This is our 63rd and final week in the book of Isaiah. Just a reminder. I've asked all of us to read two chapters a day. Genesis chapters 1 and 2 tomorrow. 3 and 4 the next day. So that by next Wednesday, we'll have all read the first 14 chapters of Genesis. We're going to go through it a little differently than we normally do our studies. But as soon as I heard there were people here who had not read the Old Testament, I felt it important that we do this. Isaiah chapter 66. Thus says the Lord, Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool. Where then is a house you could build for me? And where is a place that I may rest? For my hand made all these things, and thus all these things came into being, declares the Lord. But to this one I will look, to him who is humble and contrite of spirit, and who trembles at my word. He who kills an ox is like one who slays a man. He who sacrifices a lamb like the one who breaks a dog's neck. He who offers a grain offering is like one who offers swine's blood. He who burns incense is like the one who blesses an idol. And they've chosen their own ways and their soul delights in their abominations. And so I will choose their punishments and will bring on them what they dread. because I called and no one answered. I spoke but they did not listen and they did evil in my sight and chose that in which I did not delight. hear the word of the Lord you who tremble at his word your brothers who hate you who exclude you for my namesake have said let the Lord be glorified that we may see your joy but they will be put to shame a voice of uproar from the city a voice from the temple the voice of the Lord who is rendering recompense to his enemies Before she travailed, she brought forth. Before her pain came, she gave birth to a boy. Who has heard such a thing? Who has seen such things? Can a land be born in one day? Can a nation be brought forth all at once? As soon as Zion travailed, she also brought forth her sons. Shall I bring to the point of birth and not give delivery, says the Lord? Or shall I, who gives delivery, shut the womb, says your God? Be joyful with Jerusalem and rejoice for her, all you who love her. Be exceedingly glad with her, all you who mourn over her, that you may nurse and be satisfied with her comforting breasts, that you may suck and be delighted with her bountiful bosom. For thus says the Lord, Behold, I extend peace to her like a river, and the glory of the nations like an overflowing stream. And you will be nursed, you will be carried on the hip and fondled on the knees, as one whom his mother comforts, so I will comfort you. And you will be comforted in Jerusalem. Then you will see this, and your heart will be glad, and your bones will flourish like the new grass. The hand of the Lord will be made known to His servants, but He will be indignant toward His enemies. For behold, the Lord will come in fire and His chariots like the whirlwind to render His anger with fury and His rebuke with flames of fire. For the Lord will execute judgment by fire and by His sword on all flesh, and those slain by the Lord will be many. those who sanctify and purify themselves, to go to the gardens, following one in the center, who eats swine's flesh, detestable things, and mice, will come to an end altogether, declares the Lord. For I know their works and their thoughts. The time is coming to gather all nations and tongues, and they shall come and see My glory. I will set a sign among them and will send survivors from them to the nations. Tarshish, Put, Lod, Meshech, Rosh, Tubal, and Yovon, to the distant coastlands that have neither heard My fame nor seen My glory, and they will declare My glory among the nations. Then they shall bring all your brethren from all the nations as a grain offering to the Lord, on horses and chariots and litters, on mules and on camels, to my holy mountain Jerusalem, says the Lord, just as the sons of Israel bring their grain offering in a clean vessel to the house of the Lord. I will also take some of them for priests and for Levites, says the Lord. For just as the new heavens and the new earth which I make will endure before me, declares the Lord, so your offspring and your name will endure. And it shall be from new moon to new moon and from Sabbath to Sabbath, all mankind will come to bow down before me, says the Lord. They will go forth and look on the corpses of the men who have transgressed against Me. For their worm will not die, and their fire will not be quenched. And they will be an abhorrence to all mankind. O Lord, give us understanding, we pray, of this Your sacred Word. Through the prophet Isaiah, God has revealed He's going to establish this eternal, righteous kingdom, a glorious kingdom one day, ruled by a righteous king, a new city of God, a new Jerusalem, a new heavens and a new earth, where there will be everlasting joy, where there will be no mourning, where no one will hunger or thirst. This kingdom will include people from every nation of the earth. And He'll do this by His own arm. See, the city of man isn't going to be the builder of this kingdom. God is going to build this kingdom, and He is going to be the one to conform people to the righteousness of Christ. He's the one who's going to change us as well. He's going to accomplish all that through whom? through His servant, the servant of the Lord, the Lord Jesus Christ. And He's spoken of His servant in chapter 7, 9, 11, 28, 32, 42 through 53 and 61, all about Christ. And fourth, as we just read, there will be judgment on all the wicked, all who oppose God. We've seen there's none who called on His name at this time. There's none righteous. The prayer that began in chapter 63 with Isaiah agonizing over God's withholding of His compassion from His people. And then it ended at the end of chapter 64 with the one praying, asking God, please visit us again. Please bless us again. And in chapters 65 and 66 of Isaiah is God's response. Now look at 65-1, which we looked at last week. I permitted myself to be sought by those who did not ask for me. I permitted myself to be found by whom? The righteous, those who sought me? No, by those who did not seek me. I said, here am I, here am I, to a nation which did not call on my name. What we see in the Old Testament is God created and chose the sons of Jacob as his people, but they had rebelled against him. They turned away from him. And there would be a new people of God, a nation comprised of a remnant of the Jewish people and also a remnant of all the Gentile nations of the world. All, we saw back in chapter 63, merit the winepress of God's wrath. But some, a remnant, are chosen and saved. Look again at Isaiah 1020, just briefly. In that day, a remnant of Israel and those of the house of Jacob will rely on the Lord. Verse 21, a remnant will return, the remnant of Jacob, to the mighty God. Verse 22, only a remnant within them will return. And then in Romans 11, 5, Paul says, after citing those passages, he says, there's also come at the present time a remnant of the Jews according to God's gracious choice. But it's by grace. It's no longer by moral good works, and it's not going to be by any Judaistic sacrifices or rituals. What he says is, my chosen ones shall inherit it, and my servants will dwell there. And at the same time, Isaiah has been telling us throughout that there was and is no hope for those who resist God. The world needs to know this. The world needs to take hold of this truth. There is no hope for those outside of Christ. And Isaiah, back in 6513, showed us a side-by-side of the destinies of the people of God and those who reject Him. Look at 6513. My servants will eat, but you will be hungry. My servants will drink, but you will be thirsty. My servants will rejoice, you will be put to shame. My servants will shout joyfully with a glad heart, you will cry with a heavy heart, and wail with a broken spirit. The contrasts of hunger and thirst picture the meeting of every physical need, but they really stand as metaphors for the fulfillment of spiritual needs. And then look at verse 17 of chapter 65. Words that we read in Revelation 21, For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth, and the former things will not be remembered or come to mind. This is the promise of a new creation. We didn't have to wait for Christ to come, die, ascend and be exalted on the throne. We didn't have to wait for Pentecost. We didn't have to wait for John to receive the revelation to hear about that. This is the promise of a new creation around 700 B.C. It's the same vision that's shown to the apostle John in Revelation 21. And then 65-24, where we left off last week, the greatest blessing of all. What is it? What is the greatest blessing of all that we're going to receive? We will be with Him, God Himself. This is what He's promised us. When we call, He says, I will answer. While they are still speaking, I will hear. He will dwell among us. This is what we believe. This is what we are looking to. So chapter 66 continues the response that began in chapter 65 of this lament back in 63 and 64. It harkens back as well to what we read earlier tonight in chapter 1. Chapter 1, and throughout Isaiah, and again in 65 and 66, recognize two things about Israel. What were they? What were the two big sins of Israel? Idolatry and infidelity, but rebellion would be another way to put it. They'd become idolaters. Even those who were still offering the Levitical sacrifices were still doing what else? They were going up to the high places and offering unclean animals to imaginary gods. So Isaiah is going to conclude his prophecy today, tonight, reminding us of the God whose glory shook him. Remember when he appeared before him? Woe is me, I'm a man of what? Unclean lips. And I'm of a people of unclean lips. But God says, the present earth. Now think about the earth. Just get back, think about one of those pictures we get from outer space. The earth is His what? His footstool. His footstool. So he says, God can't be shut up in the temple, can't be confined with any place. And therefore, he says, heaven is my throne. The earth is my footstool. Where is a house that you could build for me? Where's a place that I may rest? I made all this. So he made everything. And what we're going to take the everything he made and make something to honor him. He declares what should be clear to all of us in these first two verses. And that's this. He is God and we are not. He is the all powerful creator and sustainer of everything. And we aren't. We can't create anything. We can't sustain. We can't sustain our own selves. There is no material thing we can bring to him that he didn't already create himself. So we are his creatures. And yet, It's been God's desire and still is God's desire that some of His creatures, all of whom are what? What's the one thing that we all have in common? Sin. We are all sinners. And some of us sinners are going to dwell with Him forever. That's what Isaiah has been telling us. That's what the Gospels tell us. That's why we see Isaiah as a gospel. The Lord's already told us through the prophet who those are. What's the mark? Three marks of those people. It's right here in verse 2. Those who are humble, contrite of spirit, and who tremble at His Word. And you don't get to the first two without the third one. He's talking about those who grieve over their sin. who mourn over their own poverty of spirit, their own lack of righteousness, and who come to our Lord and ask for forgiveness, for mercy. We don't go to our Lord and ask for our reward. Only a fool does that. We go to our Lord and ask for His mercy, knowing that in truth, none of us deserves even His mercy. And that none of us has done or could do anything to deserve His mercy. Psalm 51, 17. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and a contrite heart. The sacrifices were simply symbols of something, of several things, really. But here, a broken and contrite heart. So that's what he wants to see. Now, he's not saying it was wrong for Solomon to build the temple, but God can't be corralled in a building. We can't limit God. We can't limit His work. We can't limit His presence to one location, or one group of people for that matter, other than if you say the people of faith. Nowhere in the New Testament do we see any passages that say, you know, the Lord really wants you to build some nice churches out there. No. Nowhere. There's not even a word about any of that. They met where they could. We meet where we can. God doesn't bless buildings or even liturgical styles or any of that. What God blesses are people with humble, contrite hearts. What's that mean? Well, let's back up to one who trembles at His Word. The only people who would tremble at God's Word would be those who what? Who believe His Word. See, if you don't believe His Word, you're not going to tremble at it. So believing is a necessity here. and then to respond to knowing what He said with trembling. The unbelieving are not struck with fear at hearing the Word of God. How many times have we witnessed to somebody, aren't you concerned about your eternal destiny? Nope. Well, you're not going to tremble at His Word and you're not going to live with Him forever. You're going to get the other, the other destiny. God has sworn He will come in judgment and that all who oppose Him and reject Him will suffer that eternal punishment. Now, anyone with any sense would tremble at that. It should make any sinner tremble. But this is the kind of trembling which, after believing God, affects our heart, promotes obedience to Him, and leads us to irreverence and fear of Him. What's Hebrews 10.31 say? Look in your Scripture sheet. It is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God. So verses 1 and 2 here answer the question, what does God want? Does He want temple worship and some fine rituals, nice buildings? Or does He want humble, contrite people, people who are sorry for sinning against Him? These verses show us that God rejects all ritual worship in favor of a right inner spiritual heart. Well then he talks about some of these sacrifices. And he makes a comparison here of both the Levitical sacrifices and the pagan sacrifices. He kills an ox. Now, we have a translation issue here. And it depends upon, if you look in your Bibles, at least the NAS has the word like four times in this verse, verse 3, in italics. Meaning it had to be added. So our Lord is saying one of two things here, depending upon how this verse is translated. He's either saying that those who offer the Levitical sacrifices are like those who are offering unclean pagan sacrifices. Or He's saying that those who are offering Levitical sacrifices are also offering those pagan sacrifices. He's either saying there's no difference. Or He's saying that they're doing the same thing and there's no difference. What's the reason that there's no difference? Because their unrepentant and unfaithful hearts are no different before God than those who are offering the pagan sacrifices. That's why. It matters how we live. I don't know where this came from. I don't know who was the first one to spark this heresy that it doesn't matter how you live, just accept Christ and go about your business and you're home free. No, no, no. He's looking for disciples. He's looking for people who will walk with Him in a manner worthy of Him. And right here, He wants people who are humble, contrite. Either event here, God's declaring that for one or both reasons, the sacrifices of that nation had become an abomination to Him. Billy read it from chapter 1 earlier tonight. He's saying they're gaining no more by their attempts to appease God than if they'd offered the sacrifices of the Gentiles. He's telling us we're not going to earn a heavenly reward by any sacrifices or by our own good works. That is what's so dangerous about this heresy of those who are out there today telling Jews that they can be saved through the Levitical sacrificial system. And they're out there and they're on your TV. The only way anybody will ever receive eternal life is by faith in Christ. The Bible couldn't be clearer. Scripture expressly declares the Levitical system to be obsolete, Hebrews 8, 13. And let's be mindful of what Paul, the apostle, a Hebrew of Hebrews, a Pharisee of Pharisees, taught in his letter to the Galatian believers and what he had to teach Peter. If anyone seeks to add anything to Christ, he is what? Severed from Christ. We don't add anything. We simply demonstrate our faith by how we live. Sacrificing bulls and lambs were for a time legitimate acts of worship. But God saying and was saying to them, even this authorized worship is to me pagan. Why? Because when I called, no one answered. When I spoke, nobody listened. God's not looking for animal sacrifices to be offered to Him. Those innocent animals were a foreshadowing of the only sacrifice that could actually ever take away sins. The blood of bulls and goats could never take away sins. Hebrews 10, 4. They provided a temporary covering for sins under the old covenant, but they did not gain eternal life for anyone. Salvation requires faith, believing from their perspective in those times in the promise of Christ. Belief in the promises of God. And the road to faith is one of humility and contrition for sin, what Jesus called repentance. And you know, God knows our hearts. I don't know why we think we can fool God. He knows exactly what's in our hearts. He knows everything about us. So he says, I'll choose their punishments, and I'll bring on them what they dread, because I called, but no one answered. I spoke, but they did not listen. They did evil in my sight and chose that in which I did not delight." The ultimate reason for all this evil behavior, false worship, goes back to the fundamental truth that these people refuse to listen to God. It's that simple. Really, folks. In so many ways, all of Christianity, all of the road to salvation comes down to the simple matter of listening to God, believing God, and obeying God. He says, they chose that in which I did not delight. We saw this same truth in relation to fasting. They were fasting, but God didn't delight in their fast. Because they did what pleased them. They weren't doing what pleased God and what delighted Him. So He says in verse 5, Hear the word of the Lord, you who tremble at His word, your brothers who hate you. So now we've got this conflict. We've got Jewish brothers who hate. the Jews who are trembling at God's Word. So the true believers are hated by those who are saying, let the Lord be glorified that we may see your joy. God says those will be put to shame. The Lord's speaking to the believers who tremble at His Word, and He's something to say about these brothers who hate them. Those who practice formal ritualism hate those with a genuine heart love of God. That's what the problem was. And their heart love of God arose from believing in Him. Always comes back to faith. So he says, they're saying, let the Lord be glorified. Think Pharisees. that we may see your joy, but they will be put to shame." Calvin says this, he says, it's customary, of course, for hypocritical worshipers of God to make loud boasting of their pompous ritual. So here Isaiah is seeking to fortify believers to endure their attacks so that they don't give way when they are mocked and insulted. Back then it was the pope thundering dreadfully against them in the 1500s. As if they were the base and worthless people. And the people of the pope were the true religious people. Insults and persecution are part of being a Christian. They always have been. Jesus, Matthew 511, blessed are you when people insult you and persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. So let me ask the question, when people insult you and persecute you and falsely accuse you of all kinds of evil, what is your status before God? Yes? What did Jesus just say, though? You are what? You are blessed. It's a blessing. This finds favor with God, Peter wrote. If for the sake of conscience toward God, you stand up when being reviled. The voice of the Lord, verse 6, is rendering recompense to his enemies. Now, some say this is referring to the events on the final day of the Lord, and that might be right. But when we look at verse 7, verse 6 may be referring to God's judgment on Israel in 70 AD. Because in verses 7 through 11, the Lord speaks of the birth of a new nation, a new people of God. Before she travailed, she brought forth. Before her pain came, she gave birth to a boy. Who's heard of such a thing? Who has seen such things? Can land be born in a day? Can a nation be brought forth all at once? Now this is an unusual phenomenon we have here. Birth before the labor pains. A land born in one day. But this same truth is alluded to also in chapter 49 and 54. And I believe that the birth of which our Heavenly Father speaks here is that of the church and perhaps Christ. Because it's through the church that we are all made sons of God. It's through the church that we are adopted in His family by the preaching of the Word. And the church is and will be the instrument through which our Lord nourishes His people. This is where we get our nourishment, from the church. God's saying that what He's promised He's going to deliver And what He promised was a Savior, one who would save us from the one thing that was keeping us from Him, our sin. And this is and should be a cause of celebration. The mother that gives birth is Israel. We see something like this in Revelation chapter 12. And some describe Israel as the Old Testament church. And Israel was a nation created by God that gave birth to two things, Christ and His church. And then Israel was judged within one generation after Christ departed, after being raised. And the church will beget, he says here, numerous offsprings, even though she may appear for a time to be childless and barren. So this picture of the church's mother continues here. Verse 10, be joyful with Jerusalem, rejoice for her, all you who love her, be exceedingly glad with her. all you who mourn over her, that you may nurse and be satisfied with her comforting breasts, you may suck and be delighted with her bountiful bosom." The picture of birth now turns to one of maternal nurturing. And at present, plainly, the maternal figure is the church. God sends His blessings out upon the nations through His church. The comfort that God gives, He gives through the ministry of His church. Now, His church isn't this group here. His church is all true believers. The message of the gospel goes out into the whole world. So Isaiah sees here a church, a mother with an abundance of nourishment, a church that provides comfort to her children, and he says this is the very comfort of God Himself. So these verses 10 through 14 may best be seen as God comforting His people through His church and drawing people to Him through His church. What we have in verses 11 through 14 is a poetic description of the peace, joy, and abundance of blessing that is poured out through the church and lies in store for all who believe in Christ and repent of their sins and follow Him. And he says, I extend peace to her like a river. The abundance of God's peace is compared to this flowing river, the abundance of water in a great river. God wants us to know, and he's wanted us to know throughout this whole book, that we can trust in him. We can trust in everything he said. This has been the message throughout Isaiah. Remember, week after week in the first 39 chapters, I kept asking, what's the message of Isaiah? What was the message last week? And what was the answer every single week for 39 chapters? He wants them to trust him. He wants us to trust him. He wants us to believe what he has said and trust in what he has said. And it's certain, he says, that the day of glory. And we better trust in this because it's true. The day of glory will also be a day of judgment. We have wonderful blessings awaiting us. But those who refuse to come to Christ, the Lord will come and fire in His chariots like a whirlwind. These are metaphors. He will render His anger with fury, His rebuke with flames of fire. The Lord will execute judgment by fire and by His sword on all flesh. Those slain by the Lord will be many. God wouldn't send me to hell." How many times have you heard people say that? A loving God wouldn't send people to hell. What is this then? See, no one's trembling at this except those who believe it. He says, "...those who sanctify and pure themselves to go to the gardens, following one in the center, who eats swine's flesh, detestable things, and mice, will come to an end altogether." For I know their works and their thoughts." Throughout the book of Isaiah, God has revealed His plans for the salvation of people from every nation. Chapters 2, 11, 14, 19, 45, 60, 61, 62, and more. And He uses these metaphorical descriptions, fire, chariots, whirlwinds, swords. He uses things familiar to those people because He wants to make an impression on them. He wants to frighten them. I suspect if God wrote some new books of the Scriptures today, He might include some nuclear weapons and some torpedoes in them. It doesn't matter what the weapon is. It matters who's wielding it. And God's wielding the weapon. So vengeance against evil is certain to come. This is the whole history of creation. This is where it's heading. Evil's all going to be taken and removed. And God will be left with this righteous kingdom that He's building, and people can get in there one way, by believing Him. There isn't some other way in. Judgment's going to fall on all idolaters. As I said Sunday, don't comfort yourself with the idea that you're 90% Christian and you save 10% for yourself. He's looking for people who are willing to leave everything and follow Him. Hebrew people not only didn't follow him, they participated in these idolatrous practices. Why do people do that? Why do people involve themselves in religions other than Christianity? Why do they do that? What do they hope to gain from that? Now how does that work? Can somebody explain that to us? You make up your own religion or you find a religion somebody invented a couple hundred years ago and you follow that. Now is God bound by the terms of that religion? You realize the foolishness of all of this. God has given us a way to escape the fires of hell. And He is it. He's decreed the only acceptable manner of approaching Him. Because the best we can bring Him is what? How does the scripture describe the best we can bring God? Filthy rags. The best we can do. So if we invent our own religion, the best we're going to be able to produce out of it is filthy rags. What's necessary, what has always been necessary from the time of the sin of Adam has been what? A substitutionary sacrifice, a substitute, an offering in our place. That's the picture that we have throughout the Old Testament. An unblemished substitutionary offering. Think God just wanted them to kill a bunch of innocent little lambs? No, He was teaching them something. I need an unblemished sacrifice to atone for your sins. And He was it. He was the only one who could be it. And no one can come to the Father but through Christ. And He won't be fooled, He won't be deceived. On the day He returns, He's going to bring all the nations before Him. And they shall come and they'll see my glory. I'll set a sign among them and send survivors from them to the nations, Gentile nations. They will declare my glory among the nations. You have a picture of the missionary work of the church. And they'll bring all your brethren from all the nations as a grain offering to my holy mountain Jerusalem. The time is coming to gather all nations. You know what happens on that day? Yes, glory and yes, judgment. All Scripture will be fulfilled on the day of the Lord's return. All of it fulfilled in one day. Genesis 12.3, for example, through Abram, all the nations of the earth will be blessed. That day that will be fulfilled. Isaiah 2.1.4, many nations will stream to Zion to hear God teach on that day of Christ's return. That will be fulfilled. Isaiah 11.10, people from many nations will come to the root of Jesse. on that day, that will be fulfilled. Isaiah 19, beginning in verse 18, Egypt and Assyria will worship God. Why is Isaiah written about that? Because it's true. Isaiah 42, 6 and 49, 6, The servant will be a light to, who? The nations, the Gentiles. 45, 22, and following, people from the ends of the earth will turn to God and be saved. All of this comes to its conclusion and climax on the day of His return. Between Isaiah 60 and 62, people from many foreign nations bringing their wealth to glorify Zion. Prophets telling us in closing that all the Lord's people from every tribe and nation will be gathered into His kingdom. You understand, He always intended His church and His kingdom to extend beyond the Jewish people and the Jewish state. Israel, as a theocratic state, would perish in 70 A.D. But there would be a remnant. And there still will be a remnant. Isaiah's written about that. Chapter 1, verse 9. Chapter 10, verses 20 through 22. And of course, Paul wrote about it, citing Isaiah in Romans 11. Isaiah doesn't say what this sign is. He says, I'll set a sign among them. One says it's the cross. And others say Jesus is the sign. The best clue we have as to this is back in Isaiah 7, 14. Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. I don't know if this is exactly what he's talking about here. But this is the best I think we can do in discerning this. Behold, here's the sign the Lord himself will give you. Behold, a virgin will be with child and bear a son, and she will call his name Immanuel. He says, they'll declare my glory among the nations. What did the apostles do after Pentecost? Went all over the world and declared his glory. In the apostolic age, you know, before Paul was done writing, gospel spread throughout the entire known world. Romans 16, 25. Now to him who was able to establish you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery, which has been kept secret for long ages past, but now is manifested. And by the Scriptures of the prophets, according to the commandment of the eternal God, has been made known to all the nations. He says the same thing in his letter to the Colossians. The gospel has been made known, was made known in those days. That's what the church was, was a big mission outreach. They weren't all trying to get together and immediately begin growing inward. They were taking the gospel to Egypt, into Africa, to Rome, to Philippi, to Asia, to all these churches in Galatia, Ephesus, Colossae, Laodicea, Hierapolis, two antiochs. gospel all over the world. That was the work of those people. And because of these missionary efforts, look at 2.2 and also look here in 20 and 21. Because of their missionary efforts, all nations will stream to God in Zion. He's talking about the new Jerusalem here, not the old one. Those who go out to the distant foreign nations will return, bringing with them many people from all over the world. These foreign people will become fellow brothers in the faith. And the Jewish remnant is described here as a grain offering to Yahweh, a gift to God. If you look at Isaiah 2 too, it will come about that in the last days the mountain of the house of the Lord will be established as the chief of the mountains, and will be raised above the hills. And all the nations will stream to it, and many peoples will come and say, Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob, that He may teach us concerning His ways, and that we may walk in His path. For the law will go forth from Zion, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. And we have these metaphorical pictures of horses and camels. You know, Abraham was the father of how many nations? God had told him he would be the father of many nations. But yet all who were descended from Him according to the flesh are not regarded by God as His true descendants. They're not accounted as Abraham's sons, and they're not accounted as sons of God. When God speaks about who are His sons, look at Romans 9, 6. It's not as though the word of God failed, for they are not all Israel who are descended from Israel, nor are they all children because they're Abraham's descendants. It's those who are of faith, those who have the faith of Abraham, who are God's children. And what he says here is that God adopts the Gentiles. He joins them to himself by a new covenant. Abraham became the father of many nations, that they might follow his faith. There would no longer be any difference between believing Jews and believing Gentiles. Because God would throw down what? What was he going to destroy that was separating the Jews and the Gentiles? The wall, the dividing wall contained in those ordinances, those Levitical sacrifices. the dividing wall, Ephesians 2.14. And he would form a church out of all nations. And that's what he's done. And he says here, and I believe the best way we can understand this about priests and Levites is the Gentile Christians, too, will become ministers of his word and his gospel. In case we have any question whether he's talking about something earthly or about eternity and the new heavens, look at verse 22 because he comes back to it again. For just as the new heavens and the new earth which I will make will endure before me, so your offspring in your name will endure. It shall be from new moon to new moon and Sabbath to Sabbath. All mankind will come to bow down before me. The promises in verse 22 are that your descendants and your name will continue to exist and serve God for as long as what? As long as the new heavens and the new earth are. That will be for all eternity. The descendants here, of course, are spiritual descendants, descendants of all believers. And why does he use new moons and Sabbaths here? Well, sacrifices were offered every month at the new moon. That was one of the occasions for a sacrifice. And then there were Sabbaths weekly, but there were other festivals at appointed times. They were carefully observed and sacrifices would be offered and rituals followed. But once Christ returns, there will be a constant and uninterrupted worship of God. It will never stop. It will never cease. So he uses this phrase from new moon to new moon and from Sabbath to Sabbath, all mankind will come to bow down before me. It will be endless. And we will love every second of it. Our rejoicing will continue from day to day to day. I'm curious, does anybody doubt God can do all these things? Because if you do, I want us to gather around you and pray for you right now. And if you don't doubt it, then think about what you believe. Think about what you're placing your trust in. Think about what your life on this earth is about. It's about that life to come, isn't it? I pray no one would doubt these things, even a little. God has verified His truthfulness so many hundreds of times that we would be fools to disbelieve Him now. He finishes with this very chilling verse. They'll go forth and look on the corpses of the men who've transgressed against me. And he uses this phrase that Jesus picked up in Mark 9, 48. Their worm will not die. Their fire will not be quenched. They will be in abhorrence. Isaiah began confronting false worship. And now he's just celebrated the endless worship of the new heavens and the new earth. But his vision also closes with this picture of the final destiny of all those who reject God and His Son. And their destiny is hell. Matthew 25, 41, Then he will say to those on his left, Depart from me, accursed ones, into the eternal fire which has been prepared for the devil and his angels. You know, this horrible sight of the carcasses doesn't mean that the slaughter is going to take place in the assembly of believers. But it does recall, remember, the 185,000 dead bodies of the Assyrians when the angel of the Lord went out and struck them all down as they laid siege to Jerusalem around 704, 703 B.C. This final verse, and people need to know this. It vividly describes the terrible destiny of those who failed to trust in God. Not all are going to enter into heaven. You know, what do people say when you ask them that question, who are unbelievers? Think you'll go to heaven? If they believe there's going to be one, they sure say yes. Why do they think they'll go to heaven? They think they're good enough. They think they're good enough. Does anybody believe that anybody is good enough? If you do, we're going to pray for you about that one too. Nobody's good enough. These people are all fooling themselves and need to hear the gospel. That is the reason God left us here. One's eternal destiny comes down to one question. Do you believe what God has said? Do you believe God? Before one can believe God, one must believe in Him and the one He sent. Well, here's what Isaiah has taught us for 66 chapters. Those who reject Christ in this life will not be able to enter into the new heavens and new earth. clear as can be. They won't be able to participate in the joyous celebrations of eternity. They won't be blessed by God. They won't live in this place where all violence and hostility between people is gone. They won't delight in the abundance God is going to provide for all who come to Him. They'll miss the great gathering of millions of people from all the nations that will come to worship God in the New Jerusalem. They won't dwell in the presence of a loving Almighty God. Instead, their destiny will be far away from God and all His people in this horrible place that can only be compared to a place where the fire and the worm rule supreme forever. Raymond Ortlund says, Hell is what we deserve Because we also have sinned against God. We deserve the penalty for our sin. But God came into the world and suffered hell Himself out of love for us to save us from our own wickedness. And because of that, He says it's time for us to humble ourselves, to come to Him and admit what we really are. If you haven't done that, please do that now. We're sinners in desperate need of forgiveness. And we must be willing to turn away from our sin and turn to Him. So Isaiah has displayed for us a picture of the eternal people of God, born of Israel. By the way, that olive tree in Romans 11 is another, it's really the best picture of this, I think. The root of that people of God is Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. The shoot springs from Jesse, David's father. God revealed His promises and His salvation through Israel. And He gave His salvation through Israel. He sent His servant through the people of Israel to save people from every nation. This is the story of Scripture. And Isaiah told the whole story. The whole story's here. In the beginning, God made heavens and earth, and it was perfect. And in the end, He's going to restore perfection. Think about what Isaiah was writing. There they are in the midst of a primitive society 2,700 years ago, turning from God. And God has said this to them, and He says it to us, that we have damaged His creation. We've corrupted His creation. We've stained ourselves with our sin. It's our fault, but He's going to fix it. He is going to fix it. You need a Savior. I'm going to provide Him. In fact, He says to us, I will be Him. And so the message ends up being in Christ and in Christ alone, the world has hope. And this has been the message of Isaiah. And I pray that the world will hear him. I pray that we will hear him. Lord, we give thanks for this incredible book of the prophet. We thank you, Lord, that you again assure us of your wisdom, of your power, of your faithfulness, of your mercy and your grace, telling us of things hundreds of years before they occurred. And even through Isaiah, 2700 years ago, telling us of the things that the apostles would later write 700 years later. We thank you for the promises that you've laid before us. We thank you for stirring faith within us, for giving us this incredible gift by your mercy that our eyes would be open and we would believe in you. Lord, we pray as always that you would cause us to be effective witnesses of your grace and your mercy. I pray for each one gathered here, Lord, if they're holding anything back from you, that you would bring them to this place of humility and contrition, and yes, trembling, that they would be saved and delight in you for all eternity. For your kingdom, for your glory, in Christ's name.