Isaiah, Chapters 33-34

As we step into the passage this morning in Isaiah, we'll be sailing through chapters 33 and 34. This chapter begins with prophecy about the coming fall and destruction, at least from the time of Isaiah and his viewpoint, of the Assyrian Empire. This was a prophecy of things that were not yet to take place for about another century after Isaiah's time. And yet, Isaiah tells about them in advance.

This time when the people that the Israelites are afraid of will fall from power and that terror will be gone. Verses 13-16 tell about the coming judgment of the ungodly and the blessings and security of the righteous. That's the introduction, the preface, if you will, of the passage we'll be focusing on this morning. The verses 17-24 that Gene read for us here tell of the coming reign of Jesus Christ to be Israel's King.

Now, Isaiah 34, the second chapter, is about a battle, a battle called the, in matter of fact, a campaign, if you will, of Armageddon. This is one battle in the campaign. And so that's the perspective we want to convey here. We covered this war campaign of Armageddon when we studied the book of Revelation. You remember it well, about four years ago. Okay. So at any rate, You may have heard the Battle of Armageddon.

In truth, it is a campaign of about eight different events. And so campaign of Armageddon is actually a more appropriate number. And this is only one of the series of battles that are part of the larger campaign. Now, this battle of this coming campaign here that Isaiah describes will take place in the desert region in the Southern part of Israel. and in Jordan, God will miraculously protect the Jews there in that attack.

Now, since you're wondering about this tiny little diagram, let me make it a little bigger. This area is Har Megiddo, or in the Greek, Armageddon, and that's what you most likely heard. Har simply means valley, so it's the Valley of Megiddo. The port that is now Haifa, Inland from there, and that valley is the plain where the so-called Battle of Armageddon will take place.

That is the introductory battle in the campaign of battles, a series of battles that will make up the campaign of Armageddon. That's what chapter 40, excuse me, 34 is describing is in that series. It's here in Basra, the southern part of the map, where chapter 34 takes place. All right.

Now, just so you know, Bruce Willis will not be the hero of Armageddon. Just not going to happen. I doubt they'll have any part in it at all. They won't even think of, hey, let's call Bruce Willis. Not going to happen. God will be the hero of that battle.

It will be a series of battles, ultimately, that will bring the people of Israel to a place of recognizing that the Lord is their God. And it is something that will be a huge contrast from what you see Israel doing now, where in the land that they have, they are struggling and fighting, but not recognizing their need for the Lord in great part. No, it'll be a time when the Lord will show Himself miraculous and mighty beyond anything that this world's forces and powers can come up with.

Now, the timeline here. 33, first 12 verses, takes place in that century approximately after Isaiah's time when Assyria, the nation that during Isaiah's day they were so afraid of, when Assyria is fallen from power, Chapter 34 that we talked about is during this time near the end of the tribulation period, a time yet to come in our own day, and describes one battle in the campaign of Armageddon. Isaiah 33, 17-24, the passage we'll be focusing on this morning, is during this time of the millennial kingdom, the time when the Lord will reign upon the earth. And I mean, not R-A-I-N, okay? The Lord will reign upon the earth for a thousand years.

You're about here. You can adjust that hand there a little bit, one way or the other, and that's fine. But we are at a time before and anticipating this time ahead, the Lord's second coming. All right, now, let's take a look at this passage. We'll be looking at these focal point verses, verse by verse, one verse at a time. You with me? You there? You awake? Okay, I got some water in case... All right, let's try it.

The first verse there says, "...your eyes will see the King and His beauty, and they will behold a far distant land." Now, He is in this because it's addressing people of Israel who are in this time when the Lord will reign on the earth. He's addressing these righteous people. Remember in verses 15 and 16, He had spoken to them about these people were righteous. So now He's saying what's going to happen. You, that is those of you of the people of Israel who are righteous, they will see Jesus Christ the Lord during this time. He will be king, their king, in His beautiful reign. It will be a time when He will have healed the people and healed the land, and the people of Israel will be in their long-promised land, the land that they long to be in and look forward to now.

