Isaiah 57

That, of course, is what one of the most talented people who ever lived before the time of Jesus Christ discovered.

I'm thinking about Isaiah.

What a marvelous ministry he had.

He was a preacher.

Here was a man who was known and was celebrated for his marvelous ministry, the silver-tongued prophet.

If Isaiah was around today, people would be cramming into conference halls just to hear him speak.

And if he was on Twitter, he'd have millions who were following his oracles there, right? And here's the testimony of this most gifted man that would have been celebrated in his time for his many, many skills.

He says this, in the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord.

We follow the prince of the power of the air.

In Isaiah 57, which we went through a number of weeks or a couple of months ago of the high and holy God.

Now, after that, as God offers comfort to those who have a repentant and contrite heart, he then also says in Isaiah 57 verses 20 to 21, the wicked, however, are like the tossing sea.

And then he goes on to say, there is no rest for the wicked.

There's no peace for the wicked, right? There is just wrath abiding upon them.

But as I go through this, I'll stop and talk about certain sections just to help try to give some context to what's going on.

But this is Isaiah 57.

Good people pass away.

The godly often die before their time.

No one seems to understand that God is protecting them from the evil to come.

For those who follow godly paths will rest in peace when they die.

Now Isaiah 57, 1 and 2 is... been very powerful for me.

I've lost some people in my life in the last few years.

But this is where I could first see people.

i could see through the fire just barely it's so dark but i could see the outlines of thousands of people inside this huge pit and they just look like skeletons with like flesh hanging off their bones and you could not distinguish a man from a woman they were screaming so loud burning you want to escape the screams but you have to endure that for all eternity But Isaiah 57, 21 says, there is no peace, saith my God to the wicked.

There's no peace of mind.

But Isaiah 32, 18 says, my people dwell in a quiet resting place.

And they have no rest day nor night.

And no rest from torment, but no rest of any kind.

Because Isaiah 57, 20 said, the wicked are like the troubled sea that cannot rest.

You know, the sea is always moving, can't rest.

And much of it comes from the Old Testament.

I've already noted for you that 300 of the 404 verses are Old Testament allusions and yet never once does it say Isaiah said or David predicted or Moses wrote.

to go back and dig.

And then many of the symbols in the Revelation are given in the same paragraph where it's interpreted.

And today in English we use it both ways.

We speak of a literal sea or we speak of that sea of people, that mass of people coming out of the stadium.

Write down another verse, Isaiah 57, 20.

The prophet there says, "'But the wicked are like the tossing sea.'" for it cannot be quiet, and the waters toss up refuse and mud.

And so you guys, here is the gospel.

Isaiah 57, 16.

Peace, peace to those far and to those near, says the Lord, and I will heal them.

The gospel, for those of us who are in this room tonight, you know what it feels like to be exposed in the broad daylight with your shame out there for all to see.

This is where Yahweh said he would dwell, between the wings of the archangel.

Now, Isaiah is at 57.1.

I dwell in eternity.

I think it's Isaiah 57.

Because I want to show you that the most holy place of the atom is a proton.

Proton has a positive charge.

In principle, it's showing us eternity.

And Yahweh, being in the most holy place, says he dwells in eternity.

Good to see you and good to have you here on, as Lauren said, this 10 Cities Sunday.

If you've got your Bibles, do come and join me in Isaiah 57.

We didn't have a separate Bible read this morning because the passage this morning is so short that it didn't kind of need its own distinct thing.

I'm going to give that to us during our sermon.

And so what's next for us as a church? Well, we need to rebuild out of this season.

But how does that happen? Well, we need the very revival that we long to see in our city.

And so Isaiah 57 comes along and is going to speak to us, a very relevant call to us for where we're at as a church.

We're going to look at just a few verses of it this morning.