THIS IS THE LORD, WE TRUSTED IN HIM
Isaiah 25-6-9 - Easter, March 31, 2002
6On this mountain the LORD Almighty will prepare a feast of rich food for all peoples, a banquet of aged wine-- the best of meats and the finest of wines. 7On this mountain he will destroy the shroud that enfolds all peoples, the sheet that covers all nations; 8 he will swallow up death forever. The Sovereign LORD will wipe away the tears from all faces; he will remove the disgrace of his people from all the earth. The LORD has spoken.
9In that day they will say, "Surely this is our God; we trusted in him, and he saved us. This is the LORD, we trusted in him; let us rejoice and be glad in his salvation."
Dear Fellow-Redeemed and Saints in the Lord:
Whom do you trust? Trust, whether we realize it or not, is a very precious commodity. For once a trust is broken, it is very hard to bring back that trust. Maybe at times that trust is never, ever regained. We know that from time to time in each of our lives, the trust we have misplaced in someone else or something else sometimes has been broken or dashed to pieces. The Lord reminds us in His Words from the Prophet Isaiah that we put our trust in God. That trust we put in God is never, ever misplaced. It is never, ever broken. Solomon wrote in Proverbs this good advice on this Easter Sunday: "Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight"(Proverbs 3:5,6). That is good advice, really great advice: because in the world in which we live, the world wants us to put our trust in so many different things.
Sometimes we need our trust broken in order to understand that the only good trust is the trust that we put in God. In fact our nation recognizes that. If you take any coin or money and look at it, you will see "In God we trust." As believers we are going to look at what that means for us. We are going to use the words of the Prophet Isaiah as our theme this morning where he says at the end, "This is the Lord, we trusted in Him." We realized that I. It is our Lord who provides us the very best and II. It is our Lord who swallows up death forever.
Interesting in the Book of Isaiah--Isaiah has some of the greatest gospel gems where he told about the virgin birth of Christ the Savior, where he told about the suffering and death of the Savior in Chapter 53. But in the rest of the Book, we also realize that Isaiah came as a prophet who was to pronounce God?s divine judgment against the people of Israel because of their wickedness and sin and rebellion. The fact is right before this chapter from verses 13-23 Isaiah comes and (we could say) dumps God?s punishment on all the people. So now as we find chapters 24 and 25 we hear it as a breath of fresh air, where Isaiah is able to turn away from just pronouncing God?s judgment against the wickedness of mankind and proclaim to them God?s gospel and the message of hope and salvation that was there.
He begins in our text by describing a very specific purpose for a very specific people. In verse six, he says, "On this mountain." When we think about "this mountain," people of Jerusalem thought of Mount Zion or Zion itself or even the city of Jerusalem where the temple was. Isaiah here is writing to the believers and reminding them of the hope they have in the Lord. What is the Lord going to do on this mountain? We are told, "On this mountain, the LORD Almighty will prepare a feast of rich food for all peoples." He is going to prepare a banquet, and He describes it as rich food. Some translations have the best of the fat of the food. Our society avoids the rich foods and the fatty foods, but in the Old Testament times this was something that was a sumptuous fare. They didn?t very often get to eat rich foods or the fatty foods. Isaiah says, "On this mountain the LORD is going to prepare a feast of rich foods. He goes on: "a feast of rich foods for all peoples and banquet of aged wine." That aged is wine that sat around and was able to become better in quality and color than the wine that they commonly used.
It wasn?t just that there was going to be some good food and some good wine, Isaiah sums it up: "On that mountain, the LORD Almighty will prepare a feast of rich foods for all peoples, a banquet of aged wine;" and then he tells us, "the best of meats and the finest of wines" for these people who rebelled against Him time and time again. The Lord still loved them and was going to prepare them a banquet of the best and give them the very best.
That is important for us to remember today. The Lord hasn?t withdrawn His love or care or kindness from any of us. That description of the very best He gives to us causes us to reflect today. Because when we look at ourselves, we realize that we are no better than anyone else. We are no better than the children of Israel who followed God for a time and then went away from God and followed Him with their own desires and whims. We too sometimes wallow in our sins more than we walk in the ways of God. Yet, the Lord still gives to us His very best, the best of the foods, and the best of the wines, the banquet He prepares. So there is quite a contrast isn?t there between us who are not really the best and between God who is the best and always gives us the best? The Apostle Paul to Timothy wrote, "Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners--of whom I am the worst"(1 Timothy 1:15). We would agree with the Apostle Paul when we look at our sins, we are the worst of sinners. Yet, what does God do? He sent His Son into this world who is the very best to save sinners, to save you, to save me, to save every sinner from eternal destruction: because our Lord provides us the very best.
It is not for just us, who are sitting here today, but He provides the very best to every believer throughout the world; and the Lord, we are told, provides the very best for those who do not acknowledge Him. We are told that the Savior died for the sins of the whole world. Sadly, there are those who do not know that, those who reject that; so they will not receive the benefit of Christ?s redeeming work. That doesn?t take away the fact that He died for their sins also. Scripture tells us, "But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels, now crowned with glory and honor because he suffered death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone"(Hebrews 2:9). The Lord Jesus wants all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. That?s the best He has for mankind. That?s the best He has to offer to each one of us. Thankfully, that is why we gather here today to celebrate and rejoice because this is the Lord and we trusted in Him as we sang in our Psalm, "This is the day the Lord has made. Let us rejoice and be glad in His salvation."
How do we come to know that? How do we come to be so happy on a day like today when all around us we read articles and hear that they question whether Jesus came back to life or not, where the world sometimes just goes right by the celebration of Easter not realizing the joy that is there? We realize that God gives us the very best. He has given us His Word, which is a "lamp to our feet and a light for our path." What does He say to us? He tells us in the Psalms, we who use that guide of His Word as a "lamp to our feet and a light for our path," the "believer is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither. Whatever he does prospers"(Psalm 1:3).
That is the very best the Lord gives to us, His Word. This is the Lord we trusted in Him, and our Lord gives us the very best. Part of that very best, of course, is that our Lord also II. Swallows up death forever.
He makes no bones about it. He says that right in the middle of our text, verse 8: "He will swallow up death forever." It?s taken away. It is swallowed up. It has disappeared from sight. He goes on to describe what does that mean for the believers, what does that mean for mankind. He goes back to the picture of this mountain. "On this mountain He will destroy the shroud that enfolds all peoples, the sheet that covers all nations." In the Old Testament times when there was death and sadness, they would cover their faces with a veil, with a shroud, out of respect and out of great sadness. The Lord says now that veil has been taken away and that shroud is removed. There is no more mourning. He says that because death has been swallowed up forever. There is sadness and sorrow, but there is not eternal sadness and sorrow but rejoicing.
Listen to these beautiful words, "The Sovereign Lord will wipe away the tears from all faces; He will remove the disgrace of His people from all the earth." Who among us cannot help but picture the Good Shepherd wiping away the tears of those who mourn? If anyone would doubt His words, He gives this assurance: "The Lord has spoken." He reminded the believers back then and He reminds us today. These are the Words of the Lord, not something that man made up. The Lord has spoken; and as the Lord has spoken, thus it is true.
In our last verse of our text, "In that day they will say, ?Surely this is our God. We trusted in Him and He saved us. This is the Lord; we trusted in Him. Let us rejoice and be glad in His salvation.?" The day of Easter is a day of celebration. When we celebrate on Sunday reminds us that as we worship every Sunday, we in essence celebrate that day of resurrection. As we grow in our faith, we realize that we celebrate the day of resurrection day after day. When we hear these words of the Lord, we are reminded of the words of fulfillment in the New Testament times. The Lord made these promises to His people; and when they heard them, they looked ahead and waited for the promise.
We hear them as promises made in the Old Testament and we see them fulfilled in the New Testament. The Lords says He will swallow up death forever. We hear the words of Apostle Paul: "When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: ?Death has been swallowed up in victory?"(1 Corinthians 15:54).
Isaiah says that He promises to wipe away our tears. You and I hear the words of John who wrote in the Book of Revelation: "He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away"(Revelation 21:4). Death is swallowed up forever. When we hear these words of our Savior as a promise in the Old Testament, we hear them fulfilled in the New Testament from the Apostle Paul, John and the Gospels.
We also hear them for ourselves that we too like the prophet of the Old Testament who was looking forward to the resurrection and rejoice on this day of the resurrection. In the Epistle of Peter we read: "Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, for you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls"(1 Peter 1:8,9).
This is the Lord; we trusted in Him. When we trust Him, our trust is never misplaced. It is never, ever broken. Whom do we trust in? In our day-to-day living we sometimes trust in ourselves. Sometimes we trust in others. Sometimes we trust in power or prestige or wealth or honor. But in the end we realize they we all fall short of the glory of God. They all will always disappoint us. Like the prophet reminds us, this is our Lord; we trusted in Him. We trusted in Him and He is our Lord who prepares for us the very best day by day. Finally, eternally, it is our Lord who swallows up death forever and gives us the very best then which is life itself. The Lord never breaks His promises. He made many of them and they always were fulfilled. Solomon, when he finished building the temple that was the greatest temple that was ever built covered with gold and silver and fine jewels all over, looked at it and realized it wasn?t to his glory. It was not his accomplishment that he had done all this. It was by God?s promise, by God?s grace. After he looked at it, he said these words, which we say today. After all what God has done that we who sin in this world, He provides us with the very best--a Savior from heaven, His Son. We who are sinful and deserve eternal death, He gives us eternal life. So with Solomon we say, "Praise be to the LORD, who has given rest to his people Israel just as he promised. Not one word has failed of all the good promises he gave through his servant Moses"(1 Kings 8:56). This is just as He promised. Not one word has failed of all the promises He has spoken to His servant Moses. We say that not a word has failed that was spoken by any of His servants.
This is the Lord; we trusted in Him. Let us rejoice and be glad in our salvation now and forever. Amen. Pastor Timm O. Meyer
