Mike Bickle emphasizes the prophetic messages in Isaiah 32-33, warning the leaders of Jerusalem about the impending crisis from the Assyrian army. He highlights the importance of recognizing the coming Messiah who will reign in righteousness amidst confusion and complacency. Bickle calls for a response to God's leadership, urging believers to seek understanding and stability in times of upheaval. He stresses the beauty of the King and the necessity of godly leadership to guide others through trials. Ultimately, he encourages the congregation to meditate on both the terror of God's judgments and the beauty of His redemptive plan.

Well, introduction, paragraph A, Isaiah 32 and 33 are especially important prophetic messages to the leaders of Jerusalem. What happens is that, what's going on is that it's only about two years before a great crisis is going to come and decimate the land of Judah. The Assyrian army, remember the Assyrians, that's the major superpower in the Middle East in that couple hundred year period. There was nobody that was close to them as rivals. The Assyrian Empire for several hundred years, they were two years away from Assyria invading them and taking and killing a lot of people and taking 200,000 captives from Judah and then putting a siege around the city of Jerusalem, surrounding Jerusalem, threatening to destroy the city, and then Hezekiah and Isaiah together, they cried out to the Lord and the Lord supernaturally saved the city of Jerusalem though He allowed the great crisis to happen in the larger area of Judah with the 200,000 captives that were taken out of the land. Paragraph B, I'm just going to highlight a couple points. This outline is more for you and your personal study when you take time and really go spend a longer time on these chapters. Chapter 32 is one of the great chapters about the Messiah. He's coming in righteousness. There was a lot of confusion in the land of Judah. Remember, Judah's the southern kingdom, Israel's the northern kingdom. There was a civil war, and so the south versus the north, and south is Judah and the city of Jerusalem is the capital. That's where David, he was part of the south. But there was a lot of confusion going on in the land, a lot of compromise, and Isaiah said, I've got good news for you. There's coming a really good king, and it ends up he's fully God and fully man, and he'll reign forever, and everything that God promised to the city of Jerusalem is going to come to pass. Then here in chapter 32, very important, verse 9 to 14, we're going to look at this, but I want you to highlight it. There's a prophetic exhortation to the complacent women of that day. Now, I wouldn't limit it to the women, but the idea was a prophetic exhortation of people that thought, well, you know what? Things are going to go on business as usual. Nothing is really going to change, and Isaiah really challenges them. That's a really important passage for today. Then chapter 33, he says, I've got good news for you. The king is going to win, and there's going to be great victory, and the enemy is going to be destroyed. Verse 2 to 4, Isaiah prays, and this is a model prayer that we can pray today in the midst of crisis. It's a key prophetic prayer. Then in verses 5 and 6, Isaiah, he urges, he emphasizes them, he emphasizes to them the value of knowing what's going on. He's saying there's power in knowledge. If you know what's happening and what the Lord's doing, it will give you stability in the time when things are in an upheaval and darkness is rising and things are seemingly out of control. If you have understanding, he says, you'll have strength. You'll have stability. So he presses them to take seriously getting the understanding. Of course, that's what we're doing for these three years on Saturday nights, on Friday nights, by the grace of God, all 150 chapters, of which the primary subject is the end times. We're wanting to get the large storyline, and we're wanting to get some of the detailed nuances as well. All those aren't as important as the major storyline. Then he goes on in chapter 33, verse 13 to 16. He gives a godly response, how the godly are to respond to the judgments that are increasing in the land. And of course, that's a model for the end times as well. And then it crescendos with a revelation of the beauty of the king. That king Jesus and his beauty will be one of the primary focuses of the Holy Spirit in the generation the Lord returns. He says, in that day your eyes will see the beauty of the king. Because it's the beauty of Jesus as unfolded, particularly in these two chapters, but really the whole end times storyline, but it's really focused here in Isaiah 32 and 33. It's the beauty of Jesus seeing that beauty in a way that others can't see. The others will see the events unfold, and all they'll see is random chaos. And when trouble happens, and it seems random, and it doesn't seem like there's a purpose, particularly not a redemptive purpose that matters forever, then people get very offended at the chaos, because random chaos leaves people confused and hurt and offended. But if there's a beautiful orchestrator of history, and we can see through the lens of the Word of God by the Holy Spirit, we can see beauty unfolding in the midst of even the devil raging, and men raising up in sin against the purpose of God. Let's look at Roman numeral 2. Let's jump right in here. He starts off, and again, the context is, in Isaiah's day, the leadership, the spiritual and the political leadership, is filled with compromise, all kinds of confusion and deception, and incompetence everywhere. I mean, it's similar today. There's a need for godly leadership in the political arena, the economic arena, and in the spiritual arenas as well. And so Isaiah trumpet blasts this prophetic decree. There is a king who's coming. Righteousness will win. Chaos will be behind us forever. And he says, this man, he's not only going to have this ability, he's going to multiply it. He's going to raise up princes. He's going to raise up leaders. They will have his values. They will value justice and righteousness. So it's not only there's a man that's coming. There's a man that's coming. He's going to multiply his values and his power through people that are like him. Now, this is obviously related to the second coming, but the principle is today, because if that's happening in fullness when he appears, we know it's happening in part right now, and it's increasing the closer we get to the return of the Lord, the more that the promises and the blessings increase in intensity. It goes on in verse 2, and he talks about it. He says, a man will be for us a hiding place. What he's actually talking about is these leaders under him, these princes, these leaders of society, these leaders, spiritual, economic, political leaders. I love this description that Isaiah gives. He goes, these leaders will provide a covering. They'll be like a hiding place when there's a big storm breaking out. These godly leaders will be like a covering in a tempest, and a tempest is a violent storm. They'll be like water in a dry desert land. They'll be like the shadow of a great rock with the heat bearing down upon them. He says in verse 3, and the fruit of these godly leaders is that the spirit of blindness will be lifted off the people. In verse 3, it says, the eyes of those who see will not be dim. In verse 4, the heart of the rash will understand knowledge, and they'll actually speak it plainly. Now, at a quick read, you think, what's going on? And the larger storyline of the book of Isaiah is that there's a spiritual blindness on the people of God, on the nation of Israel. And what Isaiah is saying, there's a day coming