Isaiah, Chapter 10

Good morning. We're going to begin looking at this 10th chapter by looking at a few Isaiah 10 fascinations. I hope you'll find them fascinating anyway. One is that the Apostle Paul quoted from this passage we're looking at here this morning, and those in the Romans class, assuming how his tongue gets better, will be able to enjoy that study some months from now probably. So at any rate, it was interesting. He was talking about Israel and Israel's past, present, and future when he quoted that. You'll get to study that in the Romans class when you get there.

The other thing is that Isaiah, especially in this passage, he does so pretty consistently anyway, but in this passage he uses a lot of real graphical descriptions. And one of them he describes Assyria's armies trampled Judah like mud in the streets." And I looked at this picture and I thought, wait a minute, is that D.I.A.? No, it can't be, no. Anyway, Isaiah often writes with powerful graphic language, and one of the other ones that he uses in this chapter here, God will cut down a cereal like a logger cuts down a huge tree with an axe, okay? And so he looks at Assyria falling because of God's action against the nation of Assyria. Even the very instrument of his working in the people of Judah will be also the one that he will fall himself, his own doing. Now, look at all these letters on there. Anybody like word puzzles? Enjoy word puzzles? I know Nancy particularly enjoys them. Things like anagrams, do those fascinate you? Crossword puzzles, can you do them by the hour? Do you enjoy playing Scrabble, whether it's in Greek or in Hebrew?

Well, we're going to look at three hidden names in just verses 21 and 22. One of them here is a remnant will return. This looks like the first words in verse 21. and it is, except that, behind that, the Hebrew is the name of Isaiah's oldest son, Shurjashib. Isn't that interesting? So they could have said, a remnant will return, the remnant of Jacob, or they could have said, Shurjashib, because that's what it's interpreted as earlier. The other interesting is this phrase, and we looked at this last week, Mighty God, this word pair there. This is the second of four titles or names that are used of the Lord as he reigns as the Messiah in his second coming.

So here's the second name that shows up there. And the third name, we'll get to it. Can you hold on? We'll get to it. Now, there are rocky starts and rocky ends. This is about a rocky end, and it's not one that immediately jumps out at people when they see it, other than to say, what's that talking about? The Rock of Oreb.

In Isaiah 10.26, it talks about this military victory at the Rock of Oreb, and this is a reference to the time of Gideon. Remember Gideon? There were 300 men. basically presented Gideon with a large group of men.

He said, that's too many, and reduced it down to 300, and used 300, a way too small a number by any military calculations, to defeat the Midianites. So it was apparent that it was the Lord's own doing, and not the work of man. Now, I was going to sing a ballad about this, but I thought that's way too involved, and it's way off track from where we're headed.

So, some other time, maybe next year's annual meeting or something. Now, Isaiah also wrote about Assyria being a yoke, and that he would remove that yoke from the neck of Judah, not just to the point of relief, but to the point of abundance, to the point of great blessing. So this is another piece of graphical writing that Isaiah uses here. Also, verses 1-4, they actually continue a theme that goes on through chapter 9. In other words, it actually should have been put at the end of chapter 9 if you were to try to keep each chapter on the same topic.

It tells of God's anger against those who abuse authority. There were those who were taking advantage of those who were underprivileged, we would say, the widows and orphans. and taking advantage of that position to abuse them, to take things from them, to take rights from them, and to not give them a fair hearing. Now, in verses 5-34, I know that's a lot of verses to cover in one swell foop, right? Fell swoop, okay. Boy, you folks, okay. Assyria will be God's instrument against Judah's unfaithfulness. Assyria will receive the consequences of its own evil and boastful character.

That's the quick summary of all those verses, with the exception of the verse we'll be looking at here this morning. The long-term outcome will be that the remnant, that's this small portion of the larger number of descendants of Jacob, this ethnic nation of Israel, will come to rely on the Lord after much difficulty. He's saying that here is this large population of all those who are descended from Jacob. All those descended from Jacob and his sons.

