So why were they tested? To be purified.
Why? Because they have a future work. What was that work? To bring about Messiah. Is that the end of it?
No. What is their future work? To have a place ready for Messiah to return. And if there were no Jewish people, there would be no Mount of Olives for Jesus to come back in the fashion that He said He's coming back for His people. But they are there, and there's not a thing hell can do about it.
But there's so much human suffering in the middle of it. And it all comes back to, for the Jewish people, they should have known better. This is Cross Reference Radio with our pastor and teacher Rick Gaston. Rick is the pastor of Calvary Chapel 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. Today on Cross Reference Radio, Pastor Rick will continue teaching in Isaiah Chapter 48. Here's Pastor Rick.
Guess what? It will not be ruined by Israel. That's what he's saying, for my name's sake, I will defer my anger, and for my praise, I will restrain it from you so that I do not cut you off. I am not going to put this under your control.
He knew what he was doing the whole time. Verse 10, Behold, I have refined you, but not as silver. I have tested you in the furnace of affliction. Well, refinery is a process that purges unwanted substances. And the secret behind all of God's dealings with Israel is just that, purging them. Looking back at Isaiah Chapter 1 verse 25, I will turn my hand against you and thoroughly purge away your dross and take away all your alloy, the stuff you've added in. Okay, so what would happen, what would have happened if God did not do these periodic purges to Israel?
I think they would have completely collapsed. That's why they are purges. They're not perfect in that they do not wipe out everything, but they remove a large amount of resistance from his people over the millennium. But not as silver. Well, metaphor is eclipsed by reality.
A metaphor goes so far, there's a bigger thing behind it. Malachi, some 300 years later, he rings in on this. He says, he will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver. He will purify the sons of Levi and purge them as gold and silver that they may offer to Yahweh an offering in righteousness. And so 300 years later, other generations are in need of purging and Malachi is even looking further on into the future. So why were they tested? To be purified.
Why? Because they have a future work. What was that work? To bring about Messiah. Is that the end of it?
No. What is their future work? To have a place ready for Messiah to return. And if there were no Jewish people, there would be no Mount of Olives for Jesus to come back in the fashion that he said he's coming back for his people. But they are there and there's not a thing hell can do about it.
But there's so much human suffering in the middle of it. And it all comes back to, for the Jewish people, they should have known better. And even you look at church history and you say, they should have known better. Don't ever want to act like the Jews are the only bad guys on the scene when it comes to God's word, because we are equal. At the least, we're equal. I mean, look at Martin Luther saying, you know, being frustrated with the Jews because they wouldn't become believers and he's going to write them off and say that there's no such thing as literal Israel. This is crazy.
Martin, what were you thinking? Anyhow, so as fierce as the Jew has been against Yahweh's will, imagine if he was not ever disciplined for it. And their idolatry was not the result of being weak, but attracted to sin.
Is that not always the case? Anyway, in the furnace of affliction, now classically in the scripture, Egypt is that furnace of affliction or was, but this time it's the Babylonian experience. David wrote of himself, and I believe David wrote Psalm 119. Psalm 119 is like the letter to the Hebrews in the New Testament. Who wrote it? Well, there's nobody that could have did Hebrews except Paul.
There's just nobody's going to come on the scene, yeah, I was hiding, but now I'm here. Paul wrote Hebrews, and when you get to heaven, you'll say, well, you were right. And I'll say, I know, but I'm humble, please leave me alone. Psalm 119, Israel, the man after God's own heart wrote that psalm, and he says, before I was afflicted, I went astray, but now I keep your word. It's just so articulate.
It's expressing what we all agree with, and that's why we sing so many songs with David's words. Anyway, the shaping of the nation Israel through intense affliction, and let's just consider some of it. From the beginning, there was Pharaoh's Egypt that the Jews were enslaved. Genocide began to take place there. There were the invaders in the book of Judges, the Philistines in the book of Samuel, the Assyrians in the books of Kings, the Babylonians in Jeremiah, the Agites in Esther, the Arabs in Nehemiah, and that's just some of the places in the Old Testament. My point is the furnace of affliction has been a part of their history, and it all comes back to they should have known better and should have acted on what they knew.
