Feasting Now, Feasting Then: Isaiah 25

Our scripture text this morning for this sermon comes from Isaiah chapter 25.

Isaiah 25 · chapter mention

This sermon this morning is kind of a one-off.

Our service, our sermon series of late, meditating on the Psalms, concludes.

Next week we start a new sermon series on the new theme of the year, and we're excited to begin that next week.

But this sermon this morning really was sparked by Pastor Josh's sermon as I listened last week on feasting.

Feasting on the Lord as David did, as David taught us.

And we're going to look at that.

What does it mean to feast?

To come to the Lord's feast now, and then again one day.

Hear the word of God.

O Lord, you are my God.

I will exalt you.

I will praise your name.

For you have done wonderful things, plans formed of old, faithful and sure.

For you have made the city a heap, the fortified city a ruin.

The foreigner's palace is a city no more.

It will never be rebuilt.

Therefore, strong peoples will glorify you.

Cities of ruthless nations will fear you.

For you have been a stronghold to the poor, a stronghold to the needy in his distress, a shelter from the storm and a shade from the heat.

For the breath of the ruthless is like a storm against a wall, like heat in a dry place.

You subdue the noise of the foreigners as heat by the shade of a cloud, so the song of the ruthless is put down.

On this mountain the Lord of hosts will make for all peoples a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wine, of rich food full of morrow, of aged wine well refined.

And he will swallow up on this mountain the covering that is cast over all peoples, the veil that is spread over all nations.

He will swallow up death forever, and the Lord God will wipe away tears from all faces, and the reproach of his people he will take away from all the earth, for the Lord has spoken.

It will be said on that day, Behold, this is our God.

We have waited for him, that he might save us.

This is the Lord, we have waited for him.

Let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation.

For the hand of the Lord will rest on this mountain, and Moab shall be trampled down in his place, as straw is trampled down in a dung hill, and he will spread out his hands in the midst of it, as a swimmer spreads his hands out to swim.

But the Lord will lay low his pompous pride together with the skill of his hands, and the high fortifications of his walls he will bring down.

Lay low and cast to the ground to the dust.

This is the reading of God's inerrant, infallible, precious word that we get to hear today.

This is his word.

Now we pray for the work of his spirit.

Father, thank you.

You knew the message that Isaiah needed, that your people needed back in that day.

We need this message just as much today.

So, Spirit of God, open our minds, our ears.

And unless your spirit opens our ears, we won't.

So teach us what Spirit of God we pray.

Amen.

We've looked recently at Psalm 63, verse 5.

Psalms 63:5

My soul will be satisfied as with fat and rich food, and my mouth will praise you with joyful lips when I remember you upon my bed and meditate on you through the watches of the night.

So let me ask you a question.

Do you eat well through the night?

Sounds like a kind of a strange question.

You say, well, I finish my meal and then I go to sleep and I sleep.

Well, you hear what David's saying.

It's possible that we feast on the Lord, that we think of the Lord's glories and beauty throughout.

Even the watches of the night.

Now, no doubt, sometimes you wake up.

We wake up sometimes through the night.

What do we think about?

But even when we're asleep, what is that lullaby that puts you to sleep?

What's that lullaby that keeps you asleep?

That brings you peace.

That brings you rest.

That's what he's talking about.

But what he's doing, David did in Psalm 63, and he does, we see this throughout the scriptures right here in Isaiah 25, is the Lord compares his divine mercies, his divine glories that he gives to us, that he spreads out before us like a table?

He says, I'm going to compare that to the finest meal you've ever had.

So think about your favorite meal.

What is that favorite meal that you either request for your birthday or you go out to your favorite restaurant?

What's that meal and what's the last bite you take?

I know for me, if it's prime rib, I want that last piece for last.

I don't want the green beans to be the last.

What is that?

Why in the world would God compare his mercies and his grace with your favorite meal?

Which he does.

Isaiah chapter 25, verse 6.

Isaiah 25:6

On this mountain the Lord of hosts will make for all peoples a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wine, of rich food full of morrow, of aged wine and refined.

I've been thinking about the feast all week.

I've got an advantage on you.

The Lord put it in my mind last Sunday as I listened to Pastor Josh preach.

I said we need to think more about this feast, particularly this Sunday as we come to the table of the Lord's feast.

We're talking this morning about feasting now and feasting then.

One day we're going to feast like never before.

Let me give a little background.

Isaiah.

Isaiah was a contemporary of Hosea that we spent a lot of time with Hosea this spring, right?

Contemporaries.

This was a dark time in the history of Israel.

They were on the decline.

