to the last chapter of Isaiah, Isaiah 66. I've titled this sermon A New Temple or A New Birth and there seems to be a contrast going on in this passage between these two things and hopefully that will make more sense as we go along. I'll start off this sermon with a quote. It's this, the temple of Israel will be rebuilt of that we have no doubt whatsoever. This quote reflects the belief of some Orthodox Jews who have been planning for many years to rebuild the third temple and reestablish the Jewish priesthood in Israel. Apparently, I've read this many places, many of the temple furnishings that God had commanded to be made in the days of Solomon have been remanufactured by the Jews and are merely awaiting a day when everything will be as it was prior to 70 A.D. and the destruction of the second temple of the Jews. So they're preparing for this by even making the utensils themselves to go in the temple. In light of this fact, Gary DeMar has asked the question that most evangelicals raised and reared in contemporary evangelical Christianity simply take for granted. This is the question. Does any of this wanting to rebuild the temple have anything to do with Bible prophecy? I see people just simply take this for granted, and I think they don't even ask the question. I used to hold that it did until I started to think about the implications of such an endeavor. There's two important things that caught my attention. First, the Jews believe wrongly that the blood of bulls and goats take away sins. To this day, they believe that. But in order to properly perform sacrifices, it's required in the law that animal sacrifices be offered in a place like a tabernacle or a temple. Thus, they need a temple to restore a right relationship with God. They see themselves as carrying on true religion. But more important than this is the second thing. These Jews, you see, do not believe that Jesus Christ is the Messiah or that He is the temple. A main purpose for rebuilding the temple is to prepare the way for Messiah's first coming. In light of this, Joe Drape says, rabbinical advocates of researching the new temple remain cautious. They consistently remind their followers that their work is to prepare for the coming of Messiah and not to replace him. And in light of the fact that Christians believe that Jesus is Messiah, such a purpose for rebuilding the temple can only be viewed as blasphemy against God himself, because the temple would replace the Lord Jesus Christ. Now where are they getting this idea from? The Jews who look for a rebuilt temple are not searching the Hebrew scriptures for their instruction, but rather the Babylonian Talmud. You just can't find a single passage in the Bible that commands the rebuilding of a third temple, as you do find with both the first and the second temples. And so, Gary DeMar concludes with this, he says, why are Jews wanting to rebuild a temple? for the same reason that the temple was maintained prior to its destruction in 70 AD. They do not believe that Jesus is the promised Messiah. If the Jews once again build a temple and begin to offer sacrifices, this will only solidify their rejection of the need for the atoning blood of Jesus. It was this rejection that led to the destruction of the temple that was standing in Jesus' day. Now, one of the all-time undersides of religious man is the superstitious belief that God is confined to the boxes that we put him in. In essence, this is what's going on in the Jewish mindset. The box they have in mind is the temple. Strangely, this has been a very common view throughout the history of America. We can put God in boxes. It's the history of man, from Babel to the pyramids in Egypt to the Mall of America in Minneapolis. Jeremiah reminds us just how the zealots of the day worshipped the sign rather than the thing that it signified. He writes this, this is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel says, reform your ways and your actions. And I will let you live in this place. Do not trust in deceptive words. This is the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple you trust in. You find that in Jeremiah chapter seven, Jeremiah had in mind the first temple, Solomon's temple. And unfortunately, these blind leaders have forgotten the words of Solomon himself when he built that temple. In 1 Kings 8, Solomon offers a prayer to the God of heaven. He acknowledged that the temple will become a divine dwelling. He says that that's true. God is going to dwell in the temple. He acknowledges that there was a divine mandate for the building of this temple. He gives thanks to God for the promise that was kept to David. You remember, David wanted to build a house for God, and God said, You can't build it because there's blood on your hands. I'll give it to your son Solomon to build it. But after all this, after acknowledging that the temple is something that God wanted to have built in Jerusalem, Solomon asked, will the God of will God really dwell on earth? The heavens cannot contain you, how much less this temple that I have made for you. See, Solomon knew what these