The Absolute Plan that the Watchmen Await (Isaiah 64:1-4)
Rev. Myung-Sin Choi
1 Oh, that You would rend the heavens! That You would come down! That the mountains might shake at Your presence— 2 As fire burns brushwood, As fire causes water to boil— To make Your name known to Your adversaries, That the nations may tremble at Your presence! 3 When You did awesome things for which we did not look, You came down, The mountains shook at Your presence. 4 For since the beginning of the world Men have not heard nor perceived by the ear, Nor has the eye seen any God besides You, Who acts for the one who waits for Him.
Introduction
I am not sure if you remember but there was a pastor from Busan, Korea who came to our church and gave a sermon. If you remember, that pastor was a very afflicted person before he became a pastor. He would experience auditory hallucinations and those hallucinations would be so loud that it felt like thunder in his ears. That problem for him was very severe. He would do all kinds of things like fasting prayer and prayer retreats but the problem would not go away. Those auditory hallucinations were so severe that he couldn’t sleep and in order to sleep, he would start running at bedtime. He would run so much that he would exhaust himself and make himself fall asleep in the end. He would be so sweaty at the end and would basically fall asleep so fast. No one could fix him and the problem would not go away but he heard the gospel one day and he accepted Christ. And, he concentrated inside of prayer and he was healed. Before that, he would go to church and live a Christian walk of faith but the moment he accepted Christ and the gospel, the darkness that was covering him went away. Because he felt something departing his body after he accepted Christ, he was able to live a successful life in the gospel. But I heard a rumor about him a few days ago. This pastor committed a big mistake and adultery. Because of that, many people found out and those rumors spread among people. When I heard this, I realized something. Just because a spiritual problem is solved, it doesn’t mean that all of your problems go away. The moment you forget and lose your ease, then you can become deceived and tempted. The moment you lose hold of the gospel, then it is so easy for us to get deceived. The Israelites were considered chosen people of God but the moment they ignored God’s word and lost hold of God’s covenant, they became enslaved to idolatry and to other nations. That is why prophet Isaiah started his bartizan prayer and the prayer of a watchman. Isaiah was praying and he was praying earnestly to the living God.
1. The Prayer of the Watchmen
1) That You would rend the heavens! That You would come down!
Verse 1 - Isaiah was praying for God to act on this problem directly and help the Israelites. God, Himself, came directly down to Earth and worked and there were three instances of that.
Exodus 19:18-19 “Now Mount Sinai was completely in smoke, because the Lord descended upon it in fire. Its smoke ascended like the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mountain quaked greatly. 19 And when the blast of the trumpet sounded long and became louder and louder, Moses spoke, and God answered him by voice.” - This was on Mount Sinai. God’s presence was present there through fire and smoke on Mount Sinai. When God’s presence was there, the whole mountain shook. When God presented Himself, He gave the word of God to the Israelites. God presented Himself and gave the word of God, and went back to heaven.
The second time when God presented Himself was when God the Son came to Earth. That was in Luke 2:9, 12-13 “And behold, an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were greatly afraid. 12 And this will be the sign to you: You will find a Babe wrapped in swaddling cloths, lying in a manger. 13 And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying: 14 ‘Glory to God in the highest, And on earth peace, goodwill toward men!’ ” - When Jesus Christ came to Earth, the glory of the Lord shone brightly. The great army of God and the heavenly armies of angels were praising God and giving all glory to God that God’s glory shone brightly. When God presented Himself the second time, He came and ascended back to heaven.
The third time when God presented Himself was seen in Acts 2:2-3 “And suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. 3 Then there appeared to them divided tongues, as of fire, and one sat upon each of them.” - This was when the power of the Holy Spirit became present. When the God the Holy Spirit appeared, there was a sound of rushing mighty wind.
Acts 2:3 - When God the Holy Spirit appeared, people were able to speak in different languages and worked on people individually. When God worked in heaven as Himself and through the Son of God, He ascended back to heaven. But when the Holy Spirit came, the Holy Spirit stayed on earth. This means that God the Holy Spirit remains within us and guides us within this world. Why did God the Holy Spirit remain on earth within us?
2) The reason He would come down
Verse 2 - When God’s judgment comes down to earth, it will burn everything. It is so hot that it causes the water to boil. No one can stand against God’s judgment. This brushwood is referring to Babylon. As you know Babylon did get destroyed in the end as you look in history. When God is presented within His glory, His name will be made known to His adversaries. Within here, it is important because verse 2 isn’t actually referring to a nation or people. It is referring to Satan and forces of darkness. When God’s presence is there and God sets His judgment, all darkness has no choice but to flee and be broken. But what happens to children of God? When God comes to earth, then all children of God will resurrect to life. Our lives will be restored and resurrected. This will cause the resurrection of Eden. We can have a new start. That is why we always pray to God to hurry and come to earth.
2. God's Absolute Plan
1) God's absolute sovereignty
Verse 3 - When you look at the work of God, it is fearsome. What did God do when He came to this earth? We spoke about it within the second sermon. There are four parts of God’s works. We have spoken about this during Friday service.
God's predestination - This is speaking about God’s work of salvation for mankind. God has already chosen who will be saved. Those who are saved and chosen, then you will absolutely go to heaven. That is predestination. This doesn’t change whatsoever. Those who are saved children of God, this will never change.
God's decree - This is talking about God’s will and plan of God. God has planned everything for His purpose and will. Why did God create us? It was for God to be glorified and praised. This is God’s decree. God sets His entire plan for this purpose and will.
