourning, but he gets a joyful city. And this is the burden that the Lord has for Jerusalem. There was a certain kind of sickness.

It was a spiritual sickness. Something was ailing them. And Isaiah is speaking directly to that. And one of the great lessons of this passage is when God calls you to mourn, don't party. Weep for your condition and stop the party, put on sackcloth, shave yourself, shave your head and weep.

In many ways, this is a distinguishing mark of the believer. He sees his sins and he mourns. That's why the Lord Jesus Christ said, blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. So there is a season where it's appropriate to mourn. And the Christian mourns for his sins.

It's a distinctive mark of Christians, that they actually mourn for their sins. And it's a distinctive mark of pagans. They don't mourn for their sins. They just want to continue to party. And that dividing line is really drawn here in this passage of Scripture.

Now the immediate context here in chapter 22 is that there are three oracles. We've gone through a number of oracles against the nations. And there's, first of all, this oracle against Jerusalem in the Valley of Vision. That's verses 1 through 14. And then Shebna, an individual who was a real person in the reign of Hezekiah, and then, and that's in verses 15 through 19, and then in verses 20 through 25, Eliakim.

So in this chapter there is an oracle against a city and against a person and against a family. And that's sort of the narrow context here. But the wider context is that in chapters 13 through 23, God is telling Judah not to trust the nations. He's actually telling Judah how he's going to judge the nations. Don't trust them, I'm going to destroy them.

And he's saying in one way after another, you cannot trust the world because I am going to destroy the world. Do not love the world or the things in the world because God is going to destroy them. They're unreliable and they're bankrupt and they're going to be destroyed. And what Isaiah's been doing in this broader context, he's been identifying what different nations would entice you to do. And you should recognize their enticements.

And I think that the nations really are just various ways that the devil attacks his people and the sins that we're lured by. With Babylon, he says, don't trust in Babylon, Babylon will corrupt you. With Assyria, don't trust in Assyria, Assyria will use you, make promises to you, and not fulfill them. Philistia will hate you and slander you. Moab will invite you into sin, and you will be destroyed forever.

And in the midst of all these oracles against the nations, in every one of them God lays himself out as the God of salvation. He will save. He will save even the people in the nations who are so corrupt as well as own people. But the message in Isaiah 22 is this, Judah in the valley of vision will party when they should mourn. They will lure you to party when they actually should be mourning.

So, but when is this happening? That's a more difficult question, I think. For sure, though, Jerusalem is being besieged in verses 1 through 8. There's no question about that. And the perfect tenses that are used in this chapter make it clear that he's speaking of something in the future as if it has already happened.

We've seen this before, right? He prophesies of something that is going to happen, but he speaks of it as if it has already taken place. And he does that again here in this chapter. I'm not sure if he's speaking of Sennacherib's invasion in 722 or whether he's speaking of Nebuchadnezzar in 586. I lean toward Nebuchadnezzar because of the devastation.

It doesn't seem quite to fit as well with Sennacherib, but I'm not sure really. The fact that Shebna and Eliakim are mentioned make it seem like it might be Sennacherib on the early side, because Eliakim and Shebna were contemporaries of Hezekiah. So I'm not sure. It could be that he is speaking of this judgment that's coming and then he comes back in time and says, let me tell you about Shedna. He's an illustration of this kind of mentality.

Let me tell you about Eliakim. He's another illustration of this mentality in a contemporary sense. So I don't know. But I think it is quite likely that the time referred to is in 150 years later in 586 when Nebuchadnezzar comes. So who is the prophecy directed to?

Well, the prophecies have all been directed to Judah about nations, but now something strange happens. Now God isn't talking about another nation, he's talking about Jerusalem. He's talking about his people. And what has happened to Jerusalem is that Jerusalem has drunk of the ethics of the world that they're just like the world and they're going to receive the same judgment as the world. And this section concludes in chapter 23 with the judgment against Tyre which will deal with in two weeks.

So there are two contrasting features in this passage of Scripture. There's revelry and destruction and partying at the same time. They're all mixed together. It's a strange mix of language here that puts them both together. And there are two defining messages here.

I'll just tell you what they are on the front end. Verse 11 is the first, and it's about earthly mindedness, trusting in the things of this world, but you did not look to its maker, nor did you have respect for him who fashioned it long ago." Looking to your Maker is the most important thing that you'll ever do. And then the second is this disclosure of this frivolous worldly joy, the absence of mourning for sin in verses 12 and 13. And in that day the Lord God of hosts called for weeping and mourning, for baldness and for girding with sackcloth, but instead joy, gladness, slaying oxen and killing sheep, eating meat and drinking wine. Let us eat and drink for tomorrow we die." And those verses that I just identified really form the whole application that we need to be considering in it all.

