The sermon by Scott Brown examines Isaiah 20, where the prophet Isaiah is instructed by God to walk naked and barefoot for three years as a sign against Egypt and Ethiopia. This act symbolizes the futility of trusting in worldly powers instead of God. The passage serves as a warning to the people of Judah, emphasizing that misplaced expectations in nations like Egypt and Ethiopia will lead to disappointment and captivity. Isaiah's dramatic illustration is meant to reset the expectations of Judah, urging them to place their hope solely in God. The sermon draws parallels between Isaiah's actions and the mission of Christ, highlighting how both serve as signs and wonders pointing to the reliability and necessity of trusting in God. Ultimately, the message urges listeners to evaluate their own expectations and where they place their trust, warning against the dangers of relying on anything other than God's salvation.

Our sermon text today is Isaiah 20 and the six verses. In the year that Tartan came to Ashdod when Sargon the king of Assyria sent him and he fought against Ashdod and took it. At the same time the Lord spoke by Isaiah the son of Amoz, saying, Go and remove the sackcloth from your body, and take your sandals off your feet." And he did so, walking naked and barefoot. Then the Lord said, Just as my servant Isaiah has walked naked and barefoot three years for a sign and a wonder against Egypt and Ethiopia, so shall the king of Assyria lead away the Egyptians as prisoners and the Ethiopians as captives, young and old, naked and barefoot, with their buttocks uncovered to the shame of Egypt. Then they shall be afraid and ashamed of Ethiopia, their expectation, and Egypt, their glory.

And the inhabitant of this territory will say in that day, Surely such is our expectation, wherever we flee for help to be delivered from the King of Assyria, and how shall we escape? Let's pray. Father, we pray that you would open our eyes, Lord, to the picture of Christ here in this text. We thank you, Lord, that He was stripped that he took our shame we thank you father that you sent him to be our refuge our strong tower to be our way of escape from the wrath to come. I pray Lord that you would open the eyes of those who are dead in their sins in the hearing of my voice.

I pray that you would anoint Scott to preach boldly. Holy Spirit of God, descend on this congregation now. Fill our hearts with fear. I pray, Lord, that the proclamation of Your Word would be mighty, that You would unstop ears and open eyes. Lord Jesus, I pray that You would walk among us, that You would sit by us, that you would speak to us this morning here.

I pray that you would break our hearts, that you would show us the highway. You have gone before us, O Lord, and I pray now that you, by the power of your Holy Spirit, to your own glory, for your name's sake, would be lifted up high. Father, I present to you Scott as your preacher this morning and I pray that you would use him and that you would speak to your people. Convict us, rebuke us, encourage us, send us. Holy Spirit, I pray that you would help us now to worship you in spirit and in truth.

Amen. Time after time in Isaiah's we've been walking through chapter after chapter, what we've found is a consistent theme and that is that Isaiah is arguing with the people of Judah. He's arguing with them that they should not place their hopes in anything but God and God alone. You know, everybody has expectations for what might happen, for the things that they're about and here what Isaiah is saying to the people of Judah is that you have expectations that you might get help from Egypt or Ethiopia, but there's a day coming when your expectations will be reset. And you'll understand that there's really only one expectation that's reliable.

It's the expectation of the goodness of God. It's the expectation of a resurrected Lord, it's the expectation that God is good. That's really the only expectation that really can sustain itself in this world. So Isaiah has been dealing with this question really from the very beginning. And he's warning Judah who has rejected Christ, who has been trusting in itself or in the world.

And here in this chapter, he's prophesying a scene in the future. And this is what prophets do. They give you a vision of what is going to happen. And that's exactly what Isaiah is doing. He transports Judah into a moment of time.

Think of how many times He's done that already. Remember when he met with King Ahaz at the end of the aqueduct on the highway to the Fuller's Field, and there was this freeze frame moment in his life. And everything, what happened there, what Ahaz's response would be there, would affect absolutely everything. Here is another one of those moments. And Isaiah is bringing us to one of those freeze frame moments again.

And who's in the scene? Well, you can picture it in your mind. There's Judah, and Judah is looking on the Egyptians and the Ethiopians, and it's after a battle. The battle has ensued. It's now over.

The victor has been clearly named, and Judah is standing there. And they're looking at this scene, and it's very dramatic, and that is that Ethiopia and Egypt, the ones that they've trusted in, are walking away. And they're walking away barefoot, and they're naked, and their buttocks are uncovered. That's the scene. Isaiah is transporting Judah into this moment in time in the future so that they'll understand how to govern their own hearts and their own expectations.

I hope you can see that in your mind's eye. Isaiah describes it verbally, but I hope you can see it so vividly. It's a moment in time, and it's really a realization that really will happen to every person. When the battle is done and all the smoke and the fire is cleared away, and you find yourself at the end of the age, you'll find a scene like this. He's prophesying something that will happen in history that is a type of what will happen in history at the final judgment.

