You've got this global economy. You're doing well. It's all going to crash and all of your achievements will not matter.
You'll have a problem that you cannot fix. This is the story. You see a great athlete. You can see a great scientist. You can see someone who's contributed to humanity, but they are anti-Christ in their beliefs. They will die and all of their earthly achievements will be gone. They will have nothing.
No one's going to say to them, weren't you MVP back in... No, no one's going to... It's not going to even come up. This is Cross-Reference Radio with our pastor and teacher Rick Gaston. Rick is the pastor of Calvary Chapel in Mechanicsville. Pastor Rick is currently teaching through the book of Isaiah.
Please stay with us after today's message to hear more information about Cross-Reference Radio, specifically how you can get a free copy of this teaching. But for now, let's join Pastor Rick in the book of Isaiah chapter 14 with today's edition of Cross-Reference Radio. The true story, this 14th chapter, and it applies to any who would completely defy God and what happens in the end is not something to shoot for. Now, Isaiah is going to routinely, as do the prophets often, weave in and out of the earthly and the spiritual and leave it for us to discern what is happening, but that sort of all comes together when you get to verse 12, and he just sort of just gives us enough to understand, oh, now I get what's going on in this chapter. And one of the things we learned that from the Bible and in this chapter especially is if an archangel can end up in hell, if a king can go to hell, what should people learn from that?
But people that are not saved do not accept the Bible as God's Word, and we are again hopefully going to be part of the process to help those who don't receive it as God's Word to see it as such should the Lord have mercy enough. Anyway, here we also learn from what happens to this king, Belshazzar, who is the lead candidate for the Babylonian, the historical Babylonian king, and of course then Satan, when we look at the fate that awaited them, all their achievements, all of Belshazzar, the king of Babylon at the time of Babylon's fall or takeover by the Medes and the Persians, all that he has achieved in his life and enjoyed came to worse than nothing. All of the damage Satan has done over the millennium comes to something for him that is worse than nothing, and by that it's not in the end you get nothing, in the end you get punishment.
It's something worse that is going to happen than ever before. Well, as I mentioned, if an archangel can end up in hell, well, we can also reverse that and say if a king can go to heaven, if a beggar like Lazarus can go to heaven, what hospitality is God offering to people? But they tend to think just on a horizontal plane, not a vertical, they don't look up really, not as we do, they just see this life and they make up things about the next life and they miss the hospitality of God as sinners because they're too busy moaning and complaining about this life, not understanding that this life is not heaven, by the way, it is the battlefield. Now, granted, some scholars deny the parallel application of this character in chapter 14, some say, well, that's not Satan, it's just Belshazzar. It's odd because typically many of these scholars see the spiritual applications in other passages of the Bible and they are quick to receive it as such. Isaiah 53, for example, they see that this is Messiah, they can see beyond the immediate writing of the prophet and they see the fulfillment, they follow the breadcrumbs to the conclusion, but they are reluctant to hear. In fact, you may have some Bible commentaries and the more modern commentaries are more in habit of saying, well, this might be, whereas the older saints, they would write, this is, and I like that a lot, they were committed and now everything is that spirit of, you know, we're not sure, you know, because this guy says that, this is junk, man.
You leave people alone long enough and they've all become blowhards and that's why we depend on the Holy Spirit to keep us from becoming overwhelmingly so. Well, let's look at the first verse and I'll try to come back and or hopefully you'll see the basis for everything I just said from this chapter. Lucifer's fall, verse 1, for Yahweh will have mercy on Jacob and will still choose Israel and settle them in their own land. The strangers will be joined with them and they will cling to the house of Jacob.
Well, that begins with four, Yahweh will, which connects it to the preceding chapter, chapter 13, the end of it, and explains it a little bit further. This verse illustrates some principles for us that we don't want to lose sight of concerning God and his people. That a self-willed rebellious people, regardless of who they say they are, will cause God to exercise judgment on them from an unappealing source. Imagine if, you know, a parent says, well, I'm not going to give you a beating.
I'm going to call the kid down the block that I don't like and he's going to come give you a beating. That would be really messed up, but on the divine scale and this situation of earth, it's what God does. He gets the Assyrians and the Babylonians, etc., to discipline his people and that's just a fact. Another lesson out of this is that arrogance and the outrageous cruelty of those Gentiles that were tasked with disciplining Israel were themselves judged because of their iniquity. So, just because God used them doesn't mean that they were pardoned from their iniquity. God is just and fair. And just a brief review of what he's talking about in the previous verses.