OK, if you have your outline in front of you, you can see how I'd like us to progress through the passage. And the first thing that we encounter is a valley. It's the valley of vision in verse 1, The burden against the valley of vision. Now the valley of vision is also mentioned in verse 5. You see it there, for it is a day of trouble and treading down in perplexity by the Lord of hosts in the valley of vision, breaking down the walls and crying to the mountains.

So this is Jerusalem. Everyone agrees with that. Jerusalem saw themselves as high and lifted up. They thought they were so high. God refers to them as a valley, and they really are a valley.

They are in a lower elevation than the surrounding area. Even though there is a mountain, there is Mount Zion in the midst of this valley. So if you can picture higher elevations And then in the lower elevation is Jerusalem with its own mountain there. And you know, God is telling Judah that she thinks too much of her highness. You know, you see this in chapter 26 that we've been reading here in our recitation.

In chapter 26 verse 1, and in that day this song will be sung in the land of Judah. We have a strong city. And then if you look down in verse 5, for he brings down those who dwell on high, the lofty city, he lays it low, he lays it low to the ground, he brings it down to the dust. And this is the fate of those who think too highly of themselves. So in the previous chapter we had the watchman, the watchman is looking, The watchman is looking to Arabia and seeing all things.

Now it's almost like the watchman is on the wall and turns around and sees Jerusalem in this valley, looking down from the watchman's tower to Jerusalem. And it has been a valley of vision. It's a remarkable phrase, the valley of vision. What does that mean? This is the only place that it occurs in the Bible.

But it's the place where the prophets spoke. It's the place where God showed up. It's the place where God came to bless His people, to be the joy of the whole earth, to give them laws and ordinances that would be a blessing in them, so that they wouldn't beat their heads against the wall and find themselves being destroyed by the worldliness of the world. To rescue a people, to make a bride, to help a people, and to be relieved of their sins, to help them. And it's the place where these prophets have spoken repeatedly, spoken graphically, spoken lovingly, and it is a valley.

And they had in the valley a vision. The people looked to their own vision, not the vision of God. That was the tragedy that befell them. In many ways, children who grow up in Christian homes are like this. They grow up in the valley of vision.

They grow up in the place where the Word of God is spoken. They grow up in a place where their parents pray. They grow up in a place where their parents actually hate their sin and they're trying to make progress. They grow up in the valley of vision. You know, what's it like to grow up in the valley of vision?

Where God is there, where the blessings of the kingdom of heaven have been experienced. Well, you often take it for granted. You have no conception of what you have been saved from when you grow up in the Valley of Vision. This is true of children. And we have so many children like that in this church.

In one way, we should give thanks to Almighty God for how God has given them such a different world, how God has given them a Valley of Vision. On the other hand, we should fear for them. Because when you grow up in the valley of vision, you often misunderstand what's going on in the world. And you become like these people here that are in Jerusalem now. And so the question is, have you been growing up in the valley of vision?

What's it like for you? Have you lost a sense of the beauty of the word of God? Like when you hear the word of God, you think, well, it doesn't really matter to me. That doesn't really apply to me. It doesn't really work.

If you're growing up in the valley of vision and you think like that, you need to be paid very close attention to this passage of Scripture, because he speaks very clearly about it. And there's a burden, there's a burden in the valley of vision. He says, this is the burden for the valley of vision. This is another burden. We've encountered this word many times in these chapters.

God has a burden. God has a burden here for His own people. And the question we've asked many times as we've gone through these oracles is what is God's burden for you? And specifically, is this God's burden for you? Is the thing that he's saying to Jerusalem actually for you?

And God has a burden for every person. He has burdens for me, and he has burdens for you. He has burdens for my family. He has burdens for this church. He has burdens for this nation.

But the question we should always be asking here is, is this burden for you? Does God carry this burden for your life? And so it's a remarkable thing here that we're encountering. And then there's a question in verse 1. Not only is there a valley, not only is there a burden, but there's a question.

And this question really forms, I think, the beginning of the whole message that's here in this chapter. He says, what ails you now? What ails you now? You know, there's an ailment. They've caught a cold.

There's something wrong. And it's really an interesting phrase. It's almost like he's saying, What's up with you? What is up with you? What is the matter with you?

Do you have some kind of syndrome? Do you have a condition? You can't see? Do you have glaucoma? Is there wax in your ears?

What is up with you? What is with you? You know, do you have a brain tumor? Meningitis? Do you have water on the brain?

You're diluted. What has happened to your brain? That's really the whole force of it. What's up with you? And Isaiah is stunned.