And it's a warning about really a coming disappointment, How God has commanded a man to warn people of this reality. And it will be a gigantic disappointment, a gigantic loss. It will be an eternal loss. But at the same time Isaiah is offering hope. He's proclaiming that there is an expectation though that is reliable.

That you can set your expectation on God. In fact, if you don't set your expectation in God and God alone, then all will be lost. And I think it really is a type of what was spoken of in 1st Corinthians 1550. In a moment at the last trumpet, at the twinkling of the eye, death will be swallowed up by victory. It's that moment when the battle is over and you look upon what you trusted, and you'll really only see two things.

You'll see the naked and the barefoot, the defeated, but you'll also see the victorious Savior who has risen. He has risen indeed. And He was reliable. He was the only one that you should have set your expectation on. And you'll either see the object of your trust be taken away captive and destroyed, or you'll see the object of your trust high and lifted up at God's right hand, praying for you, caring for you, as such a good shepherd.

And your expectations will change. Your expectations will change if you trust in this world. That's really what Isaiah is saying. That you'll see how wrong and harmful your expectations were. You expected one thing but you got another thing.

You expected protection from this world. The world was your portion and your portion disappeared and it was walking away. It was walking away barefoot and naked, beaten, headed for destruction. So that's the picture here. Now of course, Isaiah is proclaiming that Christ is our only hope of salvation.

He is our only hope. All duties, all outward appearances, all obedience, nothing saves. Jesus Christ saves Jesus Christ and Jesus Christ alone. Place your trust in him. So that's Isaiah's argument.

Now, the wider context here that we see in this passage is that Isaiah is arguing with Judah to put her trust in the Lord alone. And in the first section of Isaiah, in chapters 1 through 12, Isaiah is arguing across many different fronts. And really, I started doing this the other day. I started going back chapter by chapter to see how Isaiah is setting expectations of Judah. He's telling Judah what it will be like.

And he does it over and over again. I only made my way to chapter 9. But really in every chapter so far Isaiah is setting expectations and he does it in so many different ways. He does it by even the naming of his sons. One son named, named for judgment.

The other named for salvation. You have these two choices and two choices alone. He does it by singing a song. He does it by crafting some of the most remarkable imagery that really exists in the Bible, the beautiful poetry that's found in Isaiah. But in chapters 1 through 12, he is setting these expectations of judgment and mercy, of salvation and destruction.

And in many ways, he's been speaking figuratively of what we see so vividly here of these naked people walking away, walking away being taken into judgment. And then in chapters 13-23, the section that we're in right now, the voice changes somewhat. Isaiah, or the Lord, is speaking directly to Judah, but he is speaking about the nations and he's telling Judah how trusting in Babylon will be their destruction, how trusting in Moab will be their destruction, how trusting in any of the principles of this world will find them in a state of destruction. And so that's the basic context here. Now narrowing the context down, since chapter 13, Isaiah has shown Judah the character and the end of these nations.

But this chapter here, verse chapter 20, it forms the conclusion of the oracle against Egypt. And it's kind of an epilogue for chapter 19. So after telling how Judah was trusting Ethiopia and Egypt in chapter 18, and then in chapter 19 telling of Egypt's destruction, and they should absolutely not hope in Egypt or Ethiopia. Now in chapter 20 he wraps it up with his graphic image of what they will see in Egypt and Ethiopia. And in short, God calls Isaiah to use a very gripping and dramatic, very personal illustration to summarize the warning about the folly of trusting Egypt.

He's been arguing, you know, with these people, do not go down to Egypt for advice. And Now God says, strip yourself naked and show them how naked those are who will trust in them. It's just such a radical picture. Isaiah himself is going to become the picture. Not only has he been arguing with Judah, Not only has he even named his sons to speak of this reality that there is really valid trust in only one thing, Christ alone.

Now he himself becomes the illustration. He becomes the the sign and the wonder and God commands Isaiah to go naked for three years. It's a very humbling thing to take off his sackcloth and go naked, and he became a spectacle. But it was really designed to be a spectacle to demonstrate how futile it is to trust in anything but God and God alone. And so that's the illustration that is here.

Who is the message directed to? It is to Hezekiah and I believe the whole of Judah. Hezekiah is tempted to trust in worldly supports. He has been leaning on Egypt. It's interesting, if you read 2 Chronicles, you get a picture of this.

On the one hand, we learn that Hezekiah was a godly man. And in 2 Chronicles we learn that he quote, trusted in the Lord. God commends him for trusting in the Lord. But you know what? It wasn't a perfect trust.

