Isaiah 50:10 - 51:8 - Heed What You Hear

Turn to the book of Isaiah.

I started to say the gospel of Isaiah.

Is how it brings us to the Savior and prepares us for his coming.

Isaiah chapter 50.

Isaiah 50 · chapter mention

Isaiah 50, and our passage for this morning covers verse 10 from Isaiah 50 down through verse number 8 of Isaiah chapter 51.

Isaiah 51 · chapter mention

So don't let that chapter break throw you off.

I'm going to read this section for us this morning before we get into God's word.

Isaiah 50, verse 10 through 51, verse 8.

This is what Holy Scripture says.

Who among you fears the Lord and listens to his servant?

Who among you walks in darkness and has no light?

Let him trust in the name of the Lord, let him lean on his God.

Look.

All you who kindle a fire, who encircle yourselves with torches, walk in the light of your fire, and of the torches you have lit, this is what you'll get from my hand.

You will lie down in a place of torment.

Listen to me.

You who pursue righteousness, you who seek the Lord, look to the rock from which you were cut, and to the quarry from which you were dug.

Look to Abraham, your father, and to Sarah who gave birth to you.

When I called him, he was only one.

I blessed him and made him many.

For the Lord will comfort Zion, he will comfort all her waste places, and he will make her wilderness like Eden, and her desert like the garden of the Lord.

Joy and gladness will be found in her.

Thanksgiving and melodious song.

Pay attention to me, my people, and listen to me, my nation.

For instruction will come from me, and my justice for a light to the nations.

I will bring it about quickly.

My righteousness is near.

My salvation appears, and my arms will bring justice to the nations.

The coasts and islands will put their hope in me, and they will look to my strength.

Look up to the heavens and look at the earth beneath.

For the heavens will vanish like smoke, the earth will wear out like a garment, and its inhabitants will die like gnats.

But my salvation will last forever.

And my righteousness will never be shattered.

Listen to me.

You who know righteousness, the people in whose heart is my instruction, do not fear disgrace by men, and do not be shattered by their taunts.

For moths will devour them like a garment, and worms will eat them like wool.

But my righteousness will last forever.

My salvation for all generations.

Let's go to God again.

We always need your help all the time, but we especially need your help as we consider your word, the beauty of it, the warnings of it.

And we know that it's your word that gives life.

So it's not words that are merely said in human power, but we want these words to come as we look in your word through the power of the Spirit this morning.

In Jesus' name.

Amen.

Have you ever been in a conversation where someone says, Are you listening?

That comes up often in the home, often from parents to children.

I did have occasion many times, perhaps when my head was buried in a book or I was watching TV for my mother to say, Micah, are you listening?

I'm not sure what you just said, Mom, but these Hardy boys, they know how to solve a mystery, let me tell you.

Children, you who are here today, you need to listen to your parents.

But how much more should all of us listen to the Lord?

Notice in our passage today how often the Lord asks his people and those who are in the sound of his word to listen.

Chapter 50, verse 10.

To use an a Pew Bible, it says, Who among you fears the Lord and listens to his servants?

Chapter 51, verse 1.

Listen to me.

Verse number 4 of chapter 51, pay attention to me, my people, and listen to me.

51 verse 7.

Listen to me four different times.

Listen, listen, listen, listen.

Sometimes people don't listen to God because they intentionally want to reject what he's going to say.

Sometimes people get distracted with other things, but whatever the reason, when we don't listen to God, it's disastrous.

We all struggle with listening to the Lord.

And the place where we most clearly and directly hear from him is right here, right in this book.

So open it and listen to the Lord.

And this is very important.

When God calls us to listen, he wants us to take to heart what he has to say.

It's not enough just to know the words.

So the title of the message this morning is Heed What You Hear.

Heed What You Hear.

I know heed's a little bit of an old-fashioned word, but it just means to give very careful attention to something.

And it really encapsulates what the Lord is saying all throughout this passage.

I mentioned right away in verse number 10, who among you fears the Lord and listens to his servants?

