In the sermon 'Redeemed With Justice,' Scott Brown explores the themes of divine intervention and redemption as presented in Isaiah 1:24-31. Brown emphasizes that divine intervention is God's active involvement in the world to expose sin and set people apart for His glory. He illustrates this with a story of a young boy whose life changed after hearing the word of God. The sermon details the actions God will take, such as purging sin, restoring judges and counselors, renaming cities, and redeeming Zion with justice and righteousness. Brown argues that God's intervention is necessary for salvation and warns against the consequences of living in rebellion. He underscores the importance of repentance and faithfulness, highlighting that God's justice will ultimately prevail, bringing redemption to the penitent and destruction to the unrepentant.

Isaiah 1, 24 through 31. Therefore the Lord says, the Lord of hosts, the mighty one of Israel, Ah, I will rid myself of my adversaries and take vengeance on my enemies. I will turn my hand against you and thoroughly purge away your dross and take away all your alloy. I will restore your judges, is at the first, and your counselors, is at the beginning. Afterward, you shall be called the city of righteousness, the faithful city.

Zion shall be redeemed with justice and her penitence with righteousness. The destruction of transgressors and of sinners shall be together and those who forsake the Lord shall be consumed. For they shall be ashamed of the terabint trees which you have desired and you shall be embarrassed because of the gardens which you have chosen. For you shall be as the tarabinth tree whose leaf fades and as a garden that has no water. The strong shall be as tinder and the work of it as a spark.

Both will burn together and no one shall quench them. Let's pray. Oh Father, we do ask as your word has been read that you would pour out your grace upon us now, not to just hear, but to do. Pour out your spirit upon Mr. Brown, as he comes to explain the word, and we ask that you would bless this time.

In Jesus' name, amen. Well, here we are in the last section of chapter 1 of Isaiah. We've gone slowly through chapter 1 for particular purposes. And this last section declares what is the only hope for Judah, What's the only hope for you and me? And it's a chapter that shows God taking action.

And it shows us again that There really is only one hope in the world today, and that is divine intervention. And what we see here in chapter 1 is that it's the kind of divine intervention where God exposes sin and then He sets His people apart for His glory. So I just used the terms divine intervention. I'm just wondering, you know, how many eight-year-olds understand what divine intervention is? Well, here's what divine intervention is.

Are you ready? Are you ready, children? Divine intervention is when God steps in. He steps in the way and He does something. You're just going along normal life and then something happens.

Something comes in from the side And it changes absolutely everything. Here's a story about divine intervention. I was in Des Moines last week, and a mother came up to me. She had tears in her eyes. And she said, Mr.

Brown, do you have time for a story?" And I said, yes, of course I do. And she said, I want to tell you a story that started when you came here four years ago on your road trip, and there was a little boy who was ten years old sitting in the audience, and he was my son. And he said, Mr. Peter Bradrick got up and gave a message on how young men should not waste their youth. And it struck him, and there at 10 years old, from that day forward, He set aside his video games, he set aside his playing, and he began to set his whole life towards serious things.

And she said it was such a joy to us to see him do that. He heard the word of truth, he responded immediately, and his whole life changed. And then about a time passed, a year and a half or so, and it was found that he had a brain tumor. And then by the time he was 13, he was dead. The brain tumor chilled him, but he said, Mr.

Brown, I want you to know this. There was a little boy who heard the word of truth, and it changed his life. And the last years of his life, he was protected from wasting his time. And it turned his heart toward holy and good things. I thought, what a blessing that is.

That's divine intervention. When you hear the word of God and you say, yes, Lord, I will take action on that. And divine intervention happens in many ways. But Isaiah is a book about divine intervention. And that's why in this vision of divine intervention that we have here before us in the last part of the chapter, the words I will or I shall are spoken multiple times.

God is saying, I will do this. I will intervene. I will come in. I will step in the way. I'm stepping in the way now between my people and their practices and the way that they've been living.

If you look at it, you'll see that it's spoken more than one time in every single verse that we're studying here this morning. In verse 20, I will rid myself. I will take vengeance. Verse 25, I will turn my hand. Verse 25, I will take away your alloy.

I will purge. Verse 26, I will restore. You shall be called, you shall be redeemed in verse 27. Verse 28, that He will do destruction on transgressors and that they shall be consumed. In verse 29, they shall be ashamed.

They shall be embarrassed. In verse 30, these are the I shalls and the I wills of the end of this chapter. This chapter is all about divine intervention. It's about how God steps in and He makes a change. What a blessing it is.

And this is why we gather as a church, that God would come and speak to us in a special way. He's appointed the reading of Scripture, the praying, He's appointed all the things that we do together, even our fellowship and including the preaching, to do a work of divine intervention, to come and step in the way and show us something more wonderful than we had before, Maybe to correct us, maybe to rebuke us, maybe to lay us low. But all of it is for one purpose, and that is for redemption. And so that's what we have here before us. Before we jump into this section, I'd like us to just review chapter one, because chapter one is a vision of the entire prophecy of Isaiah.

