Peter Allison's sermon 'The Triumph of Jehovah & His Kingdom' explores themes from Isaiah 1, highlighting the spiritual decline of Jerusalem, once a city of justice and righteousness, now described as a harlot. The sermon draws a parallel between Jerusalem’s unfaithfulness and the church as the bride of Christ. Allison uses the analogy of the moon to illustrate human blindness to sin, only illuminated by God's law. He delves into the corruption of Jerusalem's leaders, focusing on their unjust practices, likening them to modern economic and social injustices. God's promise of purification and restoration is emphasized, with the assurance that through justice and righteousness, as seen in Christ's sacrifice, Jerusalem will be redeemed. The sermon concludes with a call for personal and societal sanctification, urging a return to godly principles.

Isaiah chapter 1, beginning at verse 21. Hear God's word. How the faithful city has become a harlot. It was full of justice, righteousness lodged in it, but now murderers. Your silver has become dross, your wine mixed with water, your princes are rebellious and companions of thieves.

Everyone loves bribes and follows after rewards. They do not defend the fatherless, nor does the cause of the widow come before them. 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 as at the first and your counselors as 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 terrible trees which you have desired and you shall be embarrassed because of the gardens which you have chosen for you shall be as a terrible 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. May this word give you life and be your comfort in affliction, father in heaven. Sanctify us by your word. Your word is truth.

Instruct us in the way that we should go. And grant to us your spirit that to open our hearts, to receive with meekness your word. And I ask that you would sanctify my lips as well that they may proclaim what is true, that they may be purified. For I'm an unclean vessel and but your word is pure. Lord speak to us.

We ask by your by your word and through your spirit. Amen. Amen. Well, a few nights ago, I was walking in downtown Conroe, here a few blocks from here, and I found myself staring up at a brilliant full moon, or near full moon, I think it was maybe 98% that night, which started me thinking about how the heavens go. You know, the sun and the moon are two very well known bodies in the sky.

And even if you don't pay much attention to astronomy, I'm sure you are very familiar with them. The Sun is the light that rules by day and the Moon is the light that rules the night. And the Moon orbits or goes around the earth about once a month. I think about every 27 or so days. And on one of those days, the moon rises with the sun and sets with the sun.

We call that the new moon. That's when the moon is between the earth and the sun. Sun in the earth and moons in the middle, right in the middle. And it rises and sets exactly with the sun within a few minutes. But we're not able to see it on that day.

We're not able to see it because the side of the moon that is getting illuminated by the light of the sun, and that's the only way we see the moon from the light of the sun. The side that's getting illuminated is facing away from us. It's facing exactly away from us, because remember the sun is here, earth is here, the moon's in the middle. So it's the side away from us that's getting the light. And the reason this came to mind in reading this chapter is because we're the same way regarding our sins and our faults and the sins and the faults of the culture in which we live.

We're blind to them like the full moon. We simply can't see them unless they are illuminated by the Holy Spirit, shining the bright light of the law of God upon them. They are invisible, they're blind to us. And what Isaiah speaking in the spirit does in this series of prophecies regarding Judah and Jerusalem is to shine the light of the law upon this nation. But to go back to the moon for a second, as that month progresses, the moon starts going around the earth, eventually gets around to the other side of the Earth.

So now the Earth is between the Sun and the Moon. And we call that day the full Moon. And on that day, the Sun and the Moon are exactly offset. The Sun, the moon rises when the sun sets and it sets when the Sun rises and so during this phase of the moon the full face of the moon that's illuminated by the sun is visible to us. Remember, sun's here, the moon's here, and we're sitting right here.

So we see the full face of the moon, and we see it as a very big, bright circle. And no other sunlight is reaching us because remember we're on the when the moon is visible the sun is not visible to us on that day. So the only light of the sun reaching us is what's coming off the moon. That's it. So the moon appears like a very strong light compared to everything else in the sky.

And it's very easy, unlike the new moon, which you can't see at all. And even when you begin to see it, it's just very faint around the edges. The full moon is very vivid, very bright and very sharp. And you can't miss it. Like I did that night.

