This is your daily reminder. God has not run
out of mercy, not for you, not today. Welcome
to the New Mercies Podcast. Welcome today, April
the 1st. It is Wednesday, and I am excited to
talk about Isaiah 25 is where our text is today
in our reading plan. If you're new here, like
and subscribe, follow so you don't miss an episode.
We are excited to jump in. I want to jump straight
in today. So much good stuff in Isaiah 25 as
we read a little bit. This is not a long chapter,
just 12 short verses, and there's a lot packed
into it, though. Just to give you a little understanding
of where this sits in the context of the book
of Isaiah. The book of Isaiah is a great book.
It's kind of referred to as the little Bible
or the small Bible. There's 66 chapters in Isaiah.
I know I've talked about this before on the podcast,
but just a little refresher. This first part
is kind of the Old Testament pieces, and then
it goes into like the New Testament pieces and
some prophecy and some things. We see something
happen here in chapter number 25 that is pretty
awesome. So in chapter 24, we see God's judgment.
fall. And after God's judgment falls, then we
pick up chapter 25. If you want to go and read
24 today, I won't be mad at you if you want to
pick that up too. But in chapter 24, we see God's
judgment come down. And then listen to how chapter
25 begins. I want to read at verse number one,
and I'm going to read verses one and two, and
I want to stop and talk about it. Here it goes.
Chapter 25 of Isaiah, verse number one. O Lord,
you are my God. I will exalt you. I will praise
your name. For you have done wonderful things,
plans formed of old, faithful, and sure. For
you have made the city a heap, the fortified
city a ruin. The foreigner's palace is a city
no more. It will never be rebuilt. I want to
stop right there. Again, the first verse is just
worship. It is just worship, and it shows us
God had a plan the whole time. Nothing happens
outside of God's sovereign plan. It's not that
God's surprised by anything. He had a plan from
the beginning. I love how it says that you've
done wonderful things. Your plans formed from
old. This was written about. Years ago, God has
a plan and it's finally unfolding. We are watching
God's plan unfold every single day in our life.
I wonder if you were to see God's plan for your
specific story, if you see that God wanted you
to share your faith tomorrow, and wouldn't you...
Want to share your faith tomorrow? You would
want to do what he's planned for you. He's got
good plans for you. It's plans to prosper you.
It's good stuff. It's plans to bring you closer
into a walk with him and a relationship with
him. God's plans are unfolding right before our
very eyes. Be a part of what God is doing every
single moment of every day. This is a worship
song. This is a worship text. He starts worshiping.
I exalt you. You're awesome. You're amazing.
Your plans, they can't be overthrown. They can't
be thwarted. They are awesome and amazing. Then
he goes into verse 2, and he says something kind
of interesting in verse 2. From verses 2 to about
verse 5, you see God's judgment on pride. He
talks about a city specifically that is built
without God. Okay, and here's what I will say
to that. So it says, you know, you've... made
the city a heap, fortified city a ruin. These
great things that were once built, they are now
in just rubble. Why? Because a city built, listen
to this, this is a good one. I want you to prepare
yourself. A city built without God typically,
eventually becomes a sermon about God. Here's
what I love. Anytime humans try to do something
without the Lord, it will eventually point back
to God. That's what happens. The Tower of Babel,
they were trying their best to create a tower
to the heavens, and God says no, and now it's
a sermon about God. They tried to build something
without God, and yet it became a sermon about
Him. I think that sometimes we may misunderstand
some things in the Scripture. Every single thing,
you cannot do a thing without the presence of
the Lord. If you try to, he will eventually be
revealed. And typically, if you try to do something
about God, it will become dust and rubble. That's
what will happen. I want to read verse number
three as well. It says this, therefore, strong
peoples will glorify you. Cities of ruthless
nations will fear you. You know, one of the things
I realized about the Lord is he doesn't just
defeat the enemies. He doesn't just defeat his
enemy. He reveals himself to the enemy. And what
happens? The enemy is afraid. They are fearful.
God is wanting, he will get the glory. He will
get the glory. He wants to reveal himself to
the nations. And when he does, if you're not
on the right side of that, you are afraid. You
are terrified of how holy and powerful and awesome
he is. I look back through the Old Testament
at all these times when the nation of Israel
would rise up against another nation. And whenever
that other nation saw who God was, they were
afraid. They didn't want the Israelites. to come
in. Why? Because they were afraid of their God
is who they were afraid of. Not the mass army
or the warriors or anything. They were afraid
of the Lord. He doesn't just defeat the enemy.
He reveals himself to the enemy. Now I want you
to think about, we're about to go into Easter
Sunday. We've talked about Luke chapter 23 and
24. Yesterday we looked at Luke 24 and how Jesus
rose from the dead. The tomb is now empty. He
is now out. He is alive and well and everything.
Sin has been conquered. Death has been defeated.
Now here's what happens. He's revealing himself
to the enemy. And the enemy knows he's lost the
battle. Imagine if you are the enemy and you
are waking up. Imagine Satan waking up on the
first day of the week and seeing this Jesus,
the tomb empty and Jesus alive and well. And
Satan knows I have been defeated forever. Why?