And when I was talking to my rabbi friend, he said, oh yes, we're definitely looking forward to that time, but we can't make it happen by any land deals. He says, we can't make it happen by building a temple. He says, we're looking forward to that time. It'll happen because God says it's going to happen.

There's some things he still needs to understand, but at least he's got that part straight. As believers in Jesus Christ, however, because we are not of this group of the people of Israel, we actually get to see the Lord himself. We will. We will be there. We will get to behold Him, however, in two more ways before that time, before this time here on planet earth that's coming. We behold the Lord, the Lord Jesus, when we behold Him through His written Word. That's one way.

2 Corinthians 3.18, But we all, that is all of us, that is those of us who are of the church, how do you become a part of it? You don't just walk in the doors here and be of the church. You must believe. We'll talk about that later. We'll talk about what the content of that is. So we all, those who are of the church, by belief in Jesus Christ.

We are not under the Mosaic Law. That's the intent of with unveiled face. We're not looking to the Mosaic Law to make us righteous. It can't do that anyway. We're not looking to the Mosaic Law to call the shots in our life. We're looking to the Lord. How are we looking to the Lord? We're looking to the Lord through His Word.

His word is described as a mirror very clearly in James 1 through 25. This passage here and also 1 Corinthians 13. By the way, the interesting thing is both of Paul's letters to the church at Corinth mentioned mirrors and Corinth was famous for its mirrors. So that's interesting. He brought it up, I'm sure, for very deliberate reasons. Okay. We brought up last week, here's this other passage, Hebrews 12, 1 and 2.

And the central point in that, applicable to what we're looking at here, is while we are now here on planet Earth, even though physically we're seeing things with these physical eyes, spiritually we are to fix our eyes on Jesus. That's appropriate and fitting, and that's the call to us in the Church, to fix our eyes upon Jesus. Beholding the Lord, beholding Him with our spiritual eyes.

Paul wrote to the church at Ephesus in the first chapter and he talked to them about your eyes having been opened in Ephesians 1.18. We as believers have our eyes opened. We as believers are well to fix our eyes on him.

One thing to point out here is Philippians 3.12-14.

It's another passage. This is the one where it talks about reaching forward and it actually pictures a chariot race. Well, the goal or the mark in that verse is the skapos. It's the thing you keep your eyes riveted on. It's the thing you keep looking upon. And he says, that's Jesus. Fix our eyes on Him.

Now, we will behold our Lord and Savior face to face when we go to see the Lord in the heavenlies. This is 1 John 3. Beloved, We are now children of God and it has not appeared as yet what we will be. We know that when He appears, we will be like Him.

Hey folks, do you not like the body you're in? I must say I have a few disappointments myself. But, don't worry, you don't have to keep it. Just let the Lord take care of the timing. The Lord is going to provide new bodies, not these. These are just a rental. and he's going to provide new bodies. What's that? You want your money back? That may be a tough one to arrange. Maybe a loner is the best word, right?

Okay. We will see the Lord of glory there in the heavenlies. I'm sure it will be a time when we will say, well, of course. And when we've gotten rid of these things, we'll especially say, of course, right? there in resurrected bodies like His. Why? We will be like Him. We will be like Him. Revelation records about 150 verses there in the heavenly scene. And a number of those verses of the 150 refer to the church, the church body. People like you and me have put their trust in Jesus Christ. The church worshiping the Lord repeatedly.

Worshiping the Lord at end. not even waiting for the coffee break, not looking down at their watches, but worshipping the Lord again and again, continuously, for who He is and what He's done, because He's worthy of worship. All right, next part. And they will behold a far distant land. Now, what's that mean? That means they're not nearsighted, right? So what's that about? What do you mean by that?