And so what we find here is that God is calling His people to repentance. Not a faithless repentance, but a faithful repentance that results in a number of things. Defending the Father, loving your neighbor, actually obeying God in the real world, taking your Christianity from an intellectual proposition and feeding on various facts and figures to something that actually moves your feet. This is the great call for repentance in Isaiah. And so this call is summarized by these two great words, come now, now, Come and do it now.

This is a mechanism of divine intervention when a heart churns and says, Yes, I'm coming. And today is the day of salvation. Now remember, this prophecy is an anthology of writings that Isaiah put together that covers a long span. And it's not necessarily in any chronological order, and it documents the downfall of a people and the various personalities and problems that occurred during a man's lifetime. Well, that man is Isaiah.

And as you read Isaiah over the coming months, just Try to think like Isaiah does. Think about your times the way that Isaiah thought about his times. You live in a particular era. There are things going on in our world today that are very particular to your time. Isaiah was no different than you or I.

And so Isaiah should just help us to be like him in that sense. Look at the times, evaluate them from the perspective of redemption and divine intervention in times like that. So what about your time? Well, generally the book is divided into two parts. The first 39 chapters really declare the judgment, the woe that is coming.

And there's a vision concerning Judah and Jerusalem and then the nations, a description of the deliverer. And then in chapters 40 through 66, the theme is comfort. The first part, 139, woe. The second part, 40 through 66, comfort. There is one true God, and there is a suffering servant, and there's a future glory.

That's the second part of Isaiah. And the time of the prophecy is identified, and that is during the reign of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, Hezekiah, the kings of Judah. Now you can read about these kings in 2 Chronicles, beginning in chapter 26. I encourage you to read that section. It's beautiful.

It will really give you a great sense of what was happening politically and the front row seat that Isaiah had in the midst of it. So his ministry is spanning four different kings and the things that happened during their reigns. And what Isaiah is saying is this, the glory days are coming to an end. The abundance is about to be swept away. Be ready.

And when we first started this book, one of the things that we said is that at any given time, you're either living before a time of crisis or in the middle of a crisis or you're finished with the crisis and there's another crisis ahead. And that's just the way it is on planet Earth because God has his ways of dealing with people to drive them to himself. But the people of Isaiah were in a time of great prosperity before a crisis. It was, in some ways, a calm before the storm. And so our section of Scripture today in verse 24 begins with the word, therefore.

And so it marks a time of summary, of looking back. When you see the word therefore, you have to look back to see what was said previously and then ask yourself, what does this mean? So let's look back for a moment into chapter one and just see where we've been. First of all, in verse one, the vision is cast. It is a vision of salvation for a broken people.

And Isaiah's very name means salvation of the Lord. And in verse 2, the witnesses are called, hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth, for the Lord has spoken. And here what we find is Isaiah's dependent on Moses in Deuteronomy chapter 32 and the song of Moses. He is quoting Moses there. And then after he calls the witnesses, the heavens and the earth, to witness the evils of the day, the wreckage among the fatherless, the wreckage among the widows, and all the other people who are being hurt during this time.

He describes the people who are calling themselves the people of God. And he levels these various accusations against the people. First of all, they are cared for, but they are rebellious. He says, I have nourished and brought up children, but they rebelled against me. Secondly, they're ignorant and unthankful.

The ox knows its owner and the donkey its master's crib, but my people do not know. They are sinful. Alas, sinful nation. They are a people weighed down. They're heavy laden with iniquity.

They are replicators of evil. They are a brood of evildoers. They are corruptors, and their children are corruptors. Their backs have turned away. They are chastised, and they're unchanged.

And God says, why should you be stricken again? You won't turn. You're already so wounded. And if I strike you again, I know you won't do anything about it. You will not turn.

And then there are a number of illustrations that are given. The whole head is sick. The whole heart faints. A body that is sick. And then there's a burned up city.

Your country is desolate. Your city's a bird of fire, in verse 7. And then the third analogy is the remnant, that you're left as a booth in a vineyard, as a hut in a garden of cucumbers. And then he says, you know, unless the Lord of Hosts had left us a very small remnant, We would have been like Sodom and had become like Gomorrah. So these are the illustrations of the trouble that they are in.

And then the next section, we learn that this is a highly religious people who worship, and they're very orderly about their worship. They're principled about their worship. They're careful about their worship and their worship is worthless. How did that happen? Well it's Because, yes, they did have a God-ordered worship.

They did believe in the regulative principle of worship. But because they had no obedience, their worship was completely worthless. And it shows how a religious people, how a conservative people can go through the motions of worship and still be like Sodom. And how a biblically ordered worship can become an offense to God. But it's also about how an offensive people can repent if they seek justice and rebuke the oppressor and defend the fatherless and plead for the widow.

So in that section there's this disclosure of fake worship among the people. And then there's this call to repent in verses 18 through 23. We studied this last week. And it's characterized by these beautiful words, the most wonderful words, the most wonderful words of divine intervention. Come now, let us reason together.

