["Pomp and Circumstance"] Well, good morning. Welcome again to Bethany Social Reform Presbyterian Church as we come together to worship the Lord our God on this blessed Sabbath morning. And as we get going this morning, just a few announcements to make. First of all, just as a reminder, we will not have evening service tonight. But we do invite y'all to come down to Ebenezer A.R.P. in Rock Hill for the installation service of Reverend Jordan Bernard as the new associate pastor at Ebenezer A.R.P. That'll be at 5 o'clock. So again, we invite everybody to come down for that. Of course, Wednesday night at 630, we again invite everybody out for a youth group and prayer meeting. We've been in the adult study. We've been going over a number of pretty heavy subjects dealing with life in 2024 and some of the things going on. invite you to come for those lessons and things of that like. Also, as a reminder, this coming Saturday there will be a planning meeting for 2025. Hard to believe we're already starting to think about things like it, but Again, if you're an elder or a deacon or if you are in charge of any of our kind of extracurricular stuff like music conference or Appalachia, again, we welcome you to come to that meeting as we start thinking about calendars and budgets and things of that nature. So again, that'll be this Saturday, September 28th. at 10 a.m. Also as a reminder next Sunday at five o'clock we will be having our every fifth Sunday psalm sing. So again we invite everybody for that again next Sunday the 29th at five o'clock. A couple other things I have marked down here. The sunshine basket in the fellowship hall is for Miss Wendy Faulkner. So if you brought stuff for her please make sure to get that in Fellowship Hall before too late. Now the other thing to keep note of, again we give thanks again for your prayers for the high school kids as they've been up at Bonk Harkin all weekend having a good old time. So again thank you for your prayers for that. They should be on their way here and so we give thanks again for Adam and Carla for the willingness to chaperone. Again, thank y'all's prayers for them. And last but not least, yesterday we had a good old time out at the Clover JC's outreach. We gave away, who knows how much of everything, a lot of it. But we had a blessed time, a lot of good gospel conversations, a lot of good conversations in general. And one of the things that we do at these outreaches is that we put together a board that people come by and put prayer requests on. And one of the things we promise people is when they put their prayer requests on this board is that Bethany ARP is going to pray for these prayer requests. So before you leave today, please come down and look at this board and pick one of these prayers out and covenant to be in prayer for these individuals and these people as they've asked us to help them out with things going on in their life. So get on and be right down here front at the end of service. But as we close out with our announcement time, let's go ahead and go to the Lord our God as we spend a moment in silent prayer. Amen. Again, as the Lord gives us this day, this blessed day, to be in His presence, to be reminded of the goodness, of His grace, and the love that He shows to us as sinners, we hear this morning this triumphant testimony, deliverance of the Lord our God, as we read from Exodus chapter 15, and as we hear, again, God's victory song from the hand of Moses. Again, Exodus 15, beginning there at verse 16. Hear the word of the Lord. Fear and dread will fall on them by the greatness of your arm. They will be as still as a stone till your people pass over, O Lord, till the people pass over whom you have purchased. You will bring them in and plant them in the mountain of your inheritance, in the place, O Lord, which you have made for your own dwelling, the sanctuary, O Lord, which your hands have established. The Lord shall reign forever and ever. Amen. Thanks be to God for the reading of His holy and His perfect word. And as we hear these forever promises given to us by the Lord our God, what can we do but respond in thanksgiving and song as we stand together and sing hymn number one from the Red Trinity Hymnal. Let us stand and sing together. All hail to thee, O Saint James! All hail to thee! Praise the name of the Lord, our God, for his mercy endureth forever, and his goodness unto us is sure each and every day. Let us come now before the Lord, our God, as we are gathered for the purpose of praising his name and also calling out unto him that he might answer our prayers. Let us come now before the Lord, our God, in prayer. Let us pray. Gracious Heavenly Father, you are our God. And we are your covenant people by the grace of Jesus Christ. For to God as we gather together on this first day of the week, as we are reminded of the resurrection of Jesus Christ, and as we are reminded that his resurrection has inaugurated the very new heavens and new earth of which we hear such promise. Consider, God, we pray in your mercy this morning as you lead us, not in the temptation, but deliver us from evil. That we might shout unto the heavens, and that we might be at peace in the comfort of your presence. Consider, God, as we rest in the rock of our