You know, he in many ways is like most believers. They do in their heart of hearts desire to trust the Lord. But yet in the process of sanctification they still trust they still trust in Egypt in some ways. And they're being sanctified, they're being changed you know one day at a time to trust the Lord more and more and more. But we find this really being directed to Hezekiah and his trusts, and Isaiah is declaring that he's trusting in a vain thing.

But he's a godly man but with a weakness. He would compromise in times of crisis. He was attracted to the Egyptian military support that he would trust in. Okay, so let's go to verse one. First of all, we see the time frame is stated here in time and space.

In the year that Tartan came to Ashdod, when Sargon, the king of Assyria, sent him, he fought against Ashdod and took it. So there are three major historical data points that Isaiah brings into the narrative. First, there's an official and he is Tartan. And then second, there's a place, and that's Ashdod, which is, which we'll talk about a little bit later, in Philistia. And third, there's a king, Sargon.

And he's speaking of 713 BC, when Ashdod rebelled against Assyria. And this began Isaiah's three-year proclamation. So when God commanded Isaiah to be naked for three years, 713 BC is the year. And yet at the same time, what is prophesied, at least in its first deposit, will not take place until 711 BC, three years later. And at that time, Ashdod will be turned over to the Assyrians.

So who is Tartan? In verse 1, he's mentioned, and it speaks of, in the year that Tartan came. Now, that means a chief commander. Tartan is not a man's name, it's a man's title. Very much like the Rav Sheka is not a man that we need in Second Chronicles, but he is a person with a title, kind of like a vice president or a secretary of state.

And Tartan was in the region working to establish a Syrian rule over Philistia and Judah. And in 2 Kings 18, 17, we learn that he went to Judah and he met with Hezekiah at that same place that Ahaz did at the aqueduct from the upper pool which is on the highway to the Fuller's field. And this happened, This meeting happened just after Hezekiah stripped away the gold in the temple and gave it to the Assyrians. Tartan came at that time, and you can read about it there in 2 Kings 18. In 2 Kings 18 you also get a window into the historical environment that's taking place here.

There are these various captains that are waging war on different fronts. Tartan is there in Ashdod, but there are actually three captains that are mentioned in 2 Kings chapter 18. And we know that this was just the beginning of the downfall here. And then we find Ashdod here. This is the city.

It's one of the largest cities in Philistia. It's 33 miles west of Jerusalem, and it's about three miles inland. And it's a major city. It's right along the passageway from Assyria down to Egypt itself. Interestingly enough, somebody pointed out, one of the young people who was researching for me on this sermon, pointed out that in Acts chapter 8, the same place is spoken of.

You remember the story of the Ethiopian eunuch where the Ethiopian is traveling back to Ethiopia and he's reading the prophet of Isaiah and God calls Philip to run up to the chariot and he preaches the gospel to him and he baptizes him and then he's miraculously transported to Azotus. Well, Azotus is Ashdod. It's very interesting. But this is the historical and the geographical footprint that we find that's in the discussion here. And the Rebshaka is besieging Judah, Tartan is besieging Ashdod.

So that's the scene. And then you have this king who's mentioned, Sargon II, and this is the only time Sargon is mentioned in the Bible. He was really thought to be a mythological figure. You know, in the 19th century, the critics of the Bible assumed that everything in the Bible was a myth. And so when they ran across Sargon, they said, well, this is just another mythological character.

Unfortunately, they spoke a little bit too soon, because after they began to speak in the 19th century, discoveries began to be made which identified Sargon very, very clearly on all kinds of documents, Sargon is a historical figure, and the German critics were wrong. Those who assume that the Bible is not the word of God make a terrible error. And Sargon is not a myth. If you listen to the History Channel and some of these other places, you'll find that the Bible is assumed to be mythological. And there may be a few little breaks of light from time to time.

Not true at all. You can trust your Bible completely on all historical matters. So these things are happening in space and time in a geographical place that you can go to today with kings that you know existed and there are situations that are documented in history. These things are happening. They are real events, real nations, real armies, real officials, real battlefields, real graves, real people stripped and walking barefoot with their buttocks uncovered.

This is all real. And this battle scene that is depicted here in verse one, or this conflict, it's really to tell the story that Isaiah is wanting to tell in this chapter, and that is when the battle is over, you'll look upon what you trusted, and you'll only see two things. You'll see the naked and the barefoot and the defeated, or you'll see a victorious Savior that you trusted in. You'll either see the object of your trust be taken captive, or you'll rise with him from the grave victorious." But what he's saying here, he's trying to change the expectations of Judah and he wants to tell them how wrong and harmful their expectations are and how they're expecting one thing but they will get another. They are expecting protection but they're going to get captivity and death.