It's as if to say, can't you see what's going on? Don't you realize that you're ignoring what's really true? You know, he's really addressing the people that are just, They really are living in la-la land. And they don't even see what's wrong. Isaiah has already said, the whole head is sick, the whole heart is faint.

What is up with you? And that's the question. And there's this blindness and madness and tumult of the heart that takes place when a person doesn't repent of their sins. They take their sins so lightly and they become stupider and stupider about life and themselves and their nation and everything. There's no quicker way to become stupid in this world than to reject the law of God because it makes you insensible to reality.

And you can't really see the world anymore the way that it really is. And you can't even see your own life the way that it really is. And God may say to you, what's up with you? What's the ailment? What's the sickness that you caught?

And it's really very clear. They've caught the YOLO disease. You know what that means, Y-O-L-O. You only live once. They've caught that disease, that's it.

You only live once, and they're living like there really is no tomorrow except for whatever they can eat and drink and have fun with. That's really the only tomorrow they really care about. And so they, you know, they're the kind of people that really the only thing they care about is sort of getting their bucket list done. You know, they have these 10 things they want to do before they die. But where, I mean, where is God in all of it?

Is it just all about that you only live once? So there's this really striking question. What's up with you? That's what he's saying. I was reading a few years ago about George Whitfield and he came into Elizabeth City, North Carolina, you know, back in the 18th century.

George Whitfield pulls into the city in a coffin and he's laying there in a coffin to declare that the people are dead. They're just absolutely dead. And in a lot of ways, he was playing the role of Isaiah. What's up with you? What has happened to you?

What disease have you caught? So there's this question in verse 1. And then you find this strange mixture of reveling and destruction in verses 1 through 3. It's kind of confusing when you read it for the first time. What is happening?

How do you have destruction and archers and joy? What is that all about? Well, that's what it's all about. In the midst of all, in the midst of the judgment, the people have so lost a sense of sin and righteousness and judgment that they're partying. That's what they're doing.

And you read this, that you have all gone up to the housetops. They went up to the housetops to party. That's what they were doing. They didn't have houses like you have that have inclined roofs. They were flat, and you could go up there.

And you are full of noise. That has to do with the noise of the partying and all the the carryings on a tumultuous city a joyous city saying what why are you doing that you're slain men are not slain with the sword nor dead in battle. So how does the joy mix with the slain? Well, the judgment had been taking place here and and there there are those who there there people are being killed but not with a sword All your rulers have fled together. They are captured by the archers.

All who are found in you are bound together. They have fled from afar." So, remember, Isaiah is projecting himself in the future and saying, as if it has already happened, right? And he's saying, this is the scene. You know, and you've been partying, but your people are dead. They're dead from starvation, not from a sword.

They're dead from other means. And so there's this mixture of celebration and judgment that's all jammed together in these verses here. And they don't really see what is happening. Jerusalem was the place of vision, but now the vision is so clouded They can't even see what's going on around them. Hey, that's one problem with sin.

You can't see what's going on around you. If you desensitize your soul to sin, you won't understand what's going on around you. I just want to say that again. If you desensitize yourself to sin, you won't understand what's going on around you. This is why it's so important that you train your affections on holy and pure things.

If you do not do it, you will never know what's going on around you. You won't be able to evaluate what people say, what people do, who people are. You young people here, you want to marry somebody really nice? You really do. You want to marry an exemplary person?

Let me just tell you how you can prepare yourself to get married. Train your conscience by the Word of God so that you'll know what's going on. So that when you look in somebody's eyes, you'll know what's going on. Because your conscience and your perceptions have been trained by holiness, not worldliness. But there's something that happens to you if when you when you nurse worldliness any kind of worldliness will grow and it's always so dangerous to you.

You need to recognize that. Don't take worldliness lightly. It will cloud your vision And you'll end up in the valley of vision and you won't even know what's going on around you. And it might actually mean that you're going to marry some jerk, because your perception was so poor. And it happens, by the way, all the time.

So here, they're in the valley of vision and they just, they've, they're progressively have gone blind and they don't see their true situation. And they've even, they've even gone, gone deaf. It's really, it's a picture of escapism in many ways. And the greatest form of escapism is rejecting God's truth and particularly rejecting God's provision for salvation and that really really is the heart of the matter. They have rejected God's offer to salvation, they've rejected the words of the prophets and they're up on their housetops just doing whatever feels good at that moment.

They're true children of the 1960s. If it feels good, do it. That's it. It's nothing old or new. It's something that is part of the corrupt heart of man.

And they are playing when they should be praying. They're feasting when they should be fasting. That's what's happened to them. And they're just filled with wishful thinking. Now, here's where I think we have to get our biblical coordinates about us in this whole matter because joy and celebration can either be thoroughly Christian and it can be pagan.