Your Bible, depending on what your translation is, you might see in chapter 50, verse 10, it might say, Who fears the Lord and obeys his servant?

This is the same word that's used in chapter 51, verse 1, and chapter 51, verse 7 is translated as listen.

Okay, but all throughout this passage, the Lord has a certain kind of listening in mind.

Listening that takes to heart what is said, that leans in and follows.

Isaiah is writing this, he's prophesying under the Lord's inspiration to a people in his own day that weren't listening well to the Lord.

There's threats all throughout this book.

There's talk of judgment happening right as Isaiah is prophesying in some ways and judgment still to come, all because those people weren't listening.

So, friends here today, are we ready to listen to the Lord?

Are we ready to heed what we hear?

Micah, were you listening to me?

I sure was.

Uh you said to put the book down and go finish doing the dishes.

That was an improvement from not knowing what mom said.

What do you think her response was after I said, Yeah, definitely I'm listening.

Then why is the book still in your hand and why are there still dirty dishes in the sink?

Um, I don't know.

Because I need to finish this chapter?

No.

Heed what you hear.

What kind of listening does God call us to?

Well, I'm going to summarize the passage in four headings, and these four headings reflect these four calls to listen.

First, listen to the Lord's alternatives.

We find that in chapter 50, verses 10 and 11.

Then next, listen to the Lord's comfort.

That's chapter 51, the first three verses.

Third, listen to the Lord's salvation.

Verses 4 to 6 of chapter 51.

And finally, verses 7 to 8 of chapter 51.

Listen to the Lord's triumph.

So we'll start with this first heading.

Heed what you hear and listen to the Lord's alternatives.

Our passage begins in chapter 50, verses 10 and 11, and there's two basic options that God sets before the people.

You can either listen and trust, or you can ignore and suffer.

Those are the two basic alternatives.

Those are the only two options.

Listen and trust.

There's a warm invitation from God.

Verse number 10.

Who fears the Lord?

Who listens to his servant?

Who walks in darkness and has no light?

Let him trust in the name of the Lord.

Now, yes, this is a command.

It's not a dinner invitation, but I say it's a warm invitation because of how kind God is to even offer it.

These are people that don't deserve yet another invitation to listen.

They've failed time and time again.

God brought them out of Egypt.

God set his presence and glory among them in the cloud and the fire, and yet year after year, generation after generation, they struggled to listen.

And yet God comes warmly and says, not to Israel.

Good riddance.

He says, There's still hope for you.

Listen, receive, turn, trust.

Friends, there's still hope for you.

We all come into the world loving darkness rather than light.

It's true of every single one of us.

But Christ, the light of the world, has come.

Turn.

Listen.

Trust.

We walk in darkness.

Yes, that's how we come into the world.

Christ on that cross, darkness fell for three hours.

He suffered the weight of judgment that we deserved.

To say, come and receive my free bounty.

We'll talk more about that free bounty later in the message.

But listen in trust.

That's one option.

The other alternative is to ignore and suffer.

And we see that in verse 11.

Look at how verse 11 ends in this very sobering way.

The end of the verse.

This is what you'll get from my hand.

You will lie down in a place of torment.

That's the Lord speaking.

You can see how personal it is.

This is what you'll get from my hand.

God is the one threatening to bring this judgment.

Sometimes people think that the warnings in the Bible are merely about the temporary consequences we bring on ourselves because of our bad decisions.

Now that's true.

We make wrong decisions and we do bring consequences on ourselves.

And sometimes people acknowledge that with things like, I've made a mess of my life, and now I've got to have to suffer.

Sometimes you even have have speakers well-intentioned trying to motivate people, saying things like, you know, the Bible talks about hell.

If you're not living a productive life as a member of society, you know what a hell that can be.

God is saying much, much more than that here.

The Bible says there's a personal God who stands against people.

God is not saying here in this passage, when you lie down in a place of torment, he's not saying if you don't reach your full career potential, you might be more likely to struggle with depression.

That could be very hard.

But the danger here is much, much greater.

