The King in His Beauty

Isaiah thirty two. We're going to be in chapters thirty

two through thirty five this morning. I know, as I've

been saying all week, that's a lot of groceries. It's

four chapters of dense Hebrew poetry similar to how what

we had on our hands last week. And so this morning,

as we get into Isaiah thirty two through thirty five,

there's no way for me to take all of the

groceries that are in this bag and plate everything in

one meal. It's just too much to put every ingredient

on the plate. But what we can do is take

every type of ingredient and get it into a meal

for us this morning. So it's more like soup, right.

Every type and representative idea that's in these four chapters

we want to take and digest and be nourished from

God's word. And so accordingly, we're not gonna be able

to read, for time's sake, all four chapters this morning.

Encourage you to do that. Maybe you've already have in

your own study, but I'd like to start by reading

representative passages through these four chapters. So if you would

turn with me to Isaiah thirty two, and I'll call

out the references that we're going through. As I read

Isaiah thirty two, starting in verse one, it reads, Behold,

a king will reign in righteousness, and princes will rule injustice.

Each will be like a hiding place from the wind,

a shelter from the storm, like streams of water in

a dry place, like the shade of a great rock

in a weary land. And the eyes of those who

see will not be closed, and the ears of those

who here will give attention. The heart of the hasty

will understand and know, and the tongue of the stammerers

will hasten to speak distinctly. The fool will no longer

be called noble, nor the scoundrel said to be honorable,

For the fool speaks folly, and his heart is busy

with iniquity, to practice ungodliness, to utter error concerning the lord,

to leave the craving of the hungry unsatisfied, and to

deprive the thirsty of drink. As for the scoundrel, his

devices are evil. He plans wicked schemes to ruin the

poor with lying words, even when the plea of the

needy is right. But he who is noble plans noble

things Go with me to chapter thirty three, starting in

verse thirteen. Another representative passage from these chapters. Here, you

who are far off what I have done, and you

who are near acknowledge my might. The sinners in Zion

are afraid. Trembling has seized the godless. Who among us

can dwell with the consuming fire? Who among us can

dwell with everlasting burnings. He who walks righteously and speaks uprightly,

who despises the gain of oppressions, who shakes his hands

lest they hold a bribe, who stops his ears from

hearing of bloodshed, and shuts his eyes from looking on evil.

He will dwell on the heights. His place of defense

will be the fortress of rocks. His bread will be

given him, his water will be sure. Your eyes will

behold the King in his beauty. Go with me to

chapter thirty four, starting in verse six. It reads, the

Lord has a sword. It is safe with blood. It

is gorged with fat, with the blood of lambs and goats,

and the fat of the kidneys of rams. For the

Lord has a sacrifice in Basra, a great slaughter in

the land of Edom. Wild oxen shall fall with them,

and young steers with the mighty bulls. Their land shall

drink its fill of blood, and their soil should be

gorged with fat. For the Lord has a day of vengeance,

a year of recompense for the cause of Zion. Go

with me. Then to chapter thirty five, starting in verse three,

to help represent this this whole passage. Strengthen the weak

hands and make firm the feeble knees. Say to those

who have an anxious heart, be strong, fear not. Behold,

your God will come with vengeance, He with recompense of God.

He will come in and save you. Then the eyes

of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of

the death unstopped. Then shall the lame man leap like

a deer, and the tongue of the mute sing for joy.

This is the word of the Lord. Thanks Peter, God, payback, payback.

All major religious systems in the world have this sense

that God, however they might conceive of him, concerns himself

with judgment and reward. What the Bible calls from time

to time recompense and Isaiah, as we've been saying, as

we've been in the Book of Isaiah, Isaiah has written

to a people who have been in many ways, unfaithful,

in many ways unjust, and in many ways victims of

even greater injustice. And so it raises questions for them

about what to expect when it comes to recompense, judgment,

and reward. And like them, and like all the major

religious systems in the world, we also have a sense

that God concerns himself with recompense. And Isaiah thirty two

through thirty five helps us see the kinds of things

we should expect from the king, the God who is king,

Isaiah says, I'll put in the most basic terms in

this passage. The king is bringing his recompense. The king

is bringing his recompense, and that raises some questions. Tackle

three major questions from this passage today. If the king

is bringing his recompense, well, the first main question I

would ask is, well what is this recompense? Because we

read some of this. The second major question I would

ask is who is this king? And the third then

how should we live? What is this recompense? And I

would say, what is this recompense? And why is it beautiful?