And ethnically there's this large group, but there is this remnant which is a smaller group. Why? Because there are two ways that the Lord reduces that group from the larger group, those who are ethnically descended from Jacob. And one way is physically. Some of them get reduced by death. Some of them are reduced not by anything apparent, but because they simply aren't believers. So there is a narrowing down, and both are referred to as a remnant. Now, we'll be looking at this passage, dividing it in two, as we often do here, so that we can have room for notes at the bottom of the page. That's the reason we do that.

So, starting with this first one here, now in that day, this is a phrase that we've looked at before, we're going to see it a number of times because it's a way that the prophets used, and Isaiah was certainly in this pattern, prophets used to talk about a future time. Often it was used of a time speaking of the coming tribulation, in other words, a time still future to us, or the millennium to follow that, but also at times Other future events, you have to look at the context to tell for sure. The exact part of the future has to be determined by reading in the context to determine where that falls.

This set of slides here is from our study of chapter four. And so I'm going to go through it. It's not in your handout, but you can look back on the chapter four notes if you want to draw from it. It's used at a future time. You look at context to determine exactly what time. It's Isaiah 2, excuse me, 4, 2 through 4.

In that particular context, it's describing the Tribulation and the Millennium. And in truth, we'll see here in the passage this morning, used similarly. It's used in passages sometimes where it's exclusively talking about the Millennium. And Isaiah does a lot of that.

We make several references here. We're going to continue to see that time. because for Jews, particularly, it's a time that they could look forward to as a time of great hope, especially considering the despairing conditions that they were presently going through. Now, this word, the remnant of Israel, this is another term that we saw before, and we'll see again as we go through Isaiah. It's going to show up either by that specific term, the remnant, or we're going to see sometimes equivalent terms conveying the same idea, carrying along the same thought. Here's a remnant example from the time actually just before Isaiah.

Elijah thought he was the only faithful one in all of Israel. He thought I'm the only one left. As a matter of fact, here's the way he put it. I've been very zealous for the Lord, the God of hosts, for the sons of Israel have forsaken your covenant, torn down your altars, and killed your prophets with a sword. And what does he say? I alone am left. Actually, he says this more than once. I alone am left. I'm the last one. I am the only one. And he's feeling very bad, see?

The Lord assures him, but verses later, there are 7,000 in Israel, wake up Elijah, 7,000 in Israel that they have not bowed the knee to Baal. He says, you're not the only one. Is that all of Israel? No. Is it a fair number? Yes. So don't feel like you're all by yourself.

But this would be an example of a remnant. Was there a lot of sinfulness? Was there a lot of idolatry? Yes, there was. But there was a remnant, a spiritual remnant. It was not a physical remnant in this case, it was a spiritual remnant. It was the smaller portion of all those ethnic Jews who believed.

That's the way it is now, too, isn't it? Here's the example we had in Isaiah 4, 2-4. Look, you've got the survivors of Israel, that's the idea of the remnant. You have them that are left, he was left in Zion, that's also the idea of the remnant. Or you have remains in Jerusalem. Now all three of these phrases communicate this idea of a remnant.

The smaller group, the ones that survive. Out of the larger group, the ones who actually believe, the ones that live through the experience. We're not talking about this kind of remnants. We made this clear last time. Not any of those. Not that. Not even the ones with Jewish markings on them. Okay? Not even if it says Hanukkah. Okay. These are speaking of the remnant, the specific group. Now, the principle of the remnant is an idea.

We're going to see it again and again in our study of Isaiah, so kind of lock it away in there. We're going to see it sometimes as a physical survival, sometimes as a spiritual survival. Now, in Isaiah 4, 2-4 that we looked at, this addresses the survivors in Israel, particularly centering in Jerusalem. But the passage we're looking at today and focusing on in chapter 10 is going to widen it out a little bit beyond that. Now, in that day, the remnant of Israel, and this is in verse 20 there, the remnant of Israel and those of the house of Jacob who have escaped.