falsely professing Jews denied. Now, I want us to fast forward with this discussion behind us. past the lives of Jeremiah and Isaiah to the time that Isaiah 66 has in mind. It is looking at this time after the captivity. It foresees a day where the Jewish people are desirous of rebuilding Solomon's Temple. Perhaps you will remember that when Babylon came into Jerusalem and ransacked the place that they razed Solomon's Temple to the ground. The second half of verse 1 asks, What is this house that you would build for me? And this house is clarified in verse six as the temple. And so we're talking about the temple, because this is what Isaiah is talking for the religious zealots of that day, just as our own. If there is no temple, then God, by definition, cannot be with his people. For these Jews, God and the temple are the same thing. They're identical. But now that Cyrus has been commissioned, you remember Cyrus back in the early chapters of chapter 40, been commissioned by God to bring the people back into the land. These same zealots, again, just like those in our own day, have a renewed hope. If they could just rebuild the temple, then God would be back in their hands and everything would be all right. They had learned nothing. from the exile. Now this last chapter of Isaiah has a good deal to do with warning people about trusting in religion, in religious acts, and in religious talk, rather than in trusting in God himself. And so there's a prelude to the temple word that I said is in the second half of verse one. It's the very beginning. God says, you think that I dwell in tiny little temples? I'm the God who will make the heaven and the earth new. That's what he talked about in the last chapter. I made this heaven and earth that we're on right now as well. We sing this old song. This is my father's world, right? That's what God is saying here. And so the Lord says heaven is my throne and earth is my footstool. That's how he preludes this talk about rebuilding a house. And I think that each one of us who's sitting here this morning needs to be reminded again of exactly who this being is that we come to worship this morning. You see, he's not like us, friends. Have we forgotten? We came from our tiny little houses to meet here in this tiny little place today. We need spaces like this in order to make us have a sense of belonging to protect us from the elements. But God says that he has made the totality of creation to be his royal palace and his inner court. Nothing, not even everything that is created can contain God. Everything is but his throne and his footstool. And if you think about that image, God Everything that there is, is just His throne. How much bigger is God than that then? And this is the God that we worship today. And that's an impossible thought to get our minds around, isn't it? This is the God that confronts these zealots. You want to build for me another house? A second temple? What is this house that you would have me to dwell in? That you would build for me? What is the place of my rest? I made everything with my own hands. Do you really think that I dwell in houses made by human hands simply because you say so? These words at the end of verse 1 and the beginning of verse 2 are not a rebuke of building a second temple. Because this was God's command to Haggai, to Ezra, Nehemiah, and others. But it is a rebuke of these religious Jews and indeed anyone else who thinks that simply doing religious things is what pleases God. Not everyone in Jerusalem was of this false religious mindset, however. God had saved for himself a remnant. There are two contrasting groups here, as there always are in God's church. There are those we have mentioned, the religious zealots. And then there are the humble, God-fearing tremblers of His Word. I think of the same Haggai and Ezra and Nehemiah as examples, living in the times of the prophecy here. Now, these two people could not be more unalike, could they? God says, it is not you who fear temples that I will look upon. Rather, this is the one to whom I will look in verse 2. He who is humble and contrite in spirit and trembles at my words." Last week, Mason told me this is one of his very favorite verses in the entire Bible. But this is the key verse of application in this entire passage as well. While there are many who think that God loves them because they pray or fast, go to church or worship with their hands raised, or believe in predestination, or help the homeless in soup kitchens, God reminds us again that there's only one person in whom his soul delights, and it is the person on whom his spirit resides. And it says that these people are characterized by two things. First, they are humble and contrite in spirit. That is, they are ready to take the lowest place before God. They do not desire to be the first in the kingdom. They do not desire the greater gifts. They do not desire fame and attention. They do not desire to wield power in the kingdom or in the church. They do not always have to be right in everything. They do not have to surround themselves with Christian superstars. They