salvation, and as we consider again afresh your covenant promises. To God we pray that you would, in every way, lift us up into your presence, into the heavens themselves, that we might be renewed in our faith, in our hope, and in the great love of our Savior, who taught his disciples to pray, saying, our Father who art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory forever. Amen. As we do hear these scripture promises once more, we turn to the word of the living God. As we hear afresh this testimony of the death of our Savior, as we hear and see the events of the cross from John 19, beginning there at verse 25. Hear the word of the Lord. Now there stood by the cross of Jesus his mother, and his mother's sister Mary, the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. When Jesus therefore saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing by, he said to his mother, Woman, behold your son. Then he said to the disciple, behold, your mother. From that hour, that disciple took her to his own home. After this, Jesus, knowing that all things were now accomplished, that the scripture might be fulfilled, said, I thirst. A vessel full of sour wine was sitting there, and they filled a sponge with sour wine, and put it on Hyssop, and put it to his mouth. So when Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, it is finished. Bowing his head, he gave up his spirit. Therefore, because it was preparation day that the body should not remain on the cross on the Sabbath, for that Sabbath was a high day, the Jews asked Pilate that their legs might be broken and that they might be taken away. Then the soldiers came and broke the legs of the first and of the other who was crucified with him. When they had come to Jesus and saw that he was already dead, they did not break his legs. But one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, and immediately blood and water came out. And he who has seen has testified, and his testimony is true, and he knows that he is telling the truth, so that you may believe. For these things were done that the scripture should be fulfilled, not one of his bones should be broken. And again another scripture says, they shall look on him whom they have pierced. After this, Joseph Arimathea, being a disciple of Jesus, but secretly for fear of the Jews, asked Pilate that he might take away the body of Jesus. Pilate gave him permission. So he came and took the body of Jesus, and Nicodemus, who at first came to Jesus by night, also came, bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about 100 pounds. Then they took the body of Jesus and bound it in strips of linen with the spices as the custom of the Jews is to bury. Now in the place where he was crucified there was a garden, and in the garden a new tomb in which no one had yet been laid. So there they laid Jesus because of the Jews' preparation day, for the tomb was nearby. Amen. Thanks be to God for the reading of His holy and His perfect word. Please be seated. Well, I welcome the children to come up front for the lesson today. Good morning, everybody. Let's try that again. Good morning, everybody. That was a little bit better. This morning, I just read something that is the whole reason why we're here. Now, I know y'all are paying attention, so what did I just read about? That's right, Jesus' death, right? I read about what we call the crucifixion. Now, in every one of the Gospels, can y'all name for me the four Gospels? The first four books of the New Testament? That's right, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, right? And do all four of those books talk about Jesus' death and resurrection? Absolutely, right? Now, do all four of those books say the exact same thing? No, right? But they tell the same story, they're just in a little bit different way. Now, in what we read from John, we hear that Jesus was dead on the cross and the Roman soldiers were going around breaking the legs so that people would die quicker. Now, does that sound like a lot of fun? No, right? It's not any fun for the people whose legs are getting broken and it surely isn't any fun for the people who are supposed to break the legs. Do you think the Roman soldiers got any joy out of doing this stuff? No, right? It was a very sad, it was a very solemn event. Now, when they came to Jesus, right, we hear in the Bible that Jesus was already dead. So, did they break his legs? No, right? And John tells us that this fulfilled the Bible, right? Now, whenever you hear that phrase, what do you think that means, that it fulfills the scripture? Does that sound kind of strange to you? Yeah, it sounds kind of strange to me, too. Now, what it's talking about is that in the Old Testament, and who was talking in the Old Testament? Anybody have a guess? Was that a different person talking in the Old Testament than talks in the New Testament? No, right, because God wrote the whole Bible. But God told the people in the Old Testament what was gonna happen in the New Testament. And so every time you hear one of the people in the Bible say, this was fulfilled according to the scripture, it's telling you that God has fulfilled what he promised. Now, the other thing that we hear in that story is we hear that one of the Roman soldiers took