Who is this king? How should we live? Let's jump

in what is this recompense that Isaiah and so much

of scripture speaks to and is it beautiful? The scripture

seems to frame it as beautiful. What is it? I mean? Isaiah,

We've read in several places like Chapter thirty four, the

Lord has a time of recompense. In chapter thirty five,

strengthen the weak hands, make firm the feeble needs. Behold,

your God will come with recompense. Recompense means payback to recompensate. Right,

here's the thing that can be positive or negative. As

Richard said when we were talking about this this week

and preaching prep He's like, when you hear I'm gonna

pay you back for this, is that positive or negative

depends on what you getting paid back for? Right, And

that's just it. The Bible frames God's recompense in both

positive and negative terms. But scripture always this is curious.

Scripture always frames God's recompense as beautiful from a godly perspective,

and we see both the positive and the negative in

this passage. Positively, you see in places like Isaiah thirty

two Behold a king will reign in righteousness. And then

it describes the eyes of those who see being opened,

the ears of those who hear and give attention. Those

who are hasty, come to understand those who are going

to dwell injustice and righteousness in the land. The result

of all of this is peace and quietness and trust

forever Chapter thirty five. The wilderness and the dry land

will be glad. The desert will rejoice and blossom like

the crocus right with joy and singing positive. The King

is bringing his recompense, and there will be a highway

of holiness. The redeemed shall walk in it. Your eyes

will see the King in his beauty. One of the

major ideas in this whole passage is this, the King

is coming, and he's bringing beautiful recompense to the noble,

to those who walk righteously, to those who speak up rightly.

It says, to those who walk on the way, Isaiah said,

to those who are the redeemed and the ransomed of

the Lord, Isaiah says, so in that way, the call

is kind of basic. Be rightful citizens of the rightful King,

and walk in his right ways. Be one who walks

in joyful allegiance to this king and receives beautiful recompense.

He's bringing it, and you will behold the King in

his beauty. But of course, the positive sense of recompense

isn't the only thing that we see here, is it.

I mean, you heard it just like I did. I'm

going to pay you back for this can sound pretty ominous,

and Isaiah shows us why in chapter thirty two, tremble

you women who are at ease, shudder you complacent ones

chapter thirty three, the sinners in Zion are afraid. Trembling

has seized the godless. Who among us can dwell with

the consuming fire? I mean, we often think of the

Book of Revelation as the book of divine judgment, but

much of the judgment that you see there is rooted

in the language of Isaiah. In fact, I think Isaiah

may be bloodier in his description of the judgment of

the king. Right. You see, like Isaiah thirty four, the

lord has a sword, it is sated with blood. The

Lord has a sacrifice, a great slaughter. The land shall

drink it's full of blood, like in both Revelation and

in Isaiah and throughout scripture. Really, the king's recompense, both

positive and negative, is portrayed from the godly perspective as

as beautiful. Why is the negative also portrayed as beautiful?

I'll give you two answers. The first one i'll give

you now that and the other one I'll leave hanging

for a little bit. The first answer for why God's

judgment is portrayed as beautiful throughout scripture is because that's

what you want from a judge. If you knew of

a judge who saw evil in his courtroom, who saw others,

saw those who had done evil towards others who perpetuated evil,

and that judge just said, you know what, I'm gonna

let that run, you would say, bad judge. And the

Bible teaches us that God is a perfect judge who

perfectly judges evil with his perfect patience. But he will

see to it that evil in this world comes to

an end, and that's a good thing. That is a

beautiful thing. The message is plain, however patient, however forbearing

the king has been. He's bringing recompense to all who

have rebelled against him. There is a perfect judge, creator,

lawgiver king, and you are either a citizen of his

kingdom or a traitor to it, in joyful allegiance to

him or in treason against him, and he's bringing his

recompense to both, which raises another question that I'm gonna

leave hanging out there. That makes me being his citizen. Key,

how do I be his citizen? Well, we'll get to that,

but first I want to get to that second major question,

not just what is recompense and why is it beautiful?