I've kind of reformatted it there, and it's that way in your handout, and guess why I've done that? Can you guess? It's the Hebrew poetic pattern, right? And you know what's coming next, don't you? Right? Okay. It is indeed the Hebrew poetic pattern.

Israel equals the house of Jacob, and those two phrases are looked at as being restatements, and the remnant, those who have escaped. That's another interesting way of describing it. Those who have escaped. We'll take a closer look at that. Yes, indeed, it's one of those HPPs. And you might wonder if you're visiting, why this? There's this connection here. We just pick some names and it happens to match. So you'll probably live through it. All right. So the question, they've escaped. Are we talking Jewish Houdinis here? All right. So, is that what this is talking about?

Now, one thing you need to know is that this doesn't count. This moose here is all chained up, trying to break loose. That's not going to count. He's not going to get away, even if there's a Jewish star there, even if Mike helps him. Now, the Jewish Houdinis.

This is reference to the escaped of, and it's not unique to this passage. It's a phrase we're going to run into again throughout the book of Isaiah. The same Hebrew word appeared before in that passage we examined previously in chapter 4, verse 2. It's the survivors of. That's the same Hebrew word. The escaped of is the idea.

What's interesting is if you think about, here are these people, the Jews. These people, the Jews, have survived and they have maintained an identity amazingly through centuries, 1,900 years approximately, of no homeland up until this last roughly a half century. And they have survived phenomenally. Even during the time of Christ, there were twice as many Jews at least living outside of Israel as lived within the border. And yet, And yet they maintained through all these centuries an identity, a separate identity and a culture.

And one of the things, if you look at it, here's approximate distribution estimates of where they are. He had the numbers up. It's in the neighborhood of about 13 million Jews living in various places. And interestingly enough, more of them scattered across the United States. than in Israel. I think half of them in the United States live in our apartment complex, but anyway. And that's actually kind of a fun thing, but all right.

Now, if we look at the next phrase here, here's what comes out. Never again rely on the one who struck them, but truly rely. This is a sharp contrast, isn't it? It's who the remnant won't rely upon. You got that spelled out. They simply won't rely on them. And then who the remnant will rely upon. The King James qualifies it instead of truly rely, pairing it up that way. It says it in truth, but the concept is the same. If we put this specifically, the remnant won't rely on this enemy, the one that struck them. And then the remnant will rely on the Lord. Qualification in truth or truly will truly rely upon the Lord Rely on this verse is the same one That is the Hebrew word from in Proverbs 3 5 and you may be familiar with that Rely if you're looking at it in the King James as they use the word stay there now here's an example of of the idea of rely on or lean on.

Here's Proverbs 3.5. Trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding. Same word.

They will truly rely, lean on the Lord. Now, just so we have it clear, this lean on is not some sort of a casual, slightly leaning up against the wall kind of thing. It's not that kind of a casual lean on. Trust the Lord with all your heart and casually lean?

No. It's really leaning, really depending on your understanding, on the Lord's understanding of things. This is more like it. This is more like it. So it would be trust the Lord with all your heart and lean, not on your own understanding. A significant dependence, a significant leaning.

All right, so with that, I'd like to ask you to put your books and notes down and stand up, please. And we're going to try this a cappella. Because one of the things I haven't figured out, I haven't got free arms. And so switching the slides and playing the guitar, I just haven't figured out how to do that all at once. So anyway, we'll do it a cappella here. Let's try it. Jesus, I am resting, resting in the joy of what Thou art. I am finding out the greatness of Thy loving heart.

Thou hast bid me gaze upon Thee, and Thy beauty fills my soul. for by thy transforming power thou hast made me whole. Jesus, I am resting, resting in the joy of what thou art. I am finding out the greatness of thy loving heart. Simply trusting Thee, Lord Jesus, I behold Thee as Thou art, And Thy love, so pure and changeless, satisfies my heart. Satisfies my deepest longings, Needs supplies its every need. Compasseth me round with blessings, Thine is love indeed.