It's a fearful thing to fall into the hands of living God.

So this last part of verse 11, this very sober warning about when you ignore, you're going to suffer.

What does that have to do with the first part of the verse?

Look again at the first part of verse 11, chapter 50.

Look, all you who kindle a fire, who encircle yourselves with torches, walk in the light of the fire, your fire, and the torches you have lit.

Those are the people that are threatened with this lying down in a place of torment at God's hand.

So why are they getting torches and circling up and walking around?

And why is that so bad that it brings God's judgment?

Well, it could be that this is some kind of false religious ceremony worshiping false gods.

It could be that they've got plans to go and kill someone else, and the Lord is saying that's going to come back on your own head.

But I don't think that's Isaiah's main point here.

Look at the context, and it helps us, even the structure of this passage, these four calls to listen, help us keep together verses 10 and 11.

So look at what just came before that in verse number 10.

Who among you fears the Lord and listens to his servant?

There's that invitation.

Who among you walks in darkness and has no light?

Let him trust the name of the Lord.

Isaiah's presenting these two alternatives.

You're walking in darkness.

You could rely wholly on the Lord and trust in him.

Or you could get some torches and try to figure it out yourself.

The judgment is coming for those who think they can make life work on their own apart from trust in God.

That's, I think, what's really going on here.

There's no third way between listening and trusting and ignoring and suffering.

There's no, I'll mainly figure it out myself, but once in a while, God can jump in and help me.

There's these are two stark, stark options.

Let me speak to you for a moment.

If you're here today, maybe as an agnostic, I think that's more common in our world than militant atheists.

It is more polite to be able to say, I'm not shaking my fist at God.

I just don't know.

I'm not really quite ready to trust Him.

If you're here today and that's you, we're glad you're here.

Thank you for being here.

If you're a militant atheist, we're glad you're here.

Thank you for being here.

But you need to know that your lack of decision won't be an excuse for you on the final day.

Because there's just these two alternatives.

And wouldn't you admit that really in everyday life you're living by trusting yourself?

God has revealed Himself in nature, in your conscience, in His Word.

And yet, I don't know, so I'm going to just do what I think is best.

That's probably practically how you're living.

This is so common today.

This we'll call it the walk by the light of your own torch mentality.

It's very common among young people.

If you're young today and you're here, again, happy to have you here.

But young people, no matter what their worldview is, no matter what they would say about God or religion, it's very common to hear them say things like, Well, if I haven't experienced it, it's not my reality.

The most important reality you could care about is God and what he says and listening to him and trusting in him.

So this is God's first call.

Listen to the Lord's alternatives.

And this is a real, a real turning point because if you listen and trust, the rest of this listening is going to be easy today.

It's words of joy by and large and comfort.

But if you if you don't want to listen, if you're going to ignore and and just trust yourself, you're going to suffer and the rest of the message won't be as helpful to you.

So I appeal to you, listen to the Lord's alternatives and choose trusting in Him.

But moving on, number two, listen to the Lord's comfort.

The Lord is so kind to bring us comfort, and that comfort comes when we consider the past, and comfort comes when we consider the future.

God calls them first to think about the past.

Chapter 51, verse 1.

These who are pursuing righteousness, seeking the Lord, he says, look to the rock from which you were cut and to the quarry from which you were dug, pointing to the past.

Verse number two, they're told more specifically, look to Abraham and Sarah.

Who is that?

That's the father and mother of the Israelite people, of the Jewish nation.

So Isaiah is going back hundreds of years and saying, go back to your beginning, go back to your roots, don't forget your roots.

And then we might think God would say, Look at Abraham and Sarah's faith.

Don't you want to follow in their footsteps and have that faith?

And he he could have said that.

But that's not actually what the verse goes on to say.

Verse number two takes a turn, it takes a sharp turn.

It goes on to say, the Lord speaking, when I called him, he was only one.

I blessed him and made him many.

But how wrong it is for us to think of any person from the past, even a great person, as our ultimate hero.

It's only the Lord.