I think it was on a couple earlier this week. There's no fuzziness in it. See, Isaiah is a because there's such a strong contrast between everything else it bathed is in darkness because no light of the Sun is reaching it except for the moon and Isaiah contrasts the present-day culture of Jerusalem with how it used to be you notice in these first verses there he's contrasting this is the way Jerusalem used to be this is what it is now and and in doing that he's bringing into very sharp focus the fallen condition of Jerusalem. The first contrast in our in this passage is the contrast between a faithful wife and an unfaithful one, a harlot. A harlot is a woman who acts like she is married with people to whom she is not actually married.

And she does it for personal gain. She abandons that promise of exclusive love. And when this happens, it is very shocking, and it's terribly sad thing to see. How a faithful city has become a harlot. This is an expression of shock that a city that at one time was glorious, the picture of beauty and of holiness, the city on which God put His name, the city where He dwells.

That city has become a harlot, a place of ugliness, of vileness, and decadent depravity. Psalm 48 describes this early Jerusalem as a place beautiful for elevation or breathtaking in its heights. It's the joy of the whole earth. And you can imagine a glorious castle sitting atop the summit of a mountain overlooking an entire valley. It's a it's majestic.

It's magnificent. And if you haven't seen it in fact, I'm sure you've seen pictures like this. Psalm 48 also calls it the city of the great king. God is in her palaces. He is known as her refuge.

God is living in those in it. Psalm 50 speaks of Jerusalem as the perfection of beauty out of which God will shine forth. Jerusalem was exquisitely built. It was amply provisioned and invested with royal authority as the capital of all that surrounding region. And under earlier rulers, Judah had known great spiritual strength as well as military strength.

Joshua 24 says that all Israel served the Lord all the days of Joshua and all the days of the elders who outlived Joshua who had known the works of the Lord which he had done under Joshua and under King David Jerusalem the city had been conquered and taken from the Jebusites who became the city of David And the people willingly gave to build the temple. 1 Chronicles 29 records that, then the people rejoiced, for they offered willingly. Because with a loyal heart, they offered willingly to the Lord. And King David also greatly rejoiced. When Solomon was crowned king, a little later in that same chapter, all the assembly blessed the Lord God of their fathers.

They bowed their heads. They prostrated themselves before the Lord and the king. They made sacrifices to the Lord, and they offered burnt offerings to the Lord on multiple days, thousands of sacrifices, with their drink offerings. So they ate and drank before the Lord with great gladness on that day under Solomon's early days Jerusalem was a glorious city of great beauty says that city of great beauty. It says that silver became as common as the stones as iron.

It became renowned among the nations. God promised David that it would never fail. And the Lord plored his blessing on that city. The Lord exalted Solomon exceedingly in the sight of all Israel. And he bestowed on him such royal majesty as had never been seen on any king before in Israel.

They were the envy of the nations. You remember the Queen of Sheba comes from afar with many precious things and her whole spirit is overwhelmed by the wisdom of Solomon and the glory of this city. How could such a city on whom so much favor had been poured out, how could this city become a harlot? This is a picture, of course, of the church. The church is the bride of Christ engaged.

To be married to Christ. Paul calls his work in the Corinthian church. I betrothed all he said in Corinthians 11, for I have betrothed you to one husband that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ. Christ has a passionate and exclusive love for his bride, for the church. But Jerusalem, the Old Testament church.

Became a harlot when she stopped serving the Lord. The Old Testament Church pictured here in Jerusalem became an unfaithful bride when she turned aside to other gods when she rejected God's law and she corrupted the worship of God with the demonic practices of all the pagans that surrounded her. And so. Isaiah says she. Became a city of murderers and this verse, the following verses list some of the other ways in which Jerusalem became unfaithful to the Lord.

And these verses contrast just like that. Sun contrasted that moon illuminated by the sun is contrasted against everything that wasn't illuminated. Isaiah contrasts this faithful city. With. Of earlier days with the her unfaithfulness to the Lord in the present day.

So she had been a city filled with justice or judgment. The Hebrew word mishpat, judgment, a city where righteousness, tzedek, is lodged. Those are two, those Hebrew words, mishpat and tzedek, are two terms relating to conformity to God's law. They're, in one sense, technical terms. The word Mishpat, or judgment, deals with taking dominion over our thoughts and bringing them under God's word.