where the spiritual blindness that's operating in part right now upon Israel, it's going to be lifted entirely. But there's a spirit of lethargy and blindness even upon the saints in the body of Christ. Not all of them, but there's a tremendous lack of grasping what God is doing and what's unfolding in the earth today. But he says in verse 3, the point he's making is that when God sets godly leaders in place, that spirit of blindness is lifted. And the people under them get living understanding. In verse 4, the heart that speaks rashly. I think of many in the body of Christ that are speaking, distorting the truth about Jesus and the grace of God, and the Lord has a plan to heal that to where they will speak clearly instead of with distortion. Now, this is going to happen in fullness when he returns, but I see this as a promise I'm believing God for even right now. So there is a glorious plan of victory. That great plan is based on a man, but that man is going to impart his values to other leaders, both men and women, young and old. And those leaders are going to be a source, a resource in the storm to other people. You know, even now, I look at that prayer and I say, Lord, I want to touch that even now. I want to be amidst a company of people that our passion is to connect with God in such a way that as trouble increases, we are a part of the answer, not part of the problem. And the reason I say part of the problem is that believers that are overwhelmed in fear or offense, they're mad at God like, I thought that you were going to do it this way, and it's happening that way. I don't even know if I believe you anymore. Jesus warned that offense would emerge in the generation that He returns. And there's more and more believers being captured by fear or offense or even deception or compromise. And they're actually contributing to the confusion. And I have mercy on them, but I'm saying, Lord, I want to be a man among a people that actually is part of the solution, not part of the problem. I want to see leaders raised up that in the wind, in the tempest, in the darkness, in the storm, they can actually be a resource for other people. So in verse 2, just put your name on that verse and say, Lord, that's me. By the grace of God, I'm going to be a leader that's going to have answers and going to be a stability when things shake. That's who I'm going to be by the grace of God. Go up to page 2. Again, one of the great benefits of this godly leadership when the Lord returns, but again, we're believing for it now. I'm asking for a lot of these things now knowing they'll come in fullness when the Lord returns. This, again, I've already mentioned it, but I'll mention it again. Isaiah said, the eyes of the people that are dim, they're confused, they're deceived, they're distorted, they're filled with fear, they're blind, they don't know what's going on. It looks like history is a train off the tracks going nowhere with random violence and disruptions. Where's this thing going? Those are people that their eyes are dim. The Lord says, I'm going to give clarity to them. I'm going to release a spirit of boldness and clarity. Now, in Isaiah chapter 6, that's when Isaiah was commissioned as a prophet. We didn't cover Isaiah chapter 6 in this course, but it's his ordination, his commissioning service, so to speak, where the Lord visited him. His eyes saw the king in his glory. And the Lord gave him this most, I don't want to say terrible, but this most challenging commission. He said, I want you to speak the truth so boldly, so persistently, so clearly that it actually ends up hardening the nation of Israel. You think, what on earth are you talking about? You read Isaiah chapter 6, verse 9 and 10. The first time I read that, I was like, wait. If you anoint a prophet, it's so that everybody's eyes will be clear who hears him. And the Lord told Isaiah, no, that's not how it works. Because there's a very, very important truth here is that truth is not neutral. That if you hear the truth and you don't respond to it, you incrementally take a step backwards and there's just a little bit of hardness that sets in. If you respond to it, you have a small incremental step forward and there's just a little bit of tenderness. There's not much change each time. But every time something happens, tonight, everyone in this room, you're going to be a little bit more responsive or a little bit more dull after hearing the word tonight. And not because it's an end time teaching. It's true of every single setting, everywhere we go. Because truth is not neutral. It hardens or it tenderizes and makes us responsive. If we don't say yes to it, we don't leave the same. We leave a little bit ever so slightly jaded and the next time we hear it, it moves us a little bit less. So he told Isaiah, part of your commission is you're going to speak the truth so clearly, so consistently, boldly, under the power of the Spirit. And the result of it is, some will say yes, others will grow hard in their heart because the truth, the anointed truth, not responded to, it's what happened in Jesus' day. And he actually quoted this very reality. He quoted Isaiah to the Pharisees. He goes, you've seen my miracles, you've heard my truth, it's made you so much harder in the three and a half years, now you're ready to kill me. Whereas before you were not quite at that point, but now you are. But the great news here, he says the blindness is going to be totally lifted one day. But between now and when the Lord returns, it's going in two directions. But we're asking the Lord, Lord give us living understanding in a way that it opens the eyes of the understanding. In Romans chapter 11, Paul talks about this truth a little bit. I mean right here in Isaiah 32 verse 3, about the eyes opening, and he refers to this blindness that started, or that was emphasized in Isaiah's calling, was still operating 700 years after Isaiah in Paul the Apostle's day. Let's look at paragraph C. Now he gives a call to the women in Jerusalem. Now these are the women, quote, who grew up hearing the Bible in the synagogue, hearing the word of God. These are people that are well familiar with the scriptures, but he gives them this very urgent cry to shake off their lethargy. Because what was happening is that he was saying within two years, trouble is coming and things are going to change dramatically, but the leaders in the land were saying, Isaiah, he's way out there. There's several times I've mentioned it in the book of Isaiah, where Isaiah had to contend against his spiritual leaders in his own nation writing him off, wagging their head at him, saying he's gone overboard. And these ladies have bought into the narrative of the culture. And so they're not responding at all to his words. He says in verse 9, he gives seven exhortations, and I'm not going to point them all out, I've got a little bit of the notes there, but this is a passage that's really worthy in a practical way of tearing apart. I don't want to do it on the Friday nights, I want to stay on more of the broad strokes of these chapters, but this is a note to self passage, you want to really open up verses 9 to 11, because he gives them seven action items, seven exhortations of how they'll respond. He says, verse 9, rise up, you women who are at ease. He says, hear my voice, that's the second thing, you complacent daughters. Now the reason they were complacent was because they trusted the word of the political leaders, and the word on the street, the word that was popular, is they've made a covenant with Assyria, this superpower, and they went and the king, Hezekiah, brought a tremendous amount of money, like 50 million dollars of today's money, and gave it to