Though your sins be a scarlet. This wonderful call, and it shows how a broken people can have hope, how a repenting people can be cleansed, how a cleansed and obedient people will be blessed in verse 19, but yet how a disobedient people will be destroyed in verse 20. And then in this final section is the word therefore. So as a result of all the things that has been said, now the Lord said to Isaiah, now therefore. So he's taking all of these things up, the brokenness of the people and all these things.

And what will God do to deal with children who are corruptors? What will God do with the ox that doesn't know its owner? What will God do with the donkey that doesn't know its master's crib? What will God do with the people that it just makes no sense to discipline them anymore? What will God do with the people who have filled their lives with dross or their wine is mixed with water?

What will God do with the brokenness and the false worship and the blood on their hands and the murdering of His laws, and because of the reasonableness of their coming to Him for cleansing. Well, because of these things, God will take action. I will. I will. I will.

I will. I will. God will intervene. That's the point. Therefore I will intervene.

Therefore I will rise up. Therefore I will take action. And this is the principle of God the Father. He does all things after the counsel of His will, " says Paul to the Ephesian Church in Ephesians chapter 1. What you find here is a picture of a Father who takes action.

He intervenes. You know, I know we have many fathers here today, and you know, men wonder, how am I supposed to be a father? Well, here's one way. You be like your father in heaven. You rise up.

You take action. You exercise your will. You intervene. This is what godly fathers do. Every father who wants to be like God his father must realize what that means.

And it means rising up and taking action. And this is a proposition of godly fatherhood. So in this section, we have this very significant presence of the terms, I will. And we see what God will do. It could be summed up in verse 27, Zion shall be redeemed with justice and her penitence with righteousness." It could be summed up in Isaiah 40, yes, comfort my people, says the Lord.

Speak comfort to Jerusalem and cry out to her that her warfare has ended, Her iniquity has been pardoned. That's the theme. Okay. What will he do? And I'm going to list 11 things.

You have them on your outline. These are the things that God declares he will do. Why do we have 11 points? Please, Scott, why? Why do we have 11 points?

What have you done? Because I'm basically following the syntax of the text, that's why. So There are actually more than 11 things that he'll do. But I've just scaled it down. I've tried to make it very streamlined and shortened so that it's not such a long sermon or too laborious or too many points that nobody can remember.

So it's only 11. Number one, he will speak. He will speak, verse 24. The Lord says, the Lord says, this is the beginning of all divine intervention when God speaks, when the Word of God falls on your ears, you hear and it changes your heart just like that little boy, that ten-year-old boy. The Word of God redeemed a time for the days of evil, fell on his ears and he said, I must do something about that.

When the Lord speaks, You know, he can speak to the littlest child. It's such a remarkable, beautiful thing. This is quite likely why the Lord Jesus Christ was with children so often. He knew, he knew that when he spoke, the words could fall and change their lives forever. But he will speak.

The truth is men need a voice from the outside. We're trapped within our pinched and our truncated worlds. We need a deliverer. We need a voice from the outside. Outside of our compromised consciences.

A word outside of our self-congratulatory talk that we have all the time, a message from outside the corrupt brain waves that we've gotten so used to and locked into as a result of wrong thinking all our lives. We need a voice from heaven. And so the Lord speaks. This is the very first principle of divine intervention. And then he gives himself three titles.

Who's speaking? There are three titles. The Lord, the Lord of hosts, the mighty one of Israel, Adonai, Yahweh, and Abir. He is declaring that he has the ability to do what he is going to do. The Lord, that he uses the term Adonai, it indicates a relationship between a ruler and a servant.

The Lord says, He is the ruler, He is the King. He is the one before whom it's only reasonable that you should bow. He's the pure and the holy one. He is the Lord. He is the ruler.

He is the King of kings and the Lord of lords. The next term is the Lord of hosts. This is Yahweh, and linking it with this idea of the Lord of Hosts or the Host of Heaven. And it indicates the eternal and powerful and really actually warlike nature of God the Father. This term is used nearly 500 times in the Old Testament.

Sometimes it means armies, others angels, heavenly bodies. Sometimes it means the whole creation. Frequently, God is called the Lord of hosts in terms of the celestial armies, like in Jeremiah 5 or Jeremiah 38 or Jeremiah 44, Hosea 12, 5. His host, he is the Lord of hosts. He is the Lord of the armies of heaven, the hosts of these armies.

Sometimes it's understood as stars or angels, or even the tribes of Israel are called the host of the Lord or the host of heaven in the book of Daniel. But the term is telling us about God's sovereign might, his majesty, his power, his omnipotence and his omniscience and his omnipresence. That his armies are everywhere, You cannot escape him. The third term is mighty one of Israel. Abir, the emphasis here is on omnipotent power.

1 Chronicles 29, verse 11 speaks of it. Yours, O Lord, is the greatness, the power and the glory, the victory and the majesty. For all that is in heaven and in earth are Yours. Yours is the kingdom, O Lord, and you are exalted as head over all. Both riches and honor come from you, and you reign over all.

