In his sermon 'Flowing to the Mountain of the Lord,' Scott Brown expounds on Isaiah 2:1-9, illustrating the prophetic vision of God's kingdom being established above all, drawing nations toward it. Brown emphasizes the importance of worship, not as entertainment or mere knowledge gathering, but as a deep engagement with God's word. He contrasts the future glory and peace of God's kingdom with the present idolatry and materialism of Israel, critiquing their reliance on wealth, military strength, and foreign influences. The sermon underscores the transformative power of the New Covenant, where believers are drawn to God, learn His ways, and experience peace, moving away from worldly obsessions. Brown calls for a return to simple, heartfelt worship, aligning with God's light and rejecting the 'Eastern ways' that lead away from Him.

Our scripture text this morning is Isaiah 2 verses 1 through 9. The word that Isaiah the son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem, Now it shall come to pass in the latter days that the mountain of the Lord's house shall be established on the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills, and all nations shall flow to it. Many people shall come and say, Come and let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob. He will teach us His ways and we shall walk in His paths. For out of Zion shall go forth the law and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.

He shall judge between the nations and rebuke many people. They shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nations shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore. O house of Jacob, come and let us walk in the light of the Lord, for you have forsaken your people, the house of Jacob, because they are filled with the eastern ways. They are soothsayers like the Philistines, and they are pleased with the children of foreigners.

Their land is also full of silver and gold, and there is no end to their treasures. Their land is also full of horses, and there is no end to their chariots. Their land is also full of idols. They worship the work of their own hands that which their own fingers have made People bow down and each man humbles himself Therefore do not forgive them Let's pray when we thank you for your word We thought that you would bless the preaching of your Word today. Lord, I pray that you would plow the ground of our hearts today, that you would convict us of our sin, that you would draw us to yourself.

In Jesus' name we pray, Amen. Now we've been engaging in so many things that God has commanded for our worship of Him. There are basic elements that should always be a part of the worship of the people of God. We've been doing many of them. We've been singing.

We've been praying. We've gathered together. We've had some fellowship together beforehand. But one of the elements of worship is preaching. And I just want to say that this morning because it's not a time of entertainment, and anybody who's been here long enough knows that we don't have all that entertaining of preachers.

It's not just simply a time of information gathering. It's not just a time for you to increase your knowledge base. It's something far, far deeper than that. It does include some of those elements, but its primary function for the people of God is to worship. It's a time of worship.

So As we begin to walk through this passage of Scripture, I just want to remind us to consider that this is a time of worship. And let's consider the words of Scripture, let them sink deeply into our souls, let's drink of the wells of the waters of salvation that are spoken of here. Let it be a time of real worship. You know, it can be a time of critique and entertainment and knowledge gathering and all that, but let's at least do this one thing. Let's use it as a time to lift our eyes into the hills from where our help comes.

Well, as we come to chapter 2, we come to the beginning of the second sermon in the book of Isaiah. He's just completed the first sermon in chapter 1. This second sermon stands from chapter 2 verse 1 all the way to the end of chapter 4. And so in chapter 1 we've heard an introduction to the prophecy, or really a summary of the whole prophecy, because everything in Chapter 1 we will find Isaiah dealing with throughout the entire book, all the way to the end of Chapter 66 in the book of Isaiah. And So we've received this first deposit of the prophecy, and now we're in the second sermon.

And one thing about the sermon that I just want to tell you about, we'll see this as we get further into it, but the beginning of the sermon and the end of the sermon focus on exactly the same thing. And the in-between part details lots of issues that we need to consider. And it really answers two questions. This text here this morning does as well, but what we'll find is that the rest of this sermon also answers these two questions. And the questions are this, what is it like to belong to the Lord?

What is it like to be a child of God in the New Covenant era. And that's the first half of what we'll be considering this morning. And then the second question is, what is it? What is it that deprives the heart from saying, Let us go into the house of the Lord. What is it?

What does it look like when that is upon you? Those are really the two issues that this second sermon will find focusing in on. One of the most marvelous parts of this sermon to me are really the first few verses where you have this vision of happy people flowing to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the Lord. And that's how it begins, and then that's how it ends. Look at chapter 4, beginning in verse 4.

Go ahead and turn your Bibles there, and you can see how the sermon is structured from the standpoint of this beautiful vision of the people of God happy in the Lord, so well taken care of and drawn into his presence. Chapter 4 verse 4, When the Lord has washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion, and purged the blood of Jerusalem from her midst, by the spirit of judgment and by the spirit of burning. Then the Lord will create above every dwelling place of Mount Zion, and above her assemblies, a cloud and smoke by day, and the shining of a flame of fire by night, for over all the glory there will be a covering, and there will be a tabernacle for shade in the daytime from the heat, for a place of refuge, and for a shelter from storm and rain. And that really brings us back to the, to the, to the, to the end point of what he begins with in the first few verses of chapter two. And what we find here is a contrasting of the beauty and the glory of the Kingdom of Heaven, and also the hardships that come upon all those who do not love his kingdom, who cannot say in their heart, Let us come into the house of the Lord.

Let us draw near to that mountain and flow together to the goodness of the Lord." And then in chapter 2, we see this very thing. But as we progress in Chapter 2, we see not only this future glory, but the present circumstances. We're going to cover the first part of the present circumstances of Israel. And what we learn is that what Isaiah is speaking to them can be summed up in one word, they're filled. They're filled up.

They're filled up with something. That's this Sunday, and then next Sunday we'll speak about really the heart of the matter. Why it is that they're so filled up with these things, And that is that they're haughty. It has to do with pride. Isaiah is putting his finger in the wound.