In other words, you can have the same thing coming out of a different route. And you know, God is really no killjoy among his people. I think if you've read the Bible you know, there is a time to mourn and there is a time to laugh. And there's so many places in Scripture where we know that mourning is not the end of the story for a Christian. Now here I believe that in this passage of Scripture, that the celebration is a telltale sign of their paganism.

So lack of mourning can be a telltale sign on the one hand. And so everyone here should ask, is the lack of mourning for sin in my life a telltale sign that I've not converted? Like, I'm not one of those blessed, blessed are those who mourn. It's Jesus trying to bless those who mourn for their sin. When you mourn for your sin, you're comforted.

If you don't mourn for your sin, you will never be comforted. But God doesn't just leave us with mourning. All over the Bible we see how he implants his joy in his people. In Psalm 4 verse 7 we learn that it's God who tweaks the direction of your heart toward joy. God does that.

In other words, joy is a good thing. And in Psalm 4 verse 7, you have put gladness in my heart. This is something God does. More than in the season that their grain and wine increased, I will both lie down in peace and sleep for you alone, O Lord, make me dwell in safety. Here in Psalm 4, It's a God that puts joy in your heart, more than if you got rich really fast.

And because of that you can lie down in peace. So God is a God of joy. In Romans 5-11, You can see there's just a very tangible impact of being reconciled to God. And it has to do with joy. And not only that, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have received the reconciliation.

So when you're reconciled to God, you remember what God has delivered you from. He has washed away your sins. He's made your sins white as snow. He has destroyed the work of the devil. And it's such a remarkable thing.

In Psalm 16 and 11, you know, you will show me the path of life in your presence is fullness of joy. At your right hand are pleasures forevermore." And just in that one verse, there's life and joy and pleasures that come from the Kingdom of Heaven. And so, You know, Isaiah himself tells us that he makes the soul rejoice in chapter 61, verse 10. He says, I will greatly rejoice in the Lord. My soul shall be joyful in my God, for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation.

He has covered me with the robe of righteousness as a bridegroom decks himself with ornaments and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels." So joy is something that God does in the heart And there are actually many commands to be joyful. Rejoice in the Lord and be glad, Psalm 32, Philippians 4.4. Rejoice in the Lord always. And again, I say rejoice. So there is a way that rejoicing must be a category in the Christian life.

If it's not there, a person should really wonder how they're really doing. You know, I've found myself, I think particularly over the last couple months here at our church, when we're taking the Lord's Supper, I've been concerned that there's too much moroseness, okay? That there's, they're almost, from time to time, almost seems like a morbid focus on your sin. Now in the Lord's Supper, God gives us really a perfect balance. He gives us self-examination, where we come to terms with our sin.

But it's out of that that we take the cup of blessing. It's a cup of rejoicing. It's a time to rejoice. And I'll tell you what I've been doing when I've been walking around in the Lord's Supper, probably for the last couple months, I've been singing and I've been praying, Oh happy day, oh happy day, happy day Jesus washed my sins away. That God would give us that sense of rejoicing.

It is so right and helpful and good to examine yourself, and if you don't do it, you're dead. But let's not forget the other side of it. And so, just in bringing this text, I just want to say, I've hoped that I wouldn't lay too great a burden on the Christian who has mourned for their sin. But on the one hand, that I haven't too lightly dealt with the matter to let the person get out of here so happy and unrepentant and not really have recognized their sin. So that's my dilemma this morning.

That's my dilemma. And I'm praying that God would somehow, by His Holy Spirit, give each person that right balance from the things that are in this passage of Scripture. And if you don't mourn for your sin and you don't care. You are like these unbelievers in Judah and you will be destroyed. At the same time, we have to recognize that God has called his people out of the path of destruction.

You know, that's probably why 22% of the days in the calendar year for the Jews were dedicated to feasting and rejoicing. 22% of the days. God is a God of joy. He does want to call his people out of the despondency of this world, that they would mourn for their sins, so that he would turn their mourning into dancing. And that's what we're really here to celebrate.

You know, the Kingdom of God is not in eating and drinking, but in righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. That's Romans 14 verse 17. And so, you know, we do, we're going to have a banquet, we're going to have a feast later on, you know, after we have the Lord's Supper and then have our fellowship meal. And it should be a time of rejoicing. But if you have taken your sin lightly, maybe it's a time when you should mourn because there are times when it's good to mourn.

It's better to mourn. Okay, so you have this strange mixture of reveling and destruction, but then when you get to verse 4, you get Isaiah's perspective on it and you have find a prophet and his bitter weeping. Verse 4 says, Therefore I said, Look away from me, I will weep bitterly. Do not labor to comfort me because of the plundering of the daughter of my people. And here we encounter again the mark of Isaiah's disposition, and that is brokenness.