a sharp, you know, I forget what it's called. Spear. Thank you. Spear, right? And what did he do with that spear? And he stuck it in the side of Jesus. And when he did that, what happened? Blood and water came out. Does that sound weird? Yes, right? Because it is weird. Now, does water come out of you and you get cut? No, right? Just blood, right? Now, how do we know that happened? Because the Bible tells us, right? Now John tells us something very interesting. Is that the man who actually stuck Jesus with a spear told John about it. And if he's telling John about it, what do you think that means? Do you think this Roman soldier is just like gonna just randomly tell people that he saw something weird? No, right? What this tells us is that the Roman soldier became a Christian. It tells us the Roman soldier became a follower of Jesus and he told the disciples about what he witnessed at the cross. Now, what's one of the most beautiful examples we have in the Bible of what we talk about when we talk about becoming Christian. Do you think God liked seeing his son stuck with a spear? enough, right? But God loved even the Roman soldier who stuck his son with a spear so much that Jesus died for him at the cross. And so this picture we have in John is of how much God loves all of us, right? Because God died for, Jesus died for us and we're sinners, right? And so Jesus dies for all sinners. And I'm sure you know somebody who's the worst person in the world, right? Do you think Jesus can save them? Absolutely, right? And that's what, again, one of the great blessings of the Bible is that no matter how bad somebody is, It's important for us to understand that Jesus can save them just like he saved us. And so we pray for our enemies, right? We pray for those we may not like. Because we pray in order that Jesus might do the same thing for them that he did for us. That's part of love that we have as believers. All right, y'all ready to pray? Gracious Heavenly Father, we give thanks again for these things that we see in the scriptures that, on one hand, are kind of just details. But these details matter. They show us who our God is, who our Jesus is, what he has done for us on the cross, that he has died for sinners such as us, and that we should pray that all might come to the knowledge of the truth, that all might come to know Jesus. And in Jesus' name, we pray. Amen. Well, as we come now to sing of this wonderful Jesus, this wonderful God who has done so much for us, let us stand as we sing together Bible song number 145. Let us go ahead and go to the green book, not the black one, to the green book as we sing number 145 this morning. I can't think of a word that's simply to say, I don't know where I'm going to stay. I can't think of a word that's simply to say, I don't know where I'm going to stay. I know that it's in my head that I rejoice I know that salvation will succeed I know that it's in my head that I rejoice I will be alone, I will be alone, I will be alone We give thanks again to the nature of God's blessings and the gospel grace. Let us now be seated as we come before this self-same God. Let us pray. God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, as you call us into this house of worship on this blessed Sabbath morning, as we look on to the warmth of the day and as we consider again that no matter how difficult this week may have been, no matter how joyous this week may have been, no matter how ordinary this week may have been, We know that when we come into the house of God, we are experiencing the extraordinary presence of a God who has made the heavens and the earth, and a God who has given unto us the new name, has given unto us a new body, has given unto us a new destination in the day of our death. Enter God, what can we do but give thanks But to show mercy. But to love one another as Christ has loved us. Seeking the blessings of our enemies. Confessing our sins before you. Witnessing unto the way that you, dear God, have had mercy on us. For to God we confess that there are times where we deserve your judgment and your wrath. where what has happened to us is of our own doing. Dear God, as we remember the truths of these things, dear God, we rejoice that you have not brought all that is due unto us. Dear God, we hear once more in the promises that Jesus Christ, our Redeemer, our Sustainer, our Lord, has given unto us life eternal by the shedding of His own blood, by His being born of the Virgin at Bethlehem. His living a perfect life, keeping the law on every account. And dear Heavenly Father, we rejoice once more as you give us a fresh taste of glory divine. As you allow us this time to gather with our brothers and our sisters in Christ to just be present with one another. that we might grow in our affection for our brothers and sisters. That we might forgive those who have sinned against us and that we might receive forgiveness. That we might rejoice with one another. That we might in every way be strengthened by the promises of the covenant. And dear God, as we especially rejoice at the birth of Miss Abilene, dear God, we give thanks again We pray and lift up this young one unto you. For to God we know from even the very moment of her conception, dear God, she belonged unto you. And