Isaiah 51--message to the believing remnant, if you don’t love a god of wrath then you don’t
love the God of the Bible. God is all love, even His hatred is loving! It is sin to not hate sin! If
you love righteousness you will hate evil--hating sin leads to joy!
1) Salvation is based on God’s righteousness and results in reward
Isaiah 51:6-8
Lift up your eyes to the heavens, and look upon the earth beneath: for the heavens shall vanish
away like smoke, and the earth shall wax old like a garment, and they that dwell therein shall die
in like manner: but my salvation shall be forever, and my righteousness shall not be abolished,
Hearken unto me, ye that know righteousness, the people in whose heart is my law; fear ye not
the reproach of men, neither be ye afraid of their revilings. For the moth shall eat them up like a
garment, and the worm shall eat them like wool: but my righteousness shall be forever, and my
salvation from generation to generation.
Link between righteousness and salvation--righteousness is necessary for salvation so both are
eternal--wrapped up in the eternal God. Men die, they need eternal things
Isaiah 51:11,12
Therefore the redeemed of the LORD shall return, and come with singing unto Zion; and
everlasting joy shall be upon their head: they shall obtain gladness and joy; and sorrow and
mourning shall flee away. I, even I, am he that comforts you: who art you, that you shoul be
afraid of a man that shall die, and of the son of man which shall be made as grass
The result of everlasting salvation is everlasting joy! No sorrow, no death--death is a current
revelation of God’s wrath--Romans 1--the wrath of God is being revealed. Death is not
supposed to happen! God is who we have to do with, therefore, do not fear man. Fearing man
is a sign of pride.
2) What are we saved from? God’s wrath.
Isaiah 51:16,17
And I have put my words in thy mouth, and I have covered thee in the shadow of mine hand,
that I may plant the heavens, and lay the foundations of the earth, and say unto Zion, Thou art
my people. Awake, awake, stand up, [sober up!] O Jerusalem, which hast drunk at the hand of
the LORD the cup of his fury; thou hast drunken the dregs of the cup of trembling, and wrung
them out.
Jerusalem has gotten judgment, are being destroyed, They’ve drunk their fill. But God claims,
saves, puts His word in them and thus protects them. But fury must be dealt with
Isaiah 51:20-23
Thy sons have fainted, they lie at the head of all the streets, as a wild bull in a net: they are full of
the fury of the LORD, the rebuke of thy God. 21Therefore hear now this, thou afflicted, and
drunken, but not with wine: 22Thus saith thy Lord the LORD, and thy God that pleaded
(conduct a lawsuit) the cause of his people, Behold, I have taken out of thine hand the cup of
trembling, even the dregs of the cup of my fury; thou shalt no more drink it again: 23But I will
put it into the hand of them that afflict thee; which have said to thy soul, Bow down, that we
may go over: and thou hast laid thy body as the ground, and as the street, to them that went
over.
God is going to turn the tables--the ones afflicting them will get God’s affliction--God judges all.
Without His Word, righteousness and protection there is only wrath remaining.
--allegory for salvation--someone gets the fury of sin--Christ took ours
Matthew 26:27--the cup is the new covenant in his blood--the cup represents the wrath of God
demonstrated by the shedding of blood
Matthew 26:39,42--Christ prayed that this cup [God’s wrath] would pass from Him
Revelation 14:9-11
And the third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, If any man worship the beast and
his image, and receive his mark in his forehead, or in his hand, 10The same shall drink of the
wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation;
and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the
presence of the Lamb: 11And the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever: and
they have no rest day nor night, who worship the beast and his image, and whosoever receiveth
the mark of his name.
God’s wrath is eternal (because His righteousness is) and comes to those who reject Him
Ephesians 2:3--we are by nature the children of wrath--salvation must be by FAITH
1 Thessalonians 1:10--Jesus, which delivered us from the wrath to come.
1 Thessalonians 5:7-11
For they that sleep sleep in the night; and they that be drunken are drunken in the night.
8But let us, who are of the day, be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love; and for an
helmet, the hope of salvation. 9For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation
by our Lord Jesus Christ, 10Who died for us, that, whether we wake or sleep, we should live
together with him. 11Wherefore comfort yourselves together, and edify one another, even as
also ye do.
What do we do with God’s wrath?
2 Corinthians 5:10,11
For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the
things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad.
11Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we persuade men; but we are made manifest unto
God; and I trust also are made manifest in your consciences