And that takes planning, takes effort and exertion, self-discipline to rule over our spirit, discernment, and wisdom from the Lord. And it's a requirement of rulers, and it's fundamental. It's a fundamental quality of godly rule. It's the foundation of a godly rule. In the Bible, Mishpat is applied to civil government to encompass the whole process of the determination of good and evil in a society.

And there are 40 or 50 different English words in the English translations that are used to translate this one word, mishpat. The most common is the word judgment or justice in some of the newer translations. And this word really embodies the establishment of law. That's the legislative function. It embodies the interpretation of ordinances and the pronouncement of verdicts, which that's the judicial function, as well as the legal foundation of authority to execute the sentence of the law.

That's the executive function. It encompasses all of that. And of course, this authority comes directly from God. Laws legislated from the throne of heaven and the interpretation and the application of the laws given through the testimony of the Holy Spirit testifying to God's Word in the scriptures. Psalm 82 tells us that God actually sits among the earthly judges as they judge.

In Psalm 82, God stands among the congregation of the mighty. That's the word L. And it's referring to earthly rulers there, the mighty L. It's also used to as God's name. He judges among the gods.

That's Elohim. The plural of L again, referring to men, these rulers says God sits among them Jesus made reference to this psalm when they said he had a when they accused him of being son of God he said well even your word calls men the son of God or God And he's referring to this Psalm here. Says Psalm 282 says, How long will you judge unjustly and show partiality to the wicked? Defend the poor and fatherless. Do justice to the afflicted and needy.

Deliver the poor and needy. Free them from the hand of the wicked. But see, God is sitting in the midst of these rulers as they judge. The other term, righteousness, or tzedek, tzedek. You might remember it from the term Melchizedek, the king of righteousness.

It means to make right in a moral or forensic sense. It involves ethical thinking, and it's And that's a lot more difficult than it sounds. Just as you know, as parents, right? Think about the conflicts with our children and how difficult it can be to sort through who's right and who's wrong. It's often confused.

And it only gets worse as we get older. But what about all life's decisions affecting in the life and how people might die? See, the scriptures teach us ethics and how to think righteously in every area of our life from our food and medicine to money to property rights to business. There isn't any area of our lives that is exempt from this need to think rightly, ethically to think according to God's righteousness. And in the former days, God is saying that the civil administration of law was in conformity with his revealed will of God.

The law Murder was abhorred and condemned. Murders received the just wrath of God and the innocent were justified. When Jehoshaphat established judges in all the fortified cities of Judah, he told them in 2 Chronicles 19, take heed to what you are doing for you do not judge for man, but for the Lord who is with you in judgment. That's mishpat. Now therefore, that the fear of the Lord be upon you.

Take care and do it, for there is no iniquity with God the Lord our God no partiality note no taking of bribes moreover in Jerusalem for the judgment of the Lord and there's that word mishpat again and for controversies Jehoshaphat appointed some of the Levites and the priests. And he commanded them saying, Thus you shall act in the fear of the Lord faithfully and with a loyal heart. Whatever case comes to you from your brethren who dwell in the cities, whether a bloodshed or of offenses against law or commandment against statutes or ordinances, you shall warn them lest they trespass against the Lord and wrath come upon you and your brethren. Do this and you will not be guilty. That's what Isaiah is referring to this when she when righteousness lodged in Jerusalem, she dwelt there.

It wasn't just an itinerant passing through. This was a righteous administration. Judgments regarding guilt and innocence were such as God would approve, creating a righteous society and bringing His blessing upon that city. But now, Isaiah says, verse 22, it's filled with murderers and of course every lesser sin. Where there's the greatest sins, there's the lesser ones, too.

Their money was debauched, he said. Their food adulterated. Their rulers became rebels who used the power of the sword to protect thieves. Now, silver is the word for money there, because silver, what was primarily used for money, just like we have primarily used silver for money even until up until my lifetime. It's only relatively recently that we have stopped using silver as money.