the superpower to buy them off, and said, hey, we'll give you a lot of money, just be nice to us, you're real powerful, we're real weak. And they made a covenant, they said, you know, the crisis is over, the leaders have solved it, they've met Sennacherib, that's the king of Assyria, and they've settled a deal, they signed the contract, they gave them the 50 million dollars, things are good, and what Isaiah says, you're complacent, you're totally being lied to, you think it's going to be business as usual, but in a short amount of time, he says, even within a two year period, we're going to see that in a moment, but things are going to change radically, and you're completely unprepared for it, but if you would cry out to the Lord, the Lord would do more in your midst. But you think it's business as usual. Again, that's, boy, you see that all around the earth today, even in the body of Christ. Now the good news is, there's millions in the body of Christ that are waking up, but there's hundreds of millions that aren't. And that's the Lord's issue, but we want to continually contend for more and more folks to wake up, pay attention to what the Spirit is saying in this hour. He says to them in verse 9, hear my voice, you complacent daughters, give ear to what I'm telling you. Here it is, verse 10, here's the two year thing, he says, in a year and some days, so I'm calling it two years or less, because we don't know how many days, trouble is going to come. Now this is a really specific time sensitive, a timing indicator, within a two year period, a year and some days, this nation is going to be troubled. And they're going, no it's not. No, we've got deals, our leaders have told us, they've assured us, business as usual is going on. He goes, you complacent women, the vintage will fail, meaning the crops are going to fail, meaning a foreign army is going to invade us, that's why the crops are going to fail. Because when it talks about here, the gathering will not come in, the harvest, that means because there's a foreign invasion, a military invasion, they're eating our crops and destroying them, so they can take us captive. That's what he's talking about here. He says, verse 11, tremble, shake off the spirit of ease, be troubled. Now it's, the grace of God is, it's a paradox, because we, we're troubled, we tremble, but we have joy and confidence. Because we have confidence in who we are before him, and that while we're a part of a kingdom that's growing, that is victorious, but we're troubled because around us darkness will increase as well. So there will be an increase of darkness and trouble, but an increase of power and victory happening at the same time. So we're troubled, but we're confident with joy, because we're connected to the king. There's the goodness and the severity of God happening at the same time. He said, verse 11, tremble, be troubled. He says, as a matter of fact, strip yourself of things that are not necessary in your life right now. Begin to seek the Lord, gird yourself with sackcloth, that's the Joel, you know, cry out, call a fast. Begin to get more serious with God, and they're going, nah, nah, things are fine. Romans chapter 11, verse 22, it's that tension. Paul said, consider the goodness and the severity. Because Judah was going to experience severity, but Judah was going to experience goodness, because God was going to discipline them. He was going to wake up a remnant, then he was going to save the remnant in a miraculous way. And then he was going to anchor his eternal kingdom into the storyline, even of that generation. There was an unfolding storyline that would lead right to the Messiah, and then 2,000 plus years later to his return. So there's this paradox of goodness and severity going on at the same time. Now our temptation is to only do goodness, to only stare at goodness. Some people, I don't know very many, I know a few, they're really into severity. I mean, that's what that's kind of, they almost are happy about severity. I go, no, I don't want to go there either. I just want the truth. You know, I heard one preacher say, you know, there's the wide-eyed optimist, the muddy-eyed pessimist. He goes, let's be wide-eyed realists. That's where we need to go. Paragraph D. Now he goes on, it tells him to enroll his straight. He says, a great crisis is coming in a year and some days. You know, verse 10, he said, in a year and some days, and paragraph, I mean, verse 12, he says, let me tell you more specifically. The people are going to mourn for the pleasant fields, meaning the crops are going to fail. That's poetry. Well, I mean, he literally means the pleasant fields are going to be destroyed. It's not poetry, but he's talking in kind of poetic language, but he means it literally because the agriculture was destroyed by the invading military invasion of the superpower of that day, the Assyrian Empire. He says, verse 13, on the land will come up thorns and briars. Now, why are thorns and briars going to come up in cities that are developed? Because the cities are going to be destroyed. That's the point he's making. He says, yes. He goes, yes, complacent ladies, the happy homes in the joyful city, the palaces, the big wealthy people's houses. He didn't just mean the king's palaces, but the really nice neighborhoods are going to be disrupted by the trouble. The bustling city is going to be deserted. And the reason the bustling city, he means some Jerusalem, but there were other cities because the superpower of Syria came to Judah. There were a number of cities. And the bottom part of the nation of Israel, which again after the Civil War was called Judah. And the reason the cities were deserted because so many were taken away captive and others were killed and many fled because of fear and the cities were deserted. Now, these ladies looked at this and said, Isaiah, you're out of your mind. You're the only guy saying it. You and a few of your little prophet disciples in Isaiah chapter eight, he has a little team with him. But most of the leadership of the nation is mocking him and laughing at him, just like Jeremiah. Top of page three. He says, matter of fact, now this is a big statement. He goes, the trouble is going to continue in Israel. This is Isaiah 700 BC-ish. A little bit more than that. 700 to about 740. But just call it 700 BC just to kind of get an easy number to work with. So 2,700 years ago, Isaiah said there's going to be, the idea I mean is there will be times in Israel's history of intense trouble and then times where things are not so intense. But what he's saying here, he goes, the trouble is going to continue, Isaiah said, from this day, clear till the second coming. He said, there's going to be trouble in the land, verse 15, until the spirits poured out. And he said the spirit poured out on us and he meant the city of Jerusalem. Now, there was a down payment of the spirit poured out on Jerusalem in Acts chapter two. But it was on 120 people, then it touched 3,000, then it touched 5,000, but the majority of the city wanted nothing to do with it. So the first outpouring of the spirit on the day of Pentecost was a down payment described in the book of Joel, but in Joel chapter two, the promise is really the end of the age outpouring. What happened on the day of Pentecost was a down payment. It was 120 people, it wasn't the spirit on all flesh, it wasn't the whole earth being touched by the spirit, it was a down payment. And Joel and Isaiah saying, there's gonna be trouble in Israel literally until the Messiah comes and the spirit is poured out in fullness on the city of Jerusalem. So gird yourself. Yes, there will be victories, there will be some miracles, there will be some great