And he's saying, here's what it looks like to not be able to say, let us go into the house of God. He not only says, here's what it looks like, but he says, here's how it happened. It happened because of pride. And he really gives the answer to really the whole problem of mankind, my problem and your problem. What is it that deprived us in the first place of crying out to God in repentance and admitting who we really were and where we were really going and recognizing that only Jesus Christ could save us?

How did that happen? Somehow, God broke our pride. Somehow he did that. But anyway, that's what we see here. There's this future glory, and then there are the present circumstances.

We begin with the future glory, but in verse 1, There's a statement that I want us to camp on here, because Isaiah is really setting forth the sobriety and the importance of what he is going to prophesy now. In verse 1, the word that Isaiah, the son of Amos, saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem. It's interesting that he introduces this prophecy by saying that he saw the Word. He saw the Word. Now, It's a strange way, in a sense, to say something.

You saw a word, well we know, you know it's like that when you read a word, you open up a book and you look at a word and you see the word. This is different than that. He sees, He is seeing the Word. The Word can be seen. And the Word of God is seen in so many different ways.

The Word of God expressed itself in creation. As God spoke His Word, the creation, you know, emerged as a result of His Word. We know that the Word became flesh, and we saw the Word, the Word, the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. John speaks of this in 1 John 1, he says, That which was from the beginning which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, concerning the word of life. The life was manifested and we have seen and bear witness and declare to you that eternal life which was with the Father and was manifested to us.

The Word can be seen. It is alive. It's not wooden. It's living and active and it's sharper than any two-edged sword. And the word that Isaiah saw was what?

It was Jesus Christ himself. That was the word which he saw. The word became flesh and dwelt among us. And now these words which we read with our eyes show us the Father, they show us the Lord Jesus Christ. We also find out when this is happening in verse 2, now it came to pass, in the Latter Days, that's an important phrase to give you some coordinates about when, what the time markers are in this text.

But it's called the Latter Days, that the mountain of the Lord's house shall be established on the top of the mountains and shall be exalted above the hills." So there is this mountain, people are attracted to it, it says, now it shall come to pass. In other words, Isaiah is speaking of something that is going to happen, and it's really another declaration of God's sovereignty over history. God has determined history. He tells His people about it. He shows them what the future looks like.

He shows them what the past looked like. God is sovereign over history. He is controlling every single nanosecond of history. And when he says, now it shall come to pass, it's just a declaration that your times are in God's hands and that God has ordained the times and the seasons. He has ordained the kingdoms of the earth to be brought up and thrown down.

He's actually ordained the exact place where you live today. That's what the book of Acts says. He has set you in your place of habitation. Well, you thought you just moved to a place that you liked. Well, actually, the Bible says that it was God's design that you actually were given the impulse to go there and whatever circumstances came into play, you're there because God brought you there.

When you read these words, now it shall come to pass, just recognize that God is sovereign. Give thanks to God. He is sovereign over all of our times. Our times are in his hands. And then he marks the time.

He says, it's in the latter days. And the Hebrew term that is used here, it speaks of a distant part of the days, a time that will come in the far future. And it is the time of Christ, in the New Covenant. It's in the age of the Lord Jesus Christ. He's speaking of our day, And he's speaking of this time of greater glory, where there are better promises, where there's a better covenant, the days of the new covenant, where the Spirit of God has been poured out, where people from every tongue and tribe and nation are believing in the gospel, where the living stones, the people of God, are being built on the foundation of the apostles, where they have entered into this new relationship by faith, and as a result of the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ.

It pictures this time where the Lord Jesus Christ is sitting on His throne. He's the master of the house. He is the high priest. He's the prophet. He's the king.

He's the priest. He's the rock. He's the shepherd. He's the holy one of Israel. And He is governing and caring for his people.

He's walking beside them, and he is drawing them into his house. And there's this beautiful scene that is here, that we read about here. It's very much like Micah chapter 4. I just want to read it to you because the language is so strikingly reminiscent of this and exact to it in so many places. Micah chapter 4 verse 1, Now it shall come to pass, there's that phrase again, it shall come to pass, In the latter days, we're talking about the same time, that the mountain of the Lord's house shall be established on the top of the mountains, and it shall be exalted above the hills, and the peoples shall flow to it.

Many nations shall come and say, Come and let us go to the mountain of the LORD, To the house of the God of Jacob. He will teach us His ways, And we shall walk in His paths. For out of Zion the law shall go forth, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. He shall judge between many peoples, and rebuke strong nations afar off. They shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks.

Nations shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more. But everyone shall sit under his vine and under his fig tree, and no one shall make them afraid. For the mouth of the Lord of hosts has spoken, for all people walk, each in the name of his God. But we will walk in the name of the Lord our God, forever and ever. In that day, says the Lord, I will assemble the lame, I will gather the outcasts, and those whom I have afflicted, I will make the lame a remnant and the outcasts a strong nation.

So the Lord will reign over them in Zion from now on and forever." This is a picture of the people coming to this great mountain, and it's a beautiful picture of the body of Christ, the lame, the weak, the blind, the rich, the poor, everyone that's there, the wounded, the healthy, all are gathering before the house of God. And it's like they're sitting under a shade and they're being cared for. And the Lord is there and he's taking care of them. It says, and the Lord will reign over them in Mount Zion. That means he's caring for them.

That means that he's their shepherd. That means that he's their protector. So that's the picture that we find of this time of the new covenant. The writer of Hebrews in Hebrews chapter 12 verse 22 establishes this very same thing where he says, but you have come to Mount Zion to the city of the living God, to the heavenly Jerusalem. Now the writer of Hebrews is talking about the church.