to God we rejoice at the way that your scriptures tell us that even as we are being formed in the womb, we belong unto you. That you know our name and that you have already laid forward our life And dear God, as those of us who are further from the womb than others, dear God, we look unto the own paths, our own paths. No matter what stage of life we are in, dear God, we pray this morning that you will cause us to look unto the heavens this day. Look unto the celestial city, unto the streets paved with gold. And know that our Lord Jesus has gone before preparing a mansion for us to dwell in for all day. Dear God, may You help us again to see the grand majesty of it all. We might be reminded that no matter the little things that happen, our God is just as concerned with the molecule and the hairs on our head as He is with these wonderful things. And so dear God, we pray this morning through the power of the Holy Spirit that as we look unto Your Son, As we look on to the Holy Spirit and we look on to You, our dear Father, that You'll bring peace and comfort unto our hearts. Dear God, we think of those things particularly that we are struggling with this morning. And we lay them at Your feet. We know that You have all power to lift them up, just as You had all power to lay them down. And to God we pray in your mercy that as you bring healing unto those who need healing, that they might rejoice in your mercy. As we think especially of those of our number who are dealing with difficulties this morning, whether spiritual or physical. Who are being dragged this way and another. We pray to God that your hand will be upon their hearts. Under God, we also pray this morning that as you look under the community that's around us and as we think about the work that we did yesterday, laying your word in the hands of young ones and in older ones, as we had opportunity to pray and to witness and to invite, we pray for the seeds that have been planted. Under God, we pray that as we walk by faith and not by sight, And as we know that the many times that we do things for your kingdom, that we may not see immediate fruit thereof. God, we know that you work in and through all things for your glory. And God, as we ask your presence in our lives today, we especially pray for the community around us where there are so many needs, especially needs that we don't know. We pray for our neighbors on 161, on Grandview, on Maynard Grayson, on 55, and all roads in between. And we pray for each one of the houses and each one of the souls that your hand would be upon. That you would guide them unto all holiness and all righteousness. And that it be your will that you would use the Bethany A.R.P. Church to bring your gospel to bear even in this locale. God, give us hearts for the lost. God, make us uncomfortable in the work that we do. That we might see the comfort of your grace bear fruit. And to God, as we pray for those events which are upcoming, and as we think about not only the election, but our nation itself, to God, we do continue to pray that you would give us a leader that would allow us to live peaceably and to preach the gospel without fear. As we pray for our brothers and sisters in Christ, wherever they may be around the world this morning, we pray likewise for them, as we know that they're praying for us. this great cloud of witnesses. Dear God, we pray for your hand to be with us as we think on the things of the week to come. As we worship you in spirit and in truth, dear God, we pray that you will renew our faith this morning, strengthen our hold on the hope of the gospel, both this day and forevermore. And in Jesus' name we pray, amen. O come, O come, and bless thee, O come, O come, and bless thee, O come, let us adore Him, O come, let us adore Him, O come, let us adore Him, O come, let us adore Him, O come, let us adore Him, O come, let us adore Him, O come, let us adore Him, O come, let us adore Him, O come, let us adore Him, O come, let us adore Him, Yeah! you Well, the words to which I'd like to draw your attention to this morning come to us from the 65th chapter of the book of Isaiah, as we turn to verses 17 through 23 this morning. So let us stand for the reading of God's word, again from Isaiah 65, beginning there at verse 17. Hear the word of the Lord, Isaiah 65, beginning at verse 17. For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth, and the former shall not be remembered nor come to mind. But be glad and rejoice forever in what I create. For behold, I create Jerusalem as a rejoicing, and her people a joy. I will rejoice in Jerusalem and joy in my people. The voice of weeping shall no longer be heard in her, nor the voice of crying. Nor shall an infant from there live but a few days, nor an old man who has not fulfilled his days. For the child shall die one hundred years old, but the sinner being one hundred years old shall be accursed. They shall build houses and inhabit them. They shall plant vineyards and eat their fruit. They shall not build and another inhabit. They shall not plant and another eat. For as the days of a tree shall be the days of my people, and my elect shall long enjoy the work of their hands. They shall not labor in vain nor bring forth children for trouble But they shall