Think about what Hebrews says in chapter 11, all these people from the past as examples.

And yet, what does Hebrews 12 hurry on to say?

Therefore, since we have such a large cloud of witnesses surrounding us, lay aside every hindrance and the sin that ensnares, running with endurance the race that lies before us, keeping our eyes on Jesus.

That's the very best place to find comfort.

He's comforted saints throughout the Bible's history, thousands of years.

He'll comfort us today.

Listen to the Lord's comfort from the past.

But then also listen to the Lord's comfort for the future.

That's what verse 3 does.

Look at verse 3 in your Bibles.

The Lord will comfort Zion.

He will comfort all her waste places.

He will make her wilderness like Eden and her desert like the garden of the Lord.

Joy and gladness will be found in her.

Thanksgiving and melodious song.

Israel, Isaiah says, He's done it before, he'll do it again.

People of God today, he's comforted you before, he'll do it again.

And the promise here, it expands beyond anything God's done for them before in the past.

It's even despite all their failure, it's not, I'll do it like before, but not as much because of your failure.

It's I'll do it not the same as before, I'll do it even greater than I've done it before.

In the past, God brought Abraham and Sarah safely out of Egypt.

Then they multiply.

And the whole nation, years later, is enslaved in Egypt.

God brings them out of Egypt, through the wilderness, into the promised land of Canaan, and the Lord says, I'm gonna, I will do it again.

But what he says here is not, I'll do it again, I'll make your wilderness like Canaan.

He says, I'll take your wilderness, I'll make it like Eden.

That's the place of perfection.

That's that's the garden of God that he made in the beginning where there was no sin whatsoever.

Canaan, as you read the Bible, was always meant to be a picture, an imperfect picture of Eden.

What God was doing for Israel is always meant to be a picture of what he's gonna do for all kinds of people everywhere to bring about a whole new Jerusalem.

And this is a promise, friends.

It's not a might or a maybe, it's God saying, I will do it.

You can count on me.

In the Lord's providence, we just prayed for baby Eden earlier in the service today, right?

What a delightful child.

And for all of the pleasure that Ethan and Shanik have from their child from Eden, he's not a perfect child.

You know, children are they're kind of like Canaan, they're beautiful and awe-inspiring, and they have some thorns and thistles and giants in the land.

You know, there's there's some battles coming.

Um we we sang that song earlier.

If you were listening to the words of that song about a Christian home, those were very prayerful, aspirational words.

There was a lot of new creation glory in that song.

There's a lot of that song, you know, may our hearts be unperturbed, naria, whispering word, and you know, always patient.

That's a great prayer.

Probably not going to be finally fulfilled till glory.

But but but but for all of us, when we pray for Eden or interact with that young child, we can remind ourselves that perfection is coming.

A new creation is coming.

Uh just around the corner.

Freedom from sin, no, no more no more violence and death, no more war, no more children talking back to their parents.

It's coming.

It's coming.

Heed what you hear, listen to the Lord's comfort.

And then we find our third listen in verse number four of Isaiah 51.

Pay attention to me, my people, and listen to me, my nation.

So, what what's the call going to be here for this listening?

Well, let's remind ourselves of where we've been.

Listen to the Lord's alternatives.

Listen and trust him, or ignore and suffer.

We know we need to trust in him.

If we're ready to do that, listen to the Lord's comfort.

There's comfort in the past, comfort in the future, comfort's coming.

How does the Lord bring about that glorious comfort?

You know, does he just snap his fingers one day and say, old creation is gone, new creation is here, and and in a moment, that's it.

No, he doesn't, he doesn't do that.

He can't do that.

Micah, you're putting limitation on God?

No, of course, he has the creative power to make a whole new world with the breath of his mouth.

But but when I say that he can't, God is a moral being.

He's a God of perfect righteousness.

That's not a hindrance or limitation.

That's that's a beautiful quality of who he is.

He can't not be God.

He can't sin or overlook sin.

So for him to just snap his fingers and say, old creation out, new creation in, what about his righteous demands?