After years of prosperity, where everything seemed to be going well, the government was thriving, the economy was strong, and then because of their rebelliousness, God brought judgment.

And Isaiah witnessed all of it.

He witnessed the Assyrian army coming in and taking captive Israel to the north.

He witnessed Babylon coming and taking captive Judah to the south decades later.

He saw the rise, he saw the fall.

Isaiah's book is really written in two main sections, chapters 1 through 39, which is mostly about judgment.

God is saying, I will judge my nation because my people, my people are rebellious.

My people aren't listening to me.

I will bring judgment on my people.

But I will bring judgment on all the nations who have tormented my people as well.

But even in all the dark clouds of the first 39 chapters of Isaiah, there are these shafts of light that break through, that pierce, to give God's people hope.

All is not lost.

Chapters 40 to 66 of Isaiah is mostly about the comfort, the peace, about the coming of the Messiah, right?

Some of our favorite Christmas passages.

But it's also his return, his second return, coming back.

And there's all this hope and there's all this light in Isaiah.

So this morning we're going to look at chapter 26, but especially chapter 25, but really it's chapters 24 through 27, these four chapters, which we don't have time to look at this morning.

You might do that on your own this week, where we see this incredible message of hope.

One Hebrew scholar talks about the judgment of the nations, including Judah and Israel, known as Isaiah's apocalypse.

I don't know if you've ever if you're familiar with that term.

Isaiah's apocalypse.

We're familiar with John's apocalypse that we see in Revelation.

But Hebrew scholars also talk about this chapter in particular, this chapter, verses 6 to 8, as the magnificat of the Old Testament.

Did you know that?

I mean, talk about this bright shaft of light.

Like the magnificat in the New Testament Gospels, when the announcement of the Savior was made, the blessing, the glory in God.

So there we are.

That's the background, what we're going to look at.

One of the brightest lights in the Old Testament that should take our breath away.

So let's talk about the Lord's feast.

Where the feast will take place, when?

What is that feast?

And then who is part of this feast?

First of all, where the feast takes place, look at verse 6.

Where does the feast take place?

On this mountain.

Which mountain?

God created a lot of mountains.

Which mountain will this feast take place?

On this mountain.

Now we know from the scriptures which one he's talking about.

He's actually have, he has several mountains in mind.

First of all, Mount Sinai in the Old Testament.

Remember Mount Sinai?

That's where God brought his people out of Egypt to the promised land, but they went to Mount Sinai.

What happened to Mount Sinai?

God met them.

He revealed his law to them.

We got the Ten Commandments.

But God, because of His holiness, said, Don't touch the mountain.

This mountain is holy, because this is where I have come down.

Okay?

He said, if an animal even touches it, that animal will die on the spot.

If a human being touches it, likewise.

But there were some changes, there were some provisions we read about in Exodus chapter 24 as an example, where God made exceptions for people to come consecrated to his mountain.

Exodus 24 · chapter mention

Listen at verse 9.

Then Moses and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and the 70 elders of Israel went up and they saw the God of Israel.

There was under his feet, as it were, a pavement of sapphire stone, like the very heavens for clearness.

And he did not lay his hand on the chief men of the people of Israel.

He didn't strike them.

He didn't kill them on the spot.

He made a special exception for them that day, that time.

Why?

They beheld God and then they ate and they drank.

They feasted on Mount Sinai, but the feast didn't continue.

You know, in the Old Testament there were no chairs or pews in the tabernacle.

Why?

Today, many of our churches have comfortable seats, pews, because they didn't belong.

The high priest went into the Holy of Holies one day a year on the Day of Atonement.

They didn't belong because the holiness of God was too much for them to take in.

And yet they knew that God made provision for them to come to pay a short visit, although you didn't sit down.

But here, God says, for this day, in this occasion, I want you to bring 70 of your elders, your leaders, Aaron, Moses, Nadab, and Abihu.

I want you to come up and we're going to feast.

God was giving them a foretaste then to see what was waiting for them in his graciousness.

See, God has been holding feast for a long time.

God is the one who knows about feast.

So we see that Mount Sinai in the Old Testament, they for one occasion they had this feast on the mountain, and they came down.

But Mount Sinai represented the law of God.

And we would all be lost today if that's all we had, the law of God.

So we turn to Hebrews chapter 12.

Hebrews 12 · chapter mention

What a great passage in the New Testament.

Listen to what happened because Jesus came, because Jesus bore our sins.

Listen to now, chapter 12 of Hebrews, verse 18.

For you, he's talking about you.

Okay, all Christians in the New Covenant.