be the descendants of the blessing of the Lord and their offspring with them Amen, thanks be to God for the reading of his holy in this perfect word Let us pray gracious heavenly father as we ask your blessings upon the reading of the word and the preaching the word God we do pray work in and through the testimony of your grace that your gospel might be paramount. And in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Please be seated. When I decided with the consultation of the elders to preach this particular chapter, but again, these two chapters at the end of the book of Isaiah, this is a passage on one hand I was looking forward to preaching, and on the other hand, I wasn't necessarily looking forward to preaching. One of the reasons why we don't bounce around from verse to verse every week from different parts of the Bible is that it can be easy for ministers to just preach on what they like and to preach on what they're not afraid people will get mad about. But if you're preaching consecutively through a book or consecutively through a chapter like this, you've got to preach what comes next. And the reason why I say that in preparation for this passage is because this is one of the most difficult passages to understand what in the world Isaiah is talking about. Now there are, of course, many ideas about what Isaiah is talking about when it comes to the new heavens and the new earth. And in a moment I'm fixing to tell you what I think it says. But, you know, how can we take this passage? So bear with me a little bit. We're going to do a little Bible study, do a little walking through the scriptures. But there's kind of two competing ideas that are most prominent today that you'll probably hear about. And both of them have the idea that the new heavens and the new earth are yet to be put in place. On one hand, you have what we call dispensational theology, which is the idea that you probably see most popularized in the left-behind books and the left-behind movies. It's been kind of the standard evangelical understanding of the end times for the past 140, 150 years. Now, I do have to tell you that we're not dispensationalists. And, you know, the Reformed faith has never been a dispensationalist, but nine times out of ten, if you listen to a preacher on the radio or on TV, especially today, they're going to be a dispensationalist. Now, let me define that a little bit for you. A dispensationalist is somebody who believes that there has been multiple dispensations throughout the Old and New Testaments. Now, again, let me back up a little bit and explain what that means. What that means is that God deals differently with human beings in every dispensation. So he dealt with Adam in a different way than he dealt with Seth. And he dealt with Noah in a different way than he dealt with Seth. And he dealt with Abraham in a different way than he dealt with Noah. And he dealt differently with Moses than he did with Abraham. And he dealt differently with David than he did with Moses. And then, of course, he deals differently with Jesus Christ than he did with David. So the entire the old testament is what happened back then and it really doesn't have much to tell us about now It's one of the reasons why in most dispensational churches. They don't preach from the old testament Because we're not jews so we don't really need to worry too much about what God said to them other than as a means of learning how we got to Jesus and Now, the idea there is that Isaiah 65 and the dispensational scheme is talking about the millennium which is going to start when Jesus comes back. Now, the term you may have heard with that is premillennialism. I'm not gonna spell that for you because every time I write it down Microsoft Word tells me I'm doing it wrong So however you want to spell millennial that's up to you. Hopefully you get it right but pre-millennial is the idea that we're waiting for Jesus to return and when Jesus returns Millennium is going to start and the new heaven the earth are going to begin when Jesus comes back Now, we agree with our dispensational brothers that Jesus is going to come back. We just disagree about what's going to happen when Jesus comes back. Now, that gets me into another idea of what the new heaven and earth is talking about. Now, in kind of the reformed faith, kind of the standard idea in the reformed faith for the past hundred or so years is something called idealism. And I can spell that, I-D-E-A-L-I-S-M, right? Idealism, right? Which basically teaches that all of these prophecies that we have in the Old Testament and the New Testament are in fact a future reality. that but they believe that the millennium is going to begin when jesus was either when jesus rose from the dead or when jesus ascended to heaven and so the millennium is right now and the millennium will go from the time that that jesus went to heaven until jesus comes back now the popular way of talking about that is amillennialism i'm sure y'all probably heard that term before So the idea then, again, is that we're in the Millennium right now, that the New Heavens and the Earth are a future reality that will only come to pass when Jesus comes back and the world ends. That's one of the biggest differences between what we