A little bit of our faith and trust can't make up for all of our unrighteousness.

But listen here thirdly for the Lord's salvation.

Verse 4 Pay attention to my people, listen.

And then let's keep reading on.

Verse number five and following.

My instruction will come, my justice for a light to the nations, I will bring it about quickly.

My righteousness is near, my salvation appears, my arms will bring justice to the nations, the coasts and islands will put their hope in me, they will look to my strength, look up to the heavens and look at the earth beneath, for the heavens will vanish like smoke.

The earth will wear out like a garment, and its inhabitants will die like gnats.

But my salvation will last forever.

My righteousness will never be shattered.

The Lord is bringing in righteousness.

He's going to accomplish whatever is necessary to secure salvation so that those who trust can receive the final comfort.

In both verse 5 and in verse 6, righteousness is parallel to salvation.

Without full righteousness, you can't have full salvation.

But with full salvation comes full righteousness, and vice versa.

And verse 6 says this is a righteousness that lasts forever.

Adam and Eve were created with original righteousness, but it wasn't everlasting righteousness.

They could lose it, and they did.

The Lord is bringing a righteousness that can never be lost.

It's his gift.

These verses don't spell out the Lord's righteous salvation with as much detail as the whole New Testament gives us.

But there is a clue here in verse 4, my justice for a light to the nations.

Israel was called to be God's light of righteousness to the nations, and they failed.

The Lord's true servant, King Jesus, came and he's described as the light of the world, as the one who was filled and fulfilled all righteousness.

That's where this salvation comes from in the ultimate plan of God.

Man of sorrows, what a name for the Son of God who came.

Ruined sinners to reclaim.

Hallelujah.

What a savior.

Heed what you hear.

Listen to the Lord's alternatives.

Listen to the Lord's comfort.

Listen to the Lord's salvation.

And then finally, today, listen to the Lord's triumph.

Verse number seven.

Listen to me, you who know righteousness, the people in whose heart is my instruction.

So he's speaking now in his own day to a believing remnant who had the law in some sense filling their hearts.

So for those that have received and trusted in God's righteous gift of salvation through Jesus, his death, his suffering in our place, that's our foundation for hope.

Those people have also received God's work in their hearts to start to change them.

One step at a time and to have the law written in our hearts.

He speaks to us and he says, Don't fear disgrace by men, and don't be shattered by their taunts, is what is what my Bible says.

Your Bible might say their revilings or their insults.

It happened to the Lord Himself, the righteous servant of all.

You who would destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days, save yourself.

If you are the Son of God, come down from the cross.

He saved others, but he can't save himself.

He's the king of Israel.

Let him come down now from the cross.

We'll believe in him.

He trusts in God.

Let God rescue him now.

For he said, I'm the Son of God.

The Bible tells us even the criminals taunted the crucified Lord.

But brothers and sisters, if they've insulted our Lord, they will insult us.

Let the world despise and leave me.

They have left my Savior too.

Your neighbors may laugh when they see you going to church on Sunday morning with a Bible tucked under your arm.

You may lose friends in the community when you don't affirm everything they think you should affirm.

Or when you don't give in to the same gossip that they love to give into.

You might even lose your job.

And you know, you know that your coworkers, rather than having sympathy for you, they'll be behind your back making fun of you because you you wouldn't tell a little white lie, and you're going to cost them your job.

Don't be afraid.

Don't be broken.

Here's what God says about his triumph in verse number eight.

Moths will devour them like a garment, and worms will eat them like wool.

But my righteousness will last forever.

My salvation for all generations.

The Lord will triumph.

There's not even a question about that.

We're playing the long game as Christians.

It's not even about our righteousness at the end of the day.

We want to showcase what God has done in us, but it's not about our righteousness.

It's the Lord bringing his final triumph.

The people that are strolling down those red carpets right now, for many of them, in the final day, the closet door of eternity is going to swing open, and they're going to be looking like ragged, tattered clothes that you wouldn't even have the heart to give to Goodwill.

