This is perfect aptitude. So if you're learning how to do something, a new skill, you don't know if you have the aptitude for it until you begin to work it. And then you find out, hey, I can do this.
I mean, there are just certain jobs, you know, you say, I can't do that job. I can't even learn it. I don't have what it takes to know that, but I'm good at this. His aptitude is perfect. Everything is understood by him. This understanding allows for perfect judgment. Here in verse two, we have a sevenfold gifts with a threefold application.
I don't really like doing those kind of formulas because math makes my head hurt. But here it is. So seven attributes are mentioned or characteristics. The first wisdom and understanding, well, that is for his government to be that hero judge, the judge that we know is going to do right. The counsel and the might is for conflict. He knows how to handle war and struggle and conflict. This is their Messiah. This is our Christ. Christ is a bigger word than Messiah. Messiah limits him to the Jewish people. Christ burst out of that and takes it all humanity. He is the Messiah Christ in any language.
He is for any people that will belong to him. And we don't learn that till you get to the New Testament. And we find how difficult it was for Paul to communicate these things to a Jewish people that just didn't want to hear it.
And to not all of them, of course, and to a Gentile people who didn't want to hear it. Not all of them, but monumental task. Well, the other is you have the wisdom, the understanding, the counsel, the might, the knowledge, the fear and the fear of Yahweh. Well, that's for spiritual leadership. All of these are vital characteristics.
If you take any away, you have a defect. So they all belong, these seven, that complete number with the Spirit of the Lord resting upon him. God can't really rest on me because I have sinned. He's always got to work with Christ.
There's nothing to do. He's every bit the Son of the Father alone, not made nor created, but coming from the only begotten Son. So the Spirit of the Lord resting upon him, that's the first one which all the others are under this umbrella. He's divine. Paul said it this way. You know, after over three decades of preaching God's Word, I love it so much still. I'm never bored by it. I may struggle with familiarity, but it's just amazing. It is still, if I were talking to the me on the day I was born again to the me now, I would say, you just wait and see what's coming.
There's so much more a fight ahead to just burn out anything that makes you think it's just this is a kid's game. This Christianity, when it holds up the cross, it says it's very serious and his death is involved in this. And there are types of death. There's a death of the old man to sin, physical death.
It's just a beautiful thing. Anyway, the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him. Here's how Paul said this.
Same thing. For in him dwells the fullness of the Godhead bodily. There's everything in him that there needs to be. The Spirit of God is not resting upon him like it wasn't there before.
It's internal. As John witnessed, Luke 3, the Holy Spirit descended in bodily form like a dove upon him and the voice came from heaven and said, you are my beloved son in whom I am well pleased. There's other verses we can cross reference, but this one is powerful enough. Of course, when the Lord enters public ministry in Nazareth, what does he start with? The Spirit of the Lord is upon me. And then he sits down and everybody looks at him and says, today this verse is fulfilled. You're looking at the one that the Spirit of the Lord rests upon from Isaiah.
Not only Isaiah 11 as we know it, but Isaiah 60 also. Or 61. Anyway, coming back to this and understanding. This is perfect aptitude. So if you're learning how to do something, a new skill, you don't know if you have the aptitude for it until you begin to work it. And then you find out, hey, I can do this. I mean, there are just certain jobs, you know, you say, I can't do that job.
I can't even learn it. I don't have what it takes to know that, but I'm good at this. Well, with the Lord, his aptitude is perfect. Everything is understood by him.
So we go to the next. Well, this understanding allows for perfect judgment, which lacks in human rulers and judges. He has a perfect knowledge.
He's not guessing about anything. And that's why when you come to the section here, when he talks about he will judge without looking and hearing because his understanding is perfect. It is, you know, the omniscience of the Lord. Revelation 3. This is what the Lord said to that church at Laodicea, filled with people that I don't like, but he loved because he reaches out to them nonetheless. Imagine you're in the church of Philadelphia and somebody comes in there and says, hi, first time, yes. Are you a Christian? Yes. What church do you go to? Laodicea? Well, excuse me, I've got to go.
No, we can't do that. It's like somebody, anyway, I counsel you, Jesus said to that church, after laying them out how messed up they were, he says, here's my advice for you. Here's the spirit of counsel for you. I counsel you to buy from me gold refined in fire. Identify what is valuable.