call premillennialism and amillennialism is that in the premillennial scheme, the millennium doesn't begin until Jesus comes back. In the amillennial scheme, the millennium is right now and it will be over when Jesus comes back and everything ends. There is no future in that sense. Time stops when Jesus returns. And so the New Heavens, New Earth is talking about heaven and the celestial kingdom, everything that we hear about in Revelation 21 and 22. To get your hopes up a little bit, when we're done with Isaiah 65 and 66, I'm going to preach through Revelation 21 and 22. Now the reason why is because, as I'm getting ready to say, what I believe is that Isaiah 65 and 66 are speaking of right now. Now what I believe is what's called post-millennialism. Now what that means is that yes, the millennium is a future that is going to take place. We're not in the millennium right now. but that Jesus as king, as he was installed as king at the ascension where he sits in the right hand of God the Father Almighty, is preparing for that millennial kingdom to come. And when that millennial kingdom is to come, he will establish the new heavens and the new earth, and all of the blessings that we see talked about in Isaiah 65 will begin to be more and more fulfilled. So when we hear things like in Isaiah 65 in verse 20, for example, where it says, no more shall an infant from there live but a few days, nor an old man who has not fulfilled his days. For the child shall die a hundred years old, but the sinner being a hundred years old shall be accursed, is that in the future, when the millennium begins, we will see an outpouring and a growth of the gospel that we have, to this point, not yet experienced. Now, I'm not gonna make y'all take a test after worship this morning, but in kind of 10 minutes, that's the summary, again, of the three kind of views that there are out there. Now, dispensationalism has only been around since about the 1820s. Nobody was a dispensationalist before then. It was just not something that was taught. Now, there were pre-millennialists before then, right? There were, you know, guys like Joseph Meade and guys who were hanging around the Westminster Assembly in the 17th century who taught that, yes, there would be a day when Jesus would come, there would be a thousand year reign, and then the world would end. But they didn't believe in what we call dispensationalism. Covenant theologians, which is what we believe that there are two covenants in the Bible the covenant of works that God made with Adam and the garden the covenant that Adam broke and the covenant of grace Right the covenant that Jesus has fulfilled and by which all of us are saved right that Jesus is Made a covenant with God the father right that agreement that promise that was made there and in making that promise He said that he would come be born of a virgin in Bethlehem live a perfect life die a perfect death and all those in Jesus would be saved through the death on the cross and would be rose again on the last day and And so if you believe in Jesus Christ right if you have trusted in him salvation if you know that you're a sinner And you know that Jesus has laid down his life for you that you've been washed in his blood Then you are a member of what we call the covenant of grace Now that plays a part in all this because we hear that word elect again in this passage, okay? And there is nothing more that can cause disagreement amongst brethren than that word elect. Because that word elect can get confusing, as if I hadn't confused you enough already. This idea of being part of the elect causes people to get all kinds of, you know, verklempt, as Michael Meyer might say, right? The idea there is that God, or the foundational world, has established those who would belong unto Him, right? Those who would be His, those who were His covenant people, right? And we hear that, for instance, Romans chapter 9, because in Romans 9 we hear the Apostle Paul say what? about Jacob and Esau. Did Jacob and Esau do anything to earn their election or their reprobation? In fact, the Bible tells us they didn't do anything, but God, before the foundation of the world, declared that Jacob would be His and that Esau would be not. Jacob I have loved, Esau I have hated. Now, I realize this is a loaded question, but are any of you God? I mean, if you are, it would probably be helpful for me to know, but I think we're all safe to say that none of us are God, right? And Deuteronomy 29.29 tells us that the secret things belong to the Lord. The revealed things belong to us. And so when we talk about that word elect, do any of you know who the elect are? Again, if you do, that would be a great help to me in my daily work. I don't see anybody raising their hands. So again, none of us know who the elect are. But who does know who the elect are? Well, God does, right? And so when we talk about these things, you know, about election and predestination, we talk about, again, the opening of the new heavens and the earth, and we talk about these millennial positions, and we talk about all this kind of stuff, right? There's one level where it's very important that when we come to the Bible, we understand what era we're living in. Because it has a great effect on