Jesus, I am resting, resting in the joy of what Thou art. I am finding out the greatness of Thy loving heart. We have these three names that are hidden in Isaiah 10, 21, and 22. Remember, there's a remnant will return in verse 21, and a mighty God. Oh, there's one other one in there. We'll get to it. Okay? We'll get to it. Okay. Now, we will, honest. Okay. Verse 20.

And then into verse 21, you get a remnant will return, the remnant of Jacob, to the mighty God. Let's ask the question, why the mighty God? Why is the qualifier there? Why don't they just say, return to God? Why not just, you know, be simple? Succinct?

Well, if you look at it, Israel was told, it doesn't matter that you are a small nation. If you obey me, if you will obey and trust me, you will be defended. Everybody will be afraid of you. It doesn't matter that you're small. It doesn't matter that you're not of great power, I will defend you.

Not only that, but who is listening to Isaiah? A small group, a remnant within the nation. So now you have an even smaller number of people that he is appealing to. This very small group of people must depend upon the Lord. And so the might of the Lord, the power of the Lord is all the more important. It's all the more essential that they recognize God's might and power, because they will have to depend and lean upon that power totally, not having the power themselves. Alright. Now, remember when we were going through this last week, here's Isaiah 9, 6, and 7, one of the names there was Mighty God, one of the names that would characterize Christ. during his rule during the coming millennium.

So it says there in 22, for though your people, O Israel, may be like the sand of the sea. Turns out that this is a phrase that was used to number anything that was just too large to count. Just as some point of indication that they did not have the large numbers to work with that we get accustomed to. When the Apostle John, for example, in the New Testament is describing the large numbers of angels, he describes them as, and he uses the 10,000, which is the largest Greek number, myriads of myriads and thousands of thousands. So he just uses, you know, the largest number times the largest number and adds thousands and thousands to that. So another way to describe it in the Hebrew mind for these large numbers, too far to reasonably count, is to describe it as the sand of the sea.

I can remember years ago I was taking a geology class, majoring in geology, before I started thinking about things seriously when Nancy and I got engaged. It was a lot of fun but it was more of a hobby. I took a class in beaches and bays. And so here you'd have all these geology students running out to the beach, and instead of running out into the beach into the surf or anything, you see all these geology students pouring out of the cars, jumping down to the beach, grabbing up a handful of sand, and looking at it really close with a magnifying glass. It was really kind of odd. But it was also very pretty sometimes and really attractive.

And of course we were just supposed to look at it, you know, count the grains, take out the different kinds of minerals and rocks, and separate them out. you know, look at the degree of rounding and all sorts of different features we were supposed to examine. And then when you thought about the number of grains that each student was picking up in their hand to take a sample and started looking at the size of the beach and to think this is only but one beach, it began to be kind of astounding. To count it was just an amazing thing to contemplate. And so this is the kind of the figure of speech that they would use for any number that's just too massive to actually count.

Most often in the Bible, after this instance we gave in Genesis 41, most often in the Bible it is used to describe the number of the people of Israel. Most often. And that last reference there, 2 Samuel 1711, is a slight variation on the same phrase. The other references there are the exact same phrase. So the people of Israel, the second of the three people groups, would be a very large number. And you can imagine them trying to contemplate, what does this mean? A very large number of people. Well, now we're going to answer this one.

I told you we were going to answer it. The third name, a remnant will return is also in that verse 22. That's the third name that's hidden in there. So Cherjashib, the name of Isaiah's oldest son, now actually appears once in verse 21 and then hidden a little bit more in verse 22 but still there, is a remnant will return. So he's actually written his son's name twice there. Alright, so here's this hidden name This hidden name is not just something that Isaiah is throwing in there just because he'd like to throw his son's name in there as a sort of a game, but it's because the Lord had, for one, we saw in the prior chapter 7, Shurjashib was the son that Isaiah was told to take with him to go to talk to King Ahaz, but also Shurjashib would end up, that name would be a symbol and a wonder to Israel all the way to the Second Coming. So what that means is even now, today, this name, Shurjah, is a sign and a wonder to Israel.