He loves much and it hurts much. And he is broken. His eyes are too red and his voice is too unreliable to speak without breaking. He says, don't even look at me. Please don't even look.

Have you ever felt that way? You're about ready to break down in some kind of sorrow and you don't want anyone to look at you. You want to turn away in the same way that Joseph turned away when he wept when his brothers were there. There's a brokenness that's so great you just don't even want anyone to see. That's exactly what Isaiah is experiencing here.

But Isaiah is not like everybody else in the nation. Isaiah is really different. Isaiah seems to be the only one who's weeping. Now, this really caused me to wonder about us, too. Are we, how are we like or not like Isaiah?

Like, are our hearts broken enough for the people around us? How broken are we for the brokenness of this world? Are we just running along, eat, drink, and be merry while the world itself is going to hell in a handbasket? And we do nothing or think nothing about it because all we can really think about is how we might put together our next joy gig, whatever that might be. Oh, maybe it's shopping or doing something to your house or some kind of food or some kind of vacation or experience and that's really all you can...

You're not broken at all. And again, there's nothing wrong with going on vacation or feasting or doing something to your house, but the question is, do you have any brokenness at all for the world? I've really thought about my own life. I've come up wanting, my brokenness is nothing like what is appropriate in the day that we live in. Think of the days that we live in.

Think of just the things that have happened. How about in this church in the last three years and the sin that has come to light. How broken should we be? How much like Isaiah should we be? Or how about our nation?

It's astonishing what has happened even just in the last three weeks in our nation regarding the issue of abortion and homosexuality. Just like last week you had a woman, you know, giving praise to her God for the abortion she was getting on video. And it went viral. You know why? Because there's so few people really in this world who will weep.

She knows that there's a congregation to praise her out there. There's so many issues today pressing on this nation. Your pastors will probably end up in prison by preaching the Word of God in some time ahead. It's beginning with CEOs being fired, It's beginning with entertainment shows being canceled for really simple things that are obvious in the Bible about homosexuality. How much weeping should we be doing?

And the question I think we should be asking, I've been asking myself is, is my burden not enough considering the kind of experiences that we're in the midst of in our nation and even in our church. Now, why is Isaiah so worked up about this? He says it right here. Look at the text, verse 4. Because of the plundering of the daughter of my people.

This is a daughter. This is a girl. This is a bride. This is someone who is meant for something better than this. You know, how you treat a daughter makes a very significant difference in the discernment of who you really are.

And here there is a daughter at stake. And he uses this language of extreme brokenness. What does it mean when he says, because of the plundering of the daughter of my people? This is the only place in the Bible where this phrase is used, the daughter of my people, it's the only place. Isaiah uses it and he's using, in one way it's very tender language, you know, a daughter is a very precious thing.

To harm a daughter, to defile a daughter, one would find, you know, significant wrath from Almighty God. The Lord Jesus says if you cause one of the least of these to stumble, it's better for you than if a millstone were tied around your neck and you'd be thrown into the sea. To have a daughter is a very precious thing. And here the daughter is a figure for the people of God. The people of God are like a daughter in that sense.

And that also gives you a sense of the preciousness of the people of God. The way that you treat the people of God matters as well, because the people of God are a daughter. We often misjudge the value of a thing, and it's easy to misjudge the value of a church, the preciousness of a church. But the church is like a daughter. You think about how broken you would be if your daughter was defiled, but are we as broken about the ways that the church is defiled.

That's the idea. Because Isaiah is using this term. He's pulling on our heartstrings. He's desiring to have our hearts be turned to think of the church the way that he thinks of the church. The church is very, very precious.

The church is like a daughter. And what is our response when the daughter of Zion, the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ, is being defiled? Are we broken like Isaiah is broken? Here, it's bitter weeping that Isaiah is experiencing. And I think that Isaiah, he's here to instruct us.

He's here to turn us a little bit, maybe, to think differently about the church and maybe even differently about the state, how to deal with the state that's in collapse, how to deal with the church that's in collapse. When we see the church in collapse or we see trouble, do we just shrug it off? Do we just say, we're just going to go out to eat. Or are we broken about it? You know, there's that hymn, I love thy church, O God.

The song goes, For her my tears shall fall, for her my prayers ascend. To her my cares and toils be given, till toils and cares shall end. So Isaiah is broken for a daughter, a precious daughter, who is being broken, who has an ailment, to whom it's easy for Isaiah to say, what's up with you? And he gives a reason in verses 5 through 7, for it is a day of trouble and treading down and perplexity by the Lord God of hosts in the valley of vision, breaking down the walls of crying to the mountain. Elam bore the quiver with chariots of men and horsemen, and Keir uncovered the shield.