That's the whole thing there. So verse 1 kind of introduces it And then the Lord issues this command to Isaiah in verse 2, look at it with me. At that same time, and of course it's at that same time that Tartan was in Ashdod, that the Rev Sheka was in Judah, and this was going on. At that same time, the Lord spoke by Isaiah, the son of Amoz, saying, Go and remove the sackcloth from your body and take your sandals off your feet. And he did so, walking naked and barefoot.

Now, I think the first thing we should recognize is that God speaks and He says, go. He calls Isaiah to take action and he goes. You know, he had already seen the Lord, as we noticed in chapter 6, where he saw the Lord high and lifted up. And he said, Woe is me, for I am ruined, for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips, for my eyes have seen the King. And then he hears the question, who will go for us?

And he says, here am I, send me. And Isaiah is now going to be sent on another one of the missions that God has for him. And God asks him to do three things. Every single one of them is a sign. And it's a sign to really reset the expectations of Judah, that they would not find themselves expecting what will fail them.

And the first was to remove his sackcloth. Now Isaiah, as far as we know, normally wore sackcloth and my view is that this was a sackcloth for mourning. Sackcloth was used for mourning. You can see examples of it in Scripture, sometimes among the prophets like in 2 Kings 1 8. John the Baptist as a prophet wore sackcloth and recorded in Matthew 3 verse 4.

It was a symbol of poverty as well in Zechariah chapter 13 verse 4 and in 2 Kings 3 verse 4. But Isaiah's sackcloth offers insight into Isaiah. You know, we've been getting to know Isaiah. We've seen how brilliant he is. We've seen how his mind works to speak such remarkable images and the connections that he makes all across Scripture.

It's really amazing. And we've been getting to know Isaiah, but here's one thing in getting to know Isaiah that comes to our attention right here, and that Isaiah was a mourning man. He was broken, he was not proud, he was not lofty and lifted up, and because of that he mourned. It means that he had sympathy. He had sympathy for his own people.

He had tender-hearted compassion. In the same way that the Lord Jesus Christ looked upon those who were without a shepherd, downcast. He looked at them and He had compassion over them and He wept. The Lord Jesus Christ was touched with feeling, and Isaiah was touched by the feelings of the Lord Jesus Christ. And, you know, it's so easy for us to have sympathy for different things, but here Isaiah has sympathy for the apostasy that he sees all around him.

He is a prophet whose heart is broken, wounded, whose heart that's mourning for the apostasy that's around him. So not only did Isaiah come with a message, he also came with his heart. He came with a heart that was mourning. And one commentator explains it like this, If we have any feelings towards God, we ought to be in sadness and tears. And if it be our duty to mourn, we ought also to exhort others and stimulate them by our example to feel the calamities of the church and be touched by the same sympathy and compassion.

You know, it's so easy to see sin around you or maybe in the church and yet you lose your sympathy. You don't mourn in tender-hearted sympathy as Isaiah did. And I think It's a good opportunity for us to ask, you know, do we feel the calamities of the Church deep within our hearts and does it drive us to mourning? Does it drive us to compassion? So the Lord sees on the one hand the indifference and the hardness of heart of the people of Judah, their lack of trust, their lack of understanding, the danger that they are in, and even so, he raises up a man who has tender-hearted compassion and he mourns for the people.

So Isaiah was a sign and a wonder. He was wearing sackcloth, But this now he is called to remove his fat claw. God commands him to remove his fat claw. And in some ways take on a different disposition to show them a stark reality, to move from the mourning and to move into a more, a very, very dramatic proclamation through the very image of his own body having been stripped naked. And then the second sign was to remove his sandals.

His feet were exposed and he couldn't walk the same way. He would have to walk more carefully. You know, taking off your sandals is a sign of vulnerability and you can't move very fast. You're really hampered from moving like you want to move. And this is just one of the signs.

This is one of the things that God is trying to teach Judah, that they will not be able to live and move and have their being the way they want. Their expectations are wrong and they won't be able to walk like they did. And then the third sign, really the most dramatic is that he was stripped, the sign was to be stripped naked. And God desired that his appearance would tell a story, that his clothing would actually tell a story. All of our clothing does tell a story.

Clothing was meant to tell a story. From the very beginning, clothing was meant to tell the story of our need for our shame to be covered in in the book of Genesis we learn that that when Adam and Eve sinned they were they had shame and they tried to cover their own shame and it was futile, it didn't work so God came and He covered them with skins, He covered their shame. Clothing is really designed to be a picture of the gospel, the way that we have shame, but we're clothed with robes of righteousness. That's the purpose of clothing. And so, while the divine purpose of clothing is to cover shame, now Isaiah is commanded to take off his clothes and to be completely shamed.

And it's such a remarkable and riveting picture here. And God is asking Isaiah to do a very humbling thing to You know imagine that you know to be a spectacle. I mean some people are so You know are would be so upset to wear anything that just Was a little bit different than what they wanted right even the slightest Thing and clothing that may make you may make you look like you don't want to look would be so disturbing to you. But imagine what God commanded Isaiah to do. To really, really look striking, you know.