how we live now. If you believe, for instance, that Jesus is going to come back in the future, and when he comes back in the future, he's going to destroy everything and then establish his kingdom and renew everything, then what actual interest do you have in saving anything that exists right now? Somebody told you, where I grew up in West Virginia, about 30 miles south of me is Stonewall Jackson Lake. Now, there are no natural lakes in the whole state of West Virginia. Every lake in West Virginia is man-made. And when they made all these man-made lakes in West Virginia, one of the things they did is they built a dam at the end of the valley. And guess what happens when you put a dam at the end of the valley? The valley fills up with water. Well, what happens to the people who are living in the valley? They got to move. So at the bottom of every lake in West Virginia there is a town that is now underwater. And this town that is under the water at the Stonewall Jackson Lake When the state came and told them that they were going to build this dam, do you think anybody spent any money on roads? Did they pave the roads down in Roanoke, West Virginia when they were getting ready to fill it full of water? Well, of course not. And so the idea that if you know that God is going to come destroy everything it gives you no motivation to try to improve anything because God's just going to destroy it anyway. So if you're a Christian what you need to do is just sit on your rear end and wait for Jesus to come back. But I mean that's the natural outgrowth again of dispensational theology. Is that you are called to sit and wait for Jesus to come back. But that's not really what we see here in Isaiah 65, is it? Because you notice what the prophet says about what we will do in the new heaven and the new earth. You notice not only are we going to be glad and rejoice forever in what God creates. Behold, I create Jerusalem as rejoicing, and her people with joy rejoice in Jerusalem and join my people. The voice of weeping shall no longer be heard in her, nor the voice of crying. And again, we've already taught verse 20. But notice what it says in verse 21 and verse 22. They shall build houses and inhabit them. They shall plant vineyards and eat their fruit. They shall not build and another inhabit. They shall not plant and another eat. For as the days of a tree shall be the days of my people, and my elect shall long enjoy the work of their hands. All right, in this time, and again, I'm preaching to you about what I believe, in this time, as we are, waiting for millennium to begin, God is telling us to prepare for the coming of the new heavens, new earth. Right, he's telling us to make ready for the time when that will happen. Now, just like we don't know when Jesus is gonna come back, and we don't know when all these things are gonna happen, how then are we to live in regards to that? We are to live as if Jesus is coming back tomorrow. Now, he may or may not come back tomorrow, but again, that's not me to figure out, right? That belongs under the Lord. In fact, Jesus, when he's talking to the disciples about this, remember they asked Jesus, you know, when's he coming back, when all's gonna happen, what did Jesus say? I don't know. That knowledge belongs to the Father. Now, do we think that Jesus in his divinity did not know when he was coming back? No. This is an example of Jesus in humanity because the scriptures don't tell us when this is going to happen. Now, we do have wisdom and we do have warnings that come to us in the scriptures about these things. and so for instance you can go to somewhere like 2nd Peter chapter 3 verse 13 and you hear the You know the the apostles say nevertheless we according to his promise look for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells right so as Peter is writing this epistle his second epistle what does he tell the people that we are to look for the new heavens and the new earth So we are to be a positive people, we are to be a hopeful people, we are to be an excited people, a joyous people looking forward to the day in which the New Heavens and Earth will be inaugurated. Now part of the reason why we are to look is because in some sense the New Heavens and Earth have already begun to be fulfilled. Now how do we know that? Well one of the reasons why we know that is because whenever we see in the Old Testament this warning that a new heaven and earth is going to come, it's always in the context of the destruction of Israel. It's always in the context of the end of the old covenant ceremonies, of the ceremonial law, of the worship in Jerusalem, of all of the outward elements of the Levitical law. In Jeremiah chapter 4, verse 23 through 26, the prophet Jeremiah, who's a contemporary in some ways Isaiah, It says, I beheld the earth, and indeed it was without form and void, and the heavens, they had no light. I beheld the mountains, and indeed they trembled, and all the hills moved back and forth. I beheld, and indeed there was no man, and all the birds of the heavens had fled. I beheld, and indeed the fruitful land was a wilderness, and all its cities were broken down at the presence of the Lord by His fierce anger. Now, those opening words in Jeremiah 4.23 sound like Genesis