Even now. Still to be fulfilled in Christ's Second Coming. It says, a destruction is determined, overflowing with righteousness. Now doesn't that sound really weird? Does it sound weird to you? A destruction is determined, overflowing with righteousness. It's almost hard in our minds to put that together.

But here's what this is looking at. Scripture frequently puts together this idea that the Lord executes judgment, and as He does so, Destruction is often a part of that judgment, and as He does so, He does it on the basis of His infinite righteousness, His absolute holiness. That's where it comes together. Let me show you an example here.

At the cross of Christ, everyone who believes what judgment would have come upon them, falls upon the Lord Jesus Christ. So that's one place where judgment is dealt with. God does and will judge every injustice. God's righteousness demands it. God's holiness demands it. God's justice demands it.

In the progression of time, Ever have something happen and you say, well, he deserved it or she deserved it? You may run across that. Sometimes judgment happens and gets executed right in the progression of time, right in people's lives. They get the consequences of their actions. Maybe not all of it, certainly not every time, but it may happen then. And then finally, in eternity for the unsaved. If you're not relying upon the justice of the cross of Christ, then you're relying upon justice on your own merits, and that doesn't work. Doesn't work.

And this is something important for believers to remember. It's something that I, in my own life, had to come reckoning with. There are things in life, it'll happen in the life of everyone, that you will look at and you'll say, this is not right. Things that will even perhaps make you angry. And it is exceedingly important for the believer to recognize that it's not what happens in this life that I can see and that I can understand and that I can grasp as a human being that satisfies justice. Justice is satisfied because of God's character. My sense of justice is finite. My sense of justice is not based on absolute knowledge. God's sense of justice is absolute and infinite.

If I get angry about something, and it's not based on this understanding, then I'm quite likely to go carrying out something in order to try to bring about justice, oftentimes causing more problems, oftentimes causing more injustice. Ultimately, the believer needs to recognize that the Lord will always, in the end, in the span of eternity, always bring about total justice, all the time. There are people who will ask from time to time, gee, can I take some anger management classes? Or have you got some kind of anger management program? And basically, this is it. God is the one who will deal with every injustice. Everything that ticks us off, none of it is going to go by. None of it is going to go untouched. In the span of eternity, it will all be dealt with. All be reckoned with.

Here's an example in Deuteronomy. The Rock. His work is perfect, for all his ways are just. God is a God of justice. A God of faithfulness and without injustice. So it's not just a statement of justice, but without injustice. Righteous and upright is he. Here's in Psalms. The judgments of the Lord are true. They are righteous altogether. Are all my judgments true? Are all my judgments righteous? No. But the Lord's are.

You can also see similar references in Romans 2, 2 and 5 about righteous judgment. Finally, in Revelation 16, 5 through 7, and by the way, if you're a believer here this morning, one day you're going to hear this. Righteous are you who are and who were a holy one because you judge these things. Yes, O Lord God, the Almighty, true and righteous are your judgments.

The Lord sees things in the big picture. He sees things absolutely. He does not see them with error, as we would. He does not see them with bias. He sees them truly, absolutely, with complete justice. Notice the focus on truth there in those last couple of passages. This complete destruction, one that is determined here, one that is decreed.

This is a pair of words in the Hebrew that also show up in Daniel 9.27.

And of course, all of you remember perfectly about four years ago, we studied that, right? So anyway, we'll switch to that here. This was the last sheet in the handout that we had there. And here from nine, our study of 924 through 27, here is basically the same words in the Hebrew, a complete destruction, one that is decreed, poured out.

And just like we will see, or we see earlier in this passage, also referenced to the one. the one. So there's a comparison there. Daniel 9, 24-27. That passage is talking here about the tribulation and the millennium time to follow after that. Now, I have a red box around page 4, and that's because in order to get this in I had to shift the door to page 4, so you'll need to turn your hand out to page 4 and track with me there.

In that day, and of course we saw this in Isaiah 4-2, also chapter 19 makes multiple references to that phrase, in that day. These are looking ahead to the time of the tribulation and to the second coming. Here is never again rely. So it sounds pretty final, doesn't it? Now, would Judah end up kind of Going back to the Lord and then falling away, and going back to the Lord and falling away, yes. This is a final statement. Never again rely.

And there's also a reference to the One, as we noted in Daniel 9.27. And we'll truly rely on the Lord, or as the King James has it, in truth. It's not only very final, but it's very real. It's not a, gee, most of them did, or they sort of did, or a pretty good number of them. No, they will truly rely, the whole remnant will truly rely on the Lord.

Here's mighty God from Isaiah 9.6 about the Messiah at his second coming.

You have repeated references in this passage to tribulation and the second coming and then finally complete destruction one that is decreed these are the same words that we saw the end of Daniel 927 which is about the tribulation and the Lord's coming some aspects of this passage are can be said to be true of portions of Israel's history but the full list of things and the full extent, truly rely, never again. Those kinds of phrases, those all point to the time that we call the tribulation period, we studied in the book of Revelation, and the time when the Lord will come again.

So, where does that leave us? After all this, Israel's blessings were in our earthly, conditional, and they're in the land. You go through the law of Moses, 613 laws of things you should and shouldn't do, 365 don'ts, and a number of times it says, in the land, in the land, in the land.

We in the church are blessed already in Christ. In the heavenlies, we already have a citizenship there. It's not like we're just waiting to get there. Yes, there is a sense of waiting, but we already have blessings there. We are already seated there. We already have a citizenship there. It is already a done deal. So, where does that leave us? Hopefully not pushing an ambulance.

But like with Israel, the Lord has a purpose for all its difficulties. The Lord had purpose for Israel. The Lord similarly has purpose for the difficulties in our own lives. God may indeed use those who don't believe. Remember what was happening with Israel is the Lord used Assyria to communicate with them His judgment, but ultimately He wanted to bring them back to Him. The Lord may indeed in our own lives also use difficulties for good, for His purpose, to bring about the things that He intends in our lives.

You see, your pain is not God's goal, which is really good to know, right? God doesn't say, yes, it hurt, okay? He is not just satisfied, ah, that really stung Him good. You hear people say something like, that's going to hurt, you know, and that's the end of the statement. No, the Lord says, I have a purpose for all the things that are happening in your life. We're told in Romans, all things work together for good. All things.

The halls of heaven don't fill with shouts of joy and triumph when we experience pain. When we feel like we've been really pressed down and pushed down, the Lord is not satisfied. The Lord is not saying, ah, goal accomplished. No, not like this. Our pain has an eternal purpose. And the thing that Paul makes clear also there in Romans 8, the present sufferings are not even worthy to be compared for the good that the Lord is going to bring of it. Not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed in us. So it's not only that that pain is not the end goal, but that pain is to have a multiplied spiritual benefit. Not even some sort of an even-steven trade-off.

A great benefit. The other thing I think is important to look at is Believers need to figure, just like the remnant in Israel, just like Isaiah felt. Believers need to figure that there may be times when we may have to be a small group. We may have to stand alone. I think that's one of the things I recall. You know, it's funny to think about different things growing up. It's one of the things I recall being told as a teenager. Just figure on it. There will be times as a Christian that you're going to have to stand apart. And that's an important realization to come to. Because oftentimes, especially at that time, the peer pressure and the sense of, gee, what is everybody else doing, tends to grab you. So a real important realization when it comes out of this.

We are not believers because it's the most popular thing to do. We're not believers because everybody voted and they said, yeah, we think Verne ought to be one. No. It is something that we believe based on the spiritual facts that the Lord has laid out before us. We who believe are in the body of Christ. We are among others because we believe in Christ and have been placed in Christ. God hasn't simply put us in a crowd of people, but he's put us specifically in the body of Christ, and Christ himself is the head.

And then similar to Israel's believing remnant, the physical descendants of Jacob are like the sand of the sea, 13 million in number by today's count. There are going to be a fair number of them. and they'll continue, but only those that are believing among them will be among the believing remnant. Right now, who are the believing remnant among the Jews?

They are those who are in the church. They are those who are in the church. My rabbi friend that I talked about a couple months ago, He's an Orthodox Jew. He takes the first five books especially of the Old Testament very seriously. But he's not part of the believing remnant. Because during this time, those Jews who believe in Christ are part of the believing remnant.

Similarly, there are those within the larger group of Christendom. who they may even think of themselves as Christians. They may use the title. Other people may think they're Christians. But if they haven't depended upon the saving work of Christ, on Christ's death, burial, and resurrection, they're not saved. That's the essential belief, not just being a part of some group. And there are all kinds of groups out there. who will see themselves as Christians and yet not be saved. Because it's not those who go by the superficial name on the outside, but those who are indeed in Christ because they believe.

No action that we can do outside, nothing that human beings can concoct, will save anyone. If you go to church regularly, that won't do it. I'm glad you're here, but I'm sorry that won't save anybody. If a person gives, makes pledges, all kinds of promises, that won't do it. Being really sincere, feeling really good, understand there's a certain, some kind of food bar you can buy that says it makes you feel really great, that won't save you. If you feel really bad, that won't save you. There's nothing you can feel or experience or do or have somebody else do to you that will do it. One must believe in Jesus Christ, in His death, burial and resurrection for their sins. Nothing else will replace that.

See that there? That a sheep? What does it look like on the outside? Looks like one. No, inside it's not. Now, here's a creature, and it looks like he's in a park, leaning over a drinking fountain, front feet on the steps. Is that a little boy at the park? No. I'm sorry. Now, is this a bird? No, probably not.

You see, the reality is, there is a spiritual reality that must take place for us to be saved, to be a part of the body of Christ, to be that special group within the world, but set apart from the world. And some of the things to point out here, as we studied in Ephesians 2, 4 through 9, this word saved shows up twice there. It's a perfect passive. What does that mean? God did the saving. We don't do it. It's not our job to do. God did the saving.

And it's a completed, permanent past action, ongoing results into the future. And he says it twice in that passage. We could go farther down here. In the ages to come, he might show the surpassing riches of his grace and kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.

One of those ages is going to be the age that Isaiah is writing about. There's going to be unfolding ages. One of those is the one Isaiah is writing about. There will be the believing remnant of Israel living on the earth as human beings. You and I will be there. We will be there with the Messiah as well, as resurrected saints. We will have a different relationship with the Lord. It will be one of the places, one of the contexts in which the Lord will be continuing to show the surpassing riches of His grace. not wimpy skimpy grace, but surpassing riches, overwhelming wealth of grace.

For by grace you have been saved through faith in that. That refers to our salvation. That salvation is not something that we cooked up or that we added to. It is entirely God's doing. It is entirely God's accomplishment. It is completely a gift from Him.

We are part of that very small group, not the world as a whole, that very small group of those who are saved, placed into the body of Christ, saved for good by God's doing, because we believe in nothing more and nothing less. That's a wonderful thing.

Let's pray. Lord, as we look at this passage here, we see that You have indeed worked through Isaiah to speak to the people who are living in his time and yet he points forward to a time where we will be there too and yet we'll be a different people enjoying different blessings about the same Lord, having a different relationship with him. We thank you that we are uniquely in Jesus Christ and that we can count upon that now and for eternity. In Jesus' name we thank you. Amen.