That's what he did. And Isaiah is humble. He would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of his God than to dwell in the tents of wickedness, and so he would obey God. And he would look like a fool. You know, there's a statement in Hosea that I ran across in studying this, in Hosea 9, 7.

He says, the days of punishment have come. He's talking about when days of punishment are near, the prophets are regarded as fools, they're regarded as insane. And I think that's sort of a picture of what we have here. In the days of punishment have come, the days of recompense have come, Israel knows the prophet is a fool. The spiritual man is insane because of the greatness of your iniquity and great enmity.

He's speaking of a time when when people will look on the prophets who speak the Word of God and they'll say they're insane. Well that's sort of what is going to happen with Isaiah. People are going to look at him and think, what has happened to this man? And they're going to miss the point. They're going to scorn him rather than to praise God.

Now, he could have been completely naked. How naked was he? Naked in the Bible can mean ill-cloth. The way that the term is used doesn't require a complete disrobing. In Isaiah 58 verse 7, the word is used that way in John chapter 1 verse 7 is probably used that way.

In Job chapter 22, he speaks of stripping the naked of clothing as if when they, but he really speaks of it as if when they were naked they still had clothes on in Job 22 verse 6. In other words, they're called naked but they actually still have some clothes on. So, you know, people have debated whether he was practicing nudity or whether he was practicing some partial clothing. And there's really much to say about this. But first of all, I think we should say naked.

The use of this word does not require absolute nakedness or nudity. It could be that he wore his undergarments and that type of thing. You know, possibly the outer garment and the inner tunic were removed, leaving a covering to cover his private parts, perhaps a smaller covering for some of those private parts. But we don't know exactly. I mean, one of the questions that we should ask is, would God command a man to do something that was unlawful?

I mean, the Bible is very clear. You do not look on the nakedness of another person. That's what the Bible says. It's not appropriate, except in marriage. And then you can be naked and not ashamed but but would God command Isaiah to do something that's expressly prohibited by the word of God And we were discussing this last Tuesday, and it was brought up that God actually commanded Abraham to kill Isaac, which was against the law of God, to murder.

You know, God could have commanded him to go naked. God sets the law. God sets the standards. When God speaks, it's right. So my view is he probably wasn't completely nude, but it's a debatable matter.

I'm not sure, but what we do know is that God commanded Isaiah to demonstrate by his clothing the bankruptcy and the nakedness that they will see in those whom they have trusted. So Isaiah is making a statement. It's like he's using a bullhorn. Israel, why would he do that? Why would God have a man do something so dishonorable, so harmful to his whole visage, his whole look and everything?

Why would he make a man look so stupid? Isn't God supposed to make you look good? Well, actually, it isn't God's first objective to make you look good. It is His first objective, though, to proclaim His glory, and to proclaim how good he is and to proclaim that you should trust him. And God uses this bullhorn-like method to communicate this very dramatic reality.

And it would be very shocking to see this. And Isaiah is delivering a symbolic warning. You know, one of the things that, you know, I've talked with people a little bit about in dealing with this chapter, you know, that it's really, it's true that God has given His people in the world to be a symbolic warning. And the way they live, the way they speak, what they do with their lives is a warning. God has always used His people for a warning.

The question is, how are we a symbolic warning of the danger that there is to trust in this world? What is it in our lives as a church that says God alone is worthy to be trusted? Is there anything in our lives that bears witness to the fact that only God ought to be trusted? Or are we trusting in the world and really giving an example to the world that would continue to deceive them about trusting in this world. You know, we should always be asking ourselves this question.

You know, are our lives being used as a sign and a wonder, really to declare what a good Savior Jesus Christ is, what a mighty resurrected Lord He is, and how every word of God is pure and true and you can trust, You can trust Him with everything. You can rest your whole life on one single word of Scripture. That you can trust Him. You know, what is it in our lives that either testifies that He's trustworthy or not? And it's a very convicting question for me.

You know, there are many ways that we as a church and that I, and that we as a family, we demonstrate that we don't trust God. And this is what Isaiah is doing. He is grabbing attention here. And what he's trying to say is, hey, when the battle is over and you look upon what you trusted, you're only going to see two things. You're going to see the naked and the barefoot and the buttocks uncovered of what you trusted being led to captivity.

And you will hate it. Or you will be so happy in what you trusted in. You'll be so grateful that you rested all of your faith and your hope in Him and in Him alone. And it may be that your expectations will change. Maybe you're not a Christian today.

Maybe your heart is going to remain hard until that day. And no preaching, no friend, nothing will change your expectations. But there will be a day when your expectations will change. And you'll see how wrong and harmful it was to expect anything from this world. You'll find that you expected one thing, but you got another.

