Isaiah 27:1
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How many of you have ever watched an episode of a Bob Ross painting? You know, the guy, there's a lot of hands in here. You know, the guy with the big hair, the soft voice, and he even says this phrase at times, we don't make mistakes, just happy accidents. You know, when Bob Ross starts a painting, it often looks like a random mess of colors. You know, on one side of the canvas, You may have, you know, just a splash of brown over here.
And then on the other side, you have, you know, a smudge of just darkness on this side. And you're really just sitting there. And the question that's running through your mind is, how is this going to turn into anything beautiful? And yet, we all know how his paintings turn out. You know, he paints these breathtaking landscapes. You have the mountains. You have the forest. You have the peaceful lakes. but the process. The process can be confusing. It can be messy. It can be discouraging if you're trying to replicate it. You know, there are moments when the painting itself looks nothing like the final masterpiece, and sometimes the feeling that you get in the middle of it, you feel like it's actually getting worse before it's getting better. We have confidence that the end result is going to be amazing and beautiful but the process in the middle can be discouraging our scripture for this evening is isaiah 27 1 and it can be found on the front of your bulletin
it reads in that day the lord with his hard and great and strong sword will punish leviathan the fleeing serpent, Leviathan, the twisting serpent, and he will slay the dragon that is in the sea. One of the major themes of Isaiah is about God's love for his people. Yes, Isaiah talks a lot about judgment, but God's plan of salvation and restoration is really astonishing throughout Isaiah. God is so good that he tells us of how certain we can be of him. It's almost as if your child wakes up in the middle of the night just terrified or scared. The most loving thing that you can do in that moment as a parent is to look at your child in the eye and reassure them and tell them that everything's going to be okay.
And this is precisely what Isaiah does with us right here. Our verse in particular this evening reassures us so that we can build an unwavering confidence in the Lord. So the point I want to draw out of Isaiah here, Isaiah 27.1 is this, simply, God's victory over evil will be triumphant. So you should rest in the victor. God's victory over evil will be triumphant, so you should rest in the victor.
And I want to work through two points as we reflect on this verse this evening. I want to talk about, the first thing I want to talk about is a fierce enemy, and the second thing, the sure victor. So a fierce enemy and the sure victor, and I'm intentionally going to look at the enemy first here, which is actually the second part of our verse, and then we're going to look at the one who punishes the enemy. So the first point, a fierce enemy. So you may be asking yourself the question here, so who is the enemy? We're given three descriptors of the enemy here in our verse.
We know that the Lord will punish. So if you look down at our verse here, three things. One, Leviathan the fleeing serpent. Two, Leviathan the twisting serpent. And three, he will slay the dragon that's in the sea. So he gives the name Leviathan to describe the serpent and the dragon here. and then we're told about the dragon that will be defeated. We can be confident in the word choice that he has here. Leviathan, the fleeing serpent, Leviathan, the twisting serpent, and the dragon that is in the sea is used precisely here to highlight the sovereign rule of our God over everything, even that of which is particularly evil.
Isaiah is prophesying here, and he is using a purposeful mixture of some symbolism and also some precision to emphasize something great, something powerful, and ultimately it illustrates the absolute power that our God has over creation. And I want to talk about what we know for certain in the middle of this symbolism here. The word serpent occurs in Genesis 3.1. We heard that this morning.
And that's the exact reason that it is used here. Isaiah wants us to know that God will defeat the serpent, his first enemy, who introduced sin into the world. So we heard this this morning. We're going to hear it again next week as Greg preaches. But we know that the serpent is cursed. He is told that he will proceed on his belly and he will eat dust. Further, enmity is placed between the serpent and the woman.
There's enmity placed between the serpent's seed and the seed of the woman. But God didn't just leave it there. What he did is he joined together the first act of judgment with the first promise of salvation. The result in Genesis 3, the result that will be that the seed of the woman crushing the head of the serpent. Now the Leviathan name is used in a variety of ways in the Old Testament.
Job mentions the Leviathan at the end of chapter 40 leading into 41. And he says this, he says, Can one take him by the eyes or pierce his nose with a snare? Can you draw out Leviathan with a fish hook or press down his tongue with a cord? And so he gives us almost this water description of a water beast of the Leviathan. But what you should notice here, that the three references, particularly in our verse to the enemy, represent the embodiment of cosmic evil.
In our verse, it's distinctively and precisely the serpent, it's Satan. But it's also symbolically everything that Satan represents. And nonetheless, we see here also that the Leviathan stands as a symbol of immense power. And we know that that power is against the way of the Lord. So let's talk about the sure victor, point number two. God has given us the promise of Genesis 3.15 that he will crush the serpent.
We also have hints through the Old Testament of how God will deal with the serpent. I already mentioned or read a passage in Job, but we also see where the Leviathan is also addressed in the Psalms. So I want you to see how victorious our God is, even when we're dealing with these massive cosmic forces of evil. We have a sure victor. So I want to take you to two Psalms, and you actually don't have to flip there, but you can write these down. I'm going to read them out, just a little portion of them.
And you can just listen. So the first one is Psalm 104. So if you're writing this down, you can write verses 24 and 26. So here in this passage, the Leviathan is addressed in the creation context. So here's what the psalmist says about the Leviathan here. He says, It's important to understand that the Leviathan, the serpent, the dragon, And all of those things are created beings under the power of God.
Our God is in control. He leaves us in awe. In wisdom, he filled the earth with creatures, even the scary ones. And the psalmist here makes the Leviathan feel very small in comparison to his greatness, his sovereign majesty, the majesty of our king. He said, there go the ships. Oh, and Leviathan. The second place is Psalm 74. So again, it's verses 74, it's verse 12 through 14, if you want to write this down.
You don't have to turn there. But this is the Exodus story in reference with the Leviathan. But I want you to listen to what the Lord does with the Leviathan here. So here's what the psalmist says. Yet God, my king, is from old, working salvation in the midst of the earth. You divided the sea by your might. You broke the heads of the sea monsters on the water. You crushed the heads of Leviathan. You gave him as food for the creatures of the wilderness. So this is actually a reference to the Exodus story.
Noting that God's working salvation through the Israelites here. It mentions a reference to the parting of the Red Sea. And here the Leviathan's a reference to Egypt. And we see again that God is in control crushing the heads of the Leviathan here. Providing for his people. So the point I want to make here is that God's power as creator, whether you're seeing Psalm 104 here or the exodus savior in Psalm 74, is immensely greater than his enemies.
The destruction of the Leviathan symbolizes God's final judgment against all forces of chaos and evil that have opposed his will throughout human history. There will be a day that we will be able to see his victory clearly. I also want you to notice in our text in Isaiah 27.1 tonight, the three actions that are taken by God here. Our text says that the Lord with his hard and great and strong sword will punish.
So look at that in our verse. It says hard, great, and strong. There's a mirroring nature that takes place here between the three actions taken by God and really the three objects of punishment. The fleeing serpent, the twisting serpent, and the dragon. This is here to give you a comprehensive nature of God's power. And more so, a comprehensive reality of the victory over his enemies.
And I think that this gives us confidence in the total victory that our God has over the enemy. so what does this mean for me I want to give you just two quick points of application in closing so the first thing I would say as we look at our verse first don't grow comfortable with the level of evil that persists in this world and don't grow comfortable with sin itself God's victory doesn't mean that you can let sin just reign in your heart.
You need to fight against sin. You should be aware of the level of deception and deceit that is coming from the enemy and fight against it. Our text describes the enemy as fleeing, as the fleeing serpent and the twisting serpent. I think that this points to the reality that evil is pervasive. It's multifaceted. It can slip right through your fingertips.
We get an aerial, a ground, and also a sea description of our enemy in the words fleeing, twisting, and sea here. Since the fall, sin has corrupted everything in this world. And I think that this is painting a picture for us that sin has affected everything, everywhere. Even more, the symbolic references to Leviathan and the dragon are pointing out creatures that represent just chaos and disorder and pure opposition towards God.
The truth is that sin has an apparent beauty to it. Most of the time, sin is dressed in robes, which draws our attention to it. We're attracted to it. And it's not until we take the robes off that we're able to clearly see what the sin is. We tend to say things to ourselves that blind us to the reality of our sin. You may be tempted to compare your situation to someone else.
And underneath you're comparing your righteousness, your good to others. You may be tempted to think that my sin only affects me and I'm not really hurting anyone else. Some of you have experienced particular patterns of sin so long that you have lost hope. You've become numb and have forgotten how to fight it. I want to say this, Christian, if you're able, you are able to fight against sin because of the work that God has already accomplished for you. The Christian life is marked by the continual act of placing your faith in Christ and repenting of your sins. You were once dead in your sins and you've been made alive in Christ, forgiven and able to fight against daily temptations of sin because of what Christ has done and because of the Spirit within.
Quick second application. Some of you may be feeling discouraged in your walk with Christ. You may be feeling desperate and I just want to encourage you in this case that you need to rest in the victory of Christ. You may be even feeling like your standing in Christ rises and falls depending on your hardships or your situation.
This is false. Your standing in Christ does not rise and fall depending on the hardships that you experience. The scriptures say that our God has not despised or abhorred the afflicted and he has not hidden his face from you. He hears your cries. God listens to the afflicted. Even our best moments of gladness and joy and beauty, all of those things are going to fade away. As Christians, we can know that our standing in Christ does not change.
We can be assured that God does work in our suffering. We know that God has promised something amazing at the end, a picture-perfect ending. But for right now, the process feels uncertain, confusing, and maybe even discouraging. It's almost as if we're just halfway through a painting, and we're looking at the canvas, and we're trying to figure out how can this thing turn into anything beautiful?
We can have confidence in our God. He knows exactly what he's doing, even when we do not see it. The end result is painted for us, but we need to trust him through the process. You can rest in the finished work of Christ. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for giving us this passage in Isaiah, which ultimately causes us to reflect on your care for us.
You are the great victor. Since the beginning of creation in the fall, you had a plan of restoration for us. You didn't leave us in the misery of sin, but you sent Christ to be our substitute. We pray that you would help us grow in holiness by your spirit so we can see the enemy's work in this world. Help those in our congregation who are weak and tired of fighting sin. Help those in our congregation who are weak and discouraged in their faith.
Help us rest in the finished work of Christ. We pray all these things in the name of Jesus. Amen.