The people that can pursue all the best doctors for all their health needs now, if they don't turn and repent and trust and listen, then they might extend their life a little bit in this age, but they're headed for the worm farm.

Not trying to be mean, that's just what the Bible says right here.

If you struggle with fearing the opinion of others, and if they think that way, they might even say something, and I just can't bear that.

Struggle with the fear of man, the the antidote is listening even more to God.

He tells us taunts are coming.

But what's that compared to Eden?

To an eternal new creation.

We can look forward to the destruction of the wicked.

But we have to be very careful how we do that.

We don't want to look forward to that destruction with any self-righteousness or bitterness.

But the destruction of the wicked means the triumph of the Lord's righteousness.

And to see our king lifted up and exalted above all of his enemies, we we do want that.

The lamb is all the glory of Emmanuel's Lamb.

And this means, friends, that we don't have to pull the wicked down.

The Lord's going to do it.

Yeah, we want to speak the truth about what God says.

We want to witness and work and serve.

And we just can stand back and see what God does.

Isn't that a joyful thing?

We want to pray that God would save many in this age.

And we can also pray, Lord, soon bring in that everlasting righteousness once for all.

May those who taunt you be put away once for all that you might shine all the more.

So heed what you hear.

Remember that alternative from the beginning.

That's the fork in the road.

Listen and step in and trust.

Don't ignore and suffer.

And then when you heed what you hear, and you listen and you, I want to trust, then listen, it's not just this passage.

All throughout scripture, you have the Lord speaking comfort, the Lord speaking salvation, the Lord speaking of his ultimate triumph.

Peter, who do you say that I am?

You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.

Just two alternatives.

Peter is with the Lord.

Peter had some lapses.

Didn't the Lord say, You're gonna deny me?

And rather than listen and cry out for grace, Peter said, No, no, no.

I'm good.

I'll walk by the light of my own torch for a while.

That didn't work out for him.

But then the Lord came with those words of comfort.

Do you love me?

Feed my sheep.

Come on back from fishing.

I called you at the beginning.

There's still hope for you.

Come on back.

That's comfort for us.

And Peter knew about God's salvation.

He understood more and more, I think, as time went on, what it meant for Christ to be the righteous Savior.

He says as much.

This is from 1 Peter chapter 1, verse 3.

1 Peter 1:3

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Because of his great mercy, he's given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.

And Peter knew insults.

Look at the book of Acts, the early chapters, read the whole letter of 2 Peter, you will see insults.

But Peter had this listening ear for the word of God's triumph, and that listening ear sustained him.

And I want to leave you with these words from Peter, 2 Peter chapter 3, we'll conclude here.

2 Peter 3 · chapter mention

The day of the Lord will come like a thief.

And on that day, the heavens will pass away with a loud noise, the elements will burn and be dissolved, and the earth and the works on it will be disclosed.

Since all these things are to be dissolved in this way, it is clear what sort of people you should be in holy conduct and godliness as you wait for the day of God and hasten its coming.

Because of that day, the heavens will be dissolved with fire and the elements will melt with heat.

But based on his promise, we wait for new heavens and a new earth where righteousness dwells.

Let's pray.

Lord, we want to see your final triumph.

We want the new Jerusalem to come out of heaven as a bride adorned for her husband, this garden city of glory.

We're ready for Eden to come again.

Please, Lord, give us patience as we plead with you to come quickly.

Thank you for the comfort that you bring to us.

Lord, forgive us for ways that we run to lesser things, sometimes sinful things, not things always that are sinful in themselves, but we take comfort in so many other things so easily when you're there and your invitation is for us and to us.

We wouldn't be able to be here today if it wasn't for Jesus Christ, the champion of champions, the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords, the one who has defeated sin and death and the devil, and the one who holds out to us rest.

Rest from our weary labors.

Lord, give us these listening ears.

Your servant had listening ears.

Your servant's ears were bent towards you at all times, and we want his life to be at work in us.

So as we sing to you now, as we go from this place this morning, would Christ dwell in our hearts through faith?

We pray this in Jesus' name.

Amen.