You expected protection, you expected fulfillment. But you'll be standing there in that freeze-frame moment, And it'll be a real time in history. And it'll be just like the people of Judah. And you'll be looking on those that you trusted. And you'll say, I've lost everything.

I've trusted in the wrong thing. And then in verses 3 and 4 we see the Lord's command is for a sign and a wonder against Egypt and Ethiopia. Then the Lord said, verse 3, just as my servant Isaiah has walked naked and barefoot three years for a sign and a wonder against Egypt and Ethiopia. So shall the king of Assyria be led away, the Egyptians as prisoners and the Ethiopians as captives, young and old, naked and barefoot, with their buttocks uncovered, to the shame of Egypt." Now I want you to notice a number of things here. First of all, who's involved here?

From the youngest to the oldest. You know, from the young and the old. You know, Young people often think that they have forever to figure this out. They don't have forever. This day is going to happen.

And Isaiah is warning. He's saying, I want to transport you into the future, into this moment. You young people, notice this. You will be in this place. If you do not trust Him and believe in Him, if you do not repent of your sins and flee from His wrath and love Him and serve Him, you will find yourself in this day.

You will be one of those standing there and your mouth will be wide open, and you'll be shocked at how stupid you were, and how you did not listen to the prophets when they came. Isaiah has come to Judah over and over again, chapter 1, chapter 2, chapter 3, chapter 4, chapter 5, chapter 6, chapter 7, on and on and on, singing songs, giving illustrations, and Judah's not listening. Finally, God says, no, strip yourself naked. Maybe they will hear if the bullhorn gets loud enough. But the tragedy is, there will be some who won't hear.

Even the most vivid and clear and compelling and gracious and loving appeal will not cut through. Even the most radical and offensive nakedness won't cut through. Notice it's three years. This is so telling to me that it was three years. There are many things I think that we ought to say about this.

One thing to say is that it was three years. The year is 713 BC. And it won't be for three more years until this scene takes place. In other words, God gives time to repent. He's always giving time.

And it's just another example of the patience of God and how long-suffering He is with sinners. He waits, He has mercy. These are three years of mercy. You know, whenever we cry out to announce the judgment of God upon those who are trapped in their unregenerate state, We're also, at the very same time, we're announcing God's mercy, that God has given time, that today is the day of salvation. You know, three years, 1, 095 days, 1, 095 days, Isaiah got up in the morning and he proclaimed the patience of God.

It was a season in his life to do a particular thing. Perhaps these three years would also expose the scoffers. But you know, one thing about verse 3 that really jumps out at me is about Isaiah. Remember we are getting to know a prophet, Isaiah. Verse 3, you get an insight into him.

Not only, as we said earlier, is he a man of compassion and brokenness, but it says this, just as my servant, Isaiah, has walked naked. He is God's servant. He is willing to be thought of as strange and fanatical. And he really desires the approval of God. And he's seen the King.

He was undone. He said, here am I. Send me. He's real. Isaiah is serious.

He's real. And he's not afraid of following his Master. He's a changed man. And there's so many things about him. I mean, you could say he's obedient.

He obeys the voice of the Lord. When God says go, he goes. He's an evangelist, he's proclaiming salvation. How many times so far in these first 20 chapters has he proclaimed the mercies of God and the beauty of the kingdom of God. He's an evangelist.

He speaks of how marvelous God is and the coming judgment. We've seen His vulnerability. You know, He removes His shoes. We see His submission and He becomes a living demonstration of the nakedness of what people trust. So Isaiah is a remarkable person and he's a help to us.

But I think also he's an example of Christ. He's a type of Christ. He's a foretaste of the Lord Jesus Christ. Christ walked for three years and he was shamed, he was spat upon, he had no place to lay his head. He crossed the sea in a borrowed boat and he was buried in a borrowed tomb.

And yet he cried out, seek first the kingdom of God. He humbled himself. He laid aside his heavenly glory. That's exactly what Isaiah was doing. He was laying aside all of his earthly reputation and glory to proclaim the goodness of God.

And also, how disappointed you'll be if you don't trust Him. And so He's walking, He's walking naked and barefoot and He will be belittled for a sign and a wonder. Isn't that amazing? A sign and a wonder. Remember back in chapter 8, he said we learned that his children were for signs and wonders as well.

Actually the names of his children, the name of one child for judgment, the name of one child for redemption. But now he is a sign and a wonder. And I can't help but think that this is why God has put his children in the world, to be a sign and a wonder, to proclaim the goodness of God, to always be speaking of the coming judgment and also of the coming salvation of those who trust in Him and who repent of their sins. But all of this is being done to help Judah recognize that when the battle is over and you're in that moment and you look at what you have trusted in, what will you see? Will you see the naked and the barefoot with the buttocks uncovered or will you have trusted in your resurrected Lord and you will be raised again to eternal life?

