Athens Vineyard
The Zeal of the Lord Will Do This
Locations & Times
Athens Vineyard Church
2595 Atlanta Hwy, Athens, GA 30606, USA
Sunday 10:30 AM
The weightiest sentence in the whole section is the last one: Isaiah 9:7b (ESV) The zeal of the LORD of hosts will do this.
Is Jesus always gentle, meek, and mild? No, he is also zealous and bold. God’s passion for his glory will accomplish all his will and desires. We are a hindrance to God’s glory because of our divided hearts. God’s heart is never divided. Standing in heaven, we might look at one another and say, “We didn’t do this. He did!”
Let’s look at this word ‘Zeal.’ The Hebrew word means – ardor, zeal, jealousy. It’s a cousin to a word meaning red in the face, which implies someone experiencing deep emotions within. It’s like a husband’s jealousy for the love of his wife:
Proverbs 6:34-35 (ESV) 34 For jealousy makes a man furious, and he will not spare when he takes revenge. 35 He will accept no compensation; he will refuse though you multiply gifts.
The envy that drives human effort:
Ecclesiastes 4:4 (ESV) 4 Then I saw that all toil and all skill in work come from a man's envy of his neighbor. This also is vanity and a striving after wind.
Song of Songs 8:6-7 (ESV) Set me as a seal upon your heart, as a seal upon your arm, for love is strong as death, jealousy is fierce as the grave. Its flashes are flashes of fire, the very flame of the LORD. 7 Many waters cannot quench love, neither can floods drown it. If a man offered for love all the wealth of his house, he would be utterly despised.
This very human word describes something important about God. It describes a passion in the heart of God that will not rest until it is satisfied.
Isaiah 42 describes God as a warrior psyching himself up before battle:
Isaiah 42:13 (ESV) 13 The LORD goes out like a mighty man, like a man of war he stirs up his zeal; he cries out, he shouts aloud, he shows himself mighty against his foes.
Isaiah 63:15 (ESV) 15 Look down from heaven and see, from your holy and beautiful habitation. Where are your zeal and your might? The stirring of your inner parts and your compassion are held back from me.
Zephaniah 1:18 (ESV) 18 Neither their silver nor their gold shall be able to deliver them on the day of the wrath of the LORD. In the fire of his jealousy/zeal, all the earth shall be consumed; for a full and sudden end he will make of all the inhabitants of the earth.
Psalms 79:5 (ESV) 5 How long, O LORD? Will you be angry forever? Will your jealousy burn like fire?
Psalms 69:9 (ESV) 9 For zeal for your house has consumed me, and the reproaches of those who reproach you have fallen on me.
=> John 2:14-17 (ESV) 14 In the temple he found those who were selling oxen and sheep and pigeons, and the money-changers sitting there. 15 And making a whip of cords, he drove them all out of the temple, with the sheep and oxen. And he poured out the coins of the money-changers and overturned their tables. 16 And he told those who sold the pigeons, “Take these things away; do not make my Father's house a house of trade.” 17 His disciples remembered that it was written, “Zeal for your house will consume me.”
Behold the glory of the Lord. This is your God.
God radiates zeal for his own glory.
Pray for his zeal to consume you, to make you zealous for his glory.
Last week we learned that Judah (following Ahaz) failed to trust God for the crisis event of their time. Even so, it didn’t thwart his plan.
In this next section, we see grace and triumph.
Grace
The grace of God preserves a trusting remnant of people who truly trust him in the midst of people who claim the name but don’t trust. They're not arrogant, just people who simply live by faith.
Here’s how Jonathan Edwards described a true Christian: “As he has more holy boldness, so he has less self-confidence…As he is more sure than others of deliverance from hell, so he has a greater sense that he deserves it. He is less apt than others to be shaken in faith, but more apt than others to be moved by solemn warnings, God’s frowns and calamities of others. He has the firmest comfort, but the softest heart; richer than others, but poorest of all in spirit. He is the tallest and strongest saint, but the least and tenderest child among them.”
The grace of God succeeds when the majority reject him because he preserves a remnant who continue to believe, a remnant who dare to live by faith.
1 The remnant is set apart by the presence of God.
Isaiah 8:9-10 (ESV) 9 Be broken, you peoples, and be shattered; give ear, all you far countries; strap on your armor and be shattered; strap on your armor and be shattered. 10 Take counsel together, but it will come to nothing; speak a word, but it will not stand, for God is with us.
They have a defiant confidence! Sounds like John when he says,
1 John 5:4-5 (ESV) 4 For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith. 5 Who is it that overcomes the world except the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?
Doesn’t this look different than the description of the people in vs 2?
Isaiah 7:2 (ESV) 2 When the house of David was told, “Syria is in league with Ephraim,” the heart of Ahaz and the heart of his people shook as the trees of the forest shake before the wind.
Here’s something that we need to pay attention to. The remnant demonstrates a calm serenity in the face of trouble. How do they do it? The presence of God. God is real to them. They’ve spent some time alone with him. God is enough for them. They’ve abided in the vine.
John 15:4-5 (ESV) 4 Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. 5 I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.
In 1851, a missionary named Allen Gardiner had been sent with several other men to some islands off the southern coast of South America. After being left by the ship, they ran into one catastrophe after another. The supply ship that was supposed to relieve them never came. One by one, the men began to starve and die from the elements. When help finally arrived, too late, they found only the bodies and journals of the men. I want to read to you what was written by Gardiner himself:
“Mr Maidment was so exhausted yesterday that he did not rise from his bed till noon, and I have not seen him since; consequently I tasted nothing yesterday. I cannot leave the place where I am, and know not whether he is in the body, or enjoying the presence of the gracious God whom he has served so faithfully. I am writing this at ten o'clock in the forenoon. Blessed be my heavenly Father for the many mercies I enjoy--a comfortable bed, no pain, or even cravings of hunger; though excessively weak, scarcely able to turn in my bed, at least, it is a very great exertion; but I am, by His abounding grace, kept in perfect peace, refreshed with a sense of my Saviour's love, and an assurance that all is wisely [402/403] and mercifully appointed, and pray that I may receive the full blessing which it is doubtless designed to bestow. My care is all cast upon God, and I am only waiting His time and His good pleasure to dispose of me as He shall see fit. Whether I live or die, may it be in Him; I commend my body and my soul to His care and keeping, and earnestly pray that He will take my dear wife and children under the shadow of His wings, comfort, guard, strengthen, and sanctify them wholly, that we may together, in a brighter and eternal world, praise and adore His goodness and grace in redeeming us with His precious blood, and plucking us as brands from the burning, to bestow upon us the adoption of children, and make us inheritors of His heavenly kingdom. Amen. . . Poor and weak as we are, our boat is the very Bethel [house of God] to our soul, for we feel and know that God is here. Asleep or awake, I am, beyond the power of expression, happy.”
God wants to help you make your current crisis the Bethel to your soul. You can accomplish that through, and only through, experiencing his precious presence. He’s better than a supply ship. He’s better than your next breath.
2 The remnant is set apart by the fear of God.
Vss 11-15
They were afraid of the enemy like we’re afraid of terrorists. But the remnant feared God with a wholesome fear rather than the terror of a foreign army.
How did they do it?
Isaiah 8:13 (ESV) 13 But the LORD of hosts, him you shall honor as holy. Let him be your fear, and let him be your dread.
Treat God as if he were God! Don’t respond to your crisis in such a way that makes me seem helpless, weak, and worthless, as if you have not God.
You remember the story, perhaps, that I have told about one of my teachers and his wife Scott and Debra Hafemann, traveling to Africa for a missions trip. Upon arrival, they met a young woman who had recently lost one of her small children, and it broke Debra’s heart . . .
By faith, RECKON WITH GOD!
Isaiah 8:14 (NET) 14 He will become a sanctuary, but a stone that makes a person trip, and a rock that makes one stumble - to the two houses of Israel. He will become a trap and a snare to the residents of Jerusalem.
Look at how the New Testament describes this:
Matthew 21:44 (ESV) 44 And the one who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces; and when it falls on anyone, it will crush him.”
Jesus describes the difference between those who reject the gospel and those who trust him by faith.