They did not as a people. An individual certainly did get it right, which takes away any, just blocks out any racial slurs that anyone might want to hurl. You'd be a fool to hurl racial slurs at the Jews especially, but you would be doing Satan work to hurl them at anybody. Granted, there are some cultures that are just not, you know, pleasant to some of us, but that's no grounds to have the people in contempt. Low class is low class regardless of how wealthy, rich, race or culture.
Somebody who's inconsiderate and mean is inconsiderate and mean, really nothing to do with their ethnicity. Verse 11, for my own sake, for my own sake, I will do it. For how should my name be profaned and I will not give my glory to another? Well, we've come across this before.
It's being repeated because it needs to be said again. God will keep his promise to preserve Israel in spite of their behavior. Again, Malachi chapter 3 verse 6, for I am Yahweh. I do not change. Therefore, you are not consumed, oh sons of Jacob. The only reason why you're still around is because of me, not because you earned it.
So let's not get a big head about yourselves. Satan will not be allowed to overturn God's covenant, his commitment, even though he is thrown and is throwing everything he has at Israel. Wait a minute. Satan threw everything he had at Job, at Joseph, at Jeremiah, at Paul. They survived. Verse 8, no, verse 12, sorry. Listen to me, oh Jacob and Israel, my called, I am he, I am the first, I am also the last. You hear God appealing to them?
He's still appealing to them. My called, you know, he's reaching out, verse 13. Indeed, my hand has laid the foundation of the earth and my right hand has stretched out the heavens.
When I call to them, they stand up together. And so God is saying, I am not going to stop supporting you. And I want you to stop supposing there is another God, there is not, there's only me.
And I have the power to move mountains and to do whatever I want to do with my creation. Verse 14, all of you assemble yourselves in here, who among them has declared these things. Yahweh loves him, he shall do his pleasure on Babylon and his arm shall be against the Chaldeans. Well, we've got a problem with this verse.
There's a lot here. The big thing is, I don't want to get ahead of myself, this is Cyrus, is this Cyrus or not? But let's take it from the beginning of verse 14, all of you assemble. So God says, gather your scholars, your prognosticators, your astrologers, whoever you want, bring them here.
And you tell me if anybody is like me. And you would think their repeated inability to match God would expose the fake gods. He says Yahweh loves him. Is this Cyrus? Well, God loved what Cyrus was to do for him. Now, there are two schools, there are many good Bible commentators that would say this is Cyrus.
But then there are others also, which I am in this other camp, that says I don't think this is Cyrus. It won't affect your salvation one way or the other. But if you're just reading the Scripture and something doesn't sit right with you, it probably is an indication that your first assumption is not right.
And so there's an alarm going off saying there's something not right with this. It's not what the Scriptures write, it's our interpretation of what it is saying. The shock value of this statement about a Gentile, pagan Gentile being loved by God would have certainly had a value to shock the Jews. But I don't think that's saying. Yahweh was not ever pleased with Cyrus' moral character or his religion.
I'll leave it at that, because he seems to have been a decent person as people go. But beginning at verse 6, as I mentioned, that was the turning point. And Isaiah began to write new things. And I don't think this is a stretch because of how this chapter ends. It ends with the long view of Israel's history.
It gets into what hasn't yet happened to this, even to this day. The Babylon of Revelation 18 is the final frontier and stronghold of lost humanity before the Son of God. Revelation 18 is the final war concerning humanity. There's another one at the end of the Millennial reign, but this age and stage of history.
1 Corinthians 15, 24. Then comes the end when he delivers the kingdom of God to God, the Father, when he puts an end to all rule and all authority and power. Well, that hasn't happened, but it's going to happen at the second coming of Christ. And then you have the thousand year kingdom age period where Satan is locked away. And then after about a thousand years, Satan will be freed again.