In your hand is power and might. In your hand it is to make great and to give strength to all." This is His omnipotent power. He's presenting Himself as the One who rules all things. He's pointing to His sovereignty and man's accountability. You know, His power, His might, even in the life of a ten-year-old boy to intervene, or a twenty-year-old, or a fifty, or an eighty-year-old boy or girl.

God is mighty. Now, this whole concept of the hosts of heaven probably requires significant contemplation, Because this is a reality of nature. There are many things that God has presented in nature, and one of them is about these hosts of heaven that exist. You know, God has made many things in creation, and this is one thing that he has filled his creation with somehow. There are always two ways you can view such a presence that's in the heavens.

If you're an enemy of that army in heaven then you should fear, But if you're a friend of that army, it should give you confidence. It should thrill your heart. It should make you see what salvation and help there is in the world. You can't see them, but they can see you. What a blessing it is to live under God's great heavens.

You know, whenever you walk out under those heavens, just recognize what you're walking out under. You have to recognize what's happening. If you're an enemy of God, you can never escape. If you're a friend of God, you will never be without protection. What a blessing that is.

And he speaks. Well, why? There's only one hope in the world today. Divine intervention. And it's the kind of divine intervention where God steps in, He exposes sin.

And He sets the people apart for His glory. Number two, the second thing He will do, He will rid himself of his enemies, of his adversaries. He says, ah, ah, I will rid myself. That term ah is important in the text. The commentators, Kyle and Dalich, say it is the painfulness of pity being mingled with a determined outbreak of wrath.

And the term can mean many things. It can be to be sorry or to regret or to have grief or to rue, to rue the day. Ah! Ah! Now!

Now I will come in and bring my judgment. In many ways, this sense is in the creation. Paul says to the Romans that the whole creation groans. Amos chapter 2 verse 13 says, Behold, I am weighed down by you. In Isaiah 43 verse 24, he says, you have bought me no sweet cane with money nor have you satisfied me with the fat of your sacrifices but you have burdened me with your sins You have wearied me with your iniquities." And he says, as a cart full of sheaves is weighed down.

Ah, ah, I'm weighed down with this, with the iniquity of mankind. This is God's disposition toward the rebellious against his ways. This is why the Lord Jesus says that the Lord will say, depart from me, you who practice lawlessness, I never knew you. Well this is divine intervention and there's only one hope in the world today, and it's divine intervention. Number three, The third action of his intervention, he will bring harm to his enemies by paying them back.

He says, and I will take vengeance on my enemies. This is a good vengeance. The vengeance of man is filled with evil and wrong retribution, often hatred, loathing. This is man's retribution, but God's retribution is not like that at all. For example, It's actually loving to destroy the things that destroy love.

If you look at the verse before 24, you'll see what was happening. The fatherless were not being defended. Those who had no husbands were not being helped. People weren't thinking right. There was no justice.

This is an expression of lack of love. There was no love. And God is cutting out the things that are destroying. Only love would destroy what is horrible. And that's what God is doing here.

He is the defender of the fatherless and the widow. He's punishing sins, and His vengeance is always pure and holy and loving, while our vengeance is always next. But He intervenes by destruction. I don't know if you've ever known anyone whom God seemed to have killed because of their wickedness, But it does happen. There's only one hope in the world today.

Divine intervention. It's the only hope for your life or my life. It's the only hope for your ten-year-old here today who's sitting here hearing the words of truth. Divine intervention, it's our only hope. The fourth mark of his intervention, he will turn his hand in punishment, and he will purge.

I will turn my hand against you and thoroughly purge away your dross and take away all your alloy." So there are two parts to this, I believe, and that is that there is this matter of dealing with apostate people and institutions and then there's restoration. And the people, that assets will be destroyed. An apostate culture will be harmed. That he will turn his hand against the culture and the individuals, the dross, the things that are being built up in rebellion against God. And God will turn His hand, and it is true, assets will be destroyed, people will die in this destruction.

And He will make the inwardly worthless publicly worthless. And in this verse, I want to submit that both punishment of the wicked and of the dealing with the dross, even among the people of God, is combined with salvation in this verse. That it's a punishment unto salvation. That it's a process where God is sweeping away the dross. He takes the alkali and he pours it and it separates it.

It removes the dross from the silver. It preserves the silver. It's purging of the bad and the restoration of the good. He will turn His hand to His people and He will deal with their sins. There are two ways to take this.

It is the dealing with the wicked and destroying them forever or it also may include the dealing with sin among the people of God where they where they are preserved as alloy. It's very common in the church where God deals with sin in a church to purge it, how He intervenes, how He comes and He gives people a sense of their sin that they never had before. They didn't know who they really were. Or maybe They did, they just continued on with a dull hypocrisy in their souls. And I think most of us would say this has happened in our church a number of times where He has heard us by showing us our sin, by showing us our infirmities.

He's made us look on the ugliness of our sin. And he took us to a place where we could no longer congratulate ourselves for this form of godliness that we've been putting on. And he intervened. And the question that we should ask ourselves is this, am I in that state? Am I one of those who needs to truly turn to the Lord?

