This transcript was generated by whisper.ai.

(upbeat music) - Welcome back for day three of our first week and our look at
the book of Isaiah. We're going to turn to chapter two today. First couple of days,
Isaiah one, we looked at the fact that if we're going to experience the change, the
vision for change that God wants to see in our lives, it starts with us.

But as you turn to chapter two, you see, you also have to look to the world
around you and the change that God wants to work. How God wants to solve some of
the issues, some of the problems, the struggles in this world. If you watch a TV
police drama, somebody does something wrong and within an hour, actually 42 or
43 minutes without the ads, they've got the problem figured out.

They've got the wrongdoer brought to justice. It's all done and it makes us feel
good. But that's entertainment, that's not real life.

Life does not work that way. People seem to get away with injustices every day.
They do wrong things to us, to the ones that we love.

Worse yet, they thumb their lifestyles at God and they seem to get away with it.
How do we handle it? How do we handle the injustices in this world?

Well, it begins with our heart. God may have something for you specifically to
do about a specific injustice, but it's going to begin, the change begins actually
with your heart. Our first tendency is to react to injustice with one of two
responses, anger and doubt.

We just get angry, we just get mad at it. We want to do something about it. Or we
just feel this doubt, how could God let this happen?

Those are honest, emotional responses. You need to bring those to God and listen
to God. And that might be where we start, but we gotta end up somewhere else to
be able to handle the reality and deal with the reality of injustice in this
world in a way that brings change in us and through which God can bring change
to this world through us.

What's the right response? The right response is always love. Love instead of
anger, faith instead of doubt.

And in Isaiah chapter two, as the chapter opens up, Isaiah reminds us, he gives
us a picture of two places that we look to if we're going to experience this kind
of love, this kind of faith in the midst of the injustices and the struggles of
this world. He says, you gotta look at the mountain of the Lord and you gotta
look at the day of the Lord. Let's look at both of those.

First, you gotta look at the mountain of the Lord because the mountain of the
Lord is a place of hope. In verse two, in the last days, the mountain of the
Lord's temple will be established as the highest of the mountains. It will be
exalted above the hills and all nations will stream to it.

Many people will come and say, come, let us go to the mountain of the Lord, to
the temple of the God of Jacob. He will teach us his ways so that we may walk in
his paths. The law will go out from Zion, the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.

He will judge between the nations. He will settle disputes for many peoples.
They will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks.

Nation will not take up sword against nation nor will they train for war
anymore. Come, descendants of Jacob, let us walk in the light of the Lord. So he
talks about this place, the mountain of the Lord, where change happens.

All the nations come into this mountain and when and if they do that, the
swords, that's when this picture you've heard from Isaiah, the swords are beaten
into plowshares. They won't train for war anymore. What does this mean for us?

How do you and I handle the injustices in this world today? First thing we have
to do for our hearts is we have to establish our source of authority. The
mountain of the Lord will be established.

We have to establish our source of authority. Who's most important? Who's most
powerful in our lives?

What does it mean to be established? You're reading these verses, the mountain
of the Lord will be chief among the mountains. It's going to be first.

It will be raised above the hills. It's going to be recognized as the greatest.
Nations will stream to it.

God's lordship is going to be declared by all. This starts in our hearts as
followers of Christ. We've gotta make this mountain of God's authority in our
lives the first thing in our lives, the most recognizable things in our lives.

The lordship of Christ is what we follow in our lives. God is first, God is
greatest. God is the only ultimate source of hope.

And as you read on, these verses say he will become our teacher, our judge. He
will become our peace when we beat those swords into plowshares. So the personal
question behind this as we apply these verses today to our hearts is who's
first?

Who's greatest? Who's your go-to in life? Or what's first?

Maybe it's some thing. What's greatest? What's your go-to in life?

These verses tell us we've gotta learn to live on the mountain of the lord, to
handle the struggles of the world around us. You gotta live on the mountain of
the lord. Come, descendants of Jacob, let us walk in the light of the lord.

You live on the mountain of the lord by living in the light of the lord. There's
this confidence as you live in the light of the lord that one day his authority
that we're reading about here, his authority that is established in the book of
Isaiah will be seen by all. Let me ask you.

Is your greatest trust in what you see or in what God says? That tells you your
source of authority. That tells you the light that you're walking in.

Is your greatest confidence going to be in what's happening now or in what God
says will happen in the end? That tells you what your authority is. For some
people, their greatest authority is the news networks.

That's a scary place to live. There's not a lot of hope there. The mountain of
the lord is established.

God's authority is as a thread through everything that we can see sometimes and
not see. In the end, it's going to be clear to all. Now, what does the mountain of
the lord mean for my everyday life?

It means that the light of his lordship shines on every experience of your life.
Wherever you go, there's the mountain of the lord. Your confidence that in the
end, God's authority is going to be seen.

God's lordship is going to prevail. So when the world seems in turmoil, missiles
falling, the stock market falling all at once, you look to the mountain of the
lord for your confidence. That's one of the keys to where your source of
authority is in your life.

Where do you look for confidence when you're struggling? When you go through the
greatest struggles of life, when a child dies, you look to the mountain of the
lord for your strength and confidence. See, you don't have the answers, but God
is strong enough even when you don't have the answers.

When this evil that's in this world reaches out, grabs you by the throat, you
look to the mountain of the lord. You look to the mountain of the lord by
walking in the light of the lord. You walk in the light of his hope, his future.

You can live in the darkness of this world, and that brings only anger and
doubt. Or you can walk in the light of the lord. That's the place of love and
faith.

So in the injustice of this world, we look to the mountain of the lord. But
Isaiah also reminds us we have to look to the day of the lord. That's a place of
judgment.

The mountain of the lord is a place of hope. The day of the lord is a place of
judgment. Verses six to eight.

You, lord, have abandoned your people, the descendants of Jacob. They're full of
superstitions from the east. They practice divination like the Philistines, and
they embrace pagan customs.

Their land is full of silver and gold, and there's no end to their treasures.
Their land is full of horses. There's no end to their chariots.

Their land is full of idols. They bow down to the work of their hands, to what
their fingers have made. So he begins by talking about what things were like in
Israel at that time.

And the truth is, the people, they had superstitions, they practiced witchcraft,
they were full of pagan customs, but they were also wealthy. They had silver,
they had gold, they had treasures. It looked like it was working.

What's just about that? It seemed like they were getting away with it. Isaiah
reminds them this is temporary in the light of eternity.

He reminds them of what's really happening. He says they're bowing down to the
work of their hands, and so in the end, all mankind will be brought low. That's
a powerful statement for our lives.

Think about what this says to those who make the material in this world, all
that's important in this world. You're bowing down to what's not going to last.
Think of what this says to those who make their career, their job, their life.

You're bowing down to something that has no future. Because Isaiah reminds us in
verses 12 to 18 of chapter two, the Lord has a day in store, a day that's
coming. Beginning in verse 12, the Lord Almighty has a day in store for all the
proud and lofty, for all that is exalted, and they will be humbled, for all the
cedars of Lebanon, tall and lofty, for all the oaks of Bashan, for all the
towering mountains and the high hills, for every lofty tower and every fortified
wall, every trading ship, every stately vessel.

The arrogance of man will be brought low, and human pride humbled. The Lord
alone will be exalted in that day, and the idols will totally disappear. So he
goes through this list, the proud and the lofty, the cedars, the oaks, the
mountains, the hills, the towers, the walls, the ships, the vessels, all that
Israel was proud of, or the thought was glorious he talks about here, and he
says, the idols, they're all going to disappear.

The Lord has a day in store. So when you think about the injustices in this
world, the injustices are all going to disappear. The Lord has a day in store.

If your trust is in idols, if your trust is in this world, the day of the Lord
is a terrible day, but it doesn't have to be that way. If your trust is in the
Lord, it's a wonderful day, 'cause it's when everything is made right,
everything is made just. So we're encouraged to live in the day of the Lord.

Isaiah 2, 22 tells us how to do that. It says, stop trusting in mere humans who
have but a breath in their nostrils. Why do you hold them in esteem?

We look at ourselves in the day of man, and we think we're so powerful, we're so
important, we're so invincible. We're not in control of our destiny, Isaiah
reminds us. We don't decide our future.

Our lives are so short, it's like one breath. Why would you trust in that? The
day of the Lord encourages us to replace our trust in man with a trust in the
Lord.

And the question is, would you rather trust that which will fail or that which
will prevail? God's invitation to his people, to you and I as his people, it's
crystal clear. There is a mountain of the Lord, and he invites us to walk as
children of light in his hope.

There is a day of the Lord, and he invites us to stop trusting in man, place our
total trust in the Lord, because his plan is going to last. All these injustices,
these unfairnesses that we see in this world, they will never last. God's going to
have the final word.

As we pray together, let's just remind ourselves of that. And just in prayer
say, Lord, thank you that you are trustworthy. Even though I can't always see it
in this world, I choose right now to trust it, to trust that there is a mountain
of the Lord.

Your authority is what will prevail in the end. To trust that there is a day of
the Lord, you will set everything right in the end. While we're in this world,
God help us to do all that we can to deal with the injustice around us, just as
Jesus did.

But let it never overwhelm us, because we know that it's not the end of the
story. You, your lordship, your greatness, your power, that's the end of the
story. That's what we trust in today.

In your name, amen. Tomorrow we're going to see Isaiah giving us this picture of
God's branch, who is Jesus Christ.