3 The remnant is set apart by the truth of God.
Vss 16-18
Isaiah 8:16 (ESV) 16 Bind up the testimony; seal the teaching among my disciples.
Preserve this gospel for a generation that WILL listen.
Those whose faith is not real is like those who have no dawn!
Isaiah 8:20 (ESV) 20 To the teaching and to the testimony! If they will not speak according to this word, it is because they have no dawn.
The Triumph
Isaiah 8:22 - 9:1 (ESV)
And they will look to the earth, but behold, distress and darkness, the gloom of anguish. And they will be thrust into thick darkness.
1 But there will be no gloom for her who was in anguish. In the former time he brought into contempt the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, but in the latter time he has made glorious the way of the sea, the land beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the nations.
God launches a new work precisely where his people have suffered the most. When foreign armies attacked Israel, they always hit Galilee first. And that is where Jesus began to preach and announce the coming of the kingdom.
Matthew 4:12-17 (ESV) Now when he heard that John had been arrested, he withdrew into Galilee. 13 And leaving Nazareth he went and lived in Capernaum by the sea, in the territory of Zebulun and Naphtali, 14 so that what was spoken by the prophet Isaiah might be fulfilled:
15 “The land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali,
the way of the sea, beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles—
16 the people dwelling in darkness
have seen a great light,
and for those dwelling in the region and shadow of death,
on them a light has dawned.”
17 From that time Jesus began to preach, saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”
Vss 2-3 describe the abundance of glory as the gospel explodes on the scene
In vss 4-6, Isaiah explains this new joy
4 – a freedom fighter like Gideon has broken the oppressor’s power
5 – this warrior has even put an end to war itself! Who is this?
6 – a child, a son . . .
Isaiah 9:6 (ESV)
6 For to us a child is born,
to us a son is given;
and the government shall be upon his shoulder,
and his name shall be called
Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
God’s answer to everything that has ever terrorized us is a child.
His power is so superior to everything hard or evil that he can be defeat it through a child, who will one day die on a cross in apparent weakness.
Vs 7 – history is going his way.
Let’s follow him. Let’s trust him. Let’s spend time with him. Let’s abide in him. Let his presence and truth be our fortress. Forever and ever. We will never say, “Well, I guess he’s finally out of ideas.”
The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this.
Is Jesus always gentle, meek, and mild? No, he is also zealous and bold. God’s passion for his glory will accomplish all his will and desires. We are a hindrance to God’s glory because of our divided hearts. God’s heart is never divided. Standing in heaven, we might look at one another and say, “We didn’t do this. He did!”
Let’s look at this word ‘Zeal.’ The Hebrew word means – ardor, zeal, jealousy. It’s a cousin to a word meaning red in the face, which implies someone experiencing deep emotions within. It’s like a husband’s jealousy for the love of his wife:
Proverbs 6:34-35 (ESV) 34 For jealousy makes a man furious, and he will not spare when he takes revenge. 35 He will accept no compensation; he will refuse though you multiply gifts.
The envy that drives human effort:
Ecclesiastes 4:4 (ESV) 4 Then I saw that all toil and all skill in work come from a man's envy of his neighbor. This also is vanity and a striving after wind.
Song of Songs 8:6-7 (ESV) Set me as a seal upon your heart, as a seal upon your arm, for love is strong as death, jealousy is fierce as the grave. Its flashes are flashes of fire, the very flame of the LORD. 7 Many waters cannot quench love, neither can floods drown it. If a man offered for love all the wealth of his house, he would be utterly despised.
This very human word describes something important about God. It describes a passion in the heart of God that will not rest until it is satisfied.
Isaiah 42 describes God as a warrior psyching himself up before battle:
Isaiah 42:13 (ESV) 13 The LORD goes out like a mighty man, like a man of war he stirs up his zeal; he cries out, he shouts aloud, he shows himself mighty against his foes.
Isaiah 63:15 (ESV) 15 Look down from heaven and see, from your holy and beautiful habitation. Where are your zeal and your might? The stirring of your inner parts and your compassion are held back from me.
Zephaniah 1:18 (ESV) 18 Neither their silver nor their gold shall be able to deliver them on the day of the wrath of the LORD. In the fire of his jealousy/zeal, all the earth shall be consumed; for a full and sudden end he will make of all the inhabitants of the earth.
Psalms 79:5 (ESV) 5 How long, O LORD? Will you be angry forever? Will your jealousy burn like fire?
Psalms 69:9 (ESV) 9 For zeal for your house has consumed me, and the reproaches of those who reproach you have fallen on me.
=> John 2:14-17 (ESV) 14 In the temple he found those who were selling oxen and sheep and pigeons, and the money-changers sitting there. 15 And making a whip of cords, he drove them all out of the temple, with the sheep and oxen. And he poured out the coins of the money-changers and overturned their tables. 16 And he told those who sold the pigeons, “Take these things away; do not make my Father's house a house of trade.” 17 His disciples remembered that it was written, “Zeal for your house will consume me.”
Behold the glory of the Lord. This is your God.
God radiates zeal for his own glory.
Pray for his zeal to consume you, to make you zealous for his glory.
Last week we learned that Judah (following Ahaz) failed to trust God for the crisis event of their time. Even so, it didn’t thwart his plan.
In this next section, we see grace and triumph.
Grace
The grace of God preserves a trusting remnant of people who truly trust him in the midst of people who claim the name but don’t trust. They're not arrogant, just people who simply live by faith.
Here’s how Jonathan Edwards described a true Christian: “As he has more holy boldness, so he has less self-confidence…As he is more sure than others of deliverance from hell, so he has a greater sense that he deserves it. He is less apt than others to be shaken in faith, but more apt than others to be moved by solemn warnings, God’s frowns and calamities of others. He has the firmest comfort, but the softest heart; richer than others, but poorest of all in spirit. He is the tallest and strongest saint, but the least and tenderest child among them.”
The grace of God succeeds when the majority reject him because he preserves a remnant who continue to believe, a remnant who dare to live by faith.
1 The remnant is set apart by the presence of God.
Isaiah 8:9-10 (ESV) 9 Be broken, you peoples, and be shattered; give ear, all you far countries; strap on your armor and be shattered; strap on your armor and be shattered. 10 Take counsel together, but it will come to nothing; speak a word, but it will not stand, for God is with us.
They have a defiant confidence! Sounds like John when he says,
1 John 5:4-5 (ESV) 4 For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith. 5 Who is it that overcomes the world except the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?
Doesn’t this look different than the description of the people in vs 2?
Isaiah 7:2 (ESV) 2 When the house of David was told, “Syria is in league with Ephraim,” the heart of Ahaz and the heart of his people shook as the trees of the forest shake before the wind.
Here’s something that we need to pay attention to. The remnant demonstrates a calm serenity in the face of trouble. How do they do it? The presence of God. God is real to them. They’ve spent some time alone with him. God is enough for them. They’ve abided in the vine.
John 15:4-5 (ESV) 4 Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. 5 I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.
In 1851, a missionary named Allen Gardiner had been sent with several other men to some islands off the southern coast of South America. After being left by the ship, they ran into one catastrophe after another. The supply ship that was supposed to relieve them never came. One by one, the men began to starve and die from the elements. When help finally arrived, too late, they found only the bodies and journals of the men. I want to read to you what was written by Gardiner himself:
“Mr Maidment was so exhausted yesterday that he did not rise from his bed till noon, and I have not seen him since; consequently I tasted nothing yesterday. I cannot leave the place where I am, and know not whether he is in the body, or enjoying the presence of the gracious God whom he has served so faithfully. I am writing this at ten o'clock in the forenoon. Blessed be my heavenly Father for the many mercies I enjoy--a comfortable bed, no pain, or even cravings of hunger; though excessively weak, scarcely able to turn in my bed, at least, it is a very great exertion; but I am, by His abounding grace, kept in perfect peace, refreshed with a sense of my Saviour's love, and an assurance that all is wisely [402/403] and mercifully appointed, and pray that I may receive the full blessing which it is doubtless designed to bestow. My care is all cast upon God, and I am only waiting His time and His good pleasure to dispose of me as He shall see fit. Whether I live or die, may it be in Him; I commend my body and my soul to His care and keeping, and earnestly pray that He will take my dear wife and children under the shadow of His wings, comfort, guard, strengthen, and sanctify them wholly, that we may together, in a brighter and eternal world, praise and adore His goodness and grace in redeeming us with His precious blood, and plucking us as brands from the burning, to bestow upon us the adoption of children, and make us inheritors of His heavenly kingdom. Amen. . . Poor and weak as we are, our boat is the very Bethel [house of God] to our soul, for we feel and know that God is here. Asleep or awake, I am, beyond the power of expression, happy.”