Can you live in the coldness anymore? Can you live in the distraction anymore? Can you live by satisfying yourself with things that don't satisfy anymore? How long can you live that way? How long can you just go on without being purged and dealt with by God?

How long can you endure lukewarmness? How long can you endure lack of love for God, but just going through the motions of religion, but doing everything right, having your worship so regulated, having your family so regulated, having your clothing and your lifestyle so regulated, but yet, where's the heart? Where is the hot heart that seeks the Lord? That's the question that's here. This is how David saw himself.

He said, Purge me with hyssop and I shall be clean. Wash me and I shall be whiter than snow." John says to those in the church, because you are lukewarm and neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of my mouth. Because you say, I am rich, have become wealthy, and have need of nothing. And do not know that you are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked. I counsel you, buy from me gold refined in the fire, that you may be rich and white garments that you may be clothed, that the shame of your nakedness may not be revealed.

And anoint your eyes with eyesab that you may see. As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten. Therefore be zealous and repent." Isaiah is saying a very similar thing here. Come, purge, be purged, be zealous, repent, Purge out the dross. There's only one hope in the world today, and that is divine intervention.

The next action of divine intervention, the fifth, is found in verse 26. He will restore. I will restore your judges as at the first, and your counselors as at the beginning. Now, this is something that will happen in the future. He speaks of the judges as at first.

David fits this most perfectly. He could also be referring to Moses and Samuel and Joshua. Absolutely David. There are judges and then there are counselors here also mentioned. Counselors are those who are trained to give advice.

And what has happened is that the counselors have become bad. The judges have become corrupt. Hosea, who is a contemporary of Isaiah, in Hosea chapter 4, he says, And it shall be like people like priests. In other words, the priests have become just like the people. There's no difference.

This is the danger of any era. That the judges would become like the people, rather than the judges to bring justice to the people, or the counselors to be good counsel to the people rather than to be like the people. When you have judges and counselors and priests who are becoming like the people, You have a nation that is getting ready to be judged. Do you recognize that? Do you recognize that for the last 35 years in American Christianity, the desire among church leaders has to become like the people so as not to offend them, to make a place where those who hate God are comfortable, to become like them.

This is the beginning of the downfall of a Christian culture. Judges as at first, counselors as well. What we see here is that courts are restored. As well. Now, there, what we see here are, is there are, courts are restored.

That in the, that in the civil realm, there's righteous judgment in the civil realm. Recognize again, and we're going to see this over and over and over and over in Isaiah, it's a contradiction to the people who say that the Bible has nothing to say to the civil realm. But God's prophets have always had something to say to the civil realm. Amos, let justice roll down like the waters. Where?

On the streets in the civil realm. And Here we see this sign of revival that the judges are restored like David, the man after God's own heart. That's the kind of judge we need today. There were at least three time periods in the future where there were good judges, Ezra and Nehemiah, God performing this in His own church, establishing the pillar and ground of the truth, and then in heaven where you judge the angels. But he's prophesying here about a time to come.

And my view of this is that you have this progressive revelation of the restoration of good judges, and it finds itself, it finds its culmination in heaven. But more specifically, he must be also very much referring to the time of the church. In 1 Corinthians chapter 5, we read that the church is designed to be involved in judging. In 512, for what have I to do with judging those who are on the outside? Do you not judge those who are inside?

But those who are on the outside, God judges. Therefore put away from yourselves evil persons." He's talking about how God has designed the church to judge between good and evil. There are judges using the Word of God as the guide and the Spirit of God to illuminate it. In 1 Corinthians chapter 6, there's this judgment that is in heaven. 1 Corinthians chapter 6 verse 1, Paul is talking about how the people in Corinth, they just completely lost all sense of judgment.

They don't even know how to work out their problems. They're dragging each other into court because they are so inept at dealing with one another. They get so offended, they start to slander one another. They begin to do things in their hearts that make it absolutely impossible for them to deal with conflicts with one another. They have no ability to judge righteously with one another.

And so now, because they're so inept, so evil, so self-driven, they just say, Ha! I'll just drag you into court. And Paul is speaking to them about this matter. And then he says in verse 2, Do you not know that the saints will judge the world? And if the world will be judged by you, are you unworthy to judge the smallest matters?

Do you not know that we shall judge angels? How much more things that pertain in this life? If you then have judgments concerning things pertaining to this life, do you appoint those who are least esteemed by the church to judge? I say this to your shame." And then he says, there's not a wise man among you. Rather than dragging one another into court, it's better just to be cheated.

But what we find here is that there is a time where God appoints the Church to judge, but often the Church is immature and doesn't judge well, like the Church in Corinth. A great example of that. The perfection of judgment will take place in heaven, but You see an upgrade, I believe, as you go on the line in biblical revelation. But the problem with judges and counselors and priests today is the same problem that Isaiah had in his day, like people like priests, like people like judge, like people like counselor. It's a sign of a collapsing culture and a collapsing church.