are not, as Calvin pointed out, carried away by the array, the splendor, and the elegance of ceremonies, which the eyes of men are commonly dazzled by. They are like Christ. who did not associate with the rich and the wise, but with the lowly, the lepers and the sinners, as Martin Luther points out. And they are not hypocrites because they acknowledge their guilt and their sin regularly before God. These are those who are humble and contrite in spirit. But there's a second thing that it says that these people are like. It says that they tremble at God's word. And I thought, what does that mean? Well, first, I think it includes his commandments, all of his commandments, not just those that we personally feel like obeying at the time, because it's convenient for us to do so. But even more than his commandments, I think in the context here, God's word includes his prophecies, especially those things that he tells us are going to happen that sometimes even make us question his goodness or his love. They are those things that literally make us tremble and humble us because they remind us again that God is not like we are. This text has those kinds of prophecies in it. Some of what follows ought to make us all tremble and quake in our shoes when we think about how serious religiosity is without living, working faith in God. For God says, those slain by the Lord shall be many. Did you hear that? Those slain by the Lord shall be many. Verse 16. Friends, why do we not quake? More when we hear such things as this. But instead, simply wish to put them out of our minds and think about happier texts. Just like the Israelites who wanted to dance and sing around God. As they would like him to be. That is how we are. Has God really said such things? Well, oftentimes we wouldn't know. And these people in those days didn't know because they didn't bother to read his words or listen to his prophets. Nothing ever changes. And we need to behold the very strong warning in the word of God in this matter. Jesus says the meek will inherit the earth. And James says we are to humble ourselves in the sight of the Lord. This is what pleases God, and this is the one in whom God will look. Now, that application from that verse is timeless. But the context here surrounds those in Israel who loved God and who wanted to rebuild the temple to glorify Him. There were those people. But they were opposed by another group. And I want to ask the question, what does this other group look like? You might be tempted to do what the Pharisees did. by saying that the opposite group must be the tax collectors, the sinners, and the prostitutes. Right? Modern day Pharisees like the hyper-Calvinist pastor, in quotes, Fred Phelps from Topeka, Kansas, adds on his websites, America, Canada, Sweden, the homosexuals, and the military. Is that who the opposite of these people are? That's not what Isaiah says. Beginning in verse 3, we see exactly what the opposite looks like according to Isaiah. This verse is very much a summarization of chapter 58. Verse 3 summarizes chapter 58. It is the religious people who, like Jesus put it, strain at a gnat but swallow a camel, or who give a tenth but neglect the more important matters of law, justice, mercy, and faithfulness. and who look at the speck in their brother's eye, but pay no attention to the log in their own. To put it in modern language, it is the one who professes Christ on Sunday, yet lives an entirely different life the rest of the time. That's the opposite that Isaiah has in mind. Their trust was in the temple of the Lord. They wanted to rebuild the temple in order to parade their own achievements. These people pretended to be zealous for God and his ways, but really they desire only to attain a measure of pride and satisfaction in their own self-interpreting reality and their own self-pleasing worship. That's why they're religious in the first place. They appear so good to other people. They slaughter an ox, that verse says. They sacrifice a lamb. They present a grain offering and they make memorial offerings of frankincense. Do you see all the good things there that are contained in the law that these people were doing? Today, we might say they give lots of money. They know all the right doctrine. They serve on all the church boards. They've memorized so many Bible verses. However, notice the stark contrast that the Prophet puts here. While they are pretending to be religious to others, they are actually murderers, like one who kills a man. They are senseless, like one who breaks a dog's neck. They are sacrilegious, like one who offers pig's blood. And they are idolaters, like one who blesses an idol. This is meant to expose the dung under the silky cloth. The summary of these people is that they have chosen their own ways and their soul delights and their abominations. Now what are the abominations that they delight in? Well, it's delighting in taking fiendish pleasure in pretending to be religious in front of others while making an absolute mockery of God and performing great acts of persecution upon the brethren at the same time. This