And then he will be able to tempt people who have never faced his temptation. Those who came through before the tribulation, et cetera, the believers, we will not be subject to that. But those born in the Millennial age, those who survived the Great Tribulation, they will. And there will be a lot of them. Death will be almost nonexistent during that period of time. And so you can imagine the population explosion. Well, God's still got to get to the bottom of, are these people going to be on his side or not through all eternity?
And he's going to find out. And so they'll be living in a perfect environment, relatively perfect environment, almost like Eden. And then when Satan is loosed, a great many of them will side with Satan and it will be instantly resolved. And then there will be a new heavens and a new earth and the former will pass away. And we won't even remember it. And I can't wait. But I've got it on my calendar. I have an eternal calendar. Anyhow, for this instrument of God, Cyrus was an instrument of God, but this instrument here, whom he loved, this is Messiah.
That's the side I go with. That's what I believe against apocalyptic Babylon. Let's look at Revelation 18, 21. Then a mighty angel took up a stone like a great millstone and threw it into the sea, saying, Thus with violence, the great city Babylon shall be thrown down and shall not be found any more. And this is apocalyptic. This is the end of the age.
It will be dealt with. The last frontier, the last stronghold of God-resisting man. And so the one who God is saying he loves that is going to deal with this Babylon is Messiah. And that's what Isaiah is moving into. As he continues through this chapter, he's going to be more and more into the kingdom age and messianic period.
So let's look and see if we can button it up. Verse 15, I, even I, have spoken yes, I have called him, I have brought him, and his way will prosper. Now, your Bibles might have the personal pronouns all in lower case, indicating this is not a divine figure.
I think that they're wrong, and I'm not alone. In the original Hebrew, it would not have, you know, you have to go with the context to know if the pronoun refers to deity or not most of the time. So he defeats the final Babylon at his second coming and gives Israel her land, and it will be given without any fear of enemies. Now, you say, well, how do you put this together? How do you know these, you know? Well, this is, prophecy is a puzzle, but it can be put together.
Puzzles can be put together. And I'm going to give you an example. Genesis 3 15, this is God dealing with Satan after he caused Adam and Eve to stumble into sin. He says, I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed. He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel. We'll take it from the bottom.
You'll give him a slight wound, but he's going to kill you. That's ultimately what that means. But how would anybody know that this is the virgin birth before the virgin birth? You see, as Scripture unfolds, you begin to see it.
You say, this is a no-brainer now. The woman doesn't have a seed. It's the man. What is the seed of the woman? It's the virgin birth. And almost all, probably all, good Bible commentators hold that view. So you come to this section in Isaiah.
He says, the one I love. And then you have a pastor say, well, I don't think that Cyrus is going to deliver them. I think he's now rolling into Messiah, and he's moving away from ancient Babylon, historical Babylon, that Cyrus will be used against, and now he's talking about end-time Babylon. And it's the same way we approach such verses as found in Genesis and get to the bottom of it. You look at the cross, you say, yep, the crucifixion was the bruising of the heel. But in the end, Satan is cast into the lake of fire for all eternity.
I would say that would count as a bruised head. A little euphemism there. So I hope I did not confuse you with this. But to me, it's very clear. Now, again, even Haley's Bible handbook that I recommend. Haley thinks that it's Cyrus, but Haley is in heaven now, and he can't get his hands on me.
I think he's wrong. Verse 16. I should add that not being able to understand a verse does not take away from the verse. It just means you don't understand it. The meaning is there.
Verse 16. Come near to me. Hear this. I have not spoken in secret. Have I not spoken in secret? Well, pardon me.
I'm too excited here. Come near to me, not you. Hear this. I have not spoken in secret from the beginning.
From the time that it was, I was there. And now the Lord Yahweh and His Spirit have sent me. You see how confusing that verse could be?
Who's talking here? Is it Isaiah? Is it God? Then how come it ends up His Spirit has sent me?