He's talking about Mount Zion, and he's saying that's the church. He's talking about Jerusalem, and he's saying that's the church. You have come to Mount Zion, you've come to the heavenly Jerusalem. And what we find in the New Covenant is that the Church is the New Jerusalem. It is Zion.

When you speak of the daughters of Zion today, you're talking about the people of God. The disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ. And he continues, he says, You've come to the heavenly Jerusalem to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are registered in heaven, to God, the Judge of all, to the spirits of just men made perfect." This mountain that he is speaking of, this mountain that people are streaming to, is the mountain established by the New Covenant, by the death and the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. It is called the General Assembly and Church of the Firstborn. The Firstborn is the Lord Jesus Christ.

And we are the Firstborn, he is the Firstborn of many brethren who are registered in heaven. These are all the people of God who are registered in heaven. This is not just the nation of Israel. That's why Paul says in Galatians 4 that we're talking about the Jerusalem above which is free, which is the mother of us all. It's a city set on a hill.

It's the mountain that Ezekiel spoke of in Ezekiel 40, verse 2. In the visions of God, he took me into the land of Israel and set me on a very high mountain. On it, toward the south, was something like a structure of the city. John in Revelation spoke of that mountain in Revelation 21 10. And he carried me away in the Spirit to a great and high mountain and showed me the great city, the holy Jerusalem descending out of heaven from God, having the glory of God.

Her light was like a most precious stone, like a jasper stone, clear as crystal. This is the mountain of the Lord. This is a picture of what is happening in the days of the new covenant, where God is among his people in a completely new way. The second thing we see is that the nations will come to this mountain. Verse 2, at the end of verse 2 we see this, and all the nations shall flow to it.

Many people shall come and say, Let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob. He will teach us His ways, and we will walk in His paths." Now what's happening? There's an establishment of this faithful city. It's this mountain of Jerusalem. And what is happening here is that Isaiah is contrasting this with what he said in chapter 1 when he talked about the remnant.

The remnant in his day were like a hut, like a booth in a garden of cucumbers. This bombed out field, but yet there's this small remnant. Now, it's not such a small remnant. It's a greater number, and people are streaming. They're streaming to the mountain, And many are saying, let us go.

This is really a fulfillment of the Great Commission. It's a picture of what it looks like when the Great Commission is being fulfilled. People are saying that to one another. They're saying, let us go up into the mountain of God. One of the truly wonderful words of explanation in this passage is the word flow.

It says, they will flow up. And it's the Hebrew word nahar, and it has to do with a shining beam of light that seems to be moving. And it pictures what you've seen when you maybe go to the ocean, and the sun is going down. It's sunset and you see this glimmering stream of light coming toward you. It's almost like it's coming right at you.

And there the sun is going down but you see the glimmer coming at you. And if you look carefully and if you look at it in Ponder, you'll see that the little waves, it's almost like they're coming toward you. It's almost like there are these heads bobbing toward you, almost. I think that's the picture that he has here. They're flowing together.

The ripples are coming. The people are coming. They're flowing to the mountain of the Lord. It's a beautiful picture of brightness, of light, of this radiant beam, kind of a flowing stream right along the beam of light. It's a picture of the people of God coming.

You know, when we come here together as a church, I often sort of picture it like that, only we're coming in our cars and we have all these things that we're carrying along with us. But we're streaming together to the house of God. We're coming, and if you can see it in your mind's eye, we are coming now to come and worship before God Almighty. Jeremiah spoke of this word. He used the exact same word, nahar, in chapter 31.

In Jeremiah 31 verse 12 he says this, They will come and shout for joy on the heights of Zion. They will rejoice in the bounty of the Lord, the grain, the new wine, and the oil, the young of the flocks and of the herds. And they will be like a watered garden, and they will sorrow no more. Then maidens will dance and be glad, young men and old as well. I will turn their mourning into gladness.

I will give them comfort and joy instead of sorrow. I will satisfy the priests with abundance and my people will be filled with my bounty, " declares the Lord. There's this picture of, you know, they're coming to the Mount of Zion with joy and the bounty of the Lord. And it's interesting, the grain, the new wine, and the oil, they're all there. These are the pictures of the new covenant.

The Christ, the bread of life, the wine of the Lord's Supper, the oil of the Holy Spirit. These are all emblems of the grace of God in the New Covenant, the blessings that come upon all those who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. How blessed are those people whose God is the Lord. What a sweet thing it is to be able to stream together and to taste the goodness of the Lord. It says that the young of the flocks and the herds are there.

Even the young are there. It's the picture of this beautiful family, and they're like a watered garden. And God has taken care of their sorrows. He's taken care of all of their long-term liabilities. He's forgiven them of their past sins.

He's forgiven them of their sins of the moment. And He's forgiven them of all of their future sins. He's grafted them in. He's taken them into His own body, into His house. They are now in Christ, and no one can snatch them from His hand.

That's why they're so happy. They're secure in Zion now. They have hope. God has told them who they are and where they are going. They really have need of anything except just to praise Him and to give thanks for what He has done.

They have a desire in their hearts. That desire goes like this. They say to one another, let us go into the house of the Lord. They urge one another to come. They put their arm around their brother and their sister and they say, let's go.

Let's go to the house of the Lord. Isaiah chapter 60 speaks of this as well, 60 verses 4 and 5. Lift up your eyes all around and see. They all gather together. They come to you.

Your sons shall come from afar, and your daughters shall be nursed at your side. Then you shall see and become radiant, and your heart shall swell with joy, because the abundance of the sea shall be turned to you. The wealth of the Gentiles shall come to you." You know, this is the essence of what David said in Psalm 122. What David said in Psalm 122 is something I'm trying to teach my grandchildren. I was glad when they said unto me, Let us go into the house of the Lord.