moments, but gird yourself that because Israel's not responding to the Messiah, but the same is true in the nations. The nations aren't responding so well to the great king either. Because he's not just the king of Israel, he's the king of the nations. So he describes that here in paragraph E verses 15 to 17. Let's move on. Roman numeral three. Now we're going to Isaiah 33. Now he begins to shift from talking about trouble in Judah and Jerusalem, he shifts now. He begins to say, it's not only gonna be trouble on you, it's also gonna be trouble on the superpower that's troubling you. Because God has no partiality. There's no partiality in God whatsoever. So God looks at Israel and he's troubled by their lack of response to him, but he looks at the Assyrians that he's using to wake Israel up, but they're not responding to him either. And God has no partiality and he says, I'm gonna use the Assyrians to wake up my people and then I'm gonna judge the Assyrians because they're gonna be responsible for their cruelty and for their deception, though I'm gonna use their cruelty and deception to wake up my people. But then I will hold them responsible because it will be their choice that they chose this pathway as well, though the Lord used them. He says in verse one, he shifts, he's beginning to shift directions here. Isaiah 32 and 33, it's all one big conversation actually. So you wanna study these two chapters together. He suddenly shifts. He says in verse one, woe to you plunderer. Now he's talking to the superpower. Now the people in Jerusalem are going like, praise God, we've changed the subject. The Lord is troubled by the people troubling us. The Lord's not only troubled with us, he's troubled by the superpower troubling us. He says, woe to you Assyria. Well, he calls them the empire of the plunder, but it's quite clear and almost every commentator, there's a few that disagree, but almost the vast majority understand this to be Assyria and there's a bunch of reasons why, but I won't go into it right now. He says, Assyria, you who deal treacherously. He goes, I got news for you. You will be plundered too. You've been plundering all the nations around the Middle East, but the day is coming Assyria, you're going to be plundered. You're gonna be finished. Now the point that he highlights here in verse one is the treachery of Assyria and the reason this is important because this same treachery is gonna happen with the Antichrist in the generation the Lord returns to the nation of Israel. The treachery is going to be repeated again. Paragraph B, here's the treachery. As I mentioned when I first opened up, King Hezekiah, he's the king of Judah, based in Jerusalem, he made a covenant with the superpower, King Sennacherib. I want everyone to say Sennacherib. Say it again, King Sennacherib. Say, I can learn the name Sennacherib. I'm not gonna name my son Sennacherib. Or your dog, don't name anybody that. Well, the king, because the reason I mention him, he shows up a number of times, so that's just one of those few names that if you learn it, you kind of recognize it, you go, okay, I got this one down, he's the bad guy with Hezekiah, got it. What happened is king, I'm not gonna read it to you, you can read it on your own, 2 Kings 18. King Hezekiah went to Sennacherib, the king of Assyria, the superpower, and said, okay, you're about to destroy us, what do you want? He goes, what do you think I want? I want slaves and I want money, I want tribute. And so it ends up, the king of Assyria here in the middle, at the end of verse 14, he wanted 300 talents of silver and 30 talents of gold. In today's market, that's about $50 million. He goes, I want $50 million. And I want you to obey me. Whatever I say I want you to do, that's the deal. And Hezekiah thought, my goodness, that's intense. But when you're the superpower, that's what they do. So Hezekiah gave the 50 million and it says here that he had to strip all the silver and gold out of his treasuries and even out of the temple. I mean, King Sennacherib made him milk the nation of everything, got the 50 million, and then King Sennacherib, look what he did in verse 17. He said, we're going to attack you anyway now that I got your money. I lied to you. I made a promise to you. I'm not going to keep it. I got your money. Now I'm going to destroy you. Because I want to create fear in all the other nations. So when I go down to Egypt, they salute because they see how bad I treated you. And in fear, they'll give me whatever I want. And all the other nations will. That's why the kings, that's why the superpowers are so angry. I mean, so cruel. They wanted to incite the next nation to give up quickly. Well, again, this treachery, the reason we care about it in the story line because remember from Isaiah chapter 28, verse 15 and 18, I don't want to go through it again, but there's going to be a covenant of death that the leaders of Israel made with foreign powers that ended up bringing destruction to their nation. And that's going to happen at the end of the age. But other nations are going to make that same covenant of death with the Antichrist. I don't want to go through that again, but that's a key part of the story line that we see in Isaiah, that we see a cameo of it, a short kind of snapshot of it in Isaiah's life, but it's going to be played out on a global level at the end. But we get to read the whole story line ahead of time, get familiar with how God feels, how God responds, what He wants, what the good response is, the bad response is. We get to read the whole story with some details before it happens in the generation the Lord returns. That's the value of the book of Isaiah and these chapters, because there's all kinds of details in here. Again, I don't want people to feel like you've got to understand every one of the couple hundred little nuanced details. I'm just kind of urging people to, let's get the 25 kind of main points of the story. That's a made up number, by the way, because the list is about that long, and I haven't actually counted it. But there's only a handful of key parts of the end time story line. Okay, look at paragraph C. So, Isaiah, he kicks into gear here. He says, God, you're going to destroy the superpower? He goes, okay. Verse 2, this is a model prayer, verse 2 to 4. And this is a prayer, again, that we could spend a half hour breaking down the key points, but I want, again, note to self, to highlight this. This is a model prayer in a time of crisis, a model prophetic prayer. He says, Lord, be gracious. He goes, we have waited on you. Now, the we is not a very big group. Isaiah only has a small number of people in his company, but it worked. The we was enough. Because remember, last week, in Isaiah chapter 30, paragraph 1, look at Isaiah chapter 30, just the week before, just a chapter or two back, Isaiah said, the Lord will wait. The Lord wants to be gracious. He will be gracious when he hears the sound of your crying. He wants you to wait on him. The Lord's waiting on you to wait on him. So Isaiah, since he said he prophesied that in Isaiah 30, here it is a little bit, you know, a little bit time later, he goes, Lord, I'm going to do it. I'm going to do what I taught them. I'm going to cry out to you, and I'm going to wait before you, because I know that when you hear the sound of my cry, you will be gracious. So I love this, that Isaiah's walking out what he taught the nation just a little bit earlier, back in chapter 30. Let's go back to paragraph C. Oh, Lord, be gracious, for we have waited on you. Again, that we's a pretty small little company, but I tell you, it's for me and my house. I'm going to be a part of a company of people that are waiting on the Lord, and