Which is in upper casing. It's Messiah speaking now. This is how the prophets wrote John's Gospel. Chapter 12, verse 41. John saying this about Jesus. These things Isaiah said when he saw His glory and spoke of Him. John is saying Isaiah saw Jesus.
Where? Sitting on the throne. And the train of His robe filled the temple. Isaiah chapter 6. Yahweh is Christ. Christ is God. God the Son. The Holy Spirit and Christ sort of, if I could put it like this, as light radiates from the Son, they have radiated from the throne. They have come in touch with humanity in that form. In the form of the Holy Spirit, in the form of the Son, Jesus Christ. If God withheld those two, would we have any contact?
What contact would be left? I think it's incredible, in a good way, a believable way. John chapter 8. Jesus said to them, most assuredly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am. He's saying I'm eternal. And so it's not a far-fetched understanding to say, hey, verse 16, where he says, come near to me. Who's speaking here? It's not Isaiah. It's from God. And it develops into, hey, it's Messiah.
Hear this. I have not spoken in secret from the beginning. From the time that it was, I was there, and now the Lord Yahweh and His Spirit have sent me. This is the one that is loved, that was spoken of earlier. A remarkable glimpse into the triune Godhead at work. Verse 17. Thus says Yahweh, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel. I am Yahweh, your God, who teaches you to profit, who leads you by the way you should go. He is the Redeemer. I love this verse.
Titus chapter 2. Looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ. How does a Jehovah's Witness get around that?
They lie to themselves. Who gave Himself for us. Christ gave Himself for us.
The Father did not. The Son did as Redeemer. That He might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for Himself His own special people, zealous for good works. Purify us from every lawless deed.
We have an advocate with the Father. Verse 18. O that you had heeded My commandments, then your peace would have been like a river and your righteousness like the waves of the sea. And again we look at Israel's history and we say they have not heeded His commandments. Verse 19. Your descendants also would have been like the sand and the offspring of your body, like the grains of sand.
His name would not have been cut off nor destroyed from before Me. They threw away peace through disobedience and there's really not much to add to that except they should have known better. The high price of the self-will is farewell to peace. Verse 20. Go forth from Babylon, flee from the Chaldeans with a voice of singing. Declare, proclaim this, utter it to the end of the earth, say Yahweh has redeemed His servant Jacob.
See that hasn't happened. This is why that first opening statement about the one He loves being used to deliver them from Babylon is farther reaching than Cyrus. This 20th verse is still unfulfilled and we'll open up a little bit of it. Of course he gets into the doctrine of separation here a little bit but this is a global proclamation. It's not the 50,000 Jews returning to Israel from historic Babylon under Zerubbabel.
This is global and what's coming he's going to talk about the deserts in a moment that hasn't happened yet still. There's going to be a final redemption of literal Israel. Romans 11 to God has not cast away his people whom he foreknew. Romans 11 26. And so all Israel will be saved as it is written the deliverer will come out of Zion. He will turn away ungodliness from Jacob for this is my covenant with them when I take away their sins. That surely hasn't happened yet but this is where it belongs at this time in history when apocalyptic Babylon that last frontier is vanquished.
Christ establishes his kingdom on earth that's when these things will be. The one that the Father loves is the Messiah that is bringing this about. Verse 21 and they did not thirst when he when he led them through the deserts he caused the waters to flow from the rock for them.
He also split the rock and the waters gushed out. So of course he's pointing back to how God provided for his people in the days of Moses and he's going to provide for them in the end. Verse 22 there is no peace says Yahweh for the wicked. And so it's a just a flat out statement the wicked don't believe this and yet they are they have so much unrest.
I think of some of the people on death row for horrible crimes for murders etc. They have no peace unless they give their lives to Christ and receive forgiveness. But the Bible calls it like it is. Let's pray. Our Father you sure give us a lot of things to work on and for that we would do well to thank you. I'd rather spend my time searching through the scriptures than a whole lot of other things in this life. 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.
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