Our feet have been standing within your gates, O Jerusalem. This is just a picture of the happiness that there is to go into the house of the Lord and to wake up on that day and say, I was glad, I was glad when they said them to me well somebody said it to me somebody said let us go into the house of the Lord somebody took me by the arm and they said let's go let's go happy are you a you know I just I just want to know you know you thought are you happy fathers you know on the Sabbath day are you are you Are you mean crotchety fathers on the Sabbath day? Hurry, get your shoes on. Come on, we gotta get out of here. Whooping it up and all that kind of thing.

Well, of course, often that has to happen in order to get out the door. But let's just don't forget one thing, that this really has been designed to be the happiest day, to come together and worship. You know, Isaiah called it the Day of Delight. It was a day of delight. And That day that we experience now, of course, is really a foretaste of an even greater day, a greater feast, where the burdens of sin are completely gone.

We don't have to carry around our personalities and our weaknesses and our grumpiness and all the things that happen to us. Our sins will be completely taken care of. But until then, until then, we say to one another, let us go into the house of the Lord. Let's drink of the rivers of delight. Let's come and taste it all now.

So here it is. God is drawing his people together. And we see that there's still a need for teaching, and that's plain here in the text. They say, He will teach us His ways, and we shall walk in His paths. And this is part of the gatherings of the people of God, part of the life of the believer in the New Covenant is to be taught, to learn more, to make progress, to walk in his ways.

We walk in the ways of the Gentiles, and then we're taught to walk in different ways, on different paths. And that's the beauty of it all. This whole matter of walking in his paths really leads us to the next thing that will happen. You know, what happens to you when you belong to the Lord? You know, not only do you stream to that mountain, but the law will go forth, verses 3 and 4.

This is what happens when you belong to the Lord. The law actually goes forth from Zion, and I take that to be from the people of God. First of all, from God himself, and then to and through his people. So in the era of the New Covenant, here's what we find out. For out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.

He shall judge between the nations and rebuke many people." There are people who say today that the law has nothing to do with the New Testament believer. Isaiah doesn't agree with that. He says that actually the law is going to come out of the believer in the New Testament era. The law shall go forth out of Zion, the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. And what happens?

It's used to rebuke many people. That's the purpose of the law, is to terrify, to show you your sin, to show you your great need. You know, the law is good if one uses it lawfully. No one can be saved by the use of the law. But the use of the law is right in the New Testament era, and actually here the law is going forth out of Zion.

We also learn here that the law is not only for individuals, but it's also for nations as well. So the law is going forth from the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ. And I would just like to say that a Church that does not proclaim the law of God in its proper use is a destitute and disobedient church. Because the Lord Jesus Christ said that that he who keeps the law and teaches it shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. That anyone who does not will be called least in the kingdom of heaven.

And what we find here in Isaiah 2 is that Christ is ruling and He is sending forth His law through His people. That's why the Lord Jesus said, Do not think that I came to destroy the law or the prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill. For assuredly I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle shall not pass from the law until all is fulfilled. That's why the Apostle Paul said in Romans 7, 22, For I delight in the law of God according to the inward man.

This is in the New Testament era, right? The Apostle Paul believed that only the carnal did not subject themselves to the law of God. In Romans 8-7 he says, because the carnal mind is enmity against God, for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be. Paul said to the Romans that love fulfilled the law. He says he who loves one another has fulfilled the law.

He says the law is not against the promises of God in Galatians. And John tells us that loving God and law keeping are completely inseparable. He says in 1 John 2, 4 and 5, He who says, I know him and does not keep his commandments is a liar and the truth is not in him. But whoever keeps his word, truly the love of God is being perfected in him. By this we know we are in him." We also know that there's happiness in the keeping of the law as Psalm 1 verse 2 says, the happy man keeps the law.

So in the New Testament era, there is this matter of the law going forth out of the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ. We should never be ashamed of that. And this just shows us what it looks like to belong to the Lord. Not only do you stream to the worship of God, to His mountain, which is not just the worship of God on the Sabbath, But you love to stream to the mountain of God, and you say to your brother, let's go. You also bring the law of God.

The fourth thing that happens to you is that the peace of Christ rules. Verses 4 and 5, they shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nations shall not lift up sword against nation. Neither shall they learn war anymore." This has to do with the taking up of military weapons and making them implements for peaceful uses. You know, if you go to the United Nations, you can see a bronze statue of a man beating a sword into a plowshare.

It was a gift several years ago from the Soviet Union. But this phrase, you know, beating the swords into plowshares is used in many, many places. Dwight Eisenhower, in his farewell address when he made his famous military industrial complex speech, Ronald Reagan, Jimmy Carter, Anwar, Sadat, Menachem Begin, and even Michael Jackson sang a song that included this phrase. So this phrase is quite well known, but what does it mean, really, to beat your swords into plowshares. Has that happened yet?

What is he talking about? And you have to, it's a difficult phrase, and it's a difficult explanation. I'll give you my best shot at it. My perspective is that it refers to two things, and they are related. It speaks of the life-altering changes that happen as a result of the Lord Jesus Christ.

That God does something in your soul, and you begin to make peace in a way that you never did before. Not only do you begin to make peace, but His peace becomes part of you. He says, my peace I give unto you. Not as the world gives give I to you. He does something in your heart and he also gives you commands to love and the war that you've made, the slanderous war-like life that you had in your pre-conversion days, it begins to drop away, because God softens your heart.

What happens to people is when they receive mercy, they begin to be merciful. That's what happens to people. When people are converted, the most prominent sign is that they love more than they did before. And I've seen it so many times. You know, 2012 was a year of revival around here where lots of people were converted.

And you know what one of the absolutely the most prominent instantaneous signs that I noticed? Those people were nicer. They were just nicer. The love of God in their hearts, the mercy of God had been tasted. And once you taste the mercy of God, it's very difficult to wage war against your brother.

Not that we don't sin and not that we do not fall into this, which is why there are commands of Scripture to keep us moving in the right direction away from this. But when people are converted, the hard edges of judgmentalism, of argumentativeness and harshness seem to drop away. That doesn't mean that it's never appropriate to argue. That doesn't mean that it's never appropriate to say something harsh, because God gives us harsh things to say, and we must repeat them. And so we can have a right kind of harshness that is mixed with the mercies of God.

And So this is one way to understand that this... When the gospel comes, you know, war reduces. When there's a nation that really truly has embraced the gospel, It changes the way they think about their weapons. And they deal differently. They deal in an orderly way.

They wage war according to the laws of engagement in war that are in the Bible. And that's a whole other discussion. But the Bible does actually tell a nation how it should lawfully go to war. We've kind of lost a sense of that in our own time. Matthew Henry speaks of this phrase, explaining it like this, the design and the tendency of the gospel are to make peace and to slay all enemies.

The other part of this is, have we seen an end of war yet in the days of the gospel? No, I think that's obvious to all of us. We have not seen that yet. There's a future time when God will destroy all of His enemies, and war will cease. He's speaking both of the beginning and the end of the days of the New Covenant.

That's my understanding of this passage of Scripture, that in the end of the days, we'll see a complete fulfillment of this. At the beginning of the days of the New Covenant, at the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, when The Spirit of God enters into the heart, it changes the heart. And the fruit of the Spirit is what? Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. All of those things have to do with personal relationships and even some sense of peace and the reduction of this warlike spirit that we have, where we're protecting ourselves, defending ourselves.

We care so much about our own honor that we go to war. So again, this is a picture of what it's like to belong to the Lord. You beat your swords into plowshares, You're converted, God changes your heart, you have compassion on people. You've received mercy, and so you're merciful. You're more merciful than you ever were.

And then God launches you into a whole life of learning mercy. He brings people around you to help you understand what mercy looks like in the world. It's a beautiful thing. It's part of the progressive sanctification of the believer, the beautification of the heart that brings itself into a disposition of peacemaking. It is true that the gospel does divide families, and there are ways that there is division from the gospel.

But that's different from what he's talking about here. Okay, so we've just seen this beautiful picture of the New Covenant. What happens? What is it like to belong to the Lord? You say to your brother, come, let us go to the house of the Lord.

Your heart desires the things of the Lord. You begin to hunger after the things of the Lord. And then you flow together. You're part of a body. You're part of the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ, and you're flowing together to the goodness of the Lord.

You know, people who say, you know, I don't need the Church to be a Christian, they do not understand that part of being a Christian is you're flowing together with the people of God. And there's peace that's made in your soul. And you become happier. And you become more merciful. This is what it's like to belong to the Lord.

These are the things that God does in his people's lives. And Isaiah begins this second sermon with this principle. And then he shifts in verse 5. And we learn about the church in Isaiah's day. And in this section, notice the word filled.

This is the key to this next section. One word is the key to this next section. Filled. It appears four times. And it's really the reason for the judgment that's coming upon the nation of Israel, because they have been filled.

As I said earlier, he speaks that they are filled, and then we learn, and we'll speak of this next Sunday, the heart of the matter. It was pride. It was pride that made them fill their hearts with these things. And so what we see here is Isaiah is explaining the church in his own day. He's really defining with greater clarity what he has already spoken of in chapter 1.

Remember in chapter 1 where he said, Hear, O heavens, and hear, O earth, for the Lord has spoken. I have nourished and brought up children, but they have rebelled against me. He's going to show you what it looks like to rebel, what it looks like in real life. And you know, he said, the ox knows its owner and the donkey its master's crib. He's going to tell you now an illustration of what it means to be like an ox and a donkey.

And then he said, alas, sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity. He's going to show us what it's like to be laden with iniquity. He says, a brood of evildoers, children who are corruptors, they've forsaken the Lord. And then he says, the whole head is sick, the whole heart is faint, from the sole of the foot to the head. There's no soundness in it.

He's going to explain what that looks like. That's the section that we're in right now. He's going to fill out the real life reality of this. But in verse 5, what we first find is his call. He says, Oh, house of Jacob, come, let us walk in the light of the Lord.

He's appealing to the nation here. This is really a tender appeal. It's a cry. It's really a cry to say, come, you know, come, let us walk. Oh, house of Jacob, come let us walk.

So he's speaking of the corrupt children of Israel in his day. And he's calling them to repent. And how? To walk in the light. And what he's saying is that, you know, let God be your entire light.

Let His light shape everything that you are, everywhere you're going. And he's saying you've not been walking in the light. You know, Light is an important category in the Bible. You read about it from the beginning to end, all the way from, let there be light, all the way to the end in the book of Revelation where the Lord is their light. From the beginning to the end, light means something.

You know, light helps you avoid danger. It keeps you from falling down. It makes you know where to walk. It keeps you from bumping your head. I bumped my head the other day in a hotel room, it was pitch black and I leaned down and I smacked my head against something and I started bleeding.

Well, if the light had been there I wouldn't have bumped my head so badly. It keeps you from, you know, stepping on a snake, you know, walking along the road. Light is a really good thing. It's a beautiful thing. When I was a new Christian, and you know, in my early teens I would go into my sister's room at 5 o'clock in the morning, I'd turn on the light, and I'd say, tell me you love the light and hate the darkness.

What a mean brother. But light means something in the Bible. Here it says, you will walk in the light of the Lord. That's the way that we walk. We're designed to walk in the light.