So it's the same word used for the metal as for money. There were no coins, as we think of it in their day. Prices were given as a weight of silver or gold or occasionally some other commodity. Transactions then were conducted with balance scales. A weight on one side and silver or gold on the other and it was weighed out.

Jeremiah 32 gives us a description of this kind of transaction when Jeremiah bought a field from his cousin in Anathoth. That's where Jeremiah was from. It says that I bought a field from Hanumel and weighed out to him the money 17 shekels of silver. There are 3, 000 shekels to a talent and there's about 75 pounds in a talent. So you can figure out what that weight was.

And I signed the deed. There's something in writing again, transfer of property is written down, and sealed it, took witnesses, and weighed the money on the scales Says it twice in that little transaction. He weighed the money So I Isaiah says that their money had become dross, their silver had become dross. They were passing silver that wasn't pure silver. It was polluted.

It was filled with alloying elements. The other way that they rigged the scales of trade was that they had different size weights when they're weighing it out if they have two different weights and they then it's an unjust transaction Deuteronomy 25 and there's four or five other places in the scriptures that give almost verbatim prohibition says you shall not have in your bag differing weights, a heavy and a light. You shall not have in your house differing measures, a large and a small. You shall have a perfect and adjust weight. A perfect and adjust measure that your days may be lengthened in the land which the Lord your God is giving you the connection of justice in in trading, in economics, in our merchandising, in our business, the connection of that with dwelling in the land and prospering in the land.

You see, having differing weights was theft. If you used a bigger weight when you were buying, so you put a bigger weight on the scale when you're when you're when you're buying or weighing out the weighing out the produce or a smaller weight I guess if you're weighing out the silver then you then you pay less silver for that And if you use a bigger weight when you're selling, and you get more silver, then you're entitled to. So the farmer, when the merchant is buying from the farmer, he uses a small weight to weigh his silver. When he's selling it to the consumer, he uses a large weight to measure out the silver. So the consumer pays more for that wheat than he should have.

God says the merchant needs to have the same weights, not a large and a small. And we have the same problem today, don't we? Despite all the seals on the trading scales of our merchants telling us that their scales don't use differing weights. You ever see those things on the gas pumps? And every used to use scales in the supermarkets and and that seal was always right there where you could see it.

This this is a certified scale. It's not a it's a just weight But that hasn't stopped us from having unjust trade. It's just more sophisticated. This week I installed a new hot water heater in my house, replacing one I had installed 20 years ago. So out of curiosity, I looked up the receipt for the old one.

And it turns out I bought the exact same water heater at the exact same store from the exact same shelf as the one I purchased the March 4, 2006. Interesting. The only difference was the price. In March 2006, I paid $398. This month I paid over $850.

And that works out to be a 4% increase in price every year over 20 years. Now if that sounds about normal, if it seems more or less reasonable to you that prices should go up about 4% or so every year year over year for the exact same product then I'm sorry to inform you but according to the Bible you're thinking about money has been corrupted. It's been corrupted by idolatrous, covetous thinking of our age. It's been corrupted to justify theft. Think about what that means for someone who put $398 in a bank account 20 years ago, or they're safe.

Banks only paying a fraction of a percent. That money would have lost over half its value sitting there over those past 20 years. Even though no one broke into your house and stole it, still there, you would have lost half of your money. That's theft. The money was only half as good.

That's what Isaiah means when he says your money has become dross. It's not any good. What happened to it? The value has been stolen. If you've ever wondered how the federal government can continue to spend a trillion dollars more than it receives every year, it's because they have perfected a system of stealing from everyone who holds their money.

And they do it without that money ever leaving the hands of the people they are stealing it from. They do it simply by destroying the value of the money. And that's a form of theft that John Maynard Keynes says not one man in a million can diagnose. We don't think of it as theft. We've acclimated ourselves to this.

It just tells you how far we've come in what Isaiah is describing here as an unjust people. And it's a system of theft that particularly oppresses the widows and the fatherless. Because the people that are working can, you know, they can get paid a little more and it tends to cover up that theft. But it's there. It's a headwind that they are working against, but when you're not earning more, then there's no, then the full force of that theft is felt.

And that's so those are the widows and the fatherless. Their food, Isaiah says, was also adulterated. And we have the same problem today, a problem that's just now starting to enter into the mainstream attention with the Make America Healthy again slogans flying around. We have a food chain that's full of manufactured foods that are saturated with toxic ingredients contributing to record levels of chronic bad health among us. Our wine is mixed with water.

The food is adulterated. Isaiah continues this contrast of what Jerusalem once was with what has become in verse 23 saying that your princes are now rebellious and companions of thieves think of what I jerk Jehoshaphat described and the standard that he required of the judges who served under him. Isaiah is saying now these rulers are rebellious. Companions of thieves, Israel became a society where elite people oppressed the poor through land seizures, bribes, unjust courts, heavy taxation, dishonest trade. Instead of protecting widows and orphans, they took advantage of them in their helplessness and oppressed them.

Tribute payments to Assyria under Ahaz and Manasseh required significant extraction of wealth from the people of Judah Archaeological evidence is very consistent with this There there are fiscal bull eye naming towns for kings indicating shipments of in kind taxes from the scattered cities into a central district for administration. There are administrative centers and storage facilities holding large collections of royal stamped jars and numerous seals, which would be consistent with the central bureaucracy for collecting all this oppressive taxation and sending it to Assyria. Assyrian tribute records that have been discovered record regular monitored payments from Judah that would be consistent with a very substantial and oppressive taxation on them rebellious rulers you see are those who prosecute righteous men who have acted lawfully and refuse to prosecute wicked men who have committed evil. And our nation is filled with such prosecutions, producing thousands upon thousands of political prisoners. Lawful self-defense becomes murder, and murder becomes suicide.

Think of all the people that have committed suicide. Honest farmers reclaiming land and making it productive become criminal destroyers of the environment While those poisoning the people and the environment with long-lasting toxins are subsidized enriched and protected On a local level Right here in our midst its County commissioners who award no bid contracts for roads and schools and utilities to contractors who pay the most money into their campaigns and who throw the most work to the businesses of their families and their friends. That's how it works. The Targum, that ancient paraphrase of the Old Testament puts it this way, all of them love to accept the bribes, saying, a man to his neighbor, assist me in my case, so that I will repay you in your case." That's how it works. That's how our county works.

But God replies to all of these rulers in verse 24 with a very strongly worded response. And two things stand out. And this. Therefore, the Lord says, the Lord of hosts, the mighty one of Israel. I will rid myself of my adversaries and take vengeance on my enemies.

First is how God identifies himself here. The Lord says the Lord of hosts the mighty one of Israel some names piled up there the first one is Adonai it's the word for ruler a master a Lord is off it's applied to humans as well the second is the Lord of hosts a Lord there is different from the first Lord you notice in most Bibles they put that second Lord in all in small capital letters and so that's referring to Jehovah When you see that in small caps, that's Jehovah. That's God's covenant name and it's contracted expression for the God who was, the God who is, and the God who always will be. The God who is to come. When a company gives you a warranty on a product, it's only as good.

As long as the company is in existence. Jehovah is not only the one who is, but he's the one who gives existence to everything else. He is the one who always was and always will be. Means his promises never fail never ceases to exist his word endures forever and ever so he is Lord Adonai he is Jehovah the one who always exists always has always will, but he's Jehovah of hosts or of that's the word for war. It's the word for army.

He is. So he's he's the he's the Jehovah of war. Jehovah of armies. And he is the mighty one of Israel. That's not a common name for God.

It's used only six times in the Bible, three of which are in here in Isaiah. The mighty one of Israel or mighty one of Jacob. And the other two places in Isaiah are connected with what God will do to its enemies in delivering his people, just like here. Isaiah 49, I will feed those who oppress you with their own flesh and they shall be drunk with their own blood as with sweet wine and all flesh shall know that I, Jehovah, am your Savior and your Redeemer, the mighty one of Jacob. Isaiah 60, you shall drink the milk of the Gentiles and milk the breast of kings you shall know that I Jehovah and your Savior and Redeemer the mighty one of Jacob.