is the sickness of all religiosity that does not come from faith and that does not obey God as a result. Beware of your own potential to not see the temptations of this in yourself, but only others. When you read verse 3, do you go, I'm glad I'm not like that. How many times have I said this, right? I caught myself doing it when I read it this week. Having other people in my mind, but not myself. But you see, not heeding this warning is exactly what the prophet is saying. But heeding this warning is a great step towards humility and fear of God's word. Now, if God can say that they will choose their own ways, God says that if they will choose their own ways, then he says, then he will choose harsh treatment for them and bring their fears upon them in verse four. This is the first in an important series of predictions that we're going to look at shortly. God says, I will choose harsh treatment for them and will bring their fears upon them. That which they fear, they will in turn receive at the hand of God as payment for their wicked services. That's what he's saying. And this is justified here, just like it was in the last chapter, because it goes on to say, I called, but nobody answered. I spoke, but they did not listen. But instead of turning from sin and towards God, it says, they did what was evil in my eyes and chose that in which I did not delight. Again, this is a summary of what's been taking place in the chapters up to this point. But in verse five, God has a word of comfort for those that he says are trembling at the word. That's what it says. It says, your brothers hate you and cast you out for my namesake. And they have said, let the Lord be glorified that we may see your joy. But it is they who will be put to shame. I thought long and hard about how I could explain this verse. I'm simply going to go with a quote from one of the commentators to keep it in its context. He says this, when persons like these do build a temple, It will be as splendid as they can make it, but for their own sakes, not for God's. Then the uncultured, earnestly religious folks, that's the good people, will be told in no uncertain terms that their rustic, iconoclastic religious rigor is not welcome here. Indeed, their zealotry becomes a source of humor for the persecutors. They're always blathering on about the glory of God. Fine, let him give glory to God somewhere else, not here where we're trying to do the business of religion. That's what this verse is talking about. And now I want to come to verse six, it interjects with a prophecy about where this is going to take place. It says a sound will be heard at first in an uproar somewhere inside the city of Jerusalem. So you can imagine you're sitting in Jerusalem and you hear this uproar somewhere in the city. And so you go to investigate where is this sound coming from? And it says that it's emanating from the very temple that they have rebuilt. But what is the sound? It is the sound of the Lord rendering recompense to his enemies from the temple. God's pronouncement upon Israel will take place inside the temple, and there he will begin to repay his enemies. You can go back and read Malachi chapter three. That we saw earlier this morning to find it's at this point that we may begin to see the unfolding of events as they've been recorded for us in history. Now, here's what I want to do. Take us on a little historical journey to talk about what I opened up this morning with regard to rebuilding a temple. According to the command of God, the second temple was rebuilt. Solomon's temple was destroyed and the Jews came back to their land and they rebuilt a second temple, not as glorious, but still a great place. But the priests never did reform their ways as they were supposed to. Haggai warned them. In chapter 2, this people and this nation are defiled in my sight, declares the Lord. Whatever they do and whatever they offer are defiled. Now Haggai wrote after the exile was over. He was contemporary with Ezra and Nehemiah. Then he says, now give careful thought to this from this day on. Everything is defiled. That's why I think it's important that we continue to hear the warnings ourselves. It is not our nature to hear the warnings of the scripture. It wasn't their nature. They didn't listen. Malachi predicts that Jerusalem and its temple would be the scene of God's final judgment on apostate Israel. And this is what Isaiah is saying too. Here's Malachi again. See, I will send my messenger. Who's that? That's Jesus, who will prepare the way before me. Then suddenly the Lord you are seeking will come to his temple. The messenger of the covenant whom you desire will come, says the Lord Almighty. But who can endure the day of his coming? Who can stand when he appears? For he will be like a refiner's fire or a launderer's soap. Where is he coming from? The temple. So many people today think that this is an entirely future prophecy. But this judgment has already begun. And let me explain this to you. Jesus talks in the Olivet Discourse, fast forwarding to Matthew chapter 24. About something called the abomination