chapter 1. Notice again what Jeremiah says. He says, I beheld the earth and indeed it was without form and void. That's the exact same words that Moses writes in Genesis chapter 1. And as Jeremiah is prophesying here, he's talking most explicitly, if you read the whole context, and I don't think y'all want me to read the first four chapters of Jeremiah right now, but I invite you to go back and read and look. Jeremiah is very clearly talking about the destruction that's going to happen when the Babylonians come and lay waste to the city of Jerusalem. And what is that going to look like? Well, again, the mountains are going to tremble, the hills are going to move back and forth as the army of Babylon comes. And what are we going to see? No man's going to be there, right? All the fruitful land is going to be wilderness. Why? Because God is withdrawing His people from the land. There's not going to be anybody there to take care of the vines and take care of the animals and all these things. And we see in Jesus' own prophecies of the end times. In Matthew chapter 24, as Jesus is prophesying the destruction of Jerusalem in A.D. 70, he says in Matthew 24.29, immediately after the tribulation of those days, the sun will be darkened and the moon will not give its light, the stars will fall from heaven and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. You know, if you're like me and you watch too many movies, you might recognize that phrase. In fact, that's lifted from Matthew 24, 29 and comes out of the mouth of Winston Zettler in the first Ghostbusters movie. Now, I don't think that Jesus had, you know, that in mind when he was prophesying this, but right there is a testimony here that in the day of Christ's return that there will be this destruction. We need to be a little bit careful because we don't believe that Jesus returned fully in AD 70. We don't believe that Jesus returned body and soul in the trumpet blast of the destruction of Jerusalem by the Roman army in AD 70. What we do believe is that Jesus gave us the first fruit, the first example of what will be the case in the day of his full coming. when everything in the world is destroyed. That's why, for instance, Jesus, when He's talking to the disciples in Matthew 16, 28, says, Assuredly, I say to you, there are some standing here who shall not taste death till they see the Son of Man coming in His kingdom. I'm sure you've read that verse before, or read verses like it, and asked the question, well, how can somebody who's alive when Jesus is alive be alive when Jesus comes back? Because I think it's fairly obvious that Jesus hasn't come back in his fullness as of yet, right? I think we can all agree on that, right? Because what do we experience in this life? Do we experience sin? Do we experience death? Do we experience illness? Do we experience all kinds of evil and wicked things? Do we experience bodies ravaged by sin and ravaged by the weakness of the flesh? Is that what we're meant to look forward to in the celestial kingdom? No. In fact, we're meant to look for the opposite. That in those days, when Jesus does come back in fullness, that there will be no more death. There will be no more tears. There will be no more destruction in all of my holy mountain for all things will be made new. So when we hear in Matthew 24, 29 and Matthew 16, 28, The the beginning or the the the first fruit the first taste of this kingdom will be seen in the day of judgment Well again, we're to understand that this is talking about 80 70 when Titus Vespasian Destroyed the city of Jerusalem killed everybody who was there and sent the rest of everybody into exile That's why Jesus says in his discourse on this that if you are pregnant You better not be pregnant when Titus the Spasian comes. You better pray that he doesn't come on the Sabbath day. You better pray that all these things don't take place so that you flee into the mountains and are saved from the wrath to come. And so, again, as we hear in Isaiah 65 this promise of the creation of the new heavens and the new earth, we need to understand, again, that we are experiencing a foretaste of it today, but there will be a time in the future where this prophecy will be fulfilled in all its fullness. There will be a day in the future when the new heavens, new earth come to pass. And again, I don't know when that's going to be, but we are to look and to be ready and to be actively engaged in preparing for that day. And one of the things that we are to do in prophesying and planning for that day is, again, what we read there in verse 21. They should build houses and inhabit them. They should plant vineyards and eat their fruit. Again, why do you get up and go to work in the morning? You may never have thought of it this way, but you could have gone to work in the morning because you're looking forward to the new heavens and new earth. Because you are preparing yourself for the day of Christ's return. You are awaiting the post-millennial hope, if you want to put it that way. And it's interesting that Jeremiah prophesied the same thing. Now, he does it in telling the people while they're in Babylon in Jeremiah 29 that when they go to Babylon, right, he's talking to young people, right, because how long are they