God's dispensation - In order to accomplish God’s will, there is a master plan of God. No one can interfere with God’s master plan. God will absolutely fulfill His master plan. How does God accomplish this? It is through His covenant.
God's providence - This is astounding. God utilizes free will so that God can fulfill His plan and will. There is an important message.
2) God's absolute plan
What is God’s absolute plan? God will work for those who wait for Him. They don’t look towards the world but the people of God look only towards God alone. With this being said, let me give you an example through the event of the Exodus. God chose the Israelites as His chosen people and through the blood of the young lamb, God gave them salvation. What is God’s decree? God’s decree was for the Israelites to be led to the land of Canaan. It was already planned in the book of Genesis. God already told Abraham that his descendants will go to the land of Canaan and will fulfill His covenant. God fulfilled His decree through different events and incidents throughout the Old Testament. This was God’s dispensation. In order to fulfill God’s decree, God sent them out to Israel to Egypt. 400 years laters, the Israelites became a nation and in order to fulfill God’s plan, they had to come out of Egypt. No one was able to stop God’s plan. Then, they went to Mount Sinai and God gave them a covenant on that mountain. Through the wilderness, God made the Israelites His holy nation and sent them to the land of Canaan. That was God’s master plan. This is God’s dispensation. We can see God’s providence throughout this whole plan. God made the 10 disasters to come upon Egypt so that God’s plan can be fulfilled. This was God’s providence. God protected the Israelites in the wilderness with the pillars of fire and clouds. There were amazing works of God for the Israelites. God allowed them to do blood sacrifices and give worship to God so that they can become His holy people. This was all the free will of God. This is God’s providence. You have the choice of whether you want to believe in God or not. The Israelites committed a lot of sin against God. They made the golden calf and worshiped an idol. They were punished by God because God couldn’t bring them to the land of Canaan as idol worshipers. So that is why God bought a serpent to kill all of those who worshiped idols. But through Moses, God had him set up the bronze staff so those who look, they will be saved. This was the free will that God set before the people. Also the event of the 10 spies. The 10 spies, they could choose to go to the land of Canaan or not. But Joshua and Caleb said that it was God who gave them the land of Canaan so they should go and enter this land. This was the free will that God gave to the Israelites.
3. God's Dispensation
1) God's providence
What is the covenant that God has given to us? It is Acts 1:8 “But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” - No one can block God’s plan. God can do world evangelism through those who want to. With you or without you, God will fulfill world evangelism. God’s plan will absolutely be fulfilled no matter what.
We can see free will in Ephesians 6:12 “For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.” - We participate in spiritual warfare every single day. It is a physical warfare but our life is a spiritual warfare. But the problem is that we are just weak human beings. And we need to fight our spiritual warfare with our weak physical bodies. I am sure you know very well but I saw the PD notebook. When I saw this, I realized that there is a great event that is occurring right now. I am not sure about what you think about this but we can see these kinds of events occurring without us. But it is important for us to discern what parts are true or not. Because Satan can be deceiving us. I never liked the MBC broadcasting company. They spread rumors for a long time regarding the mad cow disease. They spread rumors that if you eat meat from America, then it will destroy your brain and bring fear among the Koreans in America. But the Koreans in America are doing just fine. The MBC broadcast company can spread rumors so you need to be careful. If you don’t discern correctly, then you can be deceived real easily. There are false pictures and are distorting rumors going around. This means that we need to know the truth. So I am not saying this lightly but you need to look at this carefully. But let us say, those events did happen, then we need to look at the intentions carefully. We need to know the ulterior motives behind this. There may be hidden agendas of powerful people so we need to discern this carefully. As people of God’s covenant and gospel, we need to look at the spiritual facts and background. In the introduction, I spoke to you about the pastor. Why did that problem arise? He was healed but why did that problem arise? No one could solve that problem for him and he became deceived by his spiritual problems. What do we do about this? There is God’s hidden providence that we need to see and find out. There are God’s hidden blessings within this. Why did God allow this to happen? From here, I realized that there was a great plan of God. God wants us to have renewal. I realized that we need to set out a new start and we need to set out to save the 237 nations. We need to discover God’s providence for us. I am not sure what you think about this but are you going to choose what Joshua and Caleb chose or will you choose what the other spies chose? You need to find out what will glorify God and please God. Are you going to pray for those who are suffering from spiritual problems or what will you do? I spoke with pastor Kim Tae-sung in Austin and I told him that I will not lose hold of God’s blessings. Within our church, we need to pray for the pastors who are suffering and the pastors who are suffering from spiritual problems. I am going to pray for them. Because I can do the same thing. I am capable of making mistakes too. I pray to God that I don’t make the same mistakes and lose hold of the gospel.
2) God's decree
Ephesians 3:9, 10, 12 “And to make all see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the ages has been hidden in God who created all things through Jesus Christ; 10 to the intent that now the manifold wisdom of God might be made known by the church to the principalities and powers in the heavenly places, 12 in whom we have boldness and access with confidence through faith in Him.” - God’s plan for world evangelism is God’s decree.
Ephesians 3:10 - We need to hold onto this. We need to hold onto God’s covenant to save the 237 nations.
Ephesians 3:12 - Through the gospel and as we continue to share the gospel, God’s decree is to block disasters.
Conclusion
Ephesians 3:19 “To know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.” - God’s love for us is something that we cannot comprehend. We need to look towards God and pray earnestly that God will work and He will be glorified. May God’s blessings come upon us.
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