That is the power of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. And then we see what will Judah see in verse 4? What will Judah see? So Isaiah is doing this to show Judah something. He wants them to see something now that they will see later on.

And that's why in verse 4 he says, So shall the king of Assyria lead away the Egyptians as prisoners and the Ethiopians as captives, young and old, naked and barefoot. So there it is. That is what they will see. And they'll see how futile and unprofitable and inappropriate it was. You know, Job, in Job 26 says, Sheol is naked before him and destruction has no covering.

That's the picture. They're headed to hell because they did not trust in the Lord. That's the picture. And then we'll see what Judah will feel and think in verse 5. Verse 5, then they shall be afraid and ashamed of Ethiopia, their expectation and Egypt, their glory.

So Now Isaiah is declaring what they are going to feel. So you're standing there, you're standing there after the battle is over, the smoke is cleared, and there now you're... He just doesn't stop with what you see. He tells you how you're going to feel if you trust in man. And he says that they will feel afraid.

They'll be afraid. You will stand there And your fear will rise because of what you trusted in. You had such confidence in what you trusted in, but that will go away. It will be completely drained from you. The word that Isaiah uses implies being shattered, being dismayed.

All that mixed in with the feelings of fear. And those who have not trusted in the Lord will stand there. And that's what will fill their heart. You know, David said, You always fill my heart with songs of deliverance. But that's not what's going to happen here.

There will be no songs of deliverance here. And they'll also be ashamed. In other words, they'll be disappointed. They'll be ashamed of their idols. And you know, Isaiah's already told Judah how they'll feel about their idols in the day of judgment, how they'll be embarrassed with them.

In chapter 1, verse 29, he says, for they shall be ashamed of the terebinth trees which you have desired, and you shall be embarrassed because of the gardens which you have chosen. So not only will there be fear, there'll just be shame and embarrassment. In chapter 2 verse 18, when God says through Isaiah that He's going to abolish all their idols, in other words, all the false foundations that you build your lives on, God is going to destroy them. All the things that you hope in to build your reputation, to make your way in the world that are not founded in the kingdom of heaven, that God is going to abolish them. And he says, they shall go into the holes of the rocks, in Isaiah 2, 18 and 19, into the caves of the earth, from the terror of the Lord and the glory of His majesty, when He arises to shake the earth mightily." And he says that, this, in verse 20, In that day a man will cast away his idols of silver and his idols of gold which they made, each for himself to worship, to the moles and the bats." So this is the picture here.

You're standing there at the end of the battle and you are ashamed. You hate, you actually hate your idols. You despise them. The things that brought you so much comfort, you know, all the things you did to fortify your reputation, all of your shopping, all the things that you did to make yourself look so cool and so good, you will actually hate those things. You'll despise them.

The things that you did to make yourself look so cool and so good, you will actually hate those things. You will despise them. The things that you did to jack up your emotions with your music and your entertainments that were ungodly, you will hate them. You will want to throw them away. They will be filthy to you, but it will be too late.

The disappointed, tormented, embarrassed, remorseful forever and ever. That's what happens when the battle is over and you look on what you trusted. And you'll really only see those two things. The barefoot and the naked and the uncovered being led to captivity. Or you'll see your Lord, your king, your good shepherd, the bread of life, the water of life.

He'll see how good he was and you'll give thanks to him. And then number six, The sixth element on your outline here, what Judah will confess. What Judah will confess. This really is the heart of the passage. I think there's a word here that I think forms the center of what Isaiah is trying to say.

And it's the word expectation. Expectation. Verse 6, And the inhabitants of this territory will say in that day, Surely, such is our expectation, whenever we flee for help to be delivered from the king of Assyria, and how shall we escape?" This may be a confession of faith, I'm not sure. It could be that they're saying, now we see, now we get it, now we see how our expectations were placed in the wrong thing. Now we see that if we place our expectations in Egypt and Ethiopia, we'll be destroyed.

It may be a confession of faith. I'm not positive. You can take it perhaps either way, because it works either way. There will be those who will not confess Him, And they will see their heroes being taken away and they will be taken away with them. Or it will be the other way.

Their false, unprofitable, unworkable expectations will be exposed. And they will say, surely, such is our expectation. Expectation means hope. Your expectation is what you put your hope in. And he speaks of their glory.

In other words, your glory is, it's really, your glory is all that you've built for yourself, All that you are that's not founded in the kingdom of heaven, your glory. Isaiah has used this many times. Earlier in Isaiah he says, what will you do with your glory? What will you do with your glory when my glory comes and shines? All of us, you know, we spend most of our lives building up our glory, trying to make ourselves look so good, trying to prop up our reputations, try to form a look or a way.

