If you'd open your Bibles this evening to the prophecy of Isaiah. Prophecy of Isaiah, chapter 25. We'll be reading the entire chapter beginning at verse 1. Hear the word of God. O Lord, you are my God. I will exalt you and praise your name, for in perfect faithfulness you have done marvelous things, things planned long ago. You have made the city a heap of rubble, the fortified town a ruin. The foreigners stronghold a city no more. It will never be rebuilt. Therefore strong peoples will honor you. Cities of ruthless nations will revere you. You have been a refuge for the poor, a refuge for the needy in his distress, a shelter from the storm and a shade from the heat. For the breath of the ruthless is like a storm driving against a wall and like the heat of the desert. You silence the uproar of foreigners as heat is reduced by the shadow of a cloud so the song of the ruthless is stilled. On this mountain the Lord Almighty will prepare a feast of rich food for all peoples, a banquet of aged wine, the best of meats and the finest of wines. On this mountain he will destroy the shroud that enfolds all peoples, the sheet that covers all nations. He will swallow up death forever. The sovereign Lord will wipe away the tears from all faces. he will remove the disgrace of his people from all the earth. The Lord has spoken. In that day they will say, Surely this is our God. We trusted in him and he saved us. This is the Lord. We trusted in him. Let us rejoice and be glad in his salvation. The hand of the Lord will rest on this mountain, but Moab will be trampled under him as straws trampled down in the manure. They will spread out their hands in it as a swimmer spreads out his hands to swim. God will bring down their pride despite the cleverness of their hands. He will bring down your high fortified walls and lay them low. He will bring them down to the ground, to the very dust. Here ends the reading of God's Word. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. And after separating the light from the darkness, the waters above from the waters below, and the seas from the dry land. On the fourth day, God created lights in the expanse of the sky to separate the day from the night and to serve as signs for seasons and days and years. And from the beginning, God's creation has been for the benefit of men, including the marking of time. And men continue to enjoy the regularity and predictability of time despite our sinfulness because of God's faithfulness to his promise to Noah. Recorded in Genesis chapter 8, 22, after judging the world with the flood, he said, As long as the earth endures, seed time and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night will never cease. Time will march on. And we stand tonight at the turning of the year, looking back over another 365 days that the Lord has made. Nearly every newspaper and magazine, every radio and TV station has or will publish some sort of catalog of 2002. They'll catalog the best or the worst, the greatest this or the most important that. And the list will all be different because it depends on the author and their interest, what they'll write. Some will focus on the twists and turns of politics, others on the ups and downs of business, And still others on the fame and the frailty of celebrities, just to name a few. And each of us this night has our list for 2002. And in your looking back, what have you seen in 2002? As you remember the Winter Olympics, the death of the Queen Mum, the war in Afghanistan, the Enron debacle, the sniper, the claim of cloning humans just this last week. What have you seen in 2002? And as you remember the birth and baptism of a baby, a profession of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, the beginning of a new family and marriage, the loss of a loved one to death, and the release of the Ostenside URC to become an independent church. What have you seen in 2002? Well, whether your remembrance of events is happy or sad, encouraging or disheartening, comforting or distressing, what you have seen in 2002 is the very thing that the prophet Isaiah saw when he surveyed the events of his day. And in these events, Isaiah saw displayed God's perfect faithfulness to his plans made long ago. But not only did Isaiah see it, in chapter 25 he records his song about it. And from this song we will consider three things about God's perfect faithfulness. First, its panoramic perspective, its glorious judgment, and its professing purpose. See, its panoramic perspective is not so much declared in this text as we've read it tonight, as much as it is assumed. And we have to look behind it a little bit to see this. The prophet begins his song in verses 1 through 5 by singing to the Lord God directly. And he sings to him about what he has done. In verse 1 he says, You are my God, and I will exalt you and praise your name. You have done marvelous things. In verse 2, you have made. In verse 4, you have been. And in verse 5, you silence. He sings to God. And then Isaiah turns, is addressed to all of mankind, beginning in verse 6 through the end of the chapter. And he sings to men about what the Lord God will do. In verse 6, he says, the Lord Almighty will prepare. In verse 7, he will destroy. In verse 8, he will swallow up. The sovereign Lord will wipe away and he will remove. In verse 10, the hand of the Lord will rest, but Moab will be trampled under him. And in verse 11, God will bring down, which is repeated twice in 12. So you see, Habakkuk, or