But who's the king? Who's the king? Well, Isaiah is

clear throughout God is the king, says in chapter thirty three.

The Lord is our judge, the Lord is our lawgiver,

the Lord is our king. But the New Testament actually

clarifies Christ. The Lord is the king who will judge.

In Revelation nineteen, speaking of Christ, says in righteousness, he

judges and makes war. Christ strikes down the nations. Christ

has on his robe and his name written on his thigh,

King of kings and Lord of lords, which is not

exactly the picture we usually have of Jesus, meek and mild. Now,

he says himself in Matthew chapter twenty five, when the

Son of Man comes in glory, he will sit on

his throne, and all nations will be gathered before him,

and he will separate them one from the other. Citizens, traders,

recompense to all. I see the words of Christ in

Revelation twenty two. Behold, I am coming soon, bringing my

recompense with me to repay each one for what he

has done. So if you only have a picture of

Jesus like the you know, the glowing shepherd on the

painting with the flowing hair, humble Jesus, meek and mild.

If that's the only picture you have of who Christ is,

you might not recognize him here in Isaiah thirty two

through thirty five. And in fact, this is actually one

of the major major reasons why Israel didn't recognize Jesus

as the king. They didn't recognize the king as someone humble,

mecon mild. They expected the king to arrive like this

in glory and judgment, in conquering, and instead he came

meek and mild, laying down his life. Didn't fit their expectations.

Even John the Baptist, John the Baptist, who believed that

Christ was the king, expected Christ to show up like this.

And when you see what John the Baptist says about Jesus,

he says he's coming, and he has his winnowing fork

in his hand, And a winnowing fork is as is

what you use to separate the wheat from the chaff. Right,

he's piling them, everybody up into two piles, and he's

coming with fire. John the Baptist likes that stuff so

much so that when John the Baptist is then imprisoned

and Christ in his ministry is meek and mild, he

sends messengers to Jesus saying, are you the You the one?

Should we be expecting somebody else? There's fire man, I'm

not hearing anything hearing reports a fire. He was expecting

this passage, and Jesus sends words back from this passage.

He said, you tell John, the blind are seeing and

the la are walking. In other words, yes, I'm the king.

But the recompense of judgment is unfolding differently than you expect.

The recompense of judgment, make no mistake, is falling, but

it's falling with a surprise. And the surprise is this

that the king himself is going to let his sword,

this judgment, this recompense of blood, to fall on himself first,

Why on behalf of all who would actually become his citizens?

Because what Christ revealed when he came meek and mild,

was that true allegiance to the king is way deeper

than people imagined at first. It's not based on external behavior,

it's not based on heritage. It's a matter of the

heart at the deepest level. Christ said, you've heard that

it was said to not commit murder. I tell you,

do not be angry with your brother. You commit murder

in your heart. You've heard that it was said did

not commit a dull But I tell you who is

whoever looks at a woman with lust has committed adultery

with her in his heart. Your righteousness has to exceed

that of the Pharisees if you're ever going to enter

the Kingdom of heaven. And people are like who then,

because I'm desperate to be one of his citizens. But

what you're laying out, Christ, what you're laying out disqualifies mean.

There have always been those who thought they were citizens

of the king based on their external behavior, or their heritage,

or their social circles. And then there have always been

those who thought they were that they were ineligible to

be citizens of the king because of their actions or

their social circles. And Christ comes in and makes a

way for both to truly become his citizens. But it

has to fall on him first. For all have sinned

and fallen short of the glory of God. But through

faith in Christ you can have forgiveness and change and

be made a true citizen of the King. You can

see the King in his beauty, which actually gets to

one of those questions that we've left hanging out there, Right,

how can I become a citizen of the king? And

your citizenship isn't based on your actions, It's based on

the King's actions and your trust in him, your trust

by faith, by grace, you have been saved through faith.

Your trust in him sets your citizenship. That's good news.

Your trust in Him sets your citizenship. That also gets

to that other question we sort of left hanging out there.