Secondly though there's these two words I will turn and I will restore. They translate the exact same verb. Now we translate this with two different words because our language requires that. But Ray Ortland notes that Isaiah is implying that one God acting in one way is able to accomplish two things at once when God turns his hand against us it isn't disaster it's an act of restoration see the discipline of God achieves just what he intends in our purification, in our restoration, both at the same time. And so we expect the goodness of the Lord to show up in his chastening.

When he turns his hand against us, it's to purify us. And we just need to trust him to restore us. And we see that his grace, verses 26 and 27, His grace to covenant keepers in the restoration of justice and righteousness. He will purge the dross from the silver and remove the contaminating alloys. God promises to restore righteousness and justice to Judah to purify his bride who who has defiled herself with harlotry so that Jerusalem can be called again the faithful city.

John describes this very, very powerfully in Revelation 19. This purification of the bride of Christ, the church. Let us be glad and rejoice and give Him glory for the marriage of the lamb has come and the wife has made herself ready and to her it was granted to be arrayed in fine linen, clean and bright, for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints. And then he said to me, Right, blessed are those who are called to the marriage supper of the lamb. And he said to me, these are the true sayings of God.

Then I, John, in Chapter 21, saw the holy city, the New Jerusalem coming down out of heaven for God prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. Then one of the seven angels who had the seven bulls came and said to John, come, I will show you the bride, the lamb's wife. And so he carries John away in the spirit to this great and high mountain, and he shows him a great city. Again, the same the same metaphors that Isaiah is using of the church, a city, a bride. Faithful, chaste.

A great city, the holy Jerusalem descending out of heaven from God and having the glory of God, and her light was like a most precious stone, like jasper clear as crystal. You see, God doesn't do this by ignoring the sin in his bride. He does it by justice and righteousness. Verse twenty seven says giant Zion shall be redeemed with justice and her penitence with righteousness. At the cross, you see Christ satisfies the full sentence of God's law.

The sentence that was determined and demanded by God's own justice and righteousness. Redemption comes as God's justice and His righteousness is satisfied in Christ. The Bible says that our great God and savior Jesus Christ gave himself to redeem us from all lawlessness and purify for himself a people for his own possession. See our hope is in Christ who is a consuming fire whose judgment does ultimately destroy the wicked and annihilate evil. Zion will be redeemed with justice or penitence with righteousness.

But what happens to their covenant breakers? Those who forsake the Lord shall be consumed, for they should be ashamed of the terrible trees, the things that they desire that they so long for. What will become will become a parent to them to be ashamed of what they wanted, be ashamed of what they did. What they desired. You'll be embarrassed because of the gardens which you have chosen.

So that which looked at which their souls yearn for, what they wanted. God says, you're going to hate it. You're going to be ashamed that you're there. You'll be embarrassed of the garden you have chosen, for you will be as the terriblent whose leaf fades. As a garden that has no water, the strong shall be as tinder, the work of the spark, both will burn together and no one will quench them.

See, God brings this through his word. His word leads the same word that leads to salvation and redemption and wrecking repentance and reconciliation of his believing people. It also leads to the dismantling and the destruction and the ultimate burning of the unbelieving. The word is a saver of life and the life and a saver of death and the death. God does both through his word.

Through his son, Jesus Christ. Our father in heaven. We ask that your word might be a saver of life and to life for us. Now we might be purified and sanctified by your word. Your word is truth.

We ask Lord that you would bless us. And give to us an obedient heart and a willing spirit. We pray that you might raise up in our midst those who set their heart to study your laws as Ezra did. To understand it and apply it. To be able to discern in our culture those many ways in which we transgress your commandments, where thinking has been corrupted.

We ask for your mercy upon our land. Mercy upon our land. We pray that we who have in the past had righteous rulers and just laws that condemned the wicked and justified the righteous. May you once again restore justice and judgment in our land and remove, purge the dross from our silver and the water from our wine and turn the ground that is being destroyed into a fertile land that produces wholesome food. We ask Lord that you might do this.

You might begin in us your sanctifying work, your cleansing work. May we be washed with the water of your word and purified. And we might be for you, as well, a people who are zealous for good works, whose robes have been washed in Christ and kept white. By your grace, We ask this in Jesus name. Amen.