it's not a passive. The waiting isn't biding time. That's not what waiting means. Waiting means, that's Old Testament language for engaging actively with God, being attentive to his heart, to his will, waiting on him. It's like the awaiter that is waiting on the one they're serving. They're just, anything you say, Lord, I'm waiting attentively to go at your beckoning call. I want to move with your heart. That's what waiting on God means. So don't think of it as passive biding time. It's an active interaction of attentiveness with God. He says in verse three, we're still in paragraph C. He goes, that the noise of the tumult, that's an interesting phrase, the people, the Assyrians, are going to be destroyed. He goes, I know a storm is coming, and it's going to hit the superpower. He goes, the superpower is hitting us right now, but I know you're going to hit them. I know it. You've told me. They're disciplining us. I mean, it's the Lord's discipline, but he's using them. But you're going to take care of them. Now he says this interesting phrase in verse three, when you lift yourself up, God, the nations will be scattered, and your plunder will be gathered. This is a very interesting terminology. In the book of Isaiah, when it talks about God exalting himself, there's this phraseology. It shows up through the book. You run into it. Isaiah chapter two says it a number of times. But this terminology, that when God is exalted, when God arises, when God lifts himself up, that means when God steps into action to intervene into human history in a decisive, open way that everybody can see. That's when Isaiah says, when the Lord exalts himself, that's code for when God breaks in with his mighty arm, he delivers his people, and he destroys his enemies. Those are his very powerful, unique interventions in history that cause disturbances of nations when his hand is intervening. That goes along with the term in Isaiah, not every time, but almost every time, where it says God lifts himself up. He awakens. He arises. He's no longer silent. That's what that means. That means he's intervening in power. You'll see that all through Isaiah, and if you know that phrase, then you're in the storyline with what's happening. Top of page four, he says verse five, Isaiah moves from his prayer in verse two, three, and four. Now he's prophesying in verse five to six. Now a prophecy after his intercession. His intercession, verse two to four, now is prophecy, verse five and six. He goes, the Lord is exalted. Again, that's code for you're about to release your intervening judgments into nations in a way that's big. I mean, it's not a subtle kind of disturbance. It's a big historic event. He goes, for you dwell on high, and you're going to fill Zion with righteousness. Zion is another word for Jerusalem. It's that Jerusalem is filled with compromise right now, but you're about to step into the affairs of our nation, and you're going to wake us up because you want to fill the city with righteousness, not with compromise. And there's going to be some pain involved, but the righteousness and the plan of God is going to endure forever. I mean, once it happens, Jerusalem will be righteous for millions and millions of years, never troubled again. And the million-year storyline, this is an amazing story. And because we are eternal, it is an amazing story, but because people think temporal and they're disconnected from the word of God, they see the here and now, and that's all they think about, and the Lord says, no, no, you're eternal. My storyline is big. I'm filling the earth with love. I know what I'm about. It will all make sense with all the information's on the table. But he says here in verse 6, wisdom and knowledge will be your stability. If you know what I'm doing, that's wisdom and knowledge. He's talking about in the crisis right now. It's not just talking about book of Proverbs wisdom, you know, how to invest money or how to raise your kids. That's good too, but that's not what he's talking about here. He's talking about insight into what God's doing as history is unfolding and the crisis is mounting up and God's purpose is intervening. He's talking specifically about knowledge and wisdom in the crisis that's mounting. He goes, it will be the stability of your times. It will be your strength. This was the very verse, and this verse is really dear to me. This was the verse the Lord really anchored my life with this verse. It was in September 1997. I'm not going to tell a big story. I could tell a big story about it, but it was this verse, Isaiah 33, verse 6, and it was new to me. It was in September 1997, so 20 years ago, I said, Lord, I don't even know anything about this book. And I was just like some of you are feeling right now, going, this book is confusing. You know, Rachel said it was scary and confusing. I thought it was just confusing. I said, I don't even know what's going on here. And the Lord began to talk to me real clear through various ways. Just learn the storyline. It will be your stability and your strength. And you will be able to be a covering and a resource and bring others into stability in the storm. Remember, we started off in chapter 32, verse 2 and 3. And the fear of the Lord will be your treasure. Then a few verses later, and your eyes will see the king and its beauty. So the beauty of God, the knowledge of what he's doing in that generation, the unfolding of it together, and the fear of the Lord. So from the beauty of God, the fear of the Lord, and the knowledge of his plans, as he's unfolding his redemptive purposes, as the crisis is increasing, all of those together create stability and strength. Because again, when knowledge is power, and when we feel like that the crisis is random and it's not producing anything redemptive, there's pain but no purpose in the pain. There's nothing that God's doing in it. There's nobody steering the train, so to speak. That is a really chaotic, hopeless feeling. But there may be trouble and even pain, but we see a good God and a beautiful king, and he's in control. And I go, I don't get the pain right now, but I'm really captured by the fact that you're leading this thing, and it's going somewhere and it doesn't make sense, and it's not random. The details were laid out thousands of years ago in advance. And Lord, if you have that kind of information, of that kind of detail for the end of the age, that means you have control over the details. If you can know them and set them in motion, that means you have power over them. Yes, there will be some trouble, but I'm connected to the beautiful king, so I trust your leadership. That's the strength and security that comes. Let's look at paragraph E. Now he says, but it's not just the superpower going to be troubled. He goes back. He says, I don't think. Just because the superpower is going to be in trouble and God's going to actually destroy them and remove them, he's still not done with you, Jerusalem. So Isaiah comes back. Isaiah kind of goes back and forth. Even in a chapter he'll go to the people of God, then he'll talk about the enemy, then he'll talk about the people of God. Isaiah goes back and forth. That's kind of his way of writing and prophesying. Then he'll throw a few prayers in in between. And then once you know that about Isaiah, you're not so easily thrown by his style. Now he goes in verse C. He goes, okay, Jerusalem, you're not off the hook. Surely the valiant ones cry outside, and the ambassadors of peace shall weep bitterly. What he's saying is that the leaders of Israel, I mean of Judah, have come back from the peace talks with the superpower of Syria, and they've got the bad news. The king of Assyria is going to betray them. He