of desolation. This is revelation talk, right? Daniel talk. The Jews of his day would have understood exactly what Jesus meant in 168 B.C. Antiochus Epiphanes built a pagan altar on the site of the Great Altar in the Jewish Temple. He then sacrificed a pig on it and forced the Jews to participate in his blasphemy. Those who would not cooperate were killed. But what most people conveniently forget is that Antiochus had accomplices. They were the Hebrew priests. People think he just did this by himself, huh? Thomas Newton wrote this 250 years ago. The people of Israel rejected the Lord and the high priest self-consciously adopted Greek religion. They did this in the temple, right in God's face. For political reasons, they asked Antiochus Epiphanes to come to the city and set them up in power. Antiochus' defilement only came after the Jews had done these unspeakable abominations. This is the world into which our Savior came. John records that Jesus came to the Jews, but they did not receive him. Barry Webb comments on this, Jesus preaching for the most part was an urgent 11th hour appeal to Israel to repent. In his cleansing of the temple, a dramatic sign that the threatened judgment was beginning to take place. Jesus knows that the religion of the Jews has become a mockery of all true religion. He goes into the temple and calls it a house of merchandise. And at another time, he goes in and he calls it a den of robbers. Now, check this out. According to the law in Leviticus, when a priest inspected a house and found that it had a spreading disease, he was to come out and leave it for seven days. If, when he came back, it was still unclean, he was to make this very pronouncement, and it was to be torn down. Jesus, as the high priest, went in two times into the temple, and it is purposely recorded that he came out of the temple. And then he made the pronouncement. Look, your house is left to you desolate. Thus, Jesus says in a place that so many people think is a future prophecy. Truly, I say to you, not one stone here shall be left on another, which will not be torn down. And he's talking about the temple. And in a moment, we're going to talk about when this verse is fulfilled. Another way of saying that the Jews did not receive their Messiah is to say that they rejected him, right? They, with the help of the Romans, put him to death. And Jesus knows that this is coming, and so he prepares the way for it. He cleanses the temple. What does this do? It effectively removes God's presence from the place. That's what it does. Judgment is come. Just prior to Jesus going in and cleansing the temple as he's making his way into Jerusalem, he spies a fig tree. And he does a very remarkable thing. Mark tells us, Jesus was hungry. Seeing in the distance a fig tree in leaf, he went to find out if it had any fruit. When he reached it, he found nothing but leaves, because it was not the season for figs. Then he said to the tree, May no one ever eat fruit from you again. And his disciples heard him say it. In this way, Jesus is saying that the national purposes for Israel have ceased to be meaningful, friends. At Christ's death, the spirit rips the temple curtain in two. Do you remember this? Despite what so many today think, these things all clearly show that the temple is no longer the goal of redemptive history. It will be destroyed, and nowhere does any scripture say that it must be rebuilt. Calvin wrote, God deserted his temple because it was only founded for a time and was but a shadow until the Jews so completely violated the whole covenant that no sanctity remained in either the temple, the nation, or the land itself. How ironic then that so many Christians are eagerly anticipating a rebuilt third temple sometime in our own future. How is this not an implicit denial of the once-for-all sacrifice of Christ is a question that I personally was unable to answer and it forced me to change my entire framework of the end times. Now we've seen prophesied that God will put his zealous religious enemies to shame, right? Verse 5. And Isaiah has said that from the temple God will render recompense to his enemies in verse 6. Now, I want to skip past verses 8 through 14 for a moment. Pick those up a little bit later. Come back to the theme of judgment upon these people. The very end of what we read, 15 through 17, I believe. For behold, the Lord will come in fire. and his chariot like a whirlwind to render his anger and fury, and his rebuke with flames of fire. For by fire the Lord will enter into judgment, and by his sword with all flesh, and those slain by the Lord will be many. And those who sanctify and purify themselves go into the gardens, following one in the midst, eating pig's flesh, and the abominations and mice shall come to an end together, declares the Lord." The images in these three verses are, broadly speaking, about judgment at the end of the world. And there's support for this interpretation in the context. But we know that Judgment Day is the anti-type, or the final judgment, which has historical prototypes all throughout history. Does that make