We're illuminated by the light of the Word of God, and that light is coming out of that mountain of the Lord. But This is this appeal. John spoke of how darkness manifests itself in 1 John 2. He says, He who says that he's in the light and hates his brother is in darkness until now. He who loves his brother abides in the light, and there is no cause for stumbling in him.

But he who hates his brother is in darkness and walks in darkness and does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded his eyes. So John is making it really clear that the sign of a true Christian is that he walks in the light, and one of the great manifestations of that is that he loves his brother. Ephesians chapter 5 verse 8, Paul speaks of the people of Ephesus and where they came from. He says, for you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light, for the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness and righteousness and truth, finding out what is acceptable to the Lord.

This has to do with walking in the light. This is why Paul said to the Thessalonian church in 1 Thessalonians 5, but let us who are of the day Be sober. We're people of the day. We are the children of the day. Not the darkness.

We don't walk in darkness. We don't hide. We have been opened up and now we are open. We walk in openness. We confess our sins to one another.

We don't hide from one another. Which is why Paul said to the Romans in Romans 13, he said, The night is far spent, the day is at hand. Therefore let us cast off the works of darkness. Let us put on the armor of light. Did you ever think of light like armor?

He says light is like armor for you. Truth is good. The truth is always more powerful than falsehood. He says let us put on the armor of light, let us walk properly as in the day, not in revelry and drunkenness, not in lewdness and lust, not in strife and envy, but put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for the flesh to fulfill its lusts." So what Isaiah is saying to the children of Israel is let us walk in the light of the Lord. Walk in the light.

Turn from the darkness because he's prophesying to people who've been walking in darkness and God is going to destroy them. And he's appealing to them. He's a good evangelist. He's crying out to those who are walking in darkness. Isaiah's doing exactly what we should be doing.

We should be with those who are walking in darkness and call them to the light. To say, come, let us follow the Lord. Let's not walk in darkness any longer. To say exactly what Isaiah said. Let us walk in the light of the Lord.

There's no greater evangelistic line than that one, because it collects up everything that has to do with the gospel. The light of the Lord Jesus Christ has come to save you, to illuminate your path, to show you the way. Now when we come to verse 6, notice there's a change in the pronouns. He has been speaking, God has been speaking to the people. Now there's a change, and Isaiah is beginning to speak to the Lord.

He's talking to God. It's very important to notice the change in the conversation. In verse 6 there's a change, in verse 10 there's a change, and that continues to the very end of the chapter. But you have God talking to His people, and now you have Isaiah talking to his God about his people. That's what we find beginning in verse 6.

And what Isaiah does in talking to God is he identifies the things that are making them sick. He's showing them what's making their heart faint so that there's no soundness in it. He's going to show them why it is that God has been punishing them, and He has been chastising them, but they won't turn. He keeps disciplining them, but they don't listen. And he's showing them why in verses 6 through 9.

And as I said before, he uses one single word to identify the heart of the problem. The heart of the problem is their affections have led them to fill themselves up with something. That's the problem. Verse 6, filled with eastern ways, that's the first. Verse 7, their land is full of silver and gold.

Verse 7, full of horses. Verse 8, full of idols. Those four things. Those are the issues that have come into play that shows them what has deprived them from a heart that says, let us go up into the mountain of the Lord. So here we go, verse 6, the first one.

For you have forsaken your people the house of Jacob, because they are filled with eastern ways. The first thing is that they have been corrupted by Eastern ways, by outside influences, by ungodly influences. He does say this to the Lord, he says, for you have forsaken your people. He is actually stating a fact, he speaks telling the truth. God has turned his face away from Israel.

God is going to judge Israel. He's going to bring a hard rod of disapproval and judgment against them. And the word forsaken is a word that brings us to a concept that we're very familiar with in the New Testament. And the Hebrew word forsaken means to leave, to let it go fallow, to just let it go. Imagine a field that's just been let to go and grow up and just become a jungle, completely out of control.

God has just let it go. You can always tell whether a garden has been let go. I think we all have personal experience with that. He needs to hand over, to give up. To be without his presence, to be without his voice, to be without his help, to be without his discipline.

God withdraws from people. You need to recognize God does do that. God isn't seeking every person. He does withdraw from those who've turned away from Him. That's just a reality of Scripture.

He says, you have forsaken your people. And the reason he has done that is because they have filled themselves with Eastern ways. And in Scripture, the East is symbolic of danger and corruption. You know, What was coming out of the East? Superstition, a pagan way of life, refusing to walk in the light of the Lord.

Eastern ways. What are these Eastern ways? Well, he actually identifies the ways of the Philistines. We'll talk about that in a minute. But the Eastern ways are the ways that turn away from the rational, logical ways of God, the orderly, right setting out of life according to God.

It's irrationalism. It's turning away from a logical and a rational faith. It's syncretism. It's taking the ways of the Gentiles. It's taking the ways of the world and mixing them in with your ways and Calling them the ways of God when actually they're not at all Many years ago Francis Shafor was writing books about existentialism and Buddhism.

These were Eastern ways. They're very specific ways that Western Christians had begun to take in Eastern ways. He says they are soothsayers like the Philistines. God has already spoken to the people about this in Deuteronomy chapter 18 and in Leviticus 19 to bring in paganism. Leviticus 19 has its focus on the ways of paganism that have flown into the people of God.

I'll just read from Leviticus 19, and at every step you'll find it's paganism, paganism, paganism, in every verse that I'm going to read here. Do not eat any meat with the blood still in it. Do not practice divination or sorcery. Do not cut the hair at the sides of your head or clip off the edges of your head. Do not cut your bodies for the dead or put a tattoo mark upon yourselves.

