Category: Sermons (Page 2 of 16)

Isaiah 22:15–25 (ESV)

The Peril of Pride: Shebna (15–19)

15: Thus says the Lord God of hosts, “Come, go to this steward, to Shebna, who is over the household, and say to him:

16: What have you to do here and whom have you here, that you have cut out here a tomb for yourself, you who cut out a tomb on the height and carve a dwelling for yourself in the rock?

17: Behold, the Lord will hurl you away violently, O you strong man. He will seize firm hold on you

18: and whirl you around and around, and throw you like a ball into a wide land. There you shall die, and there shall be your glorious chariots, you shame of your master’s house.

19: I will thrust you from your office, and you will be pulled down from your station.

The Rewards of Honor: Eliakim (20–25)

20: In that day I will call my servant Eliakim the son of Hilkiah,

21: and I will clothe him with your robe, and will bind your sash on him, and will commit your authority to his hand. And he shall be a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem and to the house of Judah.

22: And I will place on his shoulder the key of the house of David. He shall open, and none shall shut; and he shall shut, and none shall open.

23: And I will fasten him like a peg in a secure place, and he will become a throne of honor to his father’s house.

24: And they will hang on him the whole honor of his father’s house, the offspring and issue, every small vessel, from the cups to all the flagons.

25: In that day, declares the Lord of hosts, the peg that was fastened in a secure place will give way, and it will be cut down and fall, and the load that was on it will be cut off, for the Lord has spoken.”

Isaiah 22:1–14 (ESV)

Defeat without a Fight

1: The oracle concerning the valley of vision. What do you mean that you have gone up, all of you, to the housetops,
2: you who are full of shoutings, tumultuous city, exultant town? Your slain are not slain with the sword or dead in battle.
3: All your leaders have fled together; without the bow they were captured. All of you who were found were captured, though they had fled far away.

Weeping without Comfort

4: Therefore I said: “Look away from me; let me weep bitter tears; do not labor to comfort me concerning the destruction of the daughter of my people.”
5: For the Lord God of hosts has a day of tumult and trampling and confusion in the valley of vision, a battering down of walls and a shouting to the mountains.
6: And Elam bore the quiver with chariots and horsemen, and Kir uncovered the shield.
7: Your choicest valleys were full of chariots, and the horsemen took their stand at the gates.
8: He has taken away the covering of Judah. On that day you looked to the weapons of the House of the Forest,
9: and you saw that the breaches of the city of David were many. You collected the waters of the lower pool,
10: and you counted the houses of Jerusalem, and you broke down the houses to fortify the wall.
11: You made a reservoir between the two walls for the water of the old pool. But you did not look to him who did it, or see him who planned it long ago.

Revelry without Repentance

12: In that day the Lord God of hosts called for weeping and mourning, for baldness and wearing sackcloth;
13: and behold, joy and gladness, killing oxen and slaughtering sheep, eating flesh and drinking wine. “Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.”
14: The Lord of hosts has revealed himself in my ears: “Surely this iniquity will not be atoned for you until you die,” says the Lord God of hosts.

Isaiah 21:1–17 (ESV)

Humiliation and Humility

1: The oracle concerning the wilderness of the sea. As whirlwinds in the Negeb sweep on, it comes from the wilderness, from a terrible land.
2: A stern vision is told to me; the traitor betrays, and the destroyer destroys. Go up, O Elam; lay siege, O Media; all the sighing she has caused I bring to an end.
3: Therefore my loins are filled with anguish; pangs have seized me, like the pangs of a woman in labor; I am bowed down so that I cannot hear; I am dismayed so that I cannot see.
4: My heart staggers; horror has appalled me; the twilight I longed for has been turned for me into trembling.
5: They prepare the table, they spread the rugs, they eat, they drink. Arise, O princes; oil the shield!
6: For thus the Lord said to me: “Go, set a watchman; let him announce what he sees.
7: When he sees riders, horsemen in pairs, riders on donkeys, riders on camels, let him listen diligently, very diligently.”
8: Then he who saw cried out: “Upon a watchtower I stand, O Lord, continually by day, and at my post I am stationed whole nights.
9: And behold, here come riders, horsemen in pairs!” And he answered, “Fallen, fallen is Babylon; and all the carved images of her gods he has shattered to the ground.”
10: O my threshed and winnowed one, what I have heard from the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, I announce to you.