sense? There's one final judgment, and all of the judgments that come before it are serving to picture that judgment for us. This is why Jesus, when he's asked, why did that temple fall on those people? Why did the tower fall on those people? He said he didn't give him a reason why. Instead, he simply says, unless you repent, you will also perish. In other words, this tower fell as an example of what's going to happen on Judgment Day. And so you better learn the lesson of Judgment Day and repent before it's too late. Now, in light of this discussion on the temple, I believe it is very important that you understand exactly what took place in 70 AD. Especially in light of what Isaiah says here, most evangelicals are just quite frankly completely ignorant of this. You will notice the references to fire and sword in verse 16. There's also references to eating pig's flesh and the abomination and mice. These are unclean things. Isaiah said God would bring upon them that which you fear back in verse four. Do you remember that? What did they fear? Think about it, enter into the Jewish mindset. What did they fear? Well, it appears that they feared losing their temple. That's why they wanted to rebuild it. And they feared becoming a nation like all the other nations. Be careful what you fear. The destruction of the temple was a prototype of the judgment to come. Yet it is more than this. In 70 AD, when their temple was destroyed, this is the judge's gavel forcefully hitting the bench as sentence upon the fig tree of the national kingdom is rendered once for all. Never again will you bear fruit. Never again, it says. It is God finally bringing about the destruction he told these zealous religious fakers would one day come. Now on that faithful day in 70 AD when Titus and Vespasian would destroy Jerusalem, they set up a great abomination. Josephus writes, the Romans planted their eagles on the shapeless ruins over against the eastern gate. Offered their sacrifices to them and proclaim Titus Emperor with the greatest acclamations of joy This is Jesus just as Jesus predicted that it would be This was a sign to the faithful Jewish Christians that they were to leave to flee to the mountains quite literally and This is exactly what they did and they survived without being followed by the Roman armies then The Romans surrounded the city exactly as it was predicted. And those left in the city were unable now to flee because it was surrounded by the armies. Fire was set to the second temple and it was burnt to the ground. Then the Roman sword was cold and heartless. Isaiah had predicted it. Those who remained were slaughtered. Estimates put the number of people killed in Jerusalem at that time at over one million. Jews. Thousands more were taken into captivity as slaves. Surely this was a great tribulation for the Jews, was it not? How could anybody say it wasn't? And it's exactly what Isaiah, other prophets, and Jesus predicted would happen. Now, this is the sort of talk that makes those who disagree charge us with anti-Semitism. The dictionary defines this as hostility or prejudice against Jews or Judaism. Do you hear that? Anti-Semitism is hostility towards or prejudice against Jews or Judaism. Those who take another side of this debate in Christian circles have subtly changed this definition to this. Anti-Semitism is the belief that God is finished using the nation as his vehicle of salvation. Notice, there's no hostility or prejudice needed in this definition, just disagreement over God's plans for Israel. Thus, if you disagree and say with Jesus that the nation will never again bear fruit, somehow you're a Jew-hater. And believe me, people are charging those who hold this view that I'm giving today as anti-Semites. This is just nonsense and completely untrue. It is based in nothing but fear that one's own position cannot hold up to biblical scrutiny. And indeed, it can't. We've not yet looked at Isaiah 66, 7 through 14. This is a beautiful prophecy of an unexpected birth that comes out of Jerusalem. We most certainly cannot leave here today without talking about it. I thought about doing this in two different sermons, but the context just doesn't allow for it. We have to look at this this morning. The law and judgment, especially a judgment like we've seen set before us today, is dangerous without the soothing balm of the gospel to heal our reactions against God's wrath. And this is why every single sermon that has ever been preached from this pulpit has both law and gospel in it. Many of us do not like to think about God's wrath. We would prefer to keep these sorts of things far from our minds. But, beloved, if you do not like to think about wrath, then what possible consolation can the gospel bring you? Right? Does the brightness of the light make any sense apart from the darkness of the night? If you have lived in the light for 40 years as a Christian, then you have a great tendency to forget the darkness and what it looked like to you. How can you really appreciate your great salvation if you will not look to see where it is that you might be without