For you have not come to what may be touched, a blazing fire and darkness and gloom and a tempest and the sound of a trumpet and a voice whose words the hearers beg that no further messages be spoken to them.

He's talking about Mount Sinai.

You haven't come to Mount Sinai, for they could not endure the order that was given.

If even a beast touches the mountain, it will be stoned.

Indeed, so terrifying was the sight that Moses said, I tremble with fear when he looks at that mountain.

But you have come to Mount Zion, to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels and festival gathering.

You've come to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven.

By the way, you know that's a reference to?

Have you been born again?

Everybody has been born once in this world.

But in order to be at that feast, you need to be born twice.

Born again spiritually.

You've come to God, the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect.

You've come to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.

Mount Sinai in the Old Testament, the law, Mount Zion in the New Testament, representing the grace of God, where we find mercy, where we find forgiveness.

That's what Isaiah is referring to.

So what is the mountain he's referring to?

Well, first of all, he is referring to Jerusalem.

Why?

What made Jerusalem so special?

It was in Jerusalem on a hill, Calvary, where Jesus was crucified for sinners like us.

I think Isaiah sees Jerusalem as the mountain and partially, not fully, because then he sees Mount Zion, Hebrews, he sees Mount Zion.

He sees that now the whole church is gathered together.

Old Testament saint, New Testament safe, Jew, Gentile.

All of us who have been born again are now part of this church.

We're on this mountain represented.

What does that mean?

It means that right now, this morning, you're not only at 1300 West Braddock Road.

By faith, where are you?

Seated in the heavenlies.

You heard the words in Hebrews.

We are a part of a throng of people in worship in heaven.

We are joining heaven's worship right now.

We can't see it with our visible eyes, physical eyes, but by faith, that's where we are.

The congregation that we are worshiping with right now.

Oh, dwarfs any megachurch.

You know, just because a megachurch is a megachurch, they might think, well, we're the church.

No, you're not.

Millions upon millions are gathered in the presence of God by faith.

Isaiah sees that.

We've come to Mount Zion, to the city of the living God.

So Isaiah sees Jerusalem, yes, but he sees the new Jerusalem.

That's the real church you're part of.

Now.

You don't wait until you die.

You don't wait until you die to be part of the new Jerusalem.

The heavenly Jerusalem.

We're there by faith.

This morning.

We all come.

When?

Well, it's fulfilled today in the new covenant, as we saw in the book of Hebrews, the heavenly Jerusalem.

It's fulfilled ultimately, however, on that day.

Seven times in these four chapters, Isaiah references that day.

That day is not yet come fully.

Jesus came, praise God.

We're in through Christ.

We have a seat at the table because of Christ, but he's referring further out that day when Jesus returns.

And then we're going to all be seated together at the wedding supper of the Lamb.

Isaiah was looking forward to the day, yes, when the Messiah would come, but he was looking further beyond that to the day when Jesus would return to usher in his perfect kingdom.

That's why we have passages in Isaiah like the day, the time when the wolf and the lamb will sit down and the lamb survives.

There will be that peace, shalom.

No more crying.

No more sinning.

No more struggle.

He says, wait for that day.

I want you to wait well for that day.

The when?

Ultimately that day.

What do we know about this feast?

Thirdly, well, 25 verse 6.

A feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wine, rich food, full of the juices of the fat, you know, the stuff that tastes so good.

But it's going to be more and beyond anything you've ever tasted bodily on earth.

Can you imagine this?

Can you wait for the day when more than savoring that last piece of prime rib at your favorite restaurant today, you will be savoring the delicacies of God's grace in heightened ways.

We could take all day to unpack that.

I just got a couple minutes.

How about our justification?

That God would say the moment you come to me in Christ, I take all of your dirty rags, all your unrighteousness.

I take it, and I that I put on my own son, Jesus.

And I take all of the perfect righteousness of Jesus, his perfect record, and I put that on you.

I give you that robe of righteousness.

We call that substitutionary atonement in the Bible.

Talk about a delicacy.

You know what in worship?

It's really important every time we gather to remember not only what we've been saved from, but what we have been saved for.

What we have been saved to.

Do you do that on a regular basis?

I think he wants us to do it every day.

Every day.

Lord, I marvel at what you have saved me from.

Tom Holliday, a rebel, a big sinner.

You saved me.

I will never know a day of your judgment.

Nor will you, Christian.

Charles Spurgeon said it so well.

You stand before God as if you were Christ, because Christ stood before God as if he were you.

That's one of my favorite gems from Spurgeon.

When God sees you, he doesn't see the filth of your sin.

He sees the righteousness of Jesus.

Why?

Because Jesus took all of our sin.

He took all of our judgment.

So when you come to the table in a few minutes, I want to remind you how God sees you.

He sees you as perfect in his sight.

Just as perfect as his son is perfect.

The reason you're a Christian is because God took all of your sin and put it on Jesus, and he took all of Jesus' righteousness and put it on you.

That will embolden you to come to the table.

Talk about a delicacy.

How about the gift of our spiritual adoption?

Rebels adopted in the royal family.

Jeremiah 31, 3 says, Yea, I have loved you.

I have loved my people with an everlasting love.

So here's something to think about.

Okay, let's think hard.

When did God start loving you?

Are you tempted to say, well, when he saved me?

No.

Yea, I have loved you with an everlasting love.

What does that mean?

It's almost too much to take in, isn't it?

I just feel so unfit to stand here and tell you this.

I'm still trying to understand it myself.

There's never been a moment when he hasn't loved you, Christian.

He didn't start loving you when you got saved.

There's never been a moment.

And there will never be a moment when he stops loving you.

Talk about good food, good wine.

Talk about a delicacy.

The savor?

You can't say now that God loves me.

We can say that God saved me just maybe recently or whenever, but not that he loves me now.

Our resurrection is another delicacy.

Verse 8, he will swallow up death forever.

This is one of the clearest proofs in the Old Testament of the resurrection.

God is promising in the midst of his day, Isaiah's day, where so much rebellion was running amok.

By the way, if you look at the last couple verses in the text printed, judgment, Moab is just representative of the pride of humankind.

Moab is going to be punished.

I remember my first year of Hebrew, I had to translate this passage.

And I was just struck by the vivid imagery in this passage.

Those who say no to Christ, those who refuse his invitation, those who out of their pride say, No thanks, I've got this, will be struck down eternally in judgment.

He uses this word picture.

It will be like Moab, anyone who refuses my grace will be trampled down and dumb, is what it says.

He will spread out his hands in the midst of it as a swimmer spreads his hands out to swim.

That is a horrifying image.

But God says it.

Don't refuse his grace.

Don't go through this life saying, I think I'm alright.

Look what I've done.

Really?

Are you gonna stand on that?

No, you don't want to stand on that.

Your only hope and my only hope is to look what Jesus did.

That's my hope.

What do we know about this feast?

Oh.

On that day, it will be like a feast you've never been part of.

It'll be far better.

We will not be able to compare what we feast that day with the best meal we've ever had on this earth.

There'll be no comparison.

It doesn't stop the scriptures from giving us a comparison.

Like the best wine you've ever tasted.

This is not box wine.

This is the good stuff.

Like the best food.

Can you wait for that day?

I pray we can.

Spurgeon says about who will host this feast.

Look at verse 6, verse 7, verse 8.

The Lord of hosts will make for all peoples.

No, it doesn't say all people.

There will be many, many, many people who refuse to come to the banquet.

For all peoples, from every tribe, from every tongue, from every country.

He is the host.

Not me.

You don't want me to be your host.

Not you.

The Lord Jesus Himself will be the host at this feast.

What a feast it will be.

Spurgeon, mark it well that in the gospel banquet there is not a single dish that you will bring.

I've been thinking about that this week.

We have potluck dinners right down here.

Yeah, bring your favorite dish.

I want to sample your favorite dish.

That's okay.

But not at this feast.

Why?

It's all been provided by Christ.

Nobody is going to be taking a bow in heaven for their dish.

You know, nobody's going to be had that false modesty.

Oh, it was really nothing.

But inside you know it was good.

There will be no false modesty in heaven.

Nobody will be taking a bow.

The only chef at that banquet is the Lord Jesus Christ.

And the food that he will serve us with the delicacies of his grace that we've just touched on this morning will overwhelm your senses.

And you will be glad you're there.

He will not even permit the guest to bring their own wedding garments.

They must stop at the door and put on the robe that he provides.

Which brings us to the last point.

Who are the guests at this banquet?

For all peoples, I want to go back to Luke chapter 14, though, to illustrate this a little bit more.

Luke 14 · chapter mention

Jesus told a parable of the great banquet.

Verse 15, when one of those who reclined at table with him, and he's telling him a story, a parable, he said to him, Blessed is everyone who will eat bread in the kingdom of God.

But he said to him, A man once gave a great banquet and invited many.

And at the time for the banquet, he sent his servant to say to those who had been invited, Come, for everything is now ready.

But they all began making excuses.

The first said to him, I bought a field, I have to go check it out.

Please excuse me.

Another said, I bought five yoke of oxen, I have to examine them.

Please excuse me.

Another said, I have married a wife, and I can't come now.

So the servant came and reported these things to his master.

Then the master of his house, this is Jesus, became angry and said to his servant, Go out quickly to the streets and the lanes of the city and bring in the poor and the crippled and the blind and the lame.

And the servant said, Sir, what you commanded has been done.

But there's still room.

Did you know there's still room?

There are still seats at this banquet.

Have you received your invitation?

Have you responded to the grace of Jesus Christ?

Have you bowed your heart, confessed your pride, and said, Jesus, no one can give me life but you.

If you have, there's a seat for you at the table.

He's already given you, he has a wedding robe for you to wear.

You don't bring your own clothes, you wear his righteous robe.

Don't make excuses.

That's the reason Jesus told this parable.

A lot of people make excuses why they're not Christians, why they have not confessed their sin, why they're not living under the Lordship of Jesus Christ.

Why, I've, you know, I've got this, I've got that.

Really?

What in the world could you have going on in your life that would get in the way of you receiving the forgiveness of Jesus' shed blood?

What in the world do you have going on in your life that keeps you from the wedding feast?

Oh friend, may there be nothing.

If this day you're receiving the wedding invitation and responding, praise God.

If this moment Jesus said, I will in no wise cast out any who come to me.

Did you hear that?

I will in no way cast out anyone who comes to me, but you must come.

This doesn't happen automatically.

It doesn't happen just because you heard it.

It only happens, you will be seated at the feast, at that banquet, only if you have responded and stop making excuses why you haven't.

Who will be the guest?

Me.

I can't wait.

How about you?

I'm hoping to see a lot of you.

I'm hoping to see all of you.

Really?

But that's up to you.

You gotta respond.

Isaac Watts in the great hymn, The Hill of Zion yields a thousand sacred sweets.

I love that phrase.

There's one more sweet after one more sweet.

A thousand sweets.

What is the delicacy of God's grace that you are savoring this morning?

That you're just, you've got it in your mouth.

You're savoring it.

You know, you don't want it to completely dissolve because of the sweetness.

We're not talking about earthly mints, we're not talking about earthly beef.

We're talking about the delicacies of God's grace.

Roll it over, chew it over.

The wedding supper of the Lamb.

It's the Lamb's feast because it's through his death and the resurrection that death is conquered and life is given.

Jesus is both the host and the bridegroom.

It bursts the banks.

Doesn't it?

He's not only the chef, he's the host.

And he's not only the host, he's your bridegroom.

Can you see that?

He's the one you walk down the aisle with.

Who loves us like this?

It takes a rebel and forgives him and saves him.

And invites him to the marriage supper of the Lamb.

And says, Tom, I will not only be your host, I will not only be your chef, I will marry you.

Whether you're married or not.

This is the greatest marriage of all.

If you're single your whole life, if you're married, it doesn't matter ultimately.

What matters is are you married to him?

That's what matters.

You walk down that aisle with him.

It's coming.

It's coming.

Spurgeon said, if our sins be like mountains, God's love is like Noah's flood.

Second service, Ben.

Forgot that in the first service.

Isn't that good?

If my sin is like a mountain, my sin overflows the mountains, doesn't yours?

But God's love is like Noah's flood.

So as we come to the table.

Can I tell you about my bridegroom?

Because he's your bridegroom, too.

One day when we see your face, this is a song we're going to sing in a couple minutes.

I love it because it speaks realistically about how hard life is now.

How great the temptation of struggle.

Sin.

Though the dark is overwhelming and the brightest lights grow dim, though the word of God is trampled on by foolish men, though the wicked never stumble, so it seems, and abound in every place, we will all be humbled when we see your face.

The demons we have been fighting, those without and those within, will be underneath our feet to never rise again.

All our sins will be behind us, through the blood of Christ erased, and we will taste your kindness when we see your face.

We will see and we will know like we've never known before.

We will be found and we will be home and we will be yours forevermore.

All the waiting will be over, every sorrow will be healed.

All the dreams it seemed could never be will all be real.

And you'll gather us together in your arms of endless grace.

As your bride forever, when we see your face, we will see and we will know like we've never known before.

We will be found and we will be home and we will be yours forevermore.

We will see, we will know, like we've never known before.

We will be found and we will be home and we will be yours forevermore.

And you will gather us together in your arms of endless grace as your bride forever when we see your face.

Ben introduced that to me about three weeks ago.

I just can't get that out of my head, thank God.

Can't get it out of my heart.

Our host at the great banquet is also gonna be our bridegroom.

You're gonna be his bride.

You're walking down the aisle with him.

Can you wait for that?

It's worth waiting for.