•Isaiah 33:17-24
•The LORD is…
•17 Your eyes will behold the king in his beauty;
•they will see a land that stretches afar.
•18 Your heart will muse on the terror:
•“Where is he who counted, where is he who weighed the tribute?
•Where is he who counted the towers?”
•19 You will see no more the insolent people,
•the people of an obscure speech that you cannot comprehend,
•stammering in a tongue that you cannot understand.
•20 Behold Zion, the city of our appointed feasts!
•Your eyes will see Jerusalem,
•an untroubled habitation, an immovable tent,
•whose stakes will never be plucked up,
•nor will any of its cords be broken.
(Isaiah 33:17-20, ESV)
•21 But there the LORD in majesty will be for us
•a place of broad rivers and streams,
•where no galley with oars can go,
•nor majestic ship can pass.
•22 For the LORD is our judge; the LORD is our lawgiver;
•the LORD is our king; he will save us.
•23 Your cords hang loose;
•they cannot hold the mast firm in its place
•or keep the sail spread out.
•Then prey and spoil in abundance will be divided;
•even the lame will take the prey.
•24 And no inhabitant will say, “I am sick”;
•the people who dwell there will be forgiven their iniquity.
•(Isaiah 33:21-24, ESV)
•13 Hear, you who are far off, what I have done;
•and you who are near, acknowledge my might.
•14 The sinners in Zion are afraid;
•trembling has seized the godless:
•“Who among us can dwell with the consuming fire?
•Who among us can dwell with everlasting burnings?”
•15 He who walks righteously and speaks uprightly,
•who despises the gain of oppressions,
•who shakes his hands, lest they hold a bribe,
•who stops his ears from hearing of bloodshed
•and shuts his eyes from looking on evil,
•16 he will dwell on the heights;
•his place of defense will be the fortresses of rocks;
•his bread will be given him; his water will be sure.
•(Isaiah 33:13-16, ESV)
•Main Point
•These verses show the reality of the King
•He will be the foundation for their justice and goodness
•He will protect and provide for His people all they need physically and spiritually
•
•Application Points
•The LORD is…
•Isaiah proclaims to the people that they will come to experience and know truth
•By knowing God they are capable of knowing so much more
•This should be something which gives us a great amount of joy
•In knowing God it leads to a stable foundation for all knowledge
•What are some things we know?
•You will see the king in His beauty
•What on earth does beauty have to do with God Almighty?
•
•Application Points
•The LORD is… (2)
• What is beauty?
• Beauty is often described as subjective
• Some might look to the starry night, or flowers, or other people and see beauty
• There is some essence of beauty in each of these things
• While God is great and mighty, He is also beautiful
• Oftentimes in our society women are considered beautiful for this or that attribute
• “Beauty is skin deep”
•
•Application Points
•The LORD is… (3)
• Consider another woman who does not have the same physical attributes
• Instead…she is patient, kind, loving, peaceful
• We admire them for their godliness, and we conclude they are beautiful
• There are women who enjoy feeling beautiful
• Some women feel a sense of beauty in dressing up
• There is nothing wrong with feeling beauty in such a way
•Application Points
•The LORD is… (4)
• There is a warning…oftentimes women are told they must look a certain way in order to attain beauty
• Physical beauty is not the only form of beauty
• While physical beauty fades over time, beauty found in godliness only grows more profound and radiant
• Seeking godliness is a lifelong pursuit
• The more you learn the more beauty abounds
• The older women in the congregation can appear far more beautiful than when they were younger because of their godly character
•Application Points
•The LORD is… (5)
• Such beauty does not diminish
• The beauty of God does not fade because it is His essence
• Beauty abounds in us as well, and the more we grow the more it grows and never fades
• The text describing God as beautiful makes perfect sense
• Yet we also see that God is our Judge
•This is the same word used to describe the judges during the judges period
•God is such a judge as this
•Application Points
•The LORD is… (6)
• Further He defends what is good and right
• He is capable of showing us how to defend others and stand for what is right
• Without knowledge of Him we would be incapable of knowing what to stand up for
• The third is that He is Lawgiver
• Law implies what can and should be done and what can’t and shouldn’t be done
• The purpose of law is to separate darkness from light, good from evil
•All law is built with these things in mind
•Application Points
•The LORD is… (7)
• Yet, this does not mean all law is the same or all law is automatically good
• We have seen this through various nations
• By what right do we, or does anyone, have to critique such laws?
• There are many who look at Christians as being moral judges who shouldn’t speak in the public square
• Everyone has a presupposition, and Christians deserve the right at the table as anyone else
• How do we base our conclusions, who is right?
•Application Points
•The LORD is… (8)
• If there is one who is perfect…then such a person would be able to give laws that are just
• The reason we are able to speak up about the law is that the foundation we have for Law…is God Himself
• For He is good, just, moral, and able to provide such a Law
• The final description of God is that He is King
• He has the strength to protect
• He has the power to forgive
• Our God reigns over all of reality
•Application Points
•The LORD is… (9)
• Isaiah continually urges the people to turn toward Him
• The nations are utterly impotent compared to God
• The same is true with sin, guilt, and death
• We are guilty and deserving the punishment for our sin and guilt which is death
• Yet with any kingdom the King is able to forgive
• He has accomplished this through His Son Jesus Christ
• He has provided the Law, He is the Judge, and all of this is done under His Sovereignty
•Application Points
•The LORD is… (10)
• This is the great truth of the Gospel
• He has redeemed us from (our sins) through His Son Jesus Christ
• It is in this redemption we know that the prophets spoke the truth
• How do we know the prophets spoke the truth?
•Application Points
•The LORD is… (11)
•The answer is in Jesus
•He was obedient in all things even to death on the cross
•He is the embodiment of an Israel and Judah who never went astray
•Where are the counters?
•Because He did what we cannot do, we can live
•The beauty of the Gospel continues to shine
•Let us remain faithful to the truth
•Praise God for His deliverance, His redemption, and praise God that He is judge, lawgiver, and king forever and always
•Application Points
•The Gospel of Christ
•Origins
•Where we began
•Fall
•What went wrong
•Redemption
•How it is fixed
•Glorification
•Where it at leads