This is also citing the covenant of God with the fathers, the patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. God's saying, well, you know, I'm going to fulfill my promises to them. We just heard Peter pray that, you know, God acts on his promises. He makes his promises good.
He does it. And we get that from the Bible, not just something we like. We may like it, but it's whether like it or not, it's a fact. And so Israel will be restored and we see Israel in her land now.
She's never moving again. That's God's time clock. And one other thing that comes out of what God is doing with his people and has been in history is that it will bless the Gentiles too. And well, the church is a testimony to that, established by Jewish believers in Christ, of course. Well, the millennial kingdom, Israel will take the lead. And the Gentiles, remember, they've got a lot of people going to be born during the millennial age. And when they're born physically, they're not going to be automatically born again. They're still going to have to learn righteousness. Well, where are they going to get it from?
Well, we're going to be around to help them. We'll be kings and priests, we'll be leaders in the government, we'll be righteous, and there'll be spiritual leaders. But Israel will dictate the pace, or a better way to say it, Israel will be the model for the rest of the world to look at. And Zechariah talks, many of the other prophets talk. Anyway, it says here in verse 1, the Lord will have mercy on Jacob and will still choose Israel. Now, the people needed to hear this because they saw the northern kingdom being wiped out. And Isaiah is saying, well, God's not going to fail with his people.
He references Jacob here, a comprehensive term. All the Jews, northern kingdom, so all the tribes are the descendants of Jacob. And again, the permanent covenant, which incidentally, the prophets knew, and they communicated it to the people, that the people didn't deserve God to be merciful to them and keep his end of the covenant, since they broke it so much.
But God does, says, and settle them in their own land. Ultimately, both Babylon's fall, that is historical Babylon or ancient Babylon, the actual kingdom, an apocalyptic Babylon, that world order against Christ. Ultimately, both Babylon's fall in order that Israel would rise. You see, when Darius and the Medes and Purges took over the Babylonian empire, within a year, the order was given to send the Jews back to their promised land if they wanted to go.
And we get that in the first six chapters of Ezra. And when Antichrist, who leads apocalyptic Babylon, when he is overthrown by the Lord and the armies of the Lord being us, Israel will again rise. That's a very critical point, especially if you don't believe in who Israel is in the scripture. In verse 2, then, people will take them and bring them to their place, and the house of Israel will possess them for servants and maids in the land of the Lord. They will take them captive, whose captives they were, and rule over their oppressors. Well, millennial Israel, again, will take the greatest place amongst the cultures and nations of the world. What Rome was to the ancient world with power, Israel will be to the millennial world with righteousness as a kingdom, as a people go. This theme is expanded upon in Isaiah 45 and 60 and 61. He'll get back to it. He says here in verse 2, they will take them captive, whose captives they were, and rule over their oppressors. So we have a role reversal here. This occurs in the millennial kingdom.
It's already somewhat happening now. You go to Israel, you know, the Jews call the shots. They're sovereign. There are Arabs in the land. There are other peoples in the land, but they're under the authority of the Jews, but that's only going to increase. Now, this is going to happen while Antichrist and his assistant and the global advocates are in hell.
They're not going to be on earth anymore, and they're not coming back. Satan will have a time where he goes and is locked up and, of course, returns for a while and then is cast away, but the Israelites will be the righteous example to the surviving nations in the millennial reign, and Isaiah is saying that. One of the prophets talks about people going up to the Jews and say, tell me, you know, teach me about the Lord, and that's because they're going to then know, and they won't be shut down to the Gentiles.
They'll be delighted to share the truths about Messiah. Verse 3, and it shall come to pass in the day Yahweh gives you rest from your sorrow and from your fear and the hard bondage in which you were made to serve. Verse 4, that you will take up this proverb against the king of Babylon and say, how the oppressor has ceased, the golden city ceased. Well, now, this is both ancient and apocalyptic Babylon. We talked about the divisions of Babylon and its end-time meetings last session, but this includes both. It first gets to the historical Babylon, the ancient city or peoples themselves, but this is what happened to Belshazzar, the last Babylonian king who saw the handwriting on the wall, and Daniel came and interpreted.