Habakkuk, Isaiah in singing this song, sings to the Lord and sings to his people, in fact, to the world. And on the one hand, when singing to man the Lord's wondrous works, Isaiah sings from man's perspective. recounting details of the Lord's work yet to be experienced in our history. As time-bound men, we must wait for these to unfold. He sees like we see very narrowly and imperfectly, experiencing God's perfect faithfulness moment by moment, event by event, without seeing or understanding the greater context in which these things are taking place. You see, as finite men, we can only fathom the present and the past and that imperfectly. And the present moves so fast, sometimes we lose all perspective. We don't know what's up and what's down, what's next and what's behind. And that's why reflection on the past is so important for us. It's helpful for us to gain perspective. It's helpful for us to see, looking back through 2002 and beyond, to see how the Lord has worked His wondrous works. And when we consider the future, face it, we're blind. We can see nothing. Therefore, from our understanding of what's happened in the past and in the present, we jump to what we think will happen in the future. Therefore, in this room tonight, we have people that look back at 2002 and look forward with great expectation and high hopes for 2003. And others who look forward with great anxiety for 2002 wasn't such a pleasant year. Isaiah, who wrote this song, lived in a time of great wealth in Israel. The greatest wealth since the time of Solomon. And we learn in chapter 2, verse 7, that their land was full of silver and gold and there was no end to their treasures. Their land was full of horses. There was no end to their chariots. Their economy was booming and their war machines seemed invincible. They lavished in their luxury. From all that they could see, from their perspective, their expectation for the future was for more of the same and even better. things weren't perfect to be sure, but things looked good. And in this sense, our time and our present situation is not so different from that of Israel. Now, to be sure, as we read the newspapers and watch the news, there's many things that can get us concerned and cause us distress. But the truth of the matter is that we live in a time of great plenty. As a nation, we are fat. And by any standard, we have more than plenty of everything. despite the drumbeat of Madison Avenue who says we need more. And I posit to you that we as a nation, even we as an American church, stand in danger of the blindness that Israel had in their plenty. Ecclesiastes 3.11 teaches us that even though God has set eternity in the hearts of men, we cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end. our perspective is limited. And left to himself, Isaiah's perspective was limited. But the Lord did not leave Isaiah to himself. When we consider verses 1 through 5, we hear him sing to the Lord of the Lord's wondrous works from God's perspective, recounting the accomplishments of the whole of the Lord's work from beginning to end. You see, the prophet Isaiah has been granted the panoramic vision, the panoramic perspective of God. He can see it all. And the Lord revealed to Isaiah the future for Israel and the surrounding nations. And He commissioned Isaiah to go, face His people, and preach to them that the time of their forgiveness had passed. He saw how Israel would undergo mounting judgment by the surrounding nations and how ultimately God would bring Assyria in and wipe them off the face of the map for the rest of history. The Lord revealed to Isaiah what Isaiah could not see. What Israel could not see. That they were a sinful nation. A people loaded with guilt. A brood of evildoers. Children given to corruption. He says in chapter 1, verse 7. Or verse 4. And in chapter 1, verse 7, the Lord exposed to Isaiah the truth behind the delusions of grandeur that Israel had in all of her wealth and might. And he said, your city is desolate. Your city is burned with fire. Your fields are being stripped by foreigners right before you. Laid waste as when overthrown by strangers. In their wealth, in their power, were the seeds of their own destruction. And they didn't see it. But even more than this, the Lord revealed to Isaiah the future from the perspective that stands beyond all of history. All history past, all history to come. He was granted the panoramic perspective known only from the end of time, the end of all things, because the Lord has shown him the last days. And having been shown the beginning from the end, the prophet gained the understanding of God's perfect faithfulness and that it involves more than just God knowing what's going to happen but that God determined everything that happened for He had planned them long ago and He had done them. The revelation of God's perspective was not for Isaiah's personal pleasure but for the collective comfort of God's people. And though we do not receive it in the same way that Isaiah did by direct revelation from God. It is published for us in His Word. And it's open to us by the work of the Holy Spirit. And by it we too can know the end from the beginning. Now we're finite, so we won't know it completely. But because the Sovereign Lord has spoken it, because He will do it, we can know it truly. We can know the end from the beginning. And therefore, as believers, as we look back over 2002, over the toil or the trouble that we may have had, over the joys