You know, when people come in here, what should they see? They should see love, they should see truth, they should see relationship, they should see the Kingdom of Heaven, they should see justice and righteousness and truth. The people should speak the truth and love. That's what they should see. They should see the true Church using the true words of God.

How can they know what heaven is like if you don't give them heaven? How will they know how good Jesus Christ is and What a wonderful shepherd he is if you don't speak of him accurately and faithfully and boldly. How will they really know him if you're afraid to speak about him the way he really is? They can't know if you're not kind enough to say who He really is and what He really does. And we have an environment today where pastors are afraid to say who He really is and what he really does.

That was the problem of Isaiah's day. But there's only one hope in the world today. And that is divine intervention. And this kind of intervention in the restoration of judges and counselors is a critical intervention. Number six, he will rename the city.

This is another act of intervention. Afterward you shall be called the city of righteousness, the fateful city. Now I love this verse because it just floods my mind with the way that God makes things new. How He causes you to be born again. I mean, you can be made new like a baby in your heart when you're 80 years old.

You can be made new when you're ten or whatever, it doesn't matter. He can make anything new. And he can rename a city. He can take a city of harlotry and make it a city of righteousness and a city of faithfulness. That's the point here.

You know, I love contemplating the whole matter of names and how God gives names and sometimes He changes people's names. You know, in Revelation he gives a new name and a robe and a white stone. Abram becomes Abraham. Sarai becomes Sarah. Saul becomes Paul.

God changes. God changes people. God changes his people. The city of righteousness is equivalent to the people of God. It's the Church of God.

God can make a righteous and a faithful city, a people. He's not talking about one single geographical city. It's metaphorical for the people who belong, who are members of the city of God. There's only one hope in the world today, divine intervention for our people. The next act of intervention, he will redeem.

Zion shall be redeemed with justice and her penitence with righteousness. Now I said earlier, it was said earlier in our teaching and preaching that this does seem to so sum up the book of Isaiah, the justice and the righteousness of God for the redemption of sinners. Now, Who is Zion? Who is Zion? Zion is the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ.

I'll get to that later, in just a couple of minutes. What is redemption? What is justice? What is a penitent? And what is righteousness?

Those are the questions that this one single verse brings to us. It's very dense with the stuff of salvation. There's the cause of redemption, the justice and righteousness. He brings redemption through these two things, justice and righteousness. The Hebrew word mishpat, which indicates the holiness of God.

It is the justification of His holiness, His sacrifice, and then righteousness, zedek, the standard of justice, which is His righteousness. These two words, justice and righteousness, are found all throughout the Old Testament. In Psalm 89 verse 14, we read, righteousness and justice are the foundation of your throne. In Psalm 97 verses 1 through 3, we read, righteousness and justice are the foundation of His throne. And it's repeated that way.

It means that God's justice is satisfied. And He satisfies His justice in two ways. He satisfies His justice by damning the rebellious of the world and casting them into outer darkness for all eternity. That's one way that He satisfies His justice. God will right every wrong that has ever been committed in the universe.

Our hearts break at the things that happen in this world, the murderings, the rapings, the thefts, the abuse, the things that happen in homes outside of homes, the things that happen in our public school system, the things that happen in the great institutions of our world. It breaks our hearts to see those things. But let this be known, God will bring every unrighteous act to justice, every single one, and He will satisfy His justice by damning the apostate and pardoning the penitent. That's the second thing he will do to satisfy his justice. That Zion will be redeemed, will be bought back.

This is the imagery of the slave market. You're on the slave block and you're being sold, and someone steps in and buys you and sets you free. And when is this? When is this? It is, of course, happening to those who are justified by faith, as in the faith of Abraham.

But it looks forward to the time of redemption. It looks forward to the time of the Lord Jesus Christ, where the Lord Jesus Christ paid for the sins of the Church. This is the means of redemption, the repentance that comes as a result of recognizing your sinfulness. It's costly redemption. It's with justice, where the wrath of God is satisfied.

And this redemption is accomplished through repentance and her penitence with righteousness. A penitent is one who is returning with a heart toward God. This is salvation by grace alone. Now who is Zion? Let me give you some passages of Scripture that will tell you who Zion is.

Hebrews chapter 12 verse 22, but if you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are registered in heaven. The church is Zion. Hebrews 12, 23 makes that very clear. Romans chapter 11 says, a deliverer will come out of Zion. He will turn away ungodliness from Jacob.

And this is my covenant with them when I take away their sins. This is redemption, being bought back off the slave market, being bought out of so many ridiculous wrong ways of living and thinking, and divine intervention. The divine intervention that comes at the hand of God, there's only one hope in the world today. There's only one hope in this room today. There's only one hope in your family today.

It's divine intervention. Or somehow in your heart you say, the coldness has got to end. I can't take it any longer. I can't take it that my heart is turned away from God any longer. I hate my sin.