What will you do with your glory when all of your glory was for yourself? He's saying consider your glory. What have you gloried in? What have you loved? What have you trusted in for your identity, your brand?

What is your glory? Well, their glory was in the strength of Egypt and Ethiopia. And now they're going to be dismayed. And they're going to say our expectation was wrong. They're going to admit it.

And that's the same thing that Jesus spoke about when He said, in that last day, every knee shall bow, and every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. And I'm not sure if Isaiah is speaking of that kind of confession where the unbelievers actually confess that Jesus Christ is Lord because He is casting them into the lake of fire or whether they are saying Jesus Christ is Lord because God has changed their heart and they're saved. It is probably both. But we're all idolaters for some kind of glory, building our identity and our hopes on some trait. But that was their sin.

Their sin is summed up in one word, expectation. They placed their expectations of hope in the wrong thing. That was their sin. That's the heart of the text right there. So Isaiah is pleading with Judah and he's pleading with Hope Baptist to consider our expectation and where have we placed our expectations and hopes?

In God? In His kingdom? In His pure and beautiful ways? Or are we still scamming and trying to protect ourselves and be somebody? And then we will find that our expectations will change.

So let me just draw back a little bit from this and just talk about some of the applications here. We ought to, in this moment of time, take the opportunity to transport ourselves to that moment when the smoke is cleared. Picture yourself there. Picture yourself there. And where, if you were there, and you will be there one day, where have you placed your hope?

You know, there are a lot of levels to this. You know, you can place your hope and your salvation in your deeds, in the way your family life is structured, you can place your hope or your salvation by your works. And if so, your expectations will change because you'll find that your works will get you nowhere with God. That there is salvation in Jesus Christ, shed blood on the cross alone, and a trust in Him as your resurrected King. There's only one hope in the world, And that is Jesus Christ himself.

Psalm 62 verse 5 says, My soul waits silently for God, for my expectation is from Him. Proverbs 10, 28 says, The hope of the righteous will be gladness, but the expectation of the wicked will perish. You have this split. There's gladness on the one hand, who place their hopes and expectations in Jesus Christ and there's a perishing of the expectation of the wicked. In Proverbs 11 verse 7 it says, When a wicked man dies, his expectation will perish, and the hope of the unjust perishes.

In Luke chapter 21 we read this, Men's hearts are failing them from fear and the expectation of those things which are coming on the earth for the powers of heaven will be shaken." Hebrews 10 26 says, for if we sin willfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins but a certain fearful expectation of judgment and fiery indignation which will devour the adversaries. Anyone who has rejected Moses' Law dies without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses." And he's speaking about God judging His people and how it's a fearful thing to fall in the hands of a living God. Well, that's exactly the picture that Isaiah is showing here after the smoke has cleared and the battle is over, and you're looking on the scene. And you will see the reality of where you placed your hope. I think we should ask ourselves, you know, are we signs and wonders?

Have we set ourselves to the task? You know, I was coming back on an airplane last night from Texas, and I sat next to a group of people from a local church or they'd just gotten back from a mission trip. And you know what? All they could talk about the whole way back from Houston, Texas, the only thing I heard them talk about was their love for their neighbors and how they were going to go share the gospel with their neighbors and how they were going to invite them and how they're going to give them literature. That's the only thing they could talk about.

They were like signs and wonders. It was so beautiful to me. They're from Faith Baptist Church. I was so grateful for what they were doing. They loved their neighbors, and they wanted to love their neighbors by the gospel of Jesus Christ.

It was so beautiful to hear them talk. I was working on my sermon about expectations, but I heard so much of their pathos, their heartbeat. In some ways, they would be willing to go naked, I think, in the neighborhood to say that Jesus Christ is Lord there. They were planning and scheming about how they might love their neighbors as themselves Well, so there it is there's Isaiah chapter 20 It's such a remarkable picture You we've we've just seen in some ways kind of a summary of what Isaiah has been saying. Although he's going to continue to say many of the same things.

But over and over again he's been saying, do not trust in Babylon. Babylon will destroy your soul. Do not trust in Moab. Moab will lure you into her sins. And don't trust in this and don't trust in that and don't trust in that.

And then finally after just saying it, God calls him to give a dramatic picture of it and he takes off his clothes and he walks for three years. And that's how important this message is. That the Lord Jesus Christ came to save sinners. That the Lord Jesus Christ passed through the heavens and He came and He walked on this earth for three years, not having a place to lay his head, and he preached the good news. And then he was crucified, and he died and was laid in a tomb, and he was resurrected to new life.

And He is risen. He is risen indeed, and we can trust Him. Would you pray with me? Oh Lord, we thank you for this remarkable, dramatic, beautiful picture that You've given us to show us who we are, who we are not, who we ought to be, and where are our expectations. Oh Lord, I pray that You would help us with these things.

Amen.