Watchfulness and Repentance

11: The oracle concerning Dumah. One is calling to me from Seir, “Watchman, what time of the night? Watchman, what time of the night?”
12: The watchman says: “Morning comes, and also the night. If you will inquire, inquire; come back again.”

Compassion and Deliverance

13: The oracle concerning Arabia. In the thickets in Arabia you will lodge, O caravans of Dedanites.
14: To the thirsty bring water; meet the fugitive with bread, O inhabitants of the land of Tema.
15: For they have fled from the swords, from the drawn sword, from the bent bow, and from the press of battle.
16: For thus the Lord said to me, “Within a year, according to the years of a hired worker, all the glory of Kedar will come to an end.
17: And the remainder of the archers of the mighty men of the sons of Kedar will be few, for the Lord, the God of Israel, has spoken.”

Isaiah 17 (ESV)

A Devastation of Glory

1: An oracle concerning Damascus. Behold, Damascus will cease to be a city and will become a heap of ruins.

2: The cities of Aroer are deserted; they will be for flocks, which will lie down, and none will make them afraid.

3: The fortress will disappear from Ephraim, and the kingdom from Damascus; and the remnant of Syria will be like the glory of the children of Israel, declares the LORD of hosts.

4: And in that day the glory of Jacob will be brought low, and the fat of his flesh will grow lean.

5: And it shall be as when the reaper gathers standing grain and his arm harvests the ears, and as when one gleans ears of grain in the Valley of Rephaim.

A Remnant of Grace

6: Gleanings will be left in it, as when an olive tree is beaten—two or three berries in the top of the highest bough, four or five on the branches of a fruit tree, declares the LORD God of Israel.

7: In that day man will look to his Maker, and his eyes will look on the Holy One of Israel.

8: He will not look to the altars, the work of his hands, and he will not look on what his own fingers have made, either the Asherim or the altars of incense.

A Multitude for Judgement

9: In that day their strong cities will be like the deserted places of the wooded heights and the hilltops, which they deserted because of the children of Israel, and there will be desolation.

10: For you have forgotten the God of your salvation and have not remembered the Rock of your refuge; therefore, though you plant pleasant plants and sow the vine-branch of a stranger,

11: though you make them grow on the day that you plant them, and make them blossom in the morning that you sow, yet the harvest will flee away in a day of grief and incurable pain.

Destruction for the Oppressor

12: Ah, the thunder of many peoples; they thunder like the thundering of the sea! Ah, the roar of nations; they roar like the roaring of mighty waters!

13: The nations roar like the roaring of many waters, but he will rebuke them, and they will flee far away, chased like chaff on the mountains before the wind and whirling dust before the storm.

14: At evening time, behold, terror! Before morning, they are no more. This is the portion of those who loot us, and the lot of those who plunder us.

Isaiah 16 (ESV)

Moab’s Legacy

1: Send the lamb to the ruler of the land, from Sela, by way of the desert, to the mount of the daughter of Zion.

2: Like fleeing birds, like a scattered nest, so are the daughters of Moab at the fords of the Arnon.

3: “Give counsel; grant justice; make your shade like night at the height of noon; shelter the outcasts; do not reveal the fugitive;

4: let the outcasts of Moab sojourn among you; be a shelter to them from the destroyer. When the oppressor is no more, and destruction has ceased, and he who tramples underfoot has vanished from the land,

5: then a throne will be established in steadfast love, and on it will sit in faithfulness in the tent of David one who judges and seeks justice and is swift to do righteousness.”