Look at what this has done to me. This is divine intervention when the heart begins to say that. Number eight, the next mark of divine intervention. He will destroy the destruction of transgressors and of sinners shall be together. Verse 28.

The word that is used here, shab-er, in Hebrew, breaking, fracture, crushing, breaching, shattering, destruction. And he says, and those who forsake the Lord shall be consumed. And the stark reality of the world is those who hate the Lord must know that he destroys his enemies. This is so plain all throughout this chapter, it will continue to be plain all throughout Isaiah, that God intervenes through destruction. You know, there are so many today whose minds have gone so far afield for what the Bible says about this matter.

There are so many people that God is a God of unconditional love. And He's not a God of unconditional love. His love is conditional. It is conditional on at least three things. It is conditioned upon His elective impulse that He desires to save.

It is dependent upon a repentant sinner and it is dependent upon a sacrificed son. The greatest condition of salvation is the condition presented by the Son of God. He was sacrificed. He was wounded for your transgressions. That is the greatest condition of salvation.

But what we learn here is that there's no escape. For all who forsake the Lord shall be consumed. There is no escape at all. Psalm 94 says, They break in pieces your people, O Lord, and afflict your heritage. They slay the widow and the stranger and murder the fatherless.

Yet they say the Lord does not see, nor does the God of Jacob understand." And then just before that, David says, oh, Lord God, to whom vengeance belongs. Oh, God, to whom vengeance belongs, shine forth. Rise up, judge of the earth. Render punishment to the proud. Lord, how long will the wicked triumph?

They utter speech and speak insolent things." He has a picture here of slaying the widow and the stranger and murdering the fatherless. And what will God do? He will make no way of escape. He will destroy them. There's only one hope for the fatherless and the widow in the world today, divine intervention.

Number nine, he will shame. Verse 29, he will shame. For they shall be ashamed of the terribent trees which you have desired, and you shall be embarrassed because of the gardens which you have chosen." Now, these trees signified unlawful places of worship. What would happen is that they would strip the oaks to appear as male reproductive organs. And these were places of satisfaction and pleasure and identity.

And this is a picture of people who long for stimulation by the world. And what he is saying is that when you build your life on these pleasures, when you build your life on things that are unholy, you will be embarrassed. You will be so sorry that you did. You will say how stupid you are. You will say how blind you were.

And you'll look at those things that you used to love and you'll regret them. And you'll hear the words of Isaiah. He says, Why do you labor for that which is not bread? Come to the waters. Drink.

You'll say, I invested in this garbage. And I was weighed down. I was burdened. I was Fatigued by these idols. Isaiah 46 speaks of the way this works.

Bell bows down. Nebo stoops. Their idols were on the beasts and on the cattle. Your carriages were heavily loaded, a burden to the weary beast. Even the beasts, even the beasts are burdened by the idolatry of the day.

They will be embarrassed, shamed, instead of a watered garden, nothing but a parched field. Psalm 2 says that He will laugh at their calamity. And yet God has something so much wonderful. He does have a garden. He does have water.

This imagery of gardens well watered or not watered at all and the leaves that fade, this is the imagery that's here. There's only one hope in the world today, and that is this kind of divine intervention. The tenth act of intervention, he will wither, verse 30, he will wither. For you shall be as a terebinth tree whose leaf fades and as a garden that has no water." So here's the picture of a fading leaf. And you know, you've seen time-lapse photography where something goes from life to death, that's the picture here, that you have a fading leaf.

It's completely opposite to what we read in Psalm 1, the man who fears the Lord, his leaf shall not wither, because he is by rivers of living water and he will wither. You know, the wicked are in the process of withering. It is fading. Their hopes and their dreams are fading, all the things that they are building their existence on are fading away. The world is passing away.

But they too are passing away as well. Looking so well on the outside, but on the inside fading, on the inside dying. You've ever heard anybody say, I am dying inside? Well that's not the picture of a Christian. That's a picture of someone who's in this category here.

Their leaf is fading and the garden has no water. There's just nothing to keep it supple and alive. You know, there's nothing more beautiful than a luxurious garden that's well watered and well cared for. It's such a treasure to the eyes, isn't it? But when your garden dries up and dies, you have a completely different reaction.

And here, God will intervene, and there'll be a fading. And then He will burn. Verse 31, number 11, the strong shall be as tender, and the work of it as a spark, both will burn together, and no one shall quench them." So notice the language here, the contrasting words, the strong shall be as tender. It just doesn't make sense, does it? How can the strong be as tender?

Well, that's what happens to the strong. They are transformed. They actually are something different than they think they are. They see themselves as strong and mighty. They might be financially strong.

They might be physically strong. They might be mentally astute. They might be so quick on their feet as so many unbelievers might be. They might seem to have absolutely everything put together as a result of their applying the laws of diligence. But it's only an outward appearance.

They shall be as tender. This is a work of divine intervention, where God has it that the strong of this world aren't strong at all. This is part of His intervention. It is a work of God that this happens. And the work of it as a spark, both will burn together and no one shall quench them.