Okay, let's ask that question. First, the they refers to your eyes. Do you see the line right above? And Isaiah is saying that the people of Israel will see and behold these things. So, the they is them. That is, those are the people of Israel and their eyes.

Now, the next part. Judah then and the nation of Israel now, of course, are pretty small places. It's amazing when you start looking at a map, and we'll do that here shortly, how small the nation of Judah was and how small now Israel is. There, Christ will reign in this time to come, in this millennium time to come. They will be able to see far, far away, far more distant than they see now. a great distance. Here is Judah then, and the greater Denver area now, at the same scale. Interesting to compare them side by side. Let me give you, for instance, from here up to here. Top to bottom of Judah is about like a drive from Colorado Springs up to Longmont. That's it. That was the nation of Judah that Isaiah was writing about. That was his area of ministry.

Pretty small, pretty tiny. Here's another one. Here's the modern nation of Israel. And it's got, of course, pieces chunked out here and there for, you know, Palestinians. And when you compare that, look at this narrow neck. It is narrower in that little neck than between where E-470 matches up with I-70 and C-470. It's smaller than that. Okay. That's that narrow piece.

So it's a very small country, very small place. but look what will happen during the millennium. Look how far it goes. Hello Kuwait. And see Matt Kirby is now over there, and in fact that'll be a part of Israel where he is right now. How about that? Amazing.

Can you imagine the folks in Syria? having that a part of Israel. So if you lay it on top of our present map, it's rather shocking. So a far distant land is what he's pointing to. You'll be able to see a lot farther than you can now. Right now you can see across parts of Israel and stand on one side, look on another side and see beyond it. That won't be the case here. The next verse comes up. Your heart will meditate on terror.

Hmm, what's that all about? Where is he who counts? Where is he who weighs? Where is he who counts the towers? Now, what would happen those days, is they would have an invading army come in, and they'd send in an occupation force, and they'd say, hello, good morning, we're going to tax you, we're going to tax you heavily, we're going to begin counting and weighing things, and they'd send in this army, of sort of military accountants to determine how they're going to begin taxing things.

And that's what this passage is looking at. You notice that the words that are in blue are repeated, kind of a Hebrew poetry pattern. And so these down below are clay tablets that are very much like what Isaiah is talking about. They're records of this kind of counting for taxation purposes from Isaiah's day.

They would use scales to weigh things as we have it now, put in the balance and you know, all right you've got this many pieces of corn we're going to tax you on that. Then they would even count towers because why towers? Towers were vineyard production capacity. So we'll count your towers and tax those too. They would tax unimaginable things just like they do today.

Okay. Now, this verse describes the memories and then, oh yes, we're not under that anymore. That's what he's describing. That's why the questions here. People thinking, oh, I remember how awful that was. Isn't this a huge relief? Isn't this wonderful to not be under this painful taxation and this huge pressure? Archaeologists have found records of documentation. We showed you a couple of examples there regarding this. And even in our own day, the Quran has a military taxation plan in it for you. Okay? Interesting.

But relief is what the people of Israel will be promised. They won't be under this. The righteous of Israel who will enter into the time of Christ will have a massive appreciation for the freedom that they'll have. A huge relief. No longer under the nightmares. No longer going through something. Have you ever been through something and you're all done and you say, I'm glad that's over. It will be that kind of time for a long, long time. And they'll be done with all the counters. Then he'll say in verse 19, you will no longer see a fierce people.

And that's one thing that was characteristic These reliefs that I have are from the walls of the Assyrian palaces. The Assyrians would have reliefs on the palace walls of all the different ways that they abused and tortured and battled the people that they subjugated.

And so we have a good idea from that why it would be such a horror for the people of Israel. Now these fierce and oppressive people, would come in and cause an awful, awful time. And in the midst of it, they would also speak with this unintelligible speech. And so you can imagine somebody coming in, being very demanding, wanting to weigh and measure and look through everything that you have, and then asking you questions in a language you can understand.

That's the horror that they were looking to get past, and Isaiah is promising. When Jesus Christ, their Messiah, our Lord and Savior, will reign, the oppressive and meticulous reign of these four encounters will come to an end. No more. Now, how about us? Now, for us, Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law. The law was what hung over us. The law was the thing that was the horror.

Paul in 2 Corinthians 3.18 says it's a ministry of condemnation. You like that? A ministry of death. How about that? That's the law.

No, Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law. The burden lifted. It's not for us to do. It's not for us to try to fulfill. We in the Church, that is to be specific, those saved by belief in Jesus Christ from the time of Acts 2 until the time of the rapture, have been redeemed from this oppressive and heavy and painstaking and exacting legal requirement. No more of this. Christ is the one who will reign over Israel in the millennium and set them free from the oppression that they had. For us, Christ took the law away and redeemed us from the curse of the law. He paid the full price.

This is something that a lot of Christians lose sight of. Christ died for our sins. He also died to put the law out of commission with respect to the church. There are a number of Christians who don't know that yet for some reason, okay? But that was what took place on the cross. We think of Christ dying for our sins, and yes, that is ever wonderfully true. But He also died to put the law out of commission with respect to the church.

It is not applicable and effective to us in the Church. We are not under law. And that's a good thing. It set aside the distinction between Jew and Gentile. The law was the dividing wall. Remember Ephesians chapter 2? That divided the Jews and Gentiles.

Took it out of the way. Gone. In order to form the Church. In order to form the Church. There's a song that is a quick one and it's been said in various ways and it just goes, Do this and live, the law commands, but gives me neither feet nor hands. A better way His grace does bring, It bids me fly and gives me wings.

That's the beauty of it. The law says, do this or else, but doesn't give you any way to do it. The Lord says, I'll take that out of the way, but what needs to be done, I will do in you. What a wonderful thing. No longer to have this burden over us for us to do. But on top of that, he says, don't worry about it. I'll do what needs to be done anyway. My life. My life through you.

So here, no longer fierce people. And notice, before, he says, you will see the Lord. Before, you'll see the King. Before, you'll see the land. Now, no longer see. This is what you won't see. Isn't that good? What you won't see is these fierce people.

This verse has a Hebrew poetry pattern. We brought that up before. You got that? Did you catch that? All right, let's run that past a little bit slower here. There we go. All right. Got that? Okay, good. All right. Here's the Hebrew poetry pattern. You will no longer see a fierce people of, and then here's where it starts a couple of repeated sessions here, of unintelligible speech that rhymes not by sound, but by meaning of a stammering tongue, and which no one comprehends or which no one understands." Again, it rhymes meaning. That's Hebrew poetry.

This passage also fits in with Isaiah 28.11 that we looked at, that is quoted in 1 Corinthians 14.21, referring to the purpose of the gift of tongues. The purpose of the gift of tongues was to warn Israel of coming judgment.

You will no longer have the unintelligible speech or the stammering tongue. Why? You will not be under judgment by a foreign nation again. Okay? That's what it's pointing to. The Assyrians come in with a foreign tongue. They're demanding and exacting, telling you in words you can't understand exactly what they want with great anger and great severity. That will be the end of it. No more. No more of that.

The reign of Christ will be gracious, unlike the counters. It will be one of understanding, and Christ will be understandable. The people of Israel will have... Now we say it's great we're not under law. The people of Israel will have the law written on their hearts. That will be God's means of expression of His character through them. The Holy Spirit will be given to them to carry it out. It is not for the church, however. We will not have the law written on our hearts. Never will. Because we are a different people. Now, the next verse.

Look upon Zion, the city of our appointed feast. Your eyes will see Jerusalem. an undisturbed habitation, a tent which will not be folded, its stakes will never be pulled up, nor any of its cords torn apart." That sounds like you're breaking up camp, right? Okay.

Here you see this reference to looking and seeing again. Looking upon and seeing. Like verse 17 and the contrast in verse 19, you will no longer see, there's a focus on what you see. This is what you're going to view there. Look at, as we kind of review, look at the things that Isaiah has told them to see or to look at. One is look upon the Lord, because that's always a good place to start. Okay? Look upon the Lord. The second one, look at the land that will be included in the nation of Israel. This is according to their promises, right? Secondly, look at the city. And here's what this is. Look at the city of Jerusalem. Now, we also have a Hebrew poetry pattern. You've got to catch that, right? Did you get that one? You've got to memorize that, okay? Okay, got it. All right.

Look upon Zion, and your eyes will see Jerusalem. Those are rhyming lines, right? And the city of our appointed feast, that's describing the character of the city, and undisturbed habitation. What is the meaning of the name of the city Jerusalem? Habitation of peace. This is the fulfillment of it. It will be the place of peace. Is it a place of peace now? Not so much. Not so much. If you look at the news, it's very much a place of great disturbance. Zion and Jerusalem are synonyms. Zion is the hill just on the south end of Jerusalem. These appointed feasts are things that actually will go on in the millennium. During this time of Christ's reign, a thousand year reign, the feast will go on.

Think about it. They had sacrifices in the past. What did the sacrifices in the past do? They looked forward to Christ as a sacrifice. These will be memorial sacrifices, looking back. Is that appropriate? To have a memorial sacrifice? What do we do at the Lord's table? We have a memorial of His sacrifice for us, don't we?

All right, and then a tent which will not be folded, its stakes will never be pulled up, nor any of its cords be torn apart. We think of a tent and we typically think of camping. A tent during biblical times was actually something people would sometimes choose as a fairly permanent means of dwelling, and so that the tent was actually a place where people really indeed lived.

And he's saying, no, this is a place you don't need to fold it up. You're not going to be moving. You're not going to be putting it away. The stakes will never be pulled up. The cords never torn apart. You won't have to take it apart. Why? This is a permanent place. You will be safe, secure, there for sure, there for the long term. Fold it up, pull it up, turn it apart, no more. So what's so special about this place called Jerusalem? Why Jerusalem? What's the deal with it?

During this thousand-year reign of Christ on the earth, Jerusalem will be the center of the attention of the entire globe. It'll be the place of beauty. It will be the place where the majestic one, the Lord himself, will reign. It will be a glorious place, a place unlike what it is in great part now.

So, what's this about? This is a bit of a head-scratcher here in verse 21. A place of rivers and wide canals. This is almost like a riddle. Think about this. A place of rivers and wide canals on which no boat with oars will go, on which no mighty ship will pass. Almost sounds like you're up a creek without a paddle. So let's figure out what this is. Maybe, let's see. Have you ever heard of the Jerusalem River over in Israel? Ever heard about that? Neither have I. Okay, good. All right, just checking. Jerusalem is landlocked. There aren't any rivers that run by it or through it or anything of that sort.

So it lacks that completely compared to some of the other nations. of the world, it was a place that didn't have that advantage. What's going to happen during this time of millennium, this time when Christ will reign, Christ's presence there will be such that any transportation issues or shipping problems will be resolved. It will be a time when any of those advantages will mean nothing because the Lord himself will be there. There will be huge advantage, all the trading, within Israel and with other people will all happen fluidly and easily, even without the boats or ships, and you don't have to worry about being up a creek without a paddle.

Okay. Now, for the Lord is our judge. This is verse 22. The Lord is our lawgiver, and the Lord is our King, and He will save us. Now, very interesting, just almost kind of point of history. Ever heard of the Mayflower Compact? This was one sign very early in our, I would have to say, our continent's history and our own U.S. Constitution. Both those documents have something in common with this verse, and that is both of those were written based on this verse.

What do I mean by that? The first part, the judicial branch, which we call our Supreme Court, is based on this judge here in this verse, okay? And the law giver is the legislative branch, which we call Congress, the House and the Senate. And the king is represented by the executive branch or the president's office and the various administrative offices under that. This is the verse that they actually drew upon in order to construct these documents and to put together a constitution. James Madison wrote about Isaiah 33, 22. He says, that's the way we ought to do it.

Very interesting. Now, while this is a very interesting piece of history and probably a good piece of wisdom too, that isn't the intent of the passage. Why? It isn't to tell you how to form a human government. This passage is there to say that the Lord is all three. So it goes beyond how our framers of our Constitution use the verse, and instead says, the Lord does all these things. Now, again, we have a Hebrew poetry pattern. It won't make you put up with something flying by, at least not yet. But it has repetition, the Lord is our, three times there. Oh, there it goes, all right.

And then the judge and the lawgiver and the king. So the Lord is our judge, the Lord is our lawgiver, the Lord is our king. Now, for us who are in the church, however, is the Lord our judge, lawgiver, and king? No. There is only one respect in which this holds true. He is not the church's king. He is not our lawgiver. As a matter of fact, the Lord died on the cross in part, in order to cut us off from being under the law. However, the Lord will judge us for rewards. The Lord will judge us for rewards, and there is a place for that. So this is not a description that entirely fits those of us here in the church.

The other thing is when the people who are of Hebrew or Jewish background say, He will save us. They're thinking more in terms of earthly blessings. He will save us from all these earthly things. For us in the church, the understanding is that the salvation is spiritual and is not based on earthly blessings. For us in the church, here are some things we can say that are true of us.

The Lord is our peace. We saw that in Ephesians 2. He is our peace. And, of course, we could say that personally. He is our peace between us and Him. He paid the price in order to make peace. The Lord is our peace in terms of our peace with one another. But this one here particularly is focusing on peace between Jews and Gentiles, no longer having the law between them. That's the intent of this passage. The Lord is our righteousness, our holiness, and our redemption.

Those three things, out of 1 Corinthians 1.30, which also says, it is by God's doing that you are in Christ. About the Lord is our life. Our life. We don't have to try to generate life on our own. As a matter of fact, that's not at all God's intent. The Lord is our very life. We have the Lord as our Passover Lamb. He is our Passover Lamb, the one who paid the price for us, the sacrificial lamb on our behalf. The Lord is our hope, as Paul wrote to Timothy. The Lord is our Savior.

As a matter of fact, I've just listed some here. If you looked, I bet you could find some more, most likely. Okay. Now, the next verse, 33-23, says, Your tackle hangs slack. Now, you've got to think about those words. I'll let you tell this guy that he hangs slack. Okay? All right. That'll be up to you. I'll leave it to you. But let's look at the whole verse there. Your tackle hangs slack. It cannot hold the base of the mass firmly, nor spread out the sail. Then the prey of an abundant spoil will be divided. The lame will take the plunder.

What is that talking about? What is the meaning of that verse? You've got it figured out? Okay. Let's take a look. The opponents of Israel here are pictured as a disabled ship. That's what it's looking at. Left vulnerable and unable to navigate or move about. Completely vulnerable.

Even the weakest of Israel's people, even the very least of them, will be able to easily take what was their former enemy's substantial assets. We have various descriptions of that in especially Old Testament passages. It will be a time when the enemies that were once opposing Israel forcibly and that made Israel think, how could we possibly survive, now become places of assets. What the enemies left behind become places of assets for those of the people of Israel. And finally, in verse 24, and no resident will say, I am sick.

Now, we might think it would be nice if we could claim this. Wouldn't you like to be able to do that? Right? I know Ben would. But, it was for Israel in their blessings. Okay? After the plagues upon Egypt, the Lord said this to Israel, and this is immediately after in Exodus. He said, If you will give earnest heed to the voice of the Lord your God, and do what is right in His sight, and give ear to His commandments, and keep all His statutes, I will put none of the diseases on you which I have put on the Egyptians, for I the Lord am your healer."

If. Now, do we get that promise? No. We don't get that promise. Israel will have the law written on their hearts. They will have no disease at all. Remember? Because it was an if you do this. During this time, are they going to do all the things that the law says? Yes, they will. From the heart. And they will always be blessed. All the time. 100%. They will have every spiritual blessing in the earthly places. Because they will follow the Lord all the time. Now, how about us? How about us and health?

Here's Titus 1.9, Qualifications for Elders, holding fast the faithful word which is in accordance with the teaching, so that he will be able both to exhort in sound doctrine and to treat those who contradict.

This word here, for sound, is hygieno, which is the word that is the source of our English word hygiene. Hygiene. It conveys the idea of health. So a healthy teaching, spiritually healthy, sound doctrine. Do we get guaranteed in the church to have physical health? No. What we have is healthy teaching. That's what scripture lays out. We have good solid spiritual food. Good stuff. Completely spiritually nutritious. Exactly what you need. But don't chew on those things even if they're high in fiber.

The last part there, the people who dwell there will be forgiven their iniquity. Isaiah 53, which is one that we look forward to doing in time to come here, we'll take a closer look at it. We want to take a look at it here. All who believe will be saved. And what will happen? All of their iniquity, their sins, will be forgiven.

Isaiah writes it like this in Isaiah 53, 5 and 6, When the Lord took the price for our sins, was it because we were really good? When the Lord took the price for our sins, was it because we were just so good that He just had to do that? Did we earn it? Did we add to it? No. Look at verse 6. All gone astray. Each of us turned to His own way. But that didn't impact His payment of the price for us on our behalf at all. He paid the price entirely, having the price fall entirely upon Him. It's important, I think, as you look at this, we present the gospel. This is the fulfillment, if you will, of what Isaiah spoke about 700 years before Jesus Christ came to earth and died for our sins.

And this is the way Paul presents the gospel to the believers at Corinth. He breaks it down real simple. 1 Corinthians 15, drawing on the first 11 verses. Now I make known to you, brethren, the gospel which I preach to you. So get this, this is it. If you're wondering what exactly is the gospel, you're about to see it. By which you are saved. Do you believe that? If you believe that, you're saved. That's the gospel. It's that simple. It's that simple. And that's what's laid out.

We're at the end of the service here. going to be having a baptism. And so it's important to kind of preface the baptism with this. As we have the baptism, it will be not to make something happen spiritually. We aren't going to make something occur spiritually. What we are doing is picturing what has already taken place.

When a person puts their trust in Jesus Christ His death on the cross for their sins, His burial and His resurrection. That's the gospel. And then the Lord accomplishes things in that person's life. Now let me briefly explain what that is. Baptism, we tend to think of in the water. Baptism was in biblical times, in New Testament times, a taking of something and immersing it. into typically underwater or taking a fabric to dye it, immersing it into the dyed water so that the fabric was dyed. taking a Roman sword which had been heated up to hot and putting it into the water in order to case-harden the steel. Those kinds of things, those are picturing baptism, an immersion and a placing into and identifying with so as to be changed. That's what baptism is. We're picturing what has already happened because a person believed, not making something happen, okay? Let's take a minute to pray. Lord, we thank you as we look at this passage. We look forward to the time when the people of Israel will indeed behold you and they will see in the midst of that your marvelous glory. You will be glorified. Your glory will be declared and shared and revealed.

And Lord, that's a wonderful thing. In the midst of that, Lord, you have ways, even now, that we are to behold you through your word and in our hearts. And we thank you, Lord, for that privilege that we have. Oh, the beauty of it. We thank you, Lord, too, as we look at the baptism that is about to take place, that it pictures something so marvelous and so wonderful that you've done in the lives of all of us here who have believed. We thank you for that in Jesus' name. Amen.