He tried to give Daniel gifts, Daniel said, keep your gifts, and I don't, you're not impressing me, and Belshazzar was killed by Darius the Mede that night, which led to, again, the freedom of the Jewish people. So, it shall come to pass, God says, that they will take up this proverb and say how the oppressor has ceased, the golden city ceased, and the oppressor being Belshazzar, and this has, this is beginning, the beginning of applications to a greater figure, which is Lucifer himself. Babylon, at the time that Isaiah says this, is not the world power, and really not even a candidate, but they're the future oppressor of Judah, and Isaiah is introducing them. So, if you're a Jew and you go in captivity to Babylon, and you have the writings of Isaiah, you're going to understand all these things that he was saying about Babylon are coming true, and you're going to have great confidence in your God, prophets, and spiritually, you're going to be encouraged. You say, well, how do we know if any of those captives in Babylon even bothered with the writings of the prophets? Because Daniel tells us, I was reading Jeremiah, and he talks about the 70 years. So, yes, they did read the prophets, and just because they, you know, Daniel could have had Isaiah as his favorite prophet, just because he doesn't say that, doesn't mean it wasn't true.
Those men were into the scripture. What are they also going to read, you know, in Babylon, the Babylon post, the Babylon bee, which is a confused, anyway. So, anyway, Isaiah, he describes how the spirits of dead tyrants will, and when you get to chapters, verses 9 and 10, he's going to describe how the spirits of these dead tyrant kings received this king of Babylon, but we got to be careful when we go into this and understand that he's very likely being, giving us a picture, a painting of facts, and not necessarily saying this is exactly what's going to happen, though in the end, it is, but we'll come to that in a moment. So, the pride, he brings that up, the oppressor, that it's over for Belshazzar, he was killed, he was buried without the burial of a king, and his royal corpse, of course, went the way of all the earth. In a nutshell, just reviewing this, and this is important when I, at least I thought it was, and I hope you do too, in a nutshell, verses 3 through 23 of this 14th chapter illustrate the ultimate outcome of a unworthy and evil ruler, one whose pride brought to him personal destruction as well as the destruction of others. Isaiah described the king's arrival into the world of the dead, and he said, essentially, he wasn't a ruler anymore. It didn't work out well for him because this is a thought people have, that I've survived in this life, I've faced hardship, and somehow I'll face it when I die.
Oh no, you won't. Without a savior, the operative word savior, you're not going to do well, and it's going to be too late. There should be that sense of fear, the fear of the Lord beginning of knowledge.
The wealth, the splendor, the freedom, and the power, they don't exist for anybody in hell. So we read Revelation 18 about apocalyptic end times Babylon, and we see very, you know, parallels ancient Babylon. The merchants of these things who became rich by her will stand at a distance for fear of her torment weeping and wailing and saying, alas, alas, that great city that was clothed in fine linen, purple, and scarlet, adorned with gold and precious stones and pearls, for in one hour such great riches came to nothing. Every shipmaster, all who traveled by ship, sailors, and as many as trade on the sea, stood at a distance and cried out when they saw the smoke of a burning saying, what is like this great city? Well, they honored the city, they honored the system, they're part of it, and what John is saying is, you know, you think you're secure, you've got this global economy, you're doing well, it's all going to crash, and all of your achievements will not matter.
You'll have a problem that you cannot fix. This is the story, you see a great athlete, you can see a great scientist, you can see someone who's contributed to humanity, but they are anti-Christ in their beliefs, they will die, and all of their earthly achievements will be gone, they will have nothing. No one's going to say to them, weren't you MVP back in, no, no one's going to, it's not going to even come up. The dead kings, in the scenario that Isaiah will give, already in Sheol, stood in tribute to the Belshazzar, king of Babylon, coming in, but it was mockery, and so Isaiah, again, he's not trying to say this is really going to happen like that, he said, let me just paint a picture for you of how things will roll out, how they'll end up. You think you're going to somehow retain some status that you gained on earth when you get to hell, it's not going to happen.
Hell is going to mock everything you believe. Death is the great equalizer and more if you go to the wrong place at death, and there are no kings in this world, the world of the dead, that are kings anymore, and so he declares the fate of the wicked. So we're going to come to that beginning in verse 9. Anyway, verse 5, and Yahweh has broken the staff of the wicked, the scepter of the rulers, because he's sovereign. Verse 6, he who struck the people in wrath will, with a continual stroke, he who ruled the nations in anger is persecuted, and no one hinders.
The whole earth is at rest and quiet, they break forth into singing. So when this king is dispatched, everybody's going to be happy about that. This goes beyond the wicked king Belshazzar, it extends to Satan. And again, you really don't get it until we get to verse 12, then it all just comes together.