God wants to help you make your current crisis the Bethel to your soul. You can accomplish that through, and only through, experiencing his precious presence. He’s better than a supply ship. He’s better than your next breath.
2 The remnant is set apart by the fear of God.
Vss 11-15
They were afraid of the enemy like we’re afraid of terrorists. But the remnant feared God with a wholesome fear rather than the terror of a foreign army.
How did they do it?
Isaiah 8:13 (ESV) 13 But the LORD of hosts, him you shall honor as holy. Let him be your fear, and let him be your dread.
Treat God as if he were God! Don’t respond to your crisis in such a way that makes me seem helpless, weak, and worthless, as if you have not God.
You remember the story, perhaps, that I have told about one of my teachers and his wife Scott and Debra Hafemann, traveling to Africa for a missions trip. Upon arrival, they met a young woman who had recently lost one of her small children, and it broke Debra’s heart . . .
By faith, RECKON WITH GOD!
Isaiah 8:14 (NET) 14 He will become a sanctuary, but a stone that makes a person trip, and a rock that makes one stumble - to the two houses of Israel. He will become a trap and a snare to the residents of Jerusalem.
Look at how the New Testament describes this:
Matthew 21:44 (ESV) 44 And the one who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces; and when it falls on anyone, it will crush him.”
Jesus describes the difference between those who reject the gospel and those who trust him by faith.
3 The remnant is set apart by the truth of God.
Vss 16-18
Isaiah 8:16 (ESV) 16 Bind up the testimony; seal the teaching among my disciples.
Preserve this gospel for a generation that WILL listen.
Those whose faith is not real is like those who have no dawn!
Isaiah 8:20 (ESV) 20 To the teaching and to the testimony! If they will not speak according to this word, it is because they have no dawn.
The Triumph
Isaiah 8:22 - 9:1 (ESV)
And they will look to the earth, but behold, distress and darkness, the gloom of anguish. And they will be thrust into thick darkness.
1 But there will be no gloom for her who was in anguish. In the former time he brought into contempt the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, but in the latter time he has made glorious the way of the sea, the land beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the nations.
God launches a new work precisely where his people have suffered the most. When foreign armies attacked Israel, they always hit Galilee first. And that is where Jesus began to preach and announce the coming of the kingdom.
Matthew 4:12-17 (ESV) Now when he heard that John had been arrested, he withdrew into Galilee. 13 And leaving Nazareth he went and lived in Capernaum by the sea, in the territory of Zebulun and Naphtali, 14 so that what was spoken by the prophet Isaiah might be fulfilled:
15 “The land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali,
the way of the sea, beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles—
16 the people dwelling in darkness
have seen a great light,
and for those dwelling in the region and shadow of death,
on them a light has dawned.”
17 From that time Jesus began to preach, saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”
Vss 2-3 describe the abundance of glory as the gospel explodes on the scene
In vss 4-6, Isaiah explains this new joy
4 – a freedom fighter like Gideon has broken the oppressor’s power
5 – this warrior has even put an end to war itself! Who is this?
6 – a child, a son . . .
Isaiah 9:6 (ESV)
6 For to us a child is born,
to us a son is given;
and the government shall be upon his shoulder,
and his name shall be called
Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
God’s answer to everything that has ever terrorized us is a child.
His power is so superior to everything hard or evil that he can be defeat it through a child, who will one day die on a cross in apparent weakness.
Vs 7 – history is going his way.
Let’s follow him. Let’s trust him. Let’s spend time with him. Let’s abide in him. Let his presence and truth be our fortress. Forever and ever. We will never say, “Well, I guess he’s finally out of ideas.”
The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this.