It shall come to pass that your choicest valleys shall be full of chariots, and the horsemen shall set themselves in array in the gate." So he says four, in verse 5, four. In other words, he's giving the reason for his brokenness. Why? And That is because the destruction is coming upon them and there are armies coming in. Elam most likely teaming up with Babylon and Kir over in Moab somehow joining in this battle and they're there to tread down And there's perplexity there in the valley of vision.

And then in verse 8, we learn what is the most devastating aspect of the whole scene. Are you with me in verse 8? He removed the protection of Judah. To me that's one of the most terrifying lines in the entire chapter. He removed the protection of Judah.

This is a little bit like being given over to Satan that the Apostle Paul speaks about. When you're so hardened, you turn away from God. There's a time when you're just given over. God says, you can have it. You can take it.

It'll come in full force. And the protection is removed somehow. And I don't really understand exactly how that works, but here's one thing you can rely on. God did it. There are occasions in people's lives, in nations' lives, in families' lives where God Himself, by His sovereign grace, His sovereign power, He removes protection from people.

Let that not be any of us who remain hardened in our sins, who continue to party and not care about our sin, who don't repent. And then there's reproof in the next section, verses 8 through 11, for trusting in worldly means. So in these verses, in verses 8 through 11, Isaiah is identifying where they put their trust. And there were three things that they trusted in. They trusted in their weapons and in their water and in their walls.

Those are the three things that he mentions. In verse 8, you see that they trusted in their weapons and their armory. You looked in the day to the armor of the house of the forest. Now, most Likely the house of the forest is an actual place built by Solomon, recorded in 1 Kings chapter 7 verse 2. And the whole armory was built by the cedars of Lebanon.

They went and got these magnificent trees and built this armory. And this armory carried within it the means of their protection. But they looked to their weapons. And then in verse 9, you also saw the damage to the city of David that it was great and you gathered together the waters of the lower pool. This is most likely a picture of what Hezekiah did.

He built an aqueduct. That's really astonishing aqueduct that exists today. You can go and see it today because he carved it out of rock and it was a means of protection. He gave water to the city while it was under siege. The worst thing that can happen to you is you run out of water because then you die.

But they had a protected water system that has a Kaia built. You can read about it in 2 Kings chapter 20 in verse 20 or 2 Chronicles chapter 32 verse 30. But you see Isaiah, you know Isaiah is not really impressed with the aqueduct. He's not impressed with it because he knows that God is the protector of the city. They also looked to their walls, verse 10, and you numbered the houses of Jerusalem and the houses you broke down to fortify the walls, and you made a reservoir between the two walls for the water of the old pool." So what happened was they wanted to beef up the walls.

Jerusalem had high and thick walls. And they heightened and thickened them By tearing down other buildings in the city and using the material, the rubbish from that to build up the walls higher. And so they had these three things. They had their weapons and their water and their walls. But there was a problem.

Verse 11 speaks of the problem. They trusted in the creature rather than the Creator. But you did not look to its master, nor did you have respect for him who fashioned it long ago." They looked to their water and their walls and their weapons, but they didn't look to God. And so that's why Isaiah is saying, what's up with you? What has happened to you?

What ails you? What kind of disease do you have in the brain? Have you lost your mind and you've lost your trust in the process in God? Now they made lots of preparations for the siege. They moved into high activity and they started building and creating things there.

It was preparation, but it wasn't the most important preparation. The most important preparation was the spiritual preparation, the preparation of the heart. They feared man so much that they would not prepare their hearts for God so much. And so they had all these great accomplishments, but you know what their accomplishments ended up being? Their accomplishments were just emblems of their unbelief.

It's interesting, you know, we who struggle with fear of man, we do all kinds of things to please man. We build all kinds of things, but they really are, at the end of the day, they end up just being monuments to the unforgivable sin if you're not converted. And it's like what Isaiah says earlier, he says, you know, you're idols, you'll hate them. You'll despise them. You'll actually be embarrassed by your idols.

You'll be embarrassed by what you trusted in. And you'll just want to throw them into the holes, into the bats. They'll be totally worthless to you. One of the commentators says that these things that they trusted in became manifestations of self-sufficiency and of human omni-competence. And so you might think, you know, the things that people are so proud of become the evidence that they didn't love God in the first place.

They were not mindful of the One who made them. They served creature rather than the creator. We have to ask, you know, what do we trust in? Trusting in reputations and friendships and economies, trusting in children and husbands and pastors, trusting in your paid-off mortgage, whatever it might be, think again. Nothing wrong with friendships and reputations and economies and pastors and children and paid-off mortgages, Nothing wrong with that.