Both were tyrants, both wanted that self-idolizing power. It fits Satan, it fits Belshazzar. Revelation 20, 10, the devil who deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone where the beast and the false prophet are, and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever. Well, where this is going, according to Isaiah, is not going to go well for Belshazzar, he's going to be tormented too, because it has this dual application. That's what the intention was of the Holy Spirit. To point to Belshazzar, you see what's going to happen to him? And it's going to happen to Satan too, because I'm on the throne and I'm in control.
And this kind of behavior, this is how I'm going to deal with it. We say as a Christian, okay, it helps my theology to understand the spiritual evil, but what am I supposed to do with it? And the hope is always, you know, if you know these things, if you can say, repeat these truths without opening your Bible, you now are a journeyman Christian.
You can go to any job and work the job. You want God to bring someone in front of you who's interested in this, because what good is it if you've got all this Bible knowledge and you've got no audience? You know, you can't study commentaries, you know, really too far if you have no outlet. You know, it just becomes, after a while, entertainment. You've got to have an outlet. And if you don't, you cry out to the Lord.
You ask for one. Now, there's different ways. If you can be serving in the body of Christ and engaging with people and then you're getting the outlet there, or you can have unbelievers in your life that you are interested at some point. Anyway, verse 8, well, shouldn't a pastor always keep evangelism in the forefront of ministry? Shouldn't a pastor always be telling a congregation, hey, there are dead souls out there we want to revive, well, bring to life. They've never been alive.
We want to have them come to life. Paul said that to the Ephesians. You were dead in your trespasses and sins, and he made you alive.
He made you alive. Maybe I'll quote that later. Anyway, verse 8, indeed the cypress trees rejoice over you and the cedars of Lebanon saying since you were cut down no woodsman has come up against us. Well, this is ancient language for ancient war warfare. The armies in those days would strip a forest to make use of her timber, to build war machines, siege towers, and catapults, etc. Well, he's personifying the forest, and the forest is just, whoo, glad we're rid of that guy. He's not going to start any more wars and strip us of, you know, ourselves, the trees.
So, you can, it has many applications. You can draw from that in real life, the, you know, how some evil ruler in this world is removed and what relief comes with their removal. Unfortunately, in many places you remove one wicked ruler, you get another one and behind them. Verse 9, hell from beneath is excited about you to meet you at your coming. It stirs up the dead for you, all the chief ones of the earth.
It is raised up from the thrones, all the kings of the nations. And see here, the sheol, hell, translated hell in the New King James, that first word in verse 9, sheol, it's the pit of death. And it is, what he's, the picture he's painting is that hell is loving this. Hell doesn't love anything. It's in a state of disaster. And I'm talking about right now and in the end. Well, even now, the inhabitants are not doing well there.
Jesus was very gentle in presenting the picture of the rich man in sheol, the underworld. And that guy wasn't having a good day. He wanted out, didn't want his family to come. But anyway, coming back to this, Isaiah is making a point.
He's not trying to make a doctrinal statement on the afterlife. He's saying they're going to have their own problems where you're going, Belshazzar. Hell is the ultimate place of powerlessness. It is the ultimate of lost freedom. It is everything that disturbs a human being. And it doesn't even have to try to be dramatic in doing it.
Just by what is not there is enough to make it a place to not want to be there. And Isaiah, this man of God, was given great prophetic visions, many already fulfilled, even in his day. His messianic prophecies are astounding. That makes the future generations say, what this guy is saying is true. It's like, you know, a guy who steps into the batter's box in baseball and hits a home run every time. If you were, not promoting gambling, but just for the sake of making the point, if you were forced to bet, would he get a home run this time?
Of course you're going to say, yep, he's going to get one. And so maybe that's a crude way and clumsy way of trying to illustrate that here we have the prophetic record of Isaiah. And if he says something, you better listen because his record has made him an asset to God. And this is to be true with Peter. Also, the Roman centurion recognized it with Jesus, you know, Lord, you command the underworld. You say to one come, he comes.
One go, he goes. You command the underworld. And I get that. And I'm asking you to make a commandment on my behalf. And the Lord said, I have not seen this kind of faith in Israel. This guy connected the dots and he came to the conclusion that everybody else should come to. And so here, as we're reading this from Isaiah, we who believe in us saying, nah, I'm not so sure he knows what he's talking about.
We're saying, yeah, we, we're totally into this. We don't need a liberal theologian. We don't need an atheist to sign off on this, to approve us and approve what's being believed and said, we believe without them.
If I could be the way I am now mentally, 19 years old in college, I would wipe the floor with those guys. It would be like, who cares what you think? I don't know.
Who do you think you are? 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 additions 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.