and the victories we may have had, we're able to look back not only from our own finite, imperfect perspective, but we can consider from God's perspective His perfect faithfulness in everything, each and every thing that has happened to us this year. Good times as well as difficult times. Highlights as well as the lowlights. All that the Lord has done is according to His perfect faithfulness. And as the people of God, armed with God's perspective, His panoramic view, were called to consider the glorious judgment of God's perfect faithfulness. You see, His perfect faithfulness is worked out in this world through judgment. And that means through division. The word of God incarnate and spoken is sharper than any two-edged sword. It's living and active. It penetrates and divides within the hearts of men that which is not divisible. Soul and spirit. Bone and marrow. Thoughts and attitudes of the heart. But the Word of God also divides between men. Jesus said of Himself in Matthew 10, 34, Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. And Luke 12 explains that the sword is to bring division between people, including within families. And this division of the Word of God is always into two groups, only two. it says, Jesus says of all men, He who is not with me is against me. The Word of God divides. And in this brief chapter of Isaiah, Isaiah 25, Isaiah sums up the work of the Lord that divides between men. The details are laid out in chapters 13 to 23 in terms of the immediate history of Israel and looking forward. The details are there, but in summary it's here. And Isaiah sings from God's perspective of the judgment of his perfect faithfulness already completed. And from man's perspective, as having to yet be worked out. But from these two perspectives, he sings of one truth. He sings of how God has and will bring low his enemies. And how he will raise up his people. Listen to what the Lord has done and will do to His enemies. He calls them the ruthless, whose breath, whose song of victory is like the driven rain against His people, whose uproar is like the oppressive heat of the desert sun beating down on His people. And from God's perspective, from His panoramic perspective, they are silenced. They are still. Read with me the second half of verse 4 through verse 5. The breath of the ruthless is like a storm driving against a wall and like the heat of the desert. You silence the uproar of the foreigners as heat is reduced by the shadow of a cloud so the song of the ruthless is still. And then by way of two very graphic metaphors, Isaiah proclaims the downfall and the humiliation of God's enemies by the judgment of the Lord. Isaiah sings from God's perspective in verse 2, he says, You have made a city a heap of rubble, the fortified town a ruin, the foreigner stronghold a city no more. It will never be rebuilt. And he says again in verses 10 to 12 from man's perspective what the Lord will do to his enemies. as typified or pictured for us by Moab, the nation. Moab will be trampled down under him as straw is trampled down in the manure. And they're skipping down. He will bring down your fortified walls and lay them low. He will bring them down to the ground, to the very dust. You see the picture here. Everything's down, bringing down the enemies of God. And I hope it's come to your mind already that you should be thinking of the Battle of Jericho. The image in your mind should be that of God pronouncing judgment upon those people. And through the obedience of His people giving that shout on the seventh day, the walls came crashing down, never to be rebuilt. See, the people of the city of Jericho trusted in their walls. They had built them. They were their strength. They would guard them and protect them. and in this they picture the city of fallen men each and every one who always trust in our own strength who always trust in the walls of our own building denying that the strength that we have is God given that whether it be our intelligence our beauty, our power, or our wealth it comes from God and just as Jericho was overthrown so too will all men who stand in their own strength in opposition to God and opposed to his people but he goes further in this picture and not only will they be undone the enemies of God like the walls of Jericho turned to dust they will be ashamed and humiliated in their judgment when the prophet sings in verse 10 that Moab will be trampled under him as straw is trampled down in the manure we are seeing in our mind's eye a very specific picture true for most of us we think of manure and fertilizer and it's still used for that purpose mostly but in Isaiah's day outside of Israel among the pagan nations and it probably is still in effect some places today manure is mixed with straw straw is trampled into the manure as a binding agent so that bricks can be made. Not to build, but to burn. And these bricks that are made this way, as they burn in an oven, so too will the enemies of God burn in the eternal fires of hell. Their pride will be trampled down. And there's nothing in their own strength they can do about it. He paints a great picture of verse 11. He says, They will spread out their hands in it as the swimmer tries out his hands to swim or spreads out his hands to swim. And God will bring down their pride despite the cleverness of their hands. All their efforts to somehow keep themselves afloat will be put down. Only those that realize their lostness and look to the Lord for salvation