took their 50 million, but he said, I'm going to destroy you anyway. I got your million because I want the other nations to be afraid of me so that I get their millions too. So these valiant ones of verse 7, these are the mighty soldiers of Israel, and the ambassadors are the Israeli ambassadors at the peace talks. They're weeping bitterly openly. Verse 8, the highways laid waste, the traveling man ceases, meaning traveling, moving around the nation, the whole nation is going to be disrupted when this military invasion takes place. I mean you just think about what happened. You could just picture some of the documentaries in World War II of some of the cities of Europe and Russia and Asia that were decimated in the war, and the travel, the economy, all these things are completely disrupted. That's what Isaiah is describing for Judah. He said it's coming to you before it comes to the superpower. He goes, for the king has broken the covenant. He despises the cities of Judah. He doesn't regard any of us. He couldn't care less about us. The earth is going to mourn, meaning the land of Israel, we've got trouble ahead of us. Paragraph F, now God switches. Paragraph F, or Isaiah switches, and he's speaking the Lord's heart. Now he's going to switch back to Assyria again. Look at this statement, verse 10. I want you to capture the word now. It happens three times in one sentence. Now I will arise. Now I will be exalted. Now I will lift myself up. Remember, when God says I'm going to arise, lift myself up, and be exalted, in the book of Isaiah, almost every time, that's code for I'm going to intervene in the affairs of man in a way that's obvious for many to see. It won't be a subtle intervention that you're guessing about. It will be a dramatic intervention. He says, I'm going to destroy the Assyrians. I'm going to burn them like dry thorn bushes. They're going to burn quickly and be gone forever when I do it. So he says that, and Israel says, well, that's good, but you said we're going to get trouble first before you take care of the ones that trouble us. And Isaiah said, that's right. Paragraph G, this is really key. Paragraph G, this is another one of the really key passages. Here in Isaiah, this causes the fear of God to come on me when I read this passage, verse 13 to 16. This is one of God's redemptive purposes with His judgments. He says, here, pay attention. Those of you that are far off, that means the foreign nations of the earth. He's saying, nations of the earth, watch this story unfold in my lifetime. Isaiah was saying, because it's going to unfold again at the end of the age. But it's going to unfold in a bigger scope and a greater intensity. Here, pay attention. Worldwide, you who are far off, nations, foreign nations, you who are near Judah, the people of God. He goes, whether you're way over there or you're up close, this is a storyline that's going to capture the attention of everyone. He goes, you're going to acknowledge my might. Now he says this very interesting phrase in verse 14. He says, the sinners in Zion will be afraid. The sinners in Zion, what? Fearfulness is going to seize the hypocrites. The question is going to be asked, who can dwell with devouring fire? And the devouring fire is the presence of God. Who can dwell with everlasting burning? What human can get close to a God that is decimating Assyria and disciplining Israel with such severity? Who can get close to that God? You get close to Him, you're going to get burned. Isaiah says, no. Verse 15, if you agree with His leadership, if you walk in righteousness, I'm not talking about earning anything. I'm talking about coming into agreement with His leadership. He says, you'll dwell on high. You'll actually be able to dwell in the presence of the God who is a burning fire. And it will be joy and delight and safety and not trouble. So look at paragraph 2, this phrase, sinners in Zion. The sinners in Zion, they are the group that grows up with a spiritual heritage. They know the things of God, at least in an elementary way. But they continue to live in compromise. They're not just the idol worshippers in a heathen nation that have never heard of the God of Israel. They've grown up with the Bible or they're familiar with it enough. But they don't want to embrace His leadership. So they're called sinners in Zion. I have here, it's a bit of an oxymoron. Sinners in Zion, like rebellious believers. Like, really? That's an odd phrase. But the reason they're going to be terrified, they're going to see God discipline Israel or Judah. I keep saying Israel, I mean Judah, the southern kingdom. They're going to see up close the discipline as this military force marches through the land. Then in a little bit down the road, they're going to see God destroy that mighty superpower. And they're going to say, wait. If the God of Israel intervenes with this kind of severity, when you cast off His leadership, where do I stand? He says in the sinners in Zion, they're going to be terrified. They're going to say, we know enough about the Bible to be a lot more terrified than the unbelievers are. Because God doesn't have double standards. And though in the culture of that day, the women, the complacent women, and the foolish men leaders of the nation, they were telling everybody, things are okay. God is happy, everything's okay. And I said, no it's not. No it's not. And today when I look at the body of Christ again, there's a lot of people with a spiritual heritage. They grew up in a Christian culture, so they know a little bit about the things of God, but they have no concern for obeying His leadership. And when God begins to increase His activity, because He hasn't been doing it much, mostly through history, the Lord's hands are off in terms of confronting darkness openly and on a global level. But the days are coming, when we know before the Lord returns, it's going to be really intense, He's going to intervene in a very direct way, where the people far away in the foreign nations, and the people up near in Judah, or those near Zion, they're going to understand, the God of Israel is involving Himself in the affairs of men again, and they're going to be terrified. Now the slowest group to respond, are the sinners in Zion. Meaning, the on fire believer responds, and believe it or not, when things are troubled in the earth, the unbelievers go, oh my God, that must be God. I mean, you ought to hear the unbelievers talk about God, with no theology, no background, nothing. They know, I mean, they believe this and that, and the other thing is God, sometimes they're off, but they're far more aware. But people that grow up in a Christian kind of, they get cynical and jaded, they are almost, it's really hard to move them. And but the Lord, Isaiah said, it's going to be so disturbing, even they will be terrified. Because they'll see that God is zealous about confronting, the casting off of his leadership. Now the God who, again, I have it here in the notes, who can dwell with fire, and the question is, who can live in the presence of a God, who is this zealous? Our God is a consuming fire, and the answer Isaiah gives it, look at paragraph five, here in the middle of page five. Isaiah answered, he goes, the man or woman that says yes to his leadership, that man or woman, by the grace of God, they're enabled to interact with this God of fire, and be filled with joy and confidence in the interaction, to have stability and strength, and confidence and assurance, and to have a quiet heart, and not anxiety and condemnation and fear. Matter of fact, number six here, paragraph, that man or woman who says yes to righteousness, they'll dwell on high, meaning God dwells on high, they'll fellowship with God, in a meaningful, in a real way. So it comes to the end of the chapter here, Isaiah, paragraph H, he says, well, he says, you're going to see, sinners tremble in Zion, you're going to see it. And Isaiah 26, 9, it's one of the key verses we haven't gone over, I guess Stuart did, when he was covering those chapters, it says, when God's judgments are in the earth, the people learn righteousness. And one of God's redemptive reasons for letting the judgments happen, he wants the earth to learn righteousness, and many will wake up, many won't, they'll get harder and harder, but many will. But I don't want to wait till then to wake up. I don't want to learn righteousness when judgment's in the land, I want to learn righteousness because a beautiful king calls me his beloved, and we're the bride of Christ, and we're the children of God, and we're in the grace of God, and we're together with him forever, and he died for us. I want to wake up for those reasons. I don't want to wait till judgment wakes me up. Lord, your beauty woke me up, that's enough for me. I'm with you to the end no matter what else happens. And that's what many of you feel, and that's why you're here, but paragraph H, your eyes will see the beauty in his king. I'm sorry, your eyes will see the king in his beauty. This is going to be one of the great emphases of the Holy Spirit in the generation the Lord returns. I believe we're in the early days of that generation. This is a passage, well, I've told this story a few times, where the Lord really interrupted me on the subject of his beauty. I remember this happened, you know, it was back in 1996 when he, I won't tell the story, but he interrupted me, and I thought, beauty? Like, beauty? Really? You know, I didn't, I wasn't interested in God's beauty, I was interested in God's power. But the Lord, he really emphasized it and woke me up. I still haven't grown that much in it, but at least I'm alert to it the last 20 years, and I'm wanting to search it out because it's on the agenda, it's on the menu of the Holy Spirit for the end-time church. He says, you will see the land that is very far off. And what he's talking about, Jesus' rule won't just touch Jerusalem, his beauty will fill the earth. Isaiah saw it on the day he was commissioned by the Spirit in Isaiah 6, when he said, my eyes have seen the king. And the whole earth is filled with your beauty. The whole earth is going to come under the sway of the beauty of the king. And so we will see it in the lands far away. His beauty will touch everything in the created order eventually that's on the earth. But verse 18, this is an odd verse that kind of surprises us. It says, but let your heart meditate on terror. Wait, you just said I'm going to see the beauty, but you want me to think on terror? Well, you'll discover the beauty even in the terror. And the terror that they are to meditate on, the redeemed, is there to remember the judgments of God. Of course, Isaiah is talking to his own generation. He goes, remember the judgments when God disciplined us, and then remember the terrifying way he destroyed Assyria. And look at how gracious he's being with us now. Meditate on terror so that you see the graciousness of his plan for your own life and for the nations of the earth. Now, when's the last time you heard a message on meditating on terror? I didn't preach the whole message. I had to keep one sentence on it. But I looked at that and I thought, could you imagine preaching an entire message that says, Isaiah, meditate on terror. But somewhere that needs to be in the diet of the end-time church. Then he goes on and he says, where's the scribe? Where's he who weighs? Where's he who counts towers? Will you not see a fierce people? What he's really saying here, he's talking about the Assyrian officials were in the land of Israel. They were keeping all these detailed records for the Assyrian government. They were counting the towers. They were weighing out the tribute, you know, X amount of pounds of gold and silver. They were counting the people. Everybody, you know, you think of kind of like the Nazi regime when they would occupy a nation with that meticulous accounting everywhere, these Nazi officials, books and books and books. That's what the Assyrians were like. And what Isaiah says, he goes, your eyes will see the beauty of the king. Remember the terror. Remember how fierce the Lord interacted with sin. But he goes, where are those officials now? They're out. There's victory in the land right now. That's what he's saying here. He goes, God broke through. There's none of those Nazi officials at the gate weighing all the things that you do, counting all the things that you're about. He goes, they're gone. Israel's free. The enemy has been destroyed. Top of page six. He says in verse 20, look upon Zion. Let your eyes see Jerusalem. You know, I love the song that Misty wrote it some years ago. She goes, I know the end of the story. I haven't heard it for a little while. I love that song. I know the end of the story. This is not the end of the story. Anyway, I can't remember it. But anyway, we know the end of the story. He says, look at Jerusalem. Look at the storyline. Meditate on terror, but also see where God's going. When you see the king in his beauty, verse 17, you're going to remember the way he intervened in such zeal to confront darkness. You're going to remember the way he destroyed your enemies. You're going to remember the way he judged his people, disciplined his people because he loves them. You're going to remember the way he removed the enemies away. And you're going to look at Zion in the future, the destiny of where things are going. I mean, when you look at this passage here, it's interesting. In chapter 32, I'm just going to, you can just read the rest of it. I feel like we've had enough time here. You can read the rest on your own. And, oh, by the way, as I tell you, I think most weeks is that I give you this six-page, four-page, six-page handout on Friday. Then, typically, by Sunday, I add quite a bit more to this page. And then we edit it, and we have it up on the Internet. So those of you that want to break down the details of this, you don't have to right now, but if you're interested in that, there will be a far more extensive set of notes on this passage. We're breaking down every one of these phrases. And my goal isn't to try to give that all to you in a night, but I do want it available to you, and I want you to know it's there. But this is a glorious passage, verses 20 to 24, all kinds of cool nuances in this story here. But I feel like we've gone far enough tonight. But I just want to mention this. When he says, look upon Zion, look at the destiny of where God's bringing Jerusalem. Look at the destiny of where the nations are going. So he tells us these different things. He says in chapter 32, verse 10, to the ladies, the complacent ladies, he said, be troubled. Tremble. Be troubled. Be disturbed. Then in chapter 33, verse 6, he goes, know the storyline, and you'll have strength. Then in chapter 33, 17, you'll see the king. Then 33, 18, meditate on terror. 33, 20, no, look at Jerusalem. See the large storyline of where it's going. On these five or six exhortations, what Isaiah's saying is, fill your mind with these details. Meditate on these things, and your heart will get anchored in a storyline that will make you strong and grateful, and you won't be captured by the fear, the offense and deception that the enemy wants to sweep the body of Christ away with. So I want to do each one of these things. I want to see the king and the beauty. I want to meditate on terror. I want to look at Jerusalem, the destiny of where it's going. I want to mourn and tremble. I want the knowledge that makes me stable. It's all really the same storyline using different language, but in the body of Christ, we need to actually engage our mind in an intentional way, because in this storyline, because again, it anchors us. It shifts us. And in our perspective, we interpret the news differently when we're looking through the biblical, the lens of the biblical narrative. Well, amen and amen. So again, this last four verses are really dynamic. We're just out of time. So in a week or two, would you get that free moment? Read the larger set of knowledge. I mean, this is like... Anyway, let's stand before the Lord. I love those verses. I always spend too much time on the first verses, and the end verses are the juicy ones. Juicy is a good word. I mean, you know, the ones that really stir our hearts. Father, here we are before you. We love your leadership. Lord, I do want to meditate on terror. I want to see what's happened in history. I want to see what's going to happen in the Antichrist's rage and his destruction. I want to see the terror. I want to see the beauty. I want to see the fate of Jerusalem. I want to understand the knowledge that gives me strength. I want to tremble. I want to rejoice. I want to have a quiet spirit, but I want to have an engaged spirit. All of these things that you said to Isaiah. Lord, here we are before you. Lord, we say that we love your leadership. We love your leadership, Lord. Holy Spirit, I just ask you, just even now, to stir us, to touch us. You know, no matter how much you hear this information, and hearing it a lot is really helpful, really, really is, because, again, the fog lifts after a while, but still it takes the Holy Spirit to grasp it. It's not just academics. This is more than academic knowledge about the future and the past. It takes the Spirit touching our heart. So when I read this, I'm wanting to interact. It's just like Phil said up here. I want to talk to the man, the King. Lord Jesus, what are you thinking? Show me more. Lord, I say yes to this. I want to talk to the man, because I need his help to grasp this. So it's more than just cognitive information. That will bounce right off if the Holy Spirit's not, if we're not walking in the Spirit with it. So Lord, we're saying yes to the Holy Spirit. Jesus, beautiful God, beautiful King. Open the eyes of my understanding. Lord, I want to feel what you feel and see what you see in this storyline. So did ourselves in you. So we draw near. So we draw near. We know your fear. We love you, Jesus. Oh Lord, we sing as we gaze upon you. You shine brighter than the sun. In the heavens or on the earth, there is no one like you, Lord. You shine brighter than the sun. In the heavens or on the earth, there is no one like you, Lord. The sun, the radiant holiness, the everlasting one. Gods can't see. They hear these words but cannot hear. You have made all things. You alone are to be feared. You shine. You shine brighter than the sun. In the heavens or on the earth, there is no one like you, Lord. You shine brighter than the sun. In the heavens or on the earth, there is no one like you, Lord. Holy Spirit, we ask you. Tonight, touch us. We recognize you're in our midst right now. Come here, Stephen, now. We see a God like you who works for those who wait. You loved us to the end. We long to see your face. You've chosen us for love. You've chosen us for life. And so we live and move and find ourselves in you. So we draw near. So we draw near. Oh, Lord, we sing as we gaze upon you. You shine. The sun, there is no one like you, Lord. You shine brighter than the sun. In the heavens or on the earth, there is no one like you, Lord. I want to pray for people that feel stirred tonight. You like prayer. You're saying, I want to see the king in his beauty. I mean, every one of us would, of course. But just in the last week or two or three or whatever the season, the last season, you've been exercised in your heart about this. You're thinking, no, I got to move forward in this subject. I want to see the king in his beauty. And it's not just his creative power, but it's also his beauty in his biblical narrative, his storyline for history. Because that's the context, seeing his beauty in the context of the unfolding storyline. And if that's you, you're saying, I just feel, I'm stirred. I got to get a breakthrough in this area. I want to invite you to come forward if you would like prayer for that tonight. Lord, we want to see your beauty in the end time narrative. Lord, you gave the promise about the end time story, your beauty unfolding. Let us see it, Lord. We want to see his beauty just in creation. But Isaiah was talking about his beauty in this story. Mark, let me see it. Lord, come like wind. Let us see, mark us with the spirit of revelation, I ask. Let's see the beauty of our destiny. Let us see your beauty, Lord. This is what you said. Eyes of my understanding. Let me see the beauty of the story. Let me see the beauty in the story. Show me the beauty in the story. Open my eyes. Revelation, Lord. Raise the spirit of power, I ask you. Let me see the beauty in the story, Lord. One common living understanding in the story. I want to pray for another group of people. When I started the message in chapter 32 at the very beginning, when I said there's a king and he's raising up princes, and those leaders under him would be shade to the weary. They would be like a river of water to the thirsty. They would be protection in the storm. It's shepherds that God's raising up that make a difference to the people who are in the storm. And you're saying in your heart, Lord, I want to be one of those shepherds. I want to be a part of the solution to the people in a storm that I can stabilize them. I want to pray for you. Lord, all over this room, and I know you're in the chairs up here, but I want to ask the Lord to visit you. God shepherds after your own heart. They will be shade in the storm. They will be a shelter. They are struggling with confusion and fear. God, I ask you to anchor those shepherds. I pray that you would make them shepherds after your own heart. Shepherds after your own heart. I ask you, Jeremiah 315, raise up in this house shepherds after your own heart in Jesus' name. Release the spirit of revelation on shepherds. Mark them now. They would be a solution in the hour of trouble to hearts that are hurting, that are afraid. In this room right now, I ask you for visitation on them. For this room, I ask the spirit would rest on men and women. You give them dreams tonight, even in their sleep. Lord, I ask for the spirit of revelation. Lord, raise up shepherds after your own heart. All over the room, old and young, male and female. Like David, Lord, let the spirit rest on them even tonight. Call them in a new way in the days to come. Commission them with a new commissioning. I might be a shepherd. Jeremiah 315, I will raise up shepherds after my heart. They will feed my people on knowledge and understanding. Shepherds who will feed the flock. There will be a shelter in the storm for the fearful ones. Lord, raise up a company of shepherds in this house. They will stabilize the weak ones in the days to come. Understanding. Lord, come, release your spirit even now. Lord, teach us to be like you. Lord, release living understanding, the spirit of revelation, I ask. Raise up prophetic messengers. Raise up prophetic messengers. Lord, raise up prophetic messengers who proclaim the forerunner message, I ask. Lord, release your commissioning. There is no one like you. Release clear new assignments as prophetic messengers. There is no one like you. Living understanding, Lord. Raise up shepherds after your heart.