But the question is, are they like the walls and the waters and the weapons of Jerusalem, that they really are monuments to unbelief? That's the question that Isaiah is asking. It's a pretty hard question, isn't it? It's a question I think that we are obligated to ask by reading these things. And then there's this call for weeping and mourning in verses 12 and 13.

And we get here to the heart of it. And in that day the Lord of hosts called for weeping and mourning. Do you get that? The Lord called for weeping and mourning. But instead he got joy and gladness, slaying oxen and killing sheep, eating meat and drinking wine.

Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die. That is the heart of unbelief. That's the dividing line between the believer and the unbeliever. The unbeliever will not, cannot repent. It will and can only eat and drink until they die.

They cannot see what God sees. They can only see their present joy. But Isaiah can see it, and he's crying out for it here. You know, Solomon in Ecclesiastes 7 said, It's better to go to the house of mourning than to go to the house of feasting. For that is the end of all men, and the living will take it to heart.

Sorrow is better than laughter, for by a sad countenance the heart is made better. The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning. But the heart of fools is in the house of mirth. It is better to hear the rebuke of the wise than for a man to hear the song of fools. For like the crackling thorns under a pot, so is the laughter of the fool.

This also is vanity." Now that's what was happening in the days of Isaiah. The people were laughing themselves all the way to destruction. They were having a toast while the armies were in the streets because something was ailing them, and that's why Isaiah said, What's up with you? What has come over you? They should have been weeping, but they were partying.

You know, the Apostle Paul deals with this in 1 Corinthians 5. You know, we've read over this text many times in the context of church discipline. But what we learn here in 1 Corinthians 5, 1 and 2, they're puffed up. But Paul says, you should have mourned. You should have mourned.

See, that was the problem in Corinth. The ways of Jerusalem had gotten into the hearts of those in Corinth, the Christians in Corinth. And that's why there were lawsuits and immoralities and all kinds of things going on in Corinth. And God, through the Apostle Paul, speaks to Corinth and says, you should have mourned. Why don't you mourn for the sin that's around you?

A man is living in immorality and it's a sin that's not even heard of among the Gentiles. Now, I think it's all pretty clear to us that these kinds of sins are being among us in this church. And so it really is appropriate to ask, have we mourned? Have we taken time to mourn for our sin in our church? And what happened to make it that way?

Have we mourned? Have we mourned to such a degree that we would not let it happen in our own families? That we would remove everything that would give rise to it? But Paul says, you should have mourned. He says, it's actually reported that there's sexual immorality among you, as such sexual immorality as is not even named among the Gentiles that a man has his father's wife and you are puffed up and have not rather mourned that he who has done this deed might be taken away from among you." You know, society falls apart, churches fall apart, families fall apart when they don't mourn for sin.

And then in verse 14 you find this devastating end. Then it was revealed in my hearing by the Lord of hosts." Now notice the language there. Isaiah is speaking and he says, I heard the voice of God. It was revealed in my hearing. There's this moment that Isaiah has before the Lord.

And here's what the Lord says, Surely for this iniquity there will be no atonement for you, even to your death, says the Lord. And what he's saying is that there's no atonement for those who cannot or refuse to mourn for their sin. And this should stand as a warning. If you cannot mourn for your sin, if you do not mourn for your sin, If you're not a repenter, watch out. And he speaks of this hardened heart.

Verse 14 ends with these words, Even to your death, says the Lord God of hosts. So there's a point where there's no more time. It's all over. There's nothing more than you can do. It's when the sheriff comes and he puts you in handcuffs and you disappear behind the bars.

It's when you're talking to someone and you only have a few minutes of time and when the time is over, it's over and the line goes dead. That's what this is like. Even to your death, says the Lord of hosts. Okay, so let's, I just want to work through a few more applications. I know we've had a lot so far.

So there is a time to mourn. And we've had numerous opportunities to mourn over sin. It must be time for us to consider mourning for sin in a deeper way. I think it is. It can't be this morbid, morose, hopeless way.

We don't mourn like the unbelievers mourn. We mourn differently because we know the mercies of God. But is it possible that we have ignored sin? Is it possible that in some ways we've lived in dreamland, that where there are no consequences for sin. You know, Is it possible that anybody here believes that ignoring their sin will make them happier?

Do you believe that denying your sin will make you more mature, or not caring about your sin will make you a better balanced person? Ignoring sin is devastating. Do you think that denying your sin or ignoring it will make you easier to live with? Or do you think it'll make you a better worker? Do you think denying your sin will make you more successful?