Moab’s Harvest

6: We have heard of the pride of Moab— how proud he is!— of his arrogance, his pride, and his insolence; in his idle boasting he is not right.

7: Therefore let Moab wail for Moab, let everyone wail. Mourn, utterly stricken, for the raisin cakes of Kir-hareseth.

8: For the fields of Heshbon languish, and the vine of Sibmah; the lords of the nations have struck down its branches, which reached to Jazer and strayed to the desert; its shoots spread abroad and passed over the sea.

9: Therefore I weep with the weeping of Jazer for the vine of Sibmah; I drench you with my tears, O Heshbon and Elealeh; for over your summer fruit and your harvest the shout has ceased.

10: And joy and gladness are taken away from the fruitful field, and in the vineyards no songs are sung, no cheers are raised; no treader treads out wine in the presses; I have put an end to the shouting.

Moab’s Worship

11: Therefore my inner parts moan like a lyre for Moab, and my inmost self for Kir-hareseth.

12: And when Moab presents himself, when he wearies himself on the high place, when he comes to his sanctuary to pray, he will not prevail.

13: This is the word that the Lord spoke concerning Moab in the past.

14: But now the Lord has spoken, saying, “In three years, like the years of a hired worker, the glory of Moab will be brought into contempt, in spite of all his great multitude, and those who remain will be very few and feeble.”

Isaiah 14:24–32 (ESV)

Assyria, and Divine Intention

24: The LORD of hosts has sworn: “As I have planned, so shall it be, and as I have purposed, so shall it stand,
25: that I will break the Assyrian in my land, and on my mountains trample him underfoot; and his yoke shall depart from them, and his burden from their shoulder.”
26: This is the purpose that is purposed concerning the whole earth, and this is the hand that is stretched out over all the nations.
27: For the LORD of hosts has purposed, and who will annul it? His hand is stretched out, and who will turn it back?

Philistia, and the Davidic Promise

28: In the year that King Ahaz died came this oracle:
29: Rejoice not, O Philistia, all of you, that the rod that struck you is broken, for from the serpent’s root will come forth an adder, and its fruit will be a flying fiery serpent.
30: And the firstborn of the poor will graze, and the needy lie down in safety; but I will kill your root with famine, and your remnant it will slay.
31: Wail, O gate; cry out, O city; melt in fear, O Philistia, all of you! For smoke comes out of the north, and there is no straggler in his ranks.
32: What will one answer the messengers of the nation? “The LORD has founded Zion, and in her the afflicted of his people find refuge.”

Psalm 58 (ESV)

To the choirmaster: According to Do Not Destroy. A Miktam of David.

The Indictment

1: Do you indeed decree what is right, you gods? Do you judge the children of man uprightly?
2: No, in your hearts you devise wrongs; your hands deal out violence on earth.
3: The wicked are estranged from the womb; they go astray from birth, speaking lies.
4: They have venom like the venom of a serpent, like the deaf adder that stops its ear,
5: so that it does not hear the voice of charmers or of the cunning enchanter.

The Imprecation

6: O God, break the teeth in their mouths; tear out the fangs of the young lions, O Lord!
7: Let them vanish like water that runs away; when he aims his arrows, let them be blunted.
8: Let them be like the snail that dissolves into slime, like the stillborn child who never sees the sun.
9: Sooner than your pots can feel the heat of thorns, whether green or ablaze, may he sweep them away!

The Response

10: The righteous will rejoice when he sees the vengeance; he will bathe his feet in the blood of the wicked.
11: Mankind will say, “Surely there is a reward for the righteous; surely there is a God who judges on earth.”

Jude 24–25 (ESV)

The Perseverance of the Saints

24: Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy,

Justification by Faith Alone

25: to the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen.

The Exaltation of Christ

Jude 5-19 (ESV)

By Discerning the Teaching of the Past

5: Now I want to remind you, although you once fully knew it, that Jesus, who saved a people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed those who did not believe.