Get it. Then he says that you may be rich and white garments that you may be clothed. You know, the mark of sin is nudity, exposure, unshameful exposure that, and he says that the shame of your nakedness may not be revealed.
Get control of your life. Cover up those things that no one wants to see. He continues, and anoint your eyes with eye salve that you may see because you're blind. You think you have eyesight and therefore you're not blind, but I'm telling you, you can't see what you need to see. You are spiritually blind, but he just lays it out, right?
Well, how does he do that? Here's the spirit of counsel and this perfect counsel continuing and might. Well, that's the enforcement element of God. Not only does he have the counsel, but Jesus, don't worry about those who can kill the body and can't bother the soul. You better worry about the one that can kill your soul by sending it to hell.
That would be him. And so, of might, Revelation 19, 1, after these things I heard a loud voice of a great multitude in heaven saying, Alleluia, salvation and glory and honor and power belong to the Lord our God. Well, it's just amazing. The spirit of knowledge, this is perfect awareness. John chapter 2, 25 says it. He had no need that anyone should testify of man for he knew what was in man. He knew what was in man, in dogs, in leaves, in molecules. He's got it all. And yet he comes like this person that doesn't even tell you he's got it all.
He's unassuming. But then when you start seeing him wiping out diseases, he's touching people. You've got to be able to say, this is like nothing else. I got to go to the Bible to find out what this means. And the fear of the Lord. Now, this is God's, this is the presence of God embraced.
It is perfect respect, perfect reverence, perfect holiness. There's no lapse. There's no, well that was, I shouldn't have said that. That was crass.
That was a cheap shot. Just none of that. The fear of the Lord is just total recognition of what God is all about. And so we have these seven attributes and that in the Bible, of course seven is the number of completion overall. And we get that by looking at the pattern. Seven days in a week, seven colors in a righteous rainbow. Six in hell's rainbow, in case you want to know.
And we don't feel embarrassed in telling people that. My rainbow's from God. When God looks at the seven colored rainbow, he remembers that he makes promises and keeps them. That's where the rainbow came from. The rainbow was there already. I mean, if Noah went by a waterfall, he could see a rainbow at the right, if the lighting was right.
The difference is it wasn't a signed meaning by God until God did it after the flood. Since from now on, when you see a rainbow, you understand I see the rainbow. You understand the promise associated with this rainbow.
So, I mean the rainbow is just this beautiful thing. But it's glorious because of what God said. The Sabbath is the seventh day of the week. Seven years of plenty and seven years of famine. Jericho was marched around seven times before God dropped the walls. Naaman was instructed to dip in the Jordan River seven times. A child raised by Elijah was sneezed upon seven times. This is kind of counterintuitive.
You're trying to make the child better. Sneezing on him, really? And then we have Elijah sent his servant to spot the rain cloud seven times before it was official. Nebuchadnezzar was insane for seven years.
I know people that can beat that. Then there are the seven words of the cross. So, you see that pattern? In each event, it was a complete moment when it reached seven. Now, this is not a formula for us to then, okay, if I do this seven times, God will do this. No, that's not the teaching. The teaching is learn from what's happening in the scripture.
Have those eyes that Laodicea missed out on that have been treated with the right stuff. So, in Revelation, you come to the book of Revelation, you have seven churches, seven lamps, seven scrolls, seven seals, seven trumpets, and seven bowls. And it means something. When the seventh seal is broken, oh man, watch out. Then there's going to be seven trumpets. And by the time the seventh one, so when you get to the seventh bowl, the iniquity has been dealt with.
The wrath is complete. So, these are biblical consistencies for our instruction, not formulas for us to say, well, I have the sevenfold church. Anyway, the seven spirits, again, reference to the completeness of God lacking nothing. That's where we get omniscience, omnipresence, omnipotence, ubiquity, all these things belong to him. Verse three now, we can do this. His delight is in the fear of the Lord, and he shall not judge by the sight of his eyes, nor decide by the hearing of his ears.
He is the hero judge. He can say to the opposing attorney, I don't want to hear it. I don't need to hear it. Not because I'm shutting you down, because I already had the answer. And I don't need to hear it come from your mouth.
You need to hear what I'm saying from my mouth. That's what this is. His delight is in the, that fear is that holiness of the Lord. And holiness is that. Take the sandals off your feet for the ground you stand upon is holy. Moses had to say, okay, there's no place else on earth like this.
So did Joshua. He is never distracted from the holiness of God. We are. You will be on your way home more than likely if you're driving. So that's one of the best things about living in the age of automobiles. You can always point to sin by just pointing to driving. Anyway, this part, his delight is in the fear of Yahweh. He's never distracted in his holiness. John chapter 8 verse 29. And he who sent me is with me.
The father has not left me alone, for I always do those things that please him. Nobody can say that. Not in its absolute sense.
I can get it right a lot of times, but not all the times. And he shall not judge by the sight of his eyes. He doesn't need physical, created senses to get to the bottom of things. He already knows.
And we don't have time to illustrate them. So the sevenfold attributes, removed out, removing accuracy and injustice from his judgments, this makes him our hero judge. And the judge has power to decide the future of human beings, their lives and this life and the next one. So it is a big deal. It's a very big deal. He said, it says here in verse three, nor decide by the hearing of his ears.
No external influence. You can't, you know, I didn't get that. He gets it all.
His verdicts are sure. Psalm 139. Where can I go from your spirit? Or where can I flee from your presence? As Jonah found out, you can't. He is ubiquitous. Well, we have New Testament applications of this knowledge.
I'll take the short one. John 8, 6. This they said, testing him, that they might have something to which to accuse him. But Jesus stooped down and wrote on the ground with his finger as though he did not hear.
Now, we don't know what he wrote. This is when they wanted to stone the woman who was caught in adultery. They were trying to murder her and let him get the man she committed the adultery with get off the hook. That was just only one of the injustices. Hosea called that long before that that that kind of injustice wouldn't be tolerated by God. They were doing these things. So he writes on the ground something.
Well, whatever it was, it had to do with them as individuals. And then he says, he who was about to throw the first stone. And then from the oldest to the youngest, they dropped their stones and walked away. Now, in ancient Israel, there were little booths everywhere and you just would break it with a glass. It would be a rock inside a stone in case of an emergency stoning.
They always had stones around. There are Christians who live that way. All they do is want to stone you with their tongue. Just criticize everybody. And so, man, where's the love?
I love to stone you. Anyway, just may we not be that way. Maybe not be. Maybe just remember that doesn't mean we're accepting iniquity and sin just means we're careful how we deal with it. There's a human being on the other end who Christ died for. And I sure like it when people show me mercy. I think some of you need to up it a little bit and start showing me a little bit more. I think that about everybody.
Anyway, that's humor attempts. Verse four, but with righteousness, righteousness, he should judge the poor and decide the equity for the meek of the earth with equity for the meek of the earth. He shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth and with the breath of his lips, he shall slay the wicked. So, you know, first, second Samuel David wrote, he who rules over men must be just ruling in the fear of God. Well, this is what who he is and decide with equity for the meek of the earth.
That's fairness. He shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth. A different word for rod here than in verse one that that shoot from the stump is a different Hebrew word.
This is a staff to strike with. He shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth because he's got that kind of power. This is the one that the might of God that we've referenced. And in other words, he knows how to deal blows to the wicked. And with the breath of his lips, he shall slay the wicked. Well, it's complete, complete intolerance of iniquity, of wickedness, not iniquity of wickedness.
It come there will come a time where he just won't have any of it. And having watched wickedness prevail prevail for so long, the righteous read that we say, yay, yes, Lord. And that will be it in the millennial reign in verse five, the righteousness shall be righteousness shall be the belt of his loins and faithfulness, the belt of his waist.
So a striking figure of righteousness and faithfulness. Just looking at him and we look at Christ now through scripture, it says the wolf shall also dwell with the lamb, the leopard shall lie down with the young goat, the calf and the young lion and the fatling together. And a little child shall lead them, the cow and the bear. Verse seven shall graze, their young one shall lie down together. The lion shall eat straw like an ox.