How is a judge beautiful? And you might have agreed

with me, at least intellectually, that yes, it a righteous

judge should judge evil. That's right, That's that's what a

righteous judge should do. But that doesn't necessarily make you

find him beautiful, right, just that he's a perfect judge.

But what if that judge was not only justin right,

not only judged all evil without compromise, but also that

judge sacrificed himself to make a way to destroy evil

and say those who come to him, that's a beautiful judge.

And that's exactly what Jesus the King has done. He

went under the sword of judgment, not the judgment that

rightly belonged on him, the judgment that rightly belonged on us,

so that you could become truly his citizen. That's who

this king is, the perfect judge and the perfect justifier.

The King is beautiful, which brings us to main question

number three, How should we live? In response to that,

how should we live in light of the king and

his recompense with the basic call of Isaiah thirty two

through thirty five? Is this live like a citizen of

the king, Live like a citizen of the king. Right?

Isaiah makes it clear. The fool will no longer be

called noble, he says, The placent women will be under judgment.

There will be peoples as if burned to lime, he says.

Who can dwell with a consuming fire? He says, he

who walks righteously, who speaks uprightly, who despises the gains

of oppression, He who dwells on the heights, his eyes

will behold the King in his beauty. That's exactly the

kind of thing that John the Baptist envisioned. Right, the

King will come with his winnowing fork, and he's going

to separate the citizens from the traders, those in joyful allegiance,

and those in treacherous rebellion. So the call of Isaiah

is this, live like a citizen of the King. But

as we've seen, the New Testament reveals that the citizens

of the King like their citizenship goes deeper than behavior,

than actions. It's not a tallly of good and bad.

It's not a comparison against someone else. Right, well, I'm

not as bad as that guy. It's not a performance checklist.

Citizenship in the Kingdom is by grace, through faith. He

took the judgment that belonged to you so that you

could become a citizen of his. But even though your

actions aren't the basis of your citizenship, even though your

actions aren't the basis of your citizenship, the shape of

your citizenship is never disconnected from your actions. Write this

call from Isaiah thirty five. Strengthen the weak hands, make

firm the feeble knees. This is exactly what the author

of Hebrews picks up in chapter twelve of Hebrews. Lift

your drooping hands, strengthen your weak knees, strive for holiness,

without which no one will see the Lord. The basis

of your citizenship is not your actions, but the shape

of your citizenship involves your actions. How can you fly

the flag of the king yet refuse to obey him

from the heart and still call yourself his citizen. On

the contrary, Paul says in Ephesians, you were aliens, you

were strangers, you were non citizens. And he picks up

language right here from Isaiah. But Christ preached peace to

you who were near, and you who were far off.

Christ preached peace to you. Be my citizen. He has

made you citizens of his kingdom, semi colon. Therefore, comma,

walk in a manner worthy of that calling. He has

called you into citizenship. Would you be assured that you

are his citizen? You? Would you be assured of the recompense,

the beautiful recompense that he displays here. Would you be

assured of these things, then walk like the citizen that

you are. It is very difficult to live from the

heart as a traitor to the king and be assured that,

in fact you're his citizen. It's just very difficult to

live that way and have any assurance whatsoever. Would you

have joy? Would you have joy in your citizenship, because

this is a joyful citizenship. This is a beautiful thing

to be, and way to live, and thing to look

forward to. But you will forfeit joy in your citizenship

if you will not walk like a citizen by grace

through faith. You became his by grace through faith, live

as one of his. Consider the bloody recompense the King

put himself under to change the recompense you would receive,

and let that shape your citizenship. To be the noble

who plans noble things, to be the upright who speaks

righteous things, to be the redeemed who walk in the way.

Those are the ones whose eyes will behold the King

in his beauty. Those are the ones who will see

the Lord. So the main message of Isaiah's passage here

for us is this, the King is bringing his recompense.

John the Baptist is right. He will have his winnowing

fork in his hand. And trust yourself to the King.

Your citizenship isn't based on your actions, but your faith

in his actions. That's what sets your citizenship. Now, let

your citizenship shape all your actions. The joy of citizenship

is the pleasure of the King, and looking forward to

his beautiful recompense,