it? And this is why I ask you what I ask you to consider now. The destruction of the world, like the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 A.D., comes upon a woman like a woman who's in labor, Jesus says. Her pains come and go, and finally they arrive in full force. Jerusalem's demise came in the blink of an eye. And this is what Jesus said it would be like. However, Isaiah interjects the unforeseen in the middle of the prophecy towards the zealots, and he even uses the same image of a woman in labor. And so look at verse seven. Before she was in labor, she gave birth before her pain came upon her, she delivered a son. Now, this verse tells us two things. It proves that great pains were to come upon a woman, right? This woman is the earthly city of Jerusalem. In verse 8 we see this, and again in verse 10, Zion is in labor. Rejoice with Jerusalem. God is going to do something terrible to Jerusalem. And so what we've been talking about here is justified even from this part of the text. But before he does do this to her, it says she will give birth to a miracle child. And this child will come from her womb before she even goes into labor, before pain can even come upon her. Now, there's certainly an allusion here, I think, to the curse of Eve in the Garden of Eden. What was her great curse? One of them was that she would be greatly increased in her childbearing pains. And in this, I think we also must see reference to Messiah, who was also promised at this very same time. But I don't think that Christ is the prominent baby that's being born in this passage. Rather, because of the references to many people, especially Gentile nations later in the chapter, what we have going on here is one final prediction of the Church of Jesus Christ being born into the world in this book. In chapter 49, it was predicted, see, I will beckon to the Gentiles. I will lift up my banners to the people and they will bring your sons in their arms and carry your daughters on their shoulders. Kings will be your foster fathers and queens, your nursing mothers. And in chapter 66, Jerusalem is the mother that gives birth to the church. This is such a great prophecy, I can hardly stand it. We sometimes call Israel the church of God, right? And likewise, the church is called the Israel of God. But there's still a distinction. Isaiah hits upon it by calling Jerusalem the mother of the church. Now, my daughter, Alicia, is not my wife, Janelle, but she comes directly from her body. And sometimes I think that when I'm watching Alicia do certain things, I'm seeing a little Janelle. And it's right to call her this in one sense. And this is how it is with the church in Israel. It was even like this in the Old Testament when the remnant becomes the church within the nation. The remnant came from the physical nation, but they are the spiritual Jerusalem, true Jerusalem. And the church in the New Testament becomes the Jerusalem which is from above. This birth is completely unlike any other that has ever occurred, it says. Indeed, it's even a surprise to Jerusalem. So much so that a baby pops out before she even goes into labor. Verse 8, Who has heard of such a thing? Indeed, who has heard of such a thing? Who has seen such things? Shall a land be born in one day? Shall a nation be brought forth in one moment? For as soon as Zion was in labor, she brought forth her children. Now, it's not wrong to see this fulfillment is taking place at Pentecost. Quite literally, in one day, the church was born of the Holy Spirit, wasn't it? And it was not expected, though it should have been, for it was predicted here and by the prophet Joel and others, as Peter rightly tells the Jews who thought that they were just drunk with wine. Friends, even today, this birth is so miraculous that many Christians fail to see it. They teach that the church is God's plan B and that God is not through with the nation of Jews. They hate any idea of the church coming from Jews. They call such teaching replacement theology. That's just plain old nonsense. A baby does not replace the mother. Since the church comes from Mother Jerusalem, what possible sense does it make to say that we are anti-Semites? This is not replacement, but a new birth. If anything, it's the opposite view that charges replacement, that is anti-Semitic. For it can tend to forget that a true Jew is one who is circumcised by the heart, by the spirit, not by the flesh. Not all who are descended from Israel are Israel, Paul says. And in forgetting the spirit, in anticipating the return to temples and sacrifices, Are they not coming dangerously close to becoming like the very people that Isaiah is chastising, who wanted to rebuild the second temple because they were trusting in exterior fleshly things? But so many of us just take for granted that we Gentiles should just naturally be allowed access to God's promises. We take sin and the separation that has caused us in a trivial manner. Like just another question for Alex Trebek on Jeopardy. And we think it's a very small thing that God should open salvation up to us. So much so that we've become thankless people. We've forgotten all the things that our salvation has cost from the life of Christ to the casting off of the Jewish nation. It ought to break our heart like it did Paul's. And we ought not be like this, beloved." Verse 10 gives us some very practical advice that's not only written to the word tremblers of Isaiah's day, but to our own as well. We do not hate the Jews. Rather, Isaiah sings, Rejoice with Jerusalem, and be glad for her, all you who love her. Rejoice with her in joy, all you who mourn over her. Now that's a strange thing to say. I'll stop here. merely to point out that Jerusalem is predicted to both rejoice and mourn. Her happiness is in giving birth to a baby that will be brought to full maturity at the end of the age by Christ, who is with us always to the very end of the age. But her mourning will come when her physical destruction comes to pass, as it already has in the generation that saw Christ on the earth. Just like he said it would. This generation will not pass away. It's true. It didn't happen. Jerusalem was in the temple were destroyed. And God was done with the nation. But this word of judgment has passed us by because the blood of the lamb is on the doorpost of our hearts. And it was what is left for us to do, but to nurse and be satisfied from her consoling breast, it says. To nurse from the Jews, I think that's a wonderful image that more Christians really ought to understand. I believe it means that we are to love and appreciate and understand their holy scriptures that we call the Old Testament. Paul says they were entrusted with the very words of God. And if we can do this, if we can learn to appreciate what God gave them to suck from the breast of the Jews, as he says, I think we will find that we are feeding upon a very great source. That will grow us to full maturity. It's why I've enjoyed doing this series on Isaiah so very much. It talks about the delight of her abundance in verse 11, and this has to include all of those shadowy promises of land and worship and service that have come to pass in Christ, who is the yes and the amen. and in his church, and when it will finally come to pass, when the new heavens and the new earth are made new. The last three verses there, 12 through 14, I think are so self-explanatory that they would serve us well this morning as a benediction of all of these marvelous truths that we're considering today. God's word has not failed. It hasn't failed. He has brought recompense upon his enemies, even those who held out who he held out his hand to again and again, but they still crucified the Lord of Glory and God's Word will not fail. He will judge all his enemies on the last day. We've seen that over and over in this book. He will console his faithful remnant by ensuring that they will never again be harmed. And he has given birth to a child that allows for his salvation to extend to the farthest ends of the earth, as we're going to look at next week. He's even now bringing in many people to share the great victory banquet and wedding feast of the Lamb with him. Yes, Jesus has come and he has risen from the dead and all things are being made new. Do you believe that? They begin again each time somebody believes these things and gives up their prideful insistence on getting to God by their own works and beliefs and magic formulas. And so I ask you once more to believe upon Christ today. He has everything promised by the prophets. For thus says the Lord, behold, I will extend peace to her like a river. and the glory of the nations like an overflowing stream. And you shall nurse, you shall be carried upon her hip and bounced upon her knees as one whom his mother comforts. So I will comfort you. You shall be comforted in Jerusalem. You shall see in your heart, shall rejoice. Your bones shall flourish like the grass and the hand of the Lord shall be known to his servants. Lord, make it so. Lord, I just ask that you would give us insights into your word today. It's clearly so important to apply this word as people who are in your church, in your church this morning, in your church and in your kingdom because of faith and the grace that you've given to us. We certainly don't deserve anything that you've given to us. Yet you've promised this miraculous birth and we are part of that life-giving baby. And we would ask that you would help us to understand what a great thing that this is for us. All of the costs that it caused you and all of the things that have happened so that your church might be born so that the entire world might know of the greatness of your glories and your kindness and your mercy and your great salvation. Lord, we would ask that you will cause us to trust in these things and not put our place, our faith in externals, whatever those might be, but to know that your kingdom is a spiritual kingdom and it is by believing the things that we are told that we receive these promises as you grant to us the very gift of faith to believe them. Please, Lord, make us new and change us by your word this morning. It's in Christ's name that we pray. Amen.