Well, this is the millennial reign. You know, leopards, I've learned some things about leopards over the past, they're mean creatures. They just scratch you up for just they were passing by. Well, I get this, I see these leopards of these videos, these leopards running through these crowds. And as they're running for their life, they stop, do a little damage and keep running. Where other animals just run and get out of there.
They're like, no, that guy needs to be slapped. And it's just interesting. But the curse upon creation itself will be drastically altered. The idea of a predator-prey relationship will vanish. And, you know, you're a lion, you have a lamb go by a wolf. And the wolf would say something like, you know, in the old days, I'd eat you.
But now I got a hankering for straw. Anyway, this utopian world, it will exist in Christ. The animal kingdom will be domesticated, herbivores. The nursing child, verse 8, shall play by the cobra's hole. And the weaned child shall put his hand in the viper's den.
See, they're going to still be serpents and such. That's, you know, we'll talk about that when we get to heaven. Verse 9, they shall not hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain, for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, or Yahweh, as the waters cover the sea. And so, creation will be restored. Verse 10, sure you can comment more on all this. Even Paul does in Romans 8. And in that day there shall be a root of Jesse, who shall stand as a banner to the people, for the Gentiles will seek him, and his resting place shall be glorious.
So he's evolved from the Jewish Messiah to the global Christ, in that sense of the steps of fulfilled prophecy. Verse 11, it shall come to pass in that day that the Lord shall set his hand again the second time to recover the remnant of his people who are left from Assyria and Egypt, from Pothos, Cush, okay, these other places, Shinah, ancient Babylon. So, how many times has the Lord called back his people to the land?
Twice. One, from the Babylonian captivity that was started by Zerubbabel, recorded in Ezra. The second time is in 1948, when the Jews were given their land back to them as a sovereign nation. And the Jews are very serious about bringing Jews into the Promised Land. If you can prove Jewish heritage, you get to be a Jewish citizen. They were fierce about it.
They were flying them in from Russia, some of you might remember. When the Soviet Union fell, the Jews were actively bringing as many Jewish people into the Promised Land as they could. And that is the beginning of this fulfillment. Isaiah 43, 6, we'll get into it then yet again. Verse 13, also the envy of Ephraim shall depart, and the adversaries of Judah shall be cut down. Ephraim shall not envy Judah, and Judah shall not harass Ephraim.
So sibling rivalry of the wicked type kind will be gone. Verse 14, but they shall fly down upon the shoulder of the Philistines toward the west. Together they shall plunder the people of the east. They shall lay their hand on Edom and Moab, and the people of Ammon shall obey them. So the enemies, surrounding enemies, will be subdued.
These are inveterate enemies, there's always been. Verse 15, Yahweh will utterly destroy the tongue of the Sea of Egypt. With his mighty wind, he shall shake his fist over the river and strike it in the seven streams, strike it in the seven streams and make men cross dry shod. So the Red Sea will be made land and the Euphrates River, as that's what he's talking about, his fist over the river, that's the Euphrates, it shall be turned into seven streams, shallowness.
Verse 16, there will be a highway for the remnant of his people who will be left from Assyria as it was for Israel in the day that he came up from the land of Egypt. And so Isaiah saw the end time victories, the Assyrians, they inflicted havoc on the promised land they had dealt with, and that brings us to chapter 12, the only commentary necessary, because it's a psalm. It's very easy to understand when he says he's praising the Lord, we know he's praising the Lord. You don't need a pastor to tell you a lot, let me tell you what that means.
It's a celebration of the hero God, that's all chapter 12, it's just a celebration of Isaiah praising the Lord, when everybody around him except the remnant was mocking God. Thanks for tuning in to Cross Reference Radio today. Cross Reference Radio is a ministry of Pastor Rick Gaston of Calvary Chapel, Mechanicsville in Virginia. If you'd like to learn more about this ministry, we invite you to visit our website, crossreferenceradio.com.
You'll find a number of teachings from Pastor Rick available there. We also encourage you to subscribe to our podcast. When you subscribe, you'll be notified of new editions of Cross Reference Radio. Just search for Cross Reference Radio on your favorite podcast app. You can also follow the links at crossreferenceradio.com. We're glad we were able to spend time with you today. Tune in next time to continue learning from the book of Isaiah with Pastor Rick, right here on Cross Reference Radio.