I am the Lord. Do not degrade your daughter by making her a prostitute, or the land will turn into prostitution and be filled with wickedness." And then he says, obey my Sabbaths and have reverence for my sanctuary. I am the Lord. Do not turn to mediums or seek out Spiritists, for you will be defiled by them. I am the Lord your God." He's speaking about bringing the ways of paganism into your mind and into your life.

Philosophy, psychology, science, all these things, the pagan ways of those things, are so easily brought into our homes and into our churches and into our whole thinking even, you know, in the civil realm. This has to do with syncretism and copying the things of the Gentiles. The Prophet said, do not learn the way of the Gentiles. That's really our greatest problem. Syncretism is without question the greatest problem of the modern church and it was the greatest problem of the church in Isaiah's day as well.

Loving the ways of the Gentiles. Our friend Kevin Swanson just wrote a book called Apostate, where he goes through and he dissects the great modern writers that every public school system curriculum is based on. It's apostate. It's the ways of the Gentiles. Why is it that Christians find it almost impossible to think biblically about anything today?

It's because their minds have been washed in paganism. They've been filled with Eastern ways. The word that Isaiah uses, filled, means, well, it's just like it sounds, filled, all the way to overflowing. Imagine a cup that is so full, it's right to the top, it has no room for anything else. You can't even carry it, it's so full.

There's no room for anything else. That's the idea that he's speaking of here. That they have so imbibed, they have so drunk of these things that it has filled up the wells of their lives. We find this in so many areas of life. If we talked about home life, we could itemize dozens of ways that we have brought Eastern ways.

Even in church life, in every area of life we're affected. And you know, we're born into this world and we learn the ways of the Gentiles just by virtue of our being born into it. We can't avoid it. It happens to us. It has happened to all of us.

And we spend really the rest of our lives trying to extricate the ways of the Gentiles from our thinking and from our affections and from the very ways of living. The way we educate our children, the way we talk, the way we engage in church life, the way we work, everything, we embrace the ways of the East. And that is such a problem. There's so much pressure today on church leaders, particularly, to make the worship of God just larger than life. And you end up with worship leaders today, they're kind of a priesthood of coolness technicians, they're living in an entertainment saturated society and they're trying to duplicate it.

But actually worship in scripture is far more simple than that. It's singing, it's praying, it's reading the word of God, it's preaching the word of God. Something is, what Paul said, foolish as preaching is meant to be for worship. You know, if you wanted to come up with some really fantastic way of communicating with people, you wouldn't come up with preaching. I mean, honestly, you wouldn't.

You wouldn't take a weak man that has an imperfect mind and an imperfect heart and make him one who helps the people worship. If you are doing it on your own. That's what God has done. He brings these things to us. They are simple.

I read a book recently by a man by the name of Terry Johnson, where he's speaking of this whole matter of worship and how there's so much pressure to make it such a highly charged experience. Here's what he says about it. He says, Don't revive the pomp and circumstance of the medieval liturgies. Don't embrace the high-voltage extravaganzas of contemporary worship, either. Don't create a new priesthood of technicians, artists, and actors.

Our worship is simple and hence universally valid. It can be conducted and enjoyed at any place, at any time, whatever the income, education or technological prowess of those involved. It can be conducted in an igloo in Alaska, a grass hut in the Congo, or in a grand cathedral in Paris. God may now be worshipped in Samaria and in Jerusalem. We repeat the implication of Hebrews 8-10.

The Levitical ordinances were a copy and shadow of the heavenly things, but Christ has obtained a more excellent ministry. The entrance of Christ into heaven itself, not the earthly temple, a mere copy of the true one, means the abolition of the old copy. The law, he says, is a shadow of good things to come which come in Christ. So We should have confidence. We should have confidence in a simple worship and not try to duplicate the entertainment extravaganza that's out there.

He really has called us to a worship that is very plain, It lacks sophistication, and it's something that anyone can do. But it must be designed so it comes from the heart, and it's not manipulated from the front or from some remarkable music exposition. It's designed to come from the heart. So here Isaiah is dealing with this with God and he's saying they are filled with Eastern ways. And Then he says that they are actually identifying with worldliness and paganism.

They are pleased with the children of foreigners. The language here has to do with clasping hands with worldliness, finding pleasure in the ways of the world, loving those ways enough to copy them. To clap hands with a person, like the naked deal, to say yes, to say yes to worldliness, That's what was happening to them. There's no sin in doing business with pagans. It's identification with paganism and loving worldliness and copying worldliness.

That's what's being addressed here. This is what deprives the heart from saying, let us go to the mountain of the Lord. So they were filled with eastern ways, that's number one. Number two, they were trusting in their wealth, verse seven. Their land is also full of silver and gold, and there is no end to their treasures." Now this is not a statement against wealth.

You know, many of the Godliest in the Bible were wealthy men. That's not the point he's making. He's talking about being filled. He's talking about your heart so focused that all you are filled with is how you might make money. It's the kind of thing that happens to you when you're sitting in church and all you can think about is making money on Monday morning.

You're a little bit too filled with that. Maybe you are so filled with it that you're not saved. Or maybe you're still fighting with it. This has to do with being filled with silver and gold, and being successful at it. You are so filled with it and obsessed with it that you get it.

You get that gold and that silver, and there is no end to it. It's what Paul spoke of in 1 Timothy 6, where he said, But godliness with contentment is a great gain, for we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it. But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that. People who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge men into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil.

Some people eager for money have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs. This has to do with the various descriptive terms that are used here. They want to get rich. It's the love of money. They are eager for it.