Do you think it'll make you more effective? Do you think ignoring your sin will make you more fearless or whatever? Well, Jesus says, blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. You know, There's a parallel passage in the New Testament to Isaiah 22. It's James 4-8.

Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Lament and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord and He will lift you up." Notice how James doesn't leave us at the bottom of the well of mourning.

He recognizes that God will lift you up. That's why happy are those who mourn, as Jesus said. You know, have we been going to the feast without acknowledging our sin? Here's a question that came to my mind. When the elders call for repentance like they are doing now, do you just blow it off?

Do you think that it doesn't matter? When the elders are calling for sackcloth and ashes, when they cry out for mourning and turning back, when they plead to turn back from sin, you act as if you're deaf. Is it possible that anybody does that here? Unmoved. It's like the people that Jesus spoke about.

He says, like the children in the marketplace, where they say, we piped you, but you did not dance. In other words, we spoke, but there was no response. Now, there are times, You know, when elders of churches are supposed to call for repentance. Now, this passage of Scripture is one of those opportunities that God has brought us to by His own sovereign hand. We didn't choose this as some kind of strategic timing of this passage of Scripture.

It just happened for some reason beyond our own understanding. And I'm thinking about how our hearts are either broken or not broken about the people around us like Isaiah. Do we need to be more like Isaiah and less like the the happy-clappy, hey, let's just talk about business with the people who are dying and going to hell in our community. Now, I believe that Isaiah's call here for mourning is a pointer to the Gospel, because the Apostle Paul picks this up in 1 Corinthians 15, okay? And Paul quotes, let us eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we die." He quotes Isaiah in 1 Corinthians 15, where the Apostle Paul is speaking of the power of the resurrection.

And he's talking about those who believe in the resurrection and those who don't. And if you don't believe in the resurrection, you're going to say, let us eat, drink, for tomorrow we die. So this is why I think this matter of mourning, it's the dividing line between the Christian and the non-Christian, the person who believes in the resurrection And the person who doesn't believe in the resurrection if you believe in the resurrection you will not be saying let us eat drink for tomorrow we die and So in first Corinthians 15 one he says moreover brethren I declare to you the gospel which I preach to you which you also received in which you stand in Which you are saved if you hold fast to the word which I preach to you, unless you believed in vain. For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He rose again on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that He was seen by Cephas and then by the Twelve. After that, He was seen by over 500 brethren at once, of whom the greater part remained to the present, but some have fallen asleep." And then he says, in verse 13, if there is no resurrection from the dead, then Christ is not risen.

And he says, if Christ is not risen, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. And then in verse 32 he says, if, he says this, if the dead do not rise, then what are we left with? Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die." And then he says, but don't be deceived, evil company corrupts good morals, good habits. And he says, awake to righteousness and do not sin. So the Apostle Paul connects a belief in the resurrection with the whole ailment, the whole sickness of the refusal to repent.

And that's the heart of the gospel. And Isaiah brings us to the gospel. He brings us to the power of the resurrection. And what Paul is saying is that your only hope is in the resurrection. You have no hope in your own righteousness.

You have no hope in your background. You have no hope in the church that you go to. There's only one hope, and that is the power of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. And so I think Isaiah 22 is a marker, a signpost for the power of the resurrection, how God rescues a repentant people and He makes it so that they die with Him and they are buried with Him and they raise together with Him to eternal salvation. It's amazing how often you see the gospel in Isaiah.

It's on every page, and here it is again. And what happens when you believe in the Gospel? Well, Isaiah has already told us in chapter 12. He says, And in that day you will say, O Lord, I will praise you. Though you were angry with me, your anger is turned away, and you comfort me.

Behold, God is my salvation. I will trust and not be afraid, for Yah, the Lord, is my strength and my song. He also has become my salvation. Therefore, with joy, you shall draw water from the wells of salvation." Isaiah is appealing to people, and he's saying, What's up with you? So that they might find the refreshments of the kingdom of heaven.

So they might say, praise the Lord. So they might draw water from the wells of salvation with joy. And so, somehow I pray that we as a church could find ourselves recognizing that blessed are the poor in spirit, blessed are those who mourn for they shall be comforted, and that they might recognize all of us together, particularly as we take the Lord's Supper, that God has set us free and it was for freedom that He set us free. Can we somehow have both a sober spirit of repentance in this church and joy, the joy of salvation, it's like a well of water that never fails, and it never quits bubbling up to eternal life. And we're refreshed by it every day.

And as a result, we are the people of joy who have repented of their sins. Let's pray. Lord, Lord, you place these things before us. We thank you for your mercy towards sinners that you would cause us that we would die with you and we would be buried and we would be raised to eternal life and you would supply a well of salvation for your people who believe in you oh we Thank you. Amen.