can have any hope of escaping this judgment. And so we've seen the word of God dividing and the enemies of God are brought low but listen now to what the Lord has done and will do for his people again from God's perspective in verse 4 Isaiah sings you've been a refuge for the poor a refuge for the needy in his distress a shelter from the storm and a shade from the heat as a wall keeps out the driving rain so the Lord protects His people from the attacks of His enemies. And as a cloud provides shade from the desert sun so the Lord protects His people from the oppression of His enemies. In a word, the Lord saves His people from His enemies, from their enemies, the world, the devil, and even from their own flesh. For Isaiah and God's people in the Old Testament era they could only look forward to the coming of the Messiah who would save them. And in God's perfect faithfulness the Lord Jesus Christ did come in the flesh. He took on our humanity and became like us in every way except without sin. We've just celebrated Christmas and our attention has been focused on that marvelous truth. That marvelous provision in God's perfect faithfulness to send His Son to be humiliated for us. Isaiah refers to the Messiah, Jesus Christ, in chapter 4, verse 2, as the branch of the Lord, who will be beautiful and glorious, and who will dwell with His people in all His glory. And we know as we've considered Christmas that this can't be speaking of Christ's first coming for He came in a way that there was nothing in him that was beautiful to us. He was despised and rejected by men. And instead of his glory, we saw his humiliation. You see, we celebrated at Christmas his coming for the purpose of saving, for sacrificing a people, for a people to bring to himself. The prophet here is looking forward to the time of the return of Christ in his glory and for the purpose of final judgment, final separation, final putting everything right. And when Christ returns, God's perfect faithfulness will, as Isaiah says in chapter 4, verses 5 and 6. Turn there if you would. It's a beautiful section. beginning at verse 2. In that day, the branch of the Lord will be beautiful and glorious, and the fruit of the land will be the pride and glory of the survivors in Israel. Those who are left in Zion, who remain in Jerusalem, will be called holy, all who are recorded among the living in Jerusalem. The Lord will wash away the filth of the women in Zion. He will cleanse the bloodstains from Jerusalem by a spirit of judgment and a spirit of fire. Then the Lord will create over all the Mount of Zion and over those who assemble there a cloud of smoke by day and a glow of flaming fire by night. Over all, the glory will be a canopy. It will be a shelter and a shade from the heat of the day and a refuge and hiding place from the storm and the rain. This is a prophecy of Christ. It's the glory of the Lord. It's the glory of Christ Himself that is the refuge for His people. Fully and finally on the last day, but even now, truly and continually, He is our refuge. He keeps us, His people, from any real harm that could come to us. But more than this, not only is the Lord the refuge for His people, He's the benefactor of His people. He raises them up on high. In verse 6 through 8 we read, On this mountain, that is Mount Zion, the Lord Almighty will prepare a feast of rich foods for all the peoples, a banquet of aged wine, the best of meats and the finest of wines. On this mountain He will destroy the shroud that enfolds all peoples, the sheet that covers all nations. He will swallow up death forever. The Sovereign Lord will wipe away the tears from all faces. He will remove the disgrace of His people from all the earth. What a beautiful picture of all that the Lord will do for His people. The picture of a feast, a fine feast, the finest feast you can imagine. And this feast is for those who trust in Him, verse 9, who are willing and obedient to Him, he says in chapter 1, verse 19. this feast is for those who know their poverty and their weakness apart from Christ and who trust in God's perfect faithfulness in Christ Jesus to give them all that they need the strength that they need the wealth that they lack blessed indeed are those who are invited to this wedding supper of the Lamb of God yes this promise will be fully and finally realized at the return of Christ in glory but what about now what about today must we wait for this feast well as the people of God we can be confident that even now the Lord prepares this banquet for us in the midst of our enemies Psalm 23 in the power of the Holy Spirit And by faith, we feast on this banquet through the means of grace which God has given in his perfect faithfulness to his church. The preaching of the word. The administration of the sacraments. By faith, these are sufficient for God's people as we wait for the final banquet to be ours in Christ. And the people who enjoy this feast are not only those who trust Him, but it's those who have been delivered from death into life. I believe in verse 7 where He says, The shroud that enfolds all peoples, the sheet that covers all nations, pictures for us death. Death that is the result of sin of one man. And through the one man, death came to all men because all sinned. The imputation of Adam's sin. This shroud that binds us and blinds us to the salvation that's available in Christ Jesus is lifted by Christ for His people. And Paul tells us in 2 Corinthians 3, verse 18, that once this veil is lifted, once this shroud is shredded, we who with unveiled faces will reflect the Lord's glory are being transformed into His likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit. For the people of God, even today, this veil has been lifted. It's been brought from death to life. And yet, in the end, according to 1 Corinthians 15, when the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with the immortal, then the saying that is written will be true. Then the saying will be true, that death has been swallowed up in victory, as Isaiah says right here. Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting? Well, the sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God. He gives us victory through Christ Jesus, our Lord. And that's what Isaiah is singing about. It's ours today. It will be realized fully when Christ returns. The last thing we want to consider about God's perfect faithfulness is its professing purpose. And this, just briefly. See, carried out as it is through His glorious judgment, God's perfect faithfulness is always purposeful. It's always for a purpose. It's always in accordance with His good pleasure. It's always in accordance with His will. And it will ultimately bring about two distinct but related things. Always. The first is the exaltation and the praise of His name. And second is the joy and the gladness of His people. Now again, from God's perspective, we see that the recognition of and the submission to God's perfect faithfulness can lead only to the exaltation of His name. This is Isaiah's response to all that God has revealed to him. Not just the promise of salvation, but all the trials and the tribulations as well. There was much trouble to come. Jerusalem, his city, would be overthrown. Israel, his people, would be scattered to the winds. And his preaching would fall on deaf ears his entire life. All that he knew and held dear in this world would be stripped away. And yet, because he was able to see this experience from God's perspective and knew it to be God's judgment working out in history, Isaiah could sing in verse 1, O Lord, you are my God. I will exalt you and praise your name. For in perfect faithfulness you've done marvelous things, things planned long ago. And people of God, I submit to you that the degree to which we perceive our lives from God's perspective and the circumstances of our lives as pieces in His glorious judgment being worked out among men. To that degree, we will, with Isaiah, praise and exalt the Lord. And even though the purpose for God's perfect faithfulness is to bring glory to His own name, in His gracious mercy, He has purposed something for His people. Verse 9 tells us that all who trust in Him and are saved by Him. In other words, all who are saved by grace through faith will rejoice and be glad in His salvation. Now, does this mean that our life in this world will be only happiness and joy? Not at all. We know that from our experience. We know that from the Word of God. The psalmist in 126 verse 5 says, those who sow in tears will reap with songs of joy speaking of God's people. So tonight and this week as we continue to reflect on 2002 and all that the Lord in His perfect faithfulness has done and brought to pass in it let us draw comfort from this song of Isaiah the prophet. Let's look back not simply from our own perspective but from the panoramic perspective of God that sees the end from the beginning and let us look forward with expectation to all that He will bring our way as long as He tarries. And let us trust in God's perfect faithfulness in the knowledge that by it He is working out His saving judgment raising His people casting low His enemies. And let us raise hearts and voice to exalt and praise our God for His perfect faithfulness in song and in deed, drawing comfort from the joy and gladness that is ours in His salvation. You see, from this perspective that Isaiah has and that we are to glean from this tonight, we realize that it's only because of God's perfect faithfulness that we can confess with Paul in Romans 8.28 that in all things all things God works for the good of those who love Him who are called according to His purpose. May that be your comfort and your encouragement this night as we turn this year. Let's pray. Heavenly Father we live in a time of much information We live in a time of much opinion making, proclamations, certitudes and guesstimates about what has happened and what will happen. And Lord, in the busyness of our lives, we become blurry and lose perspective. We thank you for this word tonight from the prophet Isaiah that lets us know that there is a perspective to be had by God's people that is greater than our own and that it is yours and it is found for us and revealed to us in your word. Help us, Lord, to daily be in your word having our spectacles adjusted, our attitudes corrected, our expectations fit to your will for your people. And, Lord, we thank you that your sovereign purposes for this world are under control. And in every circumstance that we experience, whether joyful or saddening, Lord, we know that it comes from your loving hand and that it's part of that which you planned long ago to bring glory to your name, joy and gladness to your people. Be with us this night, Lord, that you would keep us safe. Help us to look forward for the return of Christ with the expectation that you will continue your perfect faithfulness even unto them. We pray these things in Christ's name. Amen.