Because he's been revealed who this God is. It's
powerful and awesome. Now I want you to look
down. with me to verse number eight. I just want
to read verse number eight. Read the whole chapter
today. It's really great, but I want to read
verse number eight. It says this, He will swallow
up death forever, and the Lord God will wipe
away tears from all faces, and the reproach of
his people he will take away from all the earth,
for the Lord has spoken. You know, as I look
at this text, I want to give you a little outline
for it so you kind of understand, maybe as you're
reading it, give you a little better insight.
It begins with this. worship of God's plan. He
is in control. There is nothing that surprises
him. Then it goes into God's judgment on some
pride. Then we look and see his salvation for
the humble. If you read verse number 4, it talks
about how God saves the humble. And whenever
you humble yourself, you submit yourself, and
you'll be rescued by this God. And then we look
into verse number 6, a couple of verses later,
and we find this God's kingdom is celebrated.
When God's kingdom is celebrated, it's this great
feast that is coming. Jesus is the host of this
great feast. I'm going to tell you something
in just a minute when we get to the end of this.
Then after that, we read verse number 8, and
we see in verses 7 and 8, God has a final victory.
There is a final victory coming, and death will
be swallowed up. And listen, you may say, well,
where else does it say that? In 1 Corinthians
15, over in verse number 54, it says that death
has been swallowed up in victory. Why? Because
the king came in, and he wasn't second place.
He won. He won the battle against sin and death.
Death has been swallowed up. Death wasn't even
just defeated. It was devoured by God. That's
how powerful this text is. So we see his final
victory. Then we look and we see in the next
couple of verses, verse 9, God's people rejoice.
Of course they rejoice. Who's not going to rejoice
for what the Lord has been doing? And then we'll
see at the very last of this text, God's enemies
finally defeated. This is a wonderful chapter,
and I hope and pray you read it today with this
fresh understanding and this zeal and this passion
and this joy, because I don't know about you,
I'm a child of the king, and I win. I win because
he fought the battle for me. I win because he
gave me this grace that I didn't deserve. That's
why I win this battle. It's amazing and awesome
to see. Isaiah 25 only makes full sense in the
person of Jesus. That's how it makes sense. He's
the one who removes the veil. He's the one who
defeated death. He's the one who hosts the dinner.
He's the one who fulfills this great plan of
God. It's him that has fulfilled all of it. And
here's the deal. That Jesus is the one who saved
me. And if you've put your faith and trust in
him and you've surrendered to his lordship, you've
got that same Jesus. the one that fulfilled this
chapter. I want you to think about, sometimes
we mess up in our Christian walk because we think,
okay, he's great, he's powerful, he's awesome.
He swallowed up death. The thing most everyone
is afraid of, he swallowed it, he devoured it.
You can see it in Isaiah 25. You can go into
1 Corinthians 15 and find it again. Death has
been swallowed up in victory. Who is victory?
It's Jesus. We have so much victory in Jesus.
I look throughout the scriptures and I see in
Romans, I'm not just a conqueror. I'm more than
a conqueror through him who loves me. Nothing
can separate me from the love of Christ. Absolutely
nothing. There's no demon. There's no power.
There's no money. There's no influence. Death
can't separate me from Jesus. How is that so?
Because death lost. Death got swallowed up in
victory. I love Isaiah. 25. I want to encourage
you in this. Pray a little bit extra today. Here's
what I found out. Somebody told me that I was
a little bit crazy when I came to the Scripture.
I was explaining something to my family the other
day, and as they asked me a question about Scripture,
I got kind of on the edge of my seat, and I started,
my posture changed, and I started sharing something
in the Scripture, and they all were kind of laughing
at me. They said, you get so excited about this.
I'm like, we win. This is the greatest thing
in the world. We have victory because death was
swallowed up in victory. And that victory is
Jesus. And I listen, I talk to Jesus every day.
I do. You may think that sounds crazy. It does
sound crazy. It is crazy. But it's the fact that
I have this hope. God's plan the whole time was
to send his son Jesus to pay the price for our
sin, the judgment that fell on him, not on me.
And now I get to celebrate. And all that pride
and arrogance and all that got crumbled. It crumbles
at the very feet of the Lord. He's going to reveal
himself to the enemy, and the enemy loses. And
we get to celebrate the humble, accept Christ
and his salvation. We say, I know. know I can't
get there on my own. I know I can't get to God
on my own because of these faults that I have,
but I trust in Jesus. And then we celebrate with
this great feast together. And then we get to
see victory win over and over and over again.
As we see death loses, Jesus wins. And then we
see, we get to rejoice. Not only do we have a
feast and we celebrate, we get to rejoice. And
then we get to watch as the enemy loses the final.
battle. I hope Isaiah 25 gets you halfway as
fired up today as it is for me. I'm excited about
this weekend. I cannot wait to share with you
some of the things the Lord is showing me as
we read through our reading plan this week. Come
Sunday, get ready to worship the Lord in a powerful
way. But here's the deal. You don't have to wait
till Sunday to worship him. You can worship him
today. Read the word, let him reveal to you who
he is, and try your best not to worship after
you see his glory.