That's the problem. That was the problem in their day, and they were so filled up with it that it consumed all of their mental and their physical lives. Lives. What deprives the heart from saying, Let us go to the mountain of the Lord, a love of money, a focus so powerful that it edges out everything else. That you work, work, work, work and you never praise, you never cry out to God, you never walk with the wise.

You're just focused on this one thing. Your whole life is filled with one thing and one thing alone. That's a great danger to the soul. This was the danger that Isaiah was speaking to God about concerning his people. And then Number three, relying on military prowess, verse seven.

Their land is also full of horses, and there is no end to cherries. Is there anything wrong with owning horses? No. That's not the point he's making. He is talking about the use of horses in military strength.

In Isaiah's day, horses were a primary asset for military prowess, And that's what he is speaking of here. And they were trusting in their military power. They were trusting in their horses. And they were finding safety in their policies and their alliances and in their amassing of this military industrial complex that they were trying to build. Isaiah 31 speaks of this, he says, Woe to those who go down to Egypt for help, who rely on horses, who trust in the multitude of their chariots and in the great strength of their horsemen, and do not look to the Holy One of Israel, or seek help from the Lord." What Isaiah is saying is that This was the tendency of his people, was to look for outward material and military means for their security, instead of the Lord for their security.

You know, Deuteronomy 17, God tells the kings not to acquire a great number of horses for himself or to make the people return to Egypt to get more of them. That's Deuteronomy 17.16. Remember Isaiah's prophecy began with quoting Deuteronomy, Hear O heavens and give ear O earth. Now he's saying he is going back to Deuteronomy 17, and he's saying you're doing exactly what you were commanded not to do. You know, this happens to us in many different ways.

You know, in the modern conservative movement, you find this idea. If we could just get the laws right, if we could just get a balanced budget amendment, everything would be fine in America. If we could just pass these laws, if we could just get people to move their power structures our way. We don't trust in chariots and horses, we trust in the Lord our God. Salvation by political processes and military strength never worked and it never will work for us either.

Not by might, not by power, but by my spirit says the Lord of hosts. That's what the prophet says. We say, let me amass a great strength. God says, no, I'm stronger than all that. That should be a comfort to all of us here.

Confidence not in politics, but in the Lord. But the root of it here is revealed in the next verse. But what is it that deprives the people from a heart that says, let us go up into the mountain of the Lord? Trusting in military and political means rather than the Lord. And then the fourth here, idolatry.

Their land is also full of idols. They worship the work of their own hands, to which their own fingers have made. People bow down and each man humbles himself. Their land is full, there's that word again, full of idols. So their lives were full of all these things that they loved.

And when you hear the word idol, don't think just of a statue in an ancient pagan ritual. That's the wrong direction of thinking. But the word for idol here, the word for idol in Hebrew is the word for Nothing Nothing It's nothing all these things that you love he's saying are nothing You are filled with the nothingness the things that are worthless you You spend your life on things that don't matter. They're not even real. They don't even last.

He's talking about a life that's just spent on nothing. It's easy to do in our time. It's your equivalent of just worshipping yourself and what you're doing and what you're producing, What you make with your own hands. And he says it's the people, each man. This is the common man, the rich man, the common man, and everybody in between.

This is just the way it is. Jeremiah speaks of this. He's prophesying against Judah. And he's talking about how the shepherds of Israel have abandoned the people. And he says this about their idols.

They make you worthless. Your idols make you worthless. Not only are your idols worthless, they make you worthless. What is it that deprives the heart from saying, let us go into the mountain of the Lord? It's being filled with idols, filled with a life of worthless things.

You have to ask yourself, what worthless is in my life? That's an idol. Whatever is worthless is an idol. By its very name, nothing. And then Isaiah issues a really startling, disturbing, offensive response.

Verse 9, remember He's speaking to the Lord. He's speaking to the Lord about His people. He's been recounting to the Lord the ways that are hurting them. And then he says, therefore, do not forgive them. Do not forgive them.

You know, Isaiah is an evangelist. And Isaiah cares more about the glory of God than anything else. And he so stood against those who dishonored him. He treasured the preservation of his glory. He treasured the continuance and the teaching and the obedience of his word.

He treasured the things of the Spirit of God so much that he would say that, therefore, do not forgive them. We're often told that we're supposed to pray for everybody's salvation. Isaiah is praying for their condemnation. That's startling. Jesus says to those who have rejected him, your house is left to you desolate.

For I say to you, you shall see me no more till you say, Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. So in this whole section here, what we find are these two kingdoms. The kingdom of God that's characterized by people who have been rescued from darkness. And they love the light and they stream to the light. And they're together in the light with their brothers and sisters, and they're streaming to the house of God, and they say, Come, let us go into the house of the Lord.

They're being shaded, they're being led, they're being shepherded, they're being cared for. They have a heart within them that says, let us go, let us go into the house of the Lord. That is the impulse of their hearts. That's what they want. That shows them who they really are.

It shows them that they're children of God, that they want more. They want more of Him. And then there are those who are filled up with other things. Filled up with this and that, but it all boils down to one thing. Nothing.

Filled up with nothing. And he makes this appeal. Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord. To the house of the God of Jacob. He will teach us His ways, and we shall walk in His paths." Well, that's a picture of the Kingdom of Heaven.

That's the picture that Isaiah brings to us today. Would you pray with me? Oh Lord, we are amazed at the language that you've given to help us understand what's happening to us, what's happening in our world, what happened to Isaiah. And oh Lord, what you've done for your church to make us a family, to make us a body, a building of living stones, all flowing together. Oh Lord, that you would make our times of flowing together so sweet before you, that they would be like a sweet aroma unto you.

And Lord, that you would help us to be like Isaiah and to say to go to our brothers and say come walk in the light oh Lord help us to do that this week amen