This is the whole idea that everything that the ungodly man has built his life on will make the spark. It becomes the material of the spark, the thing so proud of. Perhaps the political accomplishments, perhaps the intellectual accomplishments, perhaps the financial accomplishments, perhaps the relational accomplishments, Perhaps the philanthropic accomplishments. Whatever the accomplishments might be that really came out of a desire to feed the flesh. Or how about the religious accomplishments?

All the things that were done really to promote yourself and not the glory and the kingdom of God. On every level one can be building tender and building it up more and more of it. Paul called it wood and hay and stubble. You're building it up the substance of your life when it is for your own self, for your own glory, it is the stuff that will burn. It's not something separate.

It is what will be burned, and you're building it up. That's the tragedy of living for yourself. Someone many years ago spoke of the tragedy of climbing up a ladder and finding that the ladder was leaning up against the wrong wall. But this is worse. This is far, far worse.

You can go down the ladder and climb up. But once the things of your life are burned, you cannot go back. You know, I was so amazed to hear that story of that little ten-year-old boy and his mother, who was so grateful and wanted me to send thanksgiving back to the person who said the words. What happened to this little boy was that he wasn't building up as much tinder to be burned. She was saying He had less of it.

All the things you build your life upon for your own glory are the things that are used in the fire. Paul said it exactly like this in 1 Corinthians 3 verse 9, For we are God's fellow workers. You are God's field. You are God's building. According to the grace of God which was given to me.

As a wise master builder, I have laid the foundation and another builds on it. But let each one take heed how he builds on it, For no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if anyone builds on this foundation with gold, silver, and precious stones, wood, hay, and straw, each one's work will become clear. For the day will declare it because it will be revealed by fire, and the fire will test each one's work, what sort it is. If anyone's work which he has built on it endures, he will receive a reward.

If anyone's work is burned, he will suffer loss, but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire. Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you. If anyone defiles the temple of God, God will destroy him. For the temple of God is holy, which temple you are." Which temple you are. Gold, silver, precious stones.

Wood, hay, stubble, the tender, the worthless works, the objects of pride burned up in a flash, progressively drying out, ready to go up in a flashpoint, worked hard for, for so long, meaningless in eternity, offensive to Almighty God. And we learn how devastating this fire is. And no one shall quench but no one shall quench them." In this last section of Isaiah, you find a divine intervention for two things, total salvation or total destruction. We have to recognize that this idea that of the unquenchable nature of this judgment, that hell has no exit. It's a closed system.

There are unending billions of millenniums in hell. And right now we live in an open system where God calls people to repent, where God intervenes and He stops the progress of the poisons of sin. He shows you your ways. He helps you to see the wood and the hay and the stubble that you've been building. And what you have here are these two remarkable things, the destructive and destroyed ways of the devil, and a fountain of life, and water, and a garden, and all the beautiful things of the kingdom of heaven.

Let me just close with just a few very quick applications. First of all, never fear. God is at work. God intervenes. God will intervene.

He absolutely will intervene. He will bring many sons to glory. And He is the Holy One of Israel. He is the mighty God. I don't know what anybody's struggling with here, but I know this.

God is always at work. God is always intervening in some way, and God will perform it. Particularly you younger people, you know, who are in your teens and your twenties, and you wonder about how life is going to turn out. Remember who this God is. Remember the three names of God.

Remember, remember. It's true. This is who He is. This is who is watching over you. There are armies in heaven.

There's nothing that escapes His notice. And you have not escaped His notice. Don't think for a minute you're on your own and you've got to turn to your own mechanisms. God is almighty. He knows everything and He intervenes at the exact nanosecond that He desires to intervene.

Just know that. Take comfort in that. Maybe that's your only comfort in life and death that you know that your faithful Savior is omnipresent and He is omnipotent and He is the ruler of the armies of heaven. Never fear, God is at work. Secondly, God has been startling us with our sin in our church.

He's been showing us our sin, He has mortified us, and He's helped us to mortify. This is a good thing. God is blessing us. You know, all of your trials are not for your harm, but for your good. Romans 8.28 is really the heart of it.

God will intervene. He will give you a conscience. He'll create the heavens to declare His glory. He'll send you prophets. He'll give you a holy book.

He'll send you His Spirit to convict you. He will leave tracks of His ways everywhere, in the laws of the land, in the newspapers, in millions of places, on the world wide web. He'll send missionaries across the oceans, in the deserts, in the jungles, in the wastelands of this world. And He'll follow you wherever you go. And you will not be any place where you cannot find the intervention of Almighty God.

God is a Father, and He has a plan, and He is bringing many sons to glory. And it is true that there is only one hope in the world today, divine intervention. And it's the kind of divine intervention where God exposes sin and He sets a people apart for His glory by setting captives free. Zion will be redeemed with justice and her penitence with righteousness. O Lord, I thank you for the power and the beauty of the words that you have put together, arranging them perfectly so that we might understand Your might, your mercy.

Oh Lord, thank you. I pray that you would help us to acquire wisdom through all the things that you have used to intervene in our lives. Amen.