6: And the angels who did not stay within their own position of authority, but left their proper dwelling, he has kept in eternal chains under gloomy darkness until the judgment of the great day—

7: just as Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding cities, which likewise indulged in sexual immorality and pursued unnatural desire, serve as an example by undergoing a punishment of eternal fire.

By Hearing the Warnings of the Present

8: Yet in like manner these people also, relying on their dreams, defile the flesh, reject authority, and blaspheme the glorious ones.

9: But when the archangel Michael, contending with the devil, was disputing about the body of Moses, he did not presume to pronounce a blasphemous judgment, but said, “The Lord rebuke you.”

10: But these people blaspheme all that they do not understand, and they are destroyed by all that they, like unreasoning animals, understand instinctively.

11: Woe to them! For they walked in the way of Cain and abandoned themselves for the sake of gain to Balaam’s error and perished in Korah’s rebellion.

12: These are hidden reefs at your love feasts, as they feast with you without fear, shepherds feeding themselves; waterless clouds, swept along by winds; fruitless trees in late autumn, twice dead, uprooted;

13: wild waves of the sea, casting up the foam of their own shame; wandering stars, for whom the gloom of utter darkness has been reserved forever.

By Embracing Our Future Hope

14: It was also about these that Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied, saying, “Behold, the Lord comes with ten thousands of his holy ones,

15: to execute judgment on all and to convict all the ungodly of all their deeds of ungodliness that they have committed in such an ungodly way, and of all the harsh things that ungodly sinners have spoken against him.”

16: These are grumblers, malcontents, following their own sinful desires; they are loud-mouthed boasters, showing favoritism to gain advantage.

17: But you must remember, beloved, the predictions of the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ.

18: They said to you, “In the last time there will be scoffers, following their own ungodly passions.”

19: It is these who cause divisions, worldly people, devoid of the Spirit.

Philemon (ESV)

Love Gives Rest

1: Paul, a prisoner for Christ Jesus, and Timothy our brother, To Philemon our beloved fellow worker

2: and Apphia our sister and Archippus our fellow soldier, and the church in your house:

3: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

4: I thank my God always when I remember you in my prayers,

5: because I hear of your love and of the faith that you have toward the Lord Jesus and for all the saints,

6: and I pray that the sharing of your faith may become effective for the full knowledge of every good thing that is in us for the sake of Christ.

7: For I have derived much joy and comfort from your love, my brother, because the hearts of the saints have been refreshed through you.

Love Makes Demands

8: Accordingly, though I am bold enough in Christ to command you to do what is required,

9: yet for love’s sake I prefer to appeal to you—I, Paul, an old man and now a prisoner also for Christ Jesus—

Love Produces Change

10: I appeal to you for my child, Onesimus, whose father I became in my imprisonment.

11: (Formerly he was useless to you, but now he is indeed useful to you and to me.)

12: I am sending him back to you, sending my very heart.

13: I would have been glad to keep him with me, in order that he might serve me on your behalf during my imprisonment for the gospel,

14: but I preferred to do nothing without your consent in order that your goodness might not be by compulsion but of your own accord.

15: For this perhaps is why he was parted from you for a while, that you might have him back forever,

16: no longer as a bondservant but more than a bondservant, as a beloved brother—especially to me, but how much more to you, both in the flesh and in the Lord.

Love Pays Debts

17: So if you consider me your partner, receive him as you would receive me.

18: If he has wronged you at all, or owes you anything, charge that to my account.

19: I, Paul, write this with my own hand: I will repay it—to say nothing of your owing me even your own self.

Love Makes Demands

20: Yes, brother, I want some benefit from you in the Lord. Refresh my heart in Christ.

21: Confident of your obedience, I write to you, knowing that you will do even more than I say.

22: At the same time, prepare a guest room for me, for I am hoping that through your prayers I will be graciously given to you.

23: Epaphras, my fellow prisoner in Christ Jesus, sends greetings to you,

24: and so do Mark, Aristarchus, Demas, and Luke, my fellow workers.

25: The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit.