Isaiah chapter 60. We're going to look at the whole chapter. Suzanne said, are you going to talk fast? I said, yes I am, and you guys are going to listen fast. Isaiah chapter 60, for a sermon I've entitled, The Glory of Israel in the Kingdom of Christ. Follow along as I read. Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you. For behold, darkness will cover the earth, and deep darkness the peoples, but the Lord will rise upon you, and his glory will appear upon you. Nations will come to your light, and the kings to the brightness of your rising. Lift up your eyes round about and see. They all gather together, they come to you. Your sons will come from afar, and your daughters will be carried in their arms. Then you will see and be radiant, and your heart will thrill and rejoice, because the abundance of the sea will be turned to you. The wealth of the nations will come to you. A multitude of camels will cover you, the young camels of Midian and Ephah. All those from Sheba will come. They will bring gold and frankincense and will bear good news of the praises of the Lord. All the flocks of Kadar will be gathered together to you. The rams of Nebeoth will minister you. They will go up in acceptance on my altar and I shall glorify my glorious house. Who are those who fly like a cloud and like a dove to their lattices? Surely the coastlines will wait for me, and the ships of Tarshish will come to me, or come first, to bring your sons from afar their silver and their gold with them, for the name of the Lord your God, and for the Holy One of Israel, because He has glorified you. Foreigners will build up your walls, and their kings will minister to you, for in my wrath I struck you, and in my favor I have compassion on you. Your gates will be opened continually. They will not be closed, day or night, so that men may bring to you the wealth of the nations, with their kings led in procession. For the nation and the kingdom which will not serve you will perish, and the nations will be utterly ruined. The glory of Lebanon will come to you, the juniper, the box tree, the cypress together to beautify the place of my sanctuary, and I shall make the place of my feet glorious. The sons of those who afflicted you will come bowing to you, and all those who despised you will bow themselves at the soles of your feet, and they will call you the city of the Lord, the Zion of the Holy One. Whereas you have been forsaken and hated, with no one passing through, I will make you an everlasting pride, a joy from generation to generation. You will suck the milk of nations, you will suck the breasts of royalty. Then you will know that I am the Lord your Savior and your Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob. Instead of bronze, I will give you gold. Instead of iron, I will bring silver. Instead of wood, bronze. Instead of stone, iron. And I will make peace your administrators and righteousness your overseers. Violence will not be heard again in your land, nor devastation or destruction within your borders, but you will call your walls salvation and your gates praise. No longer will you have the sun for light by day, nor for brightness will the moon give you the light. But you will have the Lord for an everlasting light, and your God for your glory. Your sun shall no longer set, nor will your moon wane. For you have the Lord for an everlasting light, and the days of your mourning will be over. then all the people will be righteous. They will possess the land forever, the branch of my planting, the work of my hand, that I may be glorified. The smallest one will become a clan, and the least one a mighty nation. And I, the Lord, will hasten it in its time. You know, several weeks ago, I started my sermon by talking about some of the objections that are raised to the Christian faith. Now, some of you remember I said we're silly, like, can God make a rock too big to lift and then lift it? But others are more weighty. How can you believe in a God when there's so much evil in the world? I have to say, many who raise that last objection do so mainly because it seems like such a powerful argument against Christianity. But they reject it really because there's other reasons, the sins that they want to keep. But for some, this really is a barrier that stands in the way. For these individuals, the problem of evil is not one that's theoretical, but personal. It arises out of their own intense experience of suffering. Now, when Baruch and Bracha Meaz were with us this last week when we were having dinner with them, I asked Bracha about her parents and what they thought when she converted to Christianity as a young girl. Her parents, both of whom survived the Holocaust, had been more liberal Jews previous to the event, but afterward she said her father gave up any belief in God whatsoever. How can you believe in God, he would ask her, when six million of our people died in the camps? Elie Wiesel wrote a book about his experience in the camps. He simply called it Night. Wikipedia article describes the book by saying, quote, In just over a hundred pages of sparse and fragmented narrative, Wiesel writes of the death of God and his own increasing disgust with humanity reflected in the inversion of the father-child relationship as his father declines to a helpless state and Wiesel becomes his resentful teenage caregiver. If only I could get rid of this dead weight so that I could use all my strength to struggle for my own survival. Immediately I felt ashamed of myself. Ashamed forever. In night, everything is inverted. Every value is destroyed. Here there are no fathers, there are no sons, there are no friends. Everyone lives and dies alone. Well, for Roussel, everything changed the very first night that he entered the camp. Or should we say it died? He says, never shall I forget that night, the first night in the camp, which has turned my life into one long night, seven times cursed and seven times sealed. Never shall I forget that smoke. Never shall I forget the little faces of children whose bodies I saw turned into wreaths of smoke beneath the blue sky. Never shall I forget those flames which consumed my faith forever. Never shall I forget that nocturnal silence which deprived me for all eternity of the desire to live. Never shall I forget those moments which murdered my God, my soul, and turned my dreams to dust. Never shall I forget these things, even if I'm condemned to live as long as God himself. Never. Now the book Night is actually the first in a trilogy. The other two are Dawn and Day, the last two of which are works of fiction about characters and their lives after the Holocaust. Now that title, those titles for his trilogy, Night and Dawn and Day, could rightly be applied to the truths we've seen in the book of Isaiah over the last several weeks here. Because in chapter 59 that we looked at last week, it talked about the night, in a sense, of Israel's sin. And I explained at that time that it would go into a greater darkness near the end when the Antichrist rises up, an Assyrian king who will persecute the Jews at a level that has never happened before. But even at the darkest time of Jacob's distress, it's then that the crack of dawn will come when a Redeemer will come to Zion. And then the full day comes, as we see in chapter 60, a bright day when God's grace will finally be revealed to this nation, who will then become the nation that God had always intended them to be. Well, it is to this great and glorious day spoken of in this chapter that we want to turn our attention, that we might marvel at God's grace and hope in His goodness and the glory that will someday be revealed. And to do that, we're going to pray for His grace right now. Our Father in God, pray. We pray for grace for us. clear minds of other things. Oh, what a glorious picture we have here. Fill our imaginations so that our hearts would be transformed by your goodness. Give us all we need for the next few moments as we consider your word. For we ask in Jesus' name, amen. As we look at this amazing chapter, the focus is on what God intends to do for the nation of Israel in the Kingdom of Christ. So it's the glory of Israel in the Kingdom of Christ. I've got five things for you, and I'll give them as we go. The first thing that will happen with the nation of Israel is light will finally shine. The light will shine. Rise and shine, and give God the glory, glory. Rise and shine, give God the glory, glory. Rise and shine and children of the Lord. That's going to be on the tape. Children of the Lord. Did you know that that was originally a song that was in the Boy Scouts songbook? My, what a long way we've come now where they've decided on a different position on homosexuality and have toyed whether they should allow homosexuals to be Scout leaders. You know, all of our life is supposed to be lived to the glory of God. Jesus himself exhorted his followers to let your light so shine before men that they might see your good deeds and glorify your Father who is in heaven. This calling that's given to the church was given even before then to the nation of Israel. Right before the children of Israel were to enter into the Promised Land, Moses reminded them of who and what they were as a chosen nation and what it would mean for the glory of God if they actually kept the commandments. that He was putting before them. He said in Deuteronomy 4, 6-8, What other nation is there so great as to have their gods near them the way the Lord our God is near us whenever we pray to Him? And what other nation is so great as to have such righteous decrees and laws as this body of laws I'm setting before you today? Only be careful and watch yourself closely so that you do not forget the things your eyes have seen or let them fade from your hearts as long as you live. Teach them to your children and to their children's children. After them, of course, you know the problem is they didn't do that, did they? Something about the dullness of the heart and the forgetfulness of the mind. that the great truths and experiences of God's blessing seem to fade so quickly. You read through the Old Testament, and it is not a record of the righteousness of Israel, but one of their decline and fall, punctuated by occasional revivals, but after which they would turn again and again from the Lord. As a matter of fact, rather than being a blessing to the nations, in Romans chapter 2, Paul, arguing with the Jews that they needed the grace of God as much as the Gentiles, said this, through your breaking of the law, do you dishonor God? For the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you, just as it is written." Quoting from their own scripture. You see, it was for the failure to produce the fruit of righteousness that Jesus said, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a nation that will produce the fruit thereof. Matthew 21, 43. The people that will produce the fruit thereof are the church. which is made up of a small number of Jews and a multitude of Gentiles. The true church, those who have entered the covenant, the new covenant, which show that they have because the law is written on their heart and so they produce the fruit of righteousness and shine forth to bring glory to God. And for the last 2,000 years that is what has happened. The true church has shined the grace of God's glory into the world and Israel has lived in darkness. But there is a day, a glorious day coming when that will change. Isaiah, speaking from the vantage point of that day, says this in verse 1, Now notice, that is only going to happen after the light of God has shined upon them. and His glory is risen. That is only when the words of Isaiah 59 that we looked at last week are fulfilled, after the Redeemer has come to Zion and turned away godlessness from them. It's then when they enter this new covenant that we've entered to, the Spirit is given to them that they can produce spiritual fruit. And it will happen, as it says in verse 2, it says, The darkness that Isaiah is speaking of here is the darkness that will cover the whole earth, the sin and blindness that Jesus said would be so great at the last time that it would be just like the days of Noah when one of our Bible studies went through that. The thoughts and the intentions were only towards the heart, towards evil continually. It says the world was filled with corruption and violence. Isn't that a good description of our world today? Pick up the newspapers. Look at Google with the stories that come up. They're just incredible. There was a guy just recently who murdered his wife and then put it on YouTube. This is what I mean when I keep telling you that there is no bottom. And you go, that's shocking. Your grandchildren, if we live that long, won't say that's shocking. They'll say, yeah, I saw that one. That wasn't as good as the one they had left. But you see, after Christ returns and defeats the Antichrist, the cry will finally go up. The kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of our Lord and His Christ. And He shall reign forever and ever. Revelation 11, 15. And it's then, at that time, that for Israel, she will rise and shine and give God the glory, glory. And just as some get up to see the glorious sunrise, so the kings of the earth will come to see the rising. of Israel's glory. And that brings us to the second point. The gifts to come. You know, we had a foreign exchange student who stayed with us for just a short time a number of years back. When Manali came to our house, she came bearing gifts for each one of us. I guess it's a custom in India to do so. Here we find that the Gentile nations will be coming, bringing housewarming gifts for the nation of Israel, who is now finally and truly home. And what gifts they'll be? First and foremost, what they're going to bring are the descendants of Jacob, scattered from around the world. Look what it says in verse 4. Lift up your eyes round about and see. They all gather together, they come to you. Your sons will come from afar and your daughters will be carried in their arms. Remember that verse in the Old Testament that's quoted in the New Testament after the slaughter of the infants in Bethlehem? This is what the Lord says. A voice is heard in Ramah weeping, mourning and great weeping, Rachel weeping for her children and refusing to be comforted for they are no more. I believe it was Abraham Lincoln who, reflecting after the loss of his second son, said the loss of a child is of such great pain that the only thing that can ever assuage and remove it is the return of that child. Well, Rachel will have to weep one last time from heaven, but her weeping will end forever for that same passage. Jeremiah goes on to say, Not only Rachel's children, But all of Jacob's children. For the Bible makes clear again and again, as you read through the Old Testament, that this new covenant that will be made will be made with the house of Israel and the house of Judah. Not only the Jews that we recognize, the 13 million today, but what of the scattered descendants of the 10 northern tribes that we do not know from history, but God still knows who they are. The book of Hosea is written specifically to that northern kingdom. And at one point in that prophecy, God promises this to the northern kingdom. You know, children cost money though, right? Do you ever see those articles that say, you know, why people don't have as many kids as they used to? I think the answer is actually fairly simple. Most women work. They have a couple kids. They're working full-time. The thought of having one more just, ah, I can't do that. But they say the reason is because of the cost. You ever seen that? It costs $1.8 million to raise a child from zero to age 18. Okay, because my mom, who raised nine of them, had like $11 or $12 million. That's nonsense. You should question all the nonsense here. It doesn't cost that much. You bring them to Target, you get the $5 shoes on discount, and you hand them on down later on, and then years later you have to go to the podiatrist because you messed up your feet like I did. That's a different story. But it does cost money for kids, we know that, right? And here though, Israel's going to have the money to pay for it. Because when they come back, the people are coming not only with their children, but they're coming with gifts and wealth in their hand. Listen to what it says in verse 5. Then you will see and be radiant, and your heart will thrill and rejoice, because the abundance of the sea will be turned to you. The wealth of the nations will come to you. A multitude of camels will cover you, the young camels of Midian and Ephah. All those from Sheba will come. They will bring gold and frankincense. They will bear news, news of praises of the Lord. All the flocks of Kedar will be gathered together to you, and the rams of Nebioth will minister you. They will go up with acceptance on my altar, and they will glorify my glorious house." or I shall glorify my glorious house. Who are those who fly like a cloud and like the doves to their lattices? Surely the coastlands will wait for me. The ships of Tarshish will come first to bring your sons from afar, their silver and gold with them, for the name of the Lord your God and for the Holy One of Israel, because He has glorified you." Now it speaks of the wealth of the nations, but I want you to notice it points out some particular places in the world. And if you were to take a Bible atlas and look them up, you'd find out that every one of these places that's mentioned is in an Arab and Muslim country. Do you get the picture? Arab nations that are now filled with hatred for the Jews will someday load up their camels with goods, gold and frankincense, whatever they have that's of value, and bring it to Israel and her King Redeemer, who has now come to Zion. By the way, the story of the Magi, the reason they brought those gifts is because that is a foretaste. of what will come in the last days. What could account for such a change of heart? It's God who changes their heart, the hearts of the Gentiles, including Arabs. As it says in Joel chapter 2, it'll come about after this, that I will pour out My Spirit on all mankind. And your sons and daughters will prophesy, your old men will dream dreams, your young men will see visions, even on the male and female servants, I will pour out My Spirit in that day. I will display wonders in the sky and on the earth, blood and fire, columns of smoke, the sun will be turned to darkness. the moon into blood before the great and awesome day of the Lord comes. And it will come about that whoever calls upon the name of the Lord will be delivered. For on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem, there will be those who escape." as the Lord has said, even among the survivors, whom I have called. That's the remnant that will be saved in the end. But I want you to notice here, this passage is quoted by Peter as relating to Pentecost. But if you look in the original, it cannot be the ultimate and final fulfillment of that because that connected it to the day of the Lord, the day of his judgment at return. And so once again, the church is a foretaste, the first fruits of this glorious kingdom and the transformation that will come in the earth when Jesus returns. The nations will be converted and Isaiah tells us that they will gladly bring their wealth to Israel with praises of the Lord in their mouth. Can you imagine the children, the descendants of Muslim jihadis, instead of chanting, death to Israel, death to America, will be saying, come we that love the Lord and let Our joys be known. Join in a song of sweet accord and thus surround the throne. We're marching to Zion. Beautiful, beautiful Zion. We're marching to Zion, the beautiful city of God. To quote someone somewhere, inconceivable! And yet it's the word of God. And what will they do when they get there? That brings us to our third point. The nations will serve. They will serve Israel and their king. For God in His grace has now glorified Israel to make them be the nation that He always intended to be. A nation blessed to be a blessing. As He said to their forefather, I will bless you and I will make your name and so you shall be a blessing. And that blessing of Abraham was extended to the heirs according to the promise. For after he showed his willingness to offer up his son Isaac, take your son, your only son, the son that you love, Jesus said, and it said that he put the wood on his back and he went up. And at the last moment God says, no, wait! Do you know what Jesus said? Abraham rejoiced to see my day and he sought. I believe that Abraham understood from what happened. that God's son was going to go up on a wood and be sacrificed. Well, when that happened, God said this to him, By myself I have sworn to declare the Lord, because you have not done this, you have not withheld your son, your only son. Indeed, I will bless you, and I will greatly multiply your seed as the stars of the heaven and the sands of the seashore, and your seed shall possess the gates of their enemy. And in your seed all the nations of the earth will be blessed, because you obeyed my voice." Now the seed, ultimately the blessing comes through, is the Messiah. But that's true of everyone who's connected with the Messiah. And of course that's both Jews and Gentiles, all who have become heirs according to the promise. But here the emphasis falls on the natural branches of Abraham's tree. The Jews and the Israelites who are descendants from him. that Paul said were broken off because of their unbelief, but someday will be regrafted in. And this is exactly what Isaiah is speaking of, that time when they're regrafted in. Look what he says, he says, By the way, those who apply this passage to the church never can explain what does it mean, in my wrath I struck you. When was that ever true of the church? I will never leave you nor forsake you, Jesus said. You know, here's the thing. This is what bugs me. I don't mind that Gentiles want to share in the blessings that are promised to the Jews. But when they're invited into the tent to sit down for a meal and then tell the Jews to get out of the tent, there's something wrong with that system. I'm going to remind you what I remind you all the time. Jesus, our Lord, was a Jew. Jesus, our Lord, is a Jew. And Jesus, our Lord, will forever remain a Jew. I read a commentator once who said, we shouldn't think of Jesus as a Jew, but as a generic man. Oy vey! That's crazy. It says, for in my wrath I struck you into my favor. I've had compassion on you. You're gates. The church's gates, what? Your gates will be opened continually, they will not be closed day or night, so that men will bring to you the wealth of the nations with your kings, led in the procession. I thought that the traffic, it was terrible in Athens when we were there. It's amazing how they can park a car, a subcompact car, in a space that's this big by this big. We saw it up and over on things, and of course there was garbage everywhere, the garbage strike, they do that regularly. And then they told us that the city was going to be swelled by people who came for the Olympics. Do you know that one out of four people, I think it was one out of four or one out of three people who live in Greece live in the city of Athens. Now, there's going to be traffic jams on the streets of Jerusalem in those days, and ships waiting to unload their goods in the dock. So many people from around the world, including foreign dignitaries, waiting to see, get into the city of the great king to catch a glimpse of the resurrected Christ and his resurrected saints. And there will be so many, they're never going to be able to shut the gates. All right, come on, let's move away. There's always that. There's always that cop. Actually, it's not a cop. It's a wannabe cop. Right? You know the type. And they're going to come in great parades, dignitaries from each nation, kings and presidents, prime ministers from every tribe and tongue and nation. They're going to enter like they do into the Olympic Stadium. Listen carefully. They're going to have two flags in their hand. They're going to have a flag of their own nation, and they're going to have the flag of Israel with a star of David and a cross right in the center of it. But what if there's some stubborn nation? Like Sweden. Or Iceland, you know how they get. cold-hearted. What if they don't want to go up and serve? Ooh, that would not be a good idea at all. As Barney Fife would say of that kind of attitude, you gotta nip it, nip it, nip it in the bud. For it says in verse 12, for the nation and the kingdom which will not serve you, who's the you? Israel, will perish and the nations will be utterly ruined. That's what it means when it says of Jesus that he will rule with a rod of iron. Verse 13, the glory of Lebanon will come to you. The juniper, the box tree, the cypress, together, this is all the products. Lebanon was known for its trees, its wood, to beautify the place of my sanctuary. By the way, that's where they got the wood when they built the temple in the first place, right? and I shall make the place of my feet glorious. The sons of those who afflicted you will come bowing to you, and all those who despise you will bow themselves at the sole of your feet." The temple in Israel will be magnificent in splendor and made more beautiful because it's going to be the throne room of our Lord Jesus Christ when He rules the world from Jerusalem. This Son of David will rule in the city that they will call the City of the Lord, the Zion of the Holy One of Israel." And now right about now you should be thinking, okay, Pastor, that's great for the Jews, but I'm not a Jew. That's true, but these promises that were made to Israel are also true for us as Gentiles as part of the body of Christ. Listen to what Paul says in Ephesians 2, 13-20. For he himself is our peace, who made the two groups into one, Jews and Gentiles, and broke down the barrier of the dividing wall, by abolishing in his flesh the enmity, which is the law of commandments contained in the ordinances, so that he himself might make the two into one new man, thus establishing peace, and might reconcile them both in one body to God through the cross, by having put to death the enmity. Why is there enmity? Why was there enmity between Jews and Gentiles? The reason is because the Jews had the law, and that separated from the rest of the world, which caused them to look down upon Gentile dogs. I illustrate this in the one time that, I think, Suzanne and Leslie were working at a place, and they had to bring food out. It was for someone who was an Orthodox Jew, and it was a plate with plastic on it, and Leslie made the mistake of taking the plastic off of it. Oh! You can't eat it now! Why? 30 Gentile hands touched it. I don't mean germs, I mean defiled. Because you're a Gentile. Now, are you going to be able to get along really well with that type of men? No. But what happened? When Christ comes, and they have to deal with this. This is what Baruch was talking about the other day. He said the struggle for Jewish people, even today, when they get saved, they still want to go back. Okay, I'm a Jew, I believe Jesus is the Messiah, so how should I... I should keep the law? No! No! And that was settled in the book of Acts when they said, are the Gentiles required to be circumcised to keep all these laws? And Peter said, no, why do we want to put on them, the Gentiles, a yoke which neither we nor our fathers could ever bear? Now listen to the words of Peter and his humility and grace. He said, we believe that we, Jews, are saved in the same way as them. Not they are saved like us, but we're saved like them. by faith in Christ. What I'm telling you is if you're sitting here today, you've got a heart of stone, if you would just turn to Jesus and say, Jesus, will you accept me? Will you bring me to God through your work on the cross? And if you would do that with a true heart, He would save you at this very moment. You would leave this room no longer under the wrath of God so you wouldn't have to sit here like this on Sunday morning going, I wish this would get over soon so I wouldn't have to feel bad. And I'm telling you, I remember when this happened. You can feel that wrath lift. And all of a sudden, God is not your enemy, hunting you down. Now He's your partner, your friend, your Lord, your Savior, your Master, your joy. And you're thinking, how did I not see this before? I once was blind. Well, and then he goes on to say in that passage, he says, are God's household. Having been built up on the foundation of the apostles and the prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone. Speaking of peace that we have with God through Jesus and the church, that peace is someday going to come to Israel. And that's a country that has almost never known peace over the centuries. And that's the next thing we see in the text. Number four, peace will be established. Look, Israel is no longer going to have to be at war with her neighbors. They won't have to worry about suicide bombers. They won't have to build walls. They won't have to worry about Iran getting the nukes or UN resolutions. For we read, starting in verse 15, with no one passing through, meaning the land, I will make you an everlasting pride, a joy from generation to generation. You will suck the milk of nations, you will suck the breast of royalty. Obviously, that's the better translation than kings, if you have that. You realize there's a word picture here, meaning they will feed off the wealth of the nation. Then you will know that I, the Lord, am your Savior and your Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob. Instead of bronze, I'll bring you gold. Instead of iron, I'll bring silver. Instead of wood, bronze. Instead of stones, iron. And I will make peace, your administrators, and righteousness, your overseers. Violence will not be heard in your land, again in your land, nor devastation or destruction within your borders, but you will carry a call, your wall, salvation, and your gates, praise. And it's interesting because when we were talking, Suzanne and I had dinner with the Meazes the other day. We asked, Suzanne asked, do you, I mean, have you known people who've died in some of the bombings? Oh yeah, everybody in Israel knows someone who's died in a bombing. said our daughter when she was in the military, one of her friends died. Throughout the centuries, listen carefully folks, the Jews have been outcasts in the nations where they've lived, blamed for every woe and resented for every success. They've been the object of scorn and the butt of jokes, but that day will end because God has promised here, and like in Zechariah 8, 13, it will come about just as you were a curse among the nations, O house of Judah and house of Israel. So I will save you that you will become a blessing. Do not fear, but let your hand be strong. And what will have changed so much in that day? Well, not just the hearts of the Gentiles that God is going to convert. I don't know, does this do anything to you? I walk through like the mall or I'm at the fair where my wife is going to make me go again this year and all that kind of stuff. I love to watch people go by because I picture in my mind the day is going to come where they're going to have the Minnesota State Fair and people will be walking around and everybody will be singing hymns. And they'll be visiting dignitaries at the booth instead of being somebody from WCCO. It'll be the Prophet Elijah. And people will be lined up and say, you know what? And you know what they're going to be serving on a stick that day? Bread and meat on the beak of a raven. Here, take this. Why do I tell you stuff like this? Because you sit in America like all Americans do. And the only thing you get excited about is the Packers are starting pretty soon. And people are thrilled about that, but this stuff, it's like JR tokens, Lord of the Rings, it doesn't hit anybody. This is why I'm always, I'm trying to enlarge your vision so you say, you know what, the reason I'm not going to look at pornography is because it's not that good. Let me tell you, I've given this illustration before, it's gross, but it's important. Kyle Flowers, who many of you know, told me that when he was in treatment one time, There was a guy who said to him, hey, Kyle, come here. He said the guy was a little off. He said, come here, come here. I want to show you something. OK? He takes him in his room, his house, wherever he was at, and he opens up the cupboard or wherever it was, and there's baby fruit jars, all these baby fruit jars. And it's got human waste in them, his own human waste that he had been collecting samples of over the years. He said, look at the color on this one. Look at this. I mean, look at how it's dried up. This guy was so excited about it. Now, what would you say about a person who thrills in human waste? What would you say about a person who thrills in all the sins and filth of this world rather than the God of the universe from whom all blessings flow that we sing every week? There's something radically wrong with us. And part of our sin is it blinds us to that very fact. This guy thought it was cool. Wouldn't everyone want to see my collection of human excrement? Look it, the word wicked means twisted. That's what humans are apart from the grace of God. We're twisted. because we delight in everything and anything almost above God. And we break the first commandment ever given to Israel, which is to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. They have no gods before me. I want to tell you that you're sitting here and you're not saved, or even if you are saved, your primary sin in life is not that you do this deed or that deed or go here or do there. Your primary sin is that you don't make God the center of your delight and all your joy. In other words, you treat him as if he really is not all that significant. And ask any wife who's treated that way by her husband whether she's happy. That's why God, in the book of Hosea, uses the picture of a jilted lover as he describes his relationship to his people. That's going to change. Not only for the nations, but for Israel, because their hearts are going to be changed. And he says, then you will know that I, the Lord, I, the Lord, am your Savior, your Redeemer, and the Mighty One of Jacob. And the person that's speaking here is none other than Jesus of Nazareth, the one they rejected 2,000 years ago. A while back, I read a book by Dennis Ross entitled, The Missing Piece. P-E-A-C-E. But it's a play on words. You understand that, right? The missing peace for Israel, in my opinion, the missing peace for the nations that are divided by ethnic hatred, the missing peace in families, the missing peace in our own heart, the only thing that can bring peace is the peace that's missing, which is Jesus himself. It's Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who on his cross, where he laid down his life, made peace possible for us between God and between each other. And until that peace is put in place, we will not have the other kind of peace that will always be missing from our life. Well, glory to God, that peace has come to many of us here today, and it will come to the nation of Israel when the Prince of Peace sits on his throne. Finally, for Israel, when that day comes, listen carefully, the fifth thing, night will end. and what a bright day will come. No longer will you have the sun for light, verse 19, by day, nor for the brightness will the moon give you light, but you will have the Lord for an everlasting light, and God will be your glory. Your sun will no longer set, your moon will not wane, for you have the Lord, you will have the Lord as an everlasting light. Now, is Isaiah speaking here metaphorically or literally? I think the answer is both. Do you recall when the people of Israel came out of The land of Egypt in there and the wilderness. How were they guided by God? By a pillar cloud by day and a flaming column by night. Did you know that Isaiah had already told us earlier this? In chapter 4, verse 2-4, In that day the branch of the Lord, meaning the Messiah, will be beautiful and glorious, and the fruit of the earth will be the pride and the adornment of the survivors of Israel. It will come about that he who is left in Zion and remains in Jerusalem will be called holy. Everyone who is recorded for life in Jerusalem. When the Lord has washed away the filth of filth. That's what sin is. of the daughter of Zion, and purge the bloodshed of Jerusalem from her midst by a spirit of judgment, a spirit of burning. Then the Lord will create over the whole area of Mount Zion, and over her assembly, a cloud by day, even a smoke, and the brightness of a flaming fire by night. For over all the glory will be a canopy. There will be shelter to give shade from the heat by day, and refuge and protection from the storm and the rain." And did you catch that at the early part? when he says that the fruit of the earth, meaning the people who get saved from that point on, will be the pride and the adornment of the survivors of Israel. Listen carefully, folks. The honor of converting the nations is given to the nation of Israel, not the church. the church is sent into every tribe and tongue and nation to gather from each one a certain number, the elect, that will be raised up to inherit this kingdom with a renewed nation of Israel." And at that point, I wrote in really big letters, wow! I said I believe that this talk about light is literal, but I also believe it's metaphorical. Because in the Bible, what does darkness refer to? Blindness, sin, ignorance of God, being away from his presence, thrown into outer darkness? What then would light represent? The opposite of those things. Righteousness, true sight, knowledge of God, being in his presence. Israel's night of darkness and woe will finally be over when Jesus returns for Israel, because the end of the chapter here says this, and the days of your mourning will be over. then all your people will be righteous. They will possess the land forever, the branch of my planting, the work of my hand, that I might be glorified. The smallest one will become a clan, the least one a mighty nation. I, the Lord, will hasten its time." Why does God do this? Is it because Israel's good? Because Jews matter more than Gentiles? No, neither. God says it so that I might be glorified. I remember seeing a comic that I think is one of the best theologies I ever saw. Dennis the Menace is talking to Joey. They're eating cookies given to them by Mrs. Wilson. And Joey says, we sure must have done something good to get these cookies from Mrs. Wilson. And Dennis says, Joey, Mrs. Wilson doesn't give us cookies to show how good we are. She gives us cookies to show how good she is. And if you understand that comic, you understand the whole of creation and the drama of redemption and the end point for all of it. Well, how should we end this? I'll give you three proper responses to a text like this. Here's the first one. I'm going to give them to you just as scripture verses. I'm going to read them to you. Here's the first one. In light of everything I've just told you, and this being the kingdom that we're going to inherit, I would say what Peter would say, therefore, prepare your mind for action, keep sober in spirit, fix your hope completely on the grace of God to be revealed to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. What I'm telling you is this, if you fix your hope someplace else, you're going to be bitterly disappointed in the end. This hope is going to come true. How do we live godly lives? By fixing our hope on this, constantly reminding ourselves of what the goal is, where we're going, and why it is we want to live godly right now. Put it in the words of the writer of Hebrews. Therefore, since we have received a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us show gratitude by which we may offer to God an acceptable service with reverence and awe. And here's a third one. This comes out of Isaiah in a chapter we're going to look at in a couple of weeks. Listen to the words. On your walls, O Jerusalem, I've appointed watchmen. All day and all night they will never keep silent. Listen to this. This is to us. You who remind the Lord, take no rest for yourselves and give him no rest until he makes Jerusalem the praise of the earth. John Piper said something I think is probably true. He said, I think that our church is the only church that takes one day a month to get together to pray for one particular thing, that the kingdom of God would finally come. And by the way, if you're thinking about praying, not only pray for the Jewish people, but pray for Elie Wiesel, because unless he comes to believe that Jesus is his Messiah, for him, night will never end. Our Father God, what glorious things we find here. And is it not the dullness of our hearts? We're like the birds that get covered with oil on the spills. How do we fly when we're gooped up with the tar and sin of this world? Father, I remember John Piper say we're drowning in a swamp of pleasures, but really it's a swamp of pleasures like of taffy. But Father in God, we know that you want for us greater pleasures, because every person here knows that sin only gives a fleeting pleasure. Like I always say, it's like a cheap cola. After a moment, it loses its fizz. Father, I don't want to be happy for a few seconds or a few minutes. I want to be happy forever, and I know the only way I can do that is if I give myself to you. and look forward to this day. And Lord, just the thought of it brings delight to me. So even now, it pays rewards and dividends. And when it comes in fullness, oh, how it's going to be glorious. I pray that not a person here will be cast into outer darkness, but they will live to see that light arise on the nation of Israel. For we ask in Jesus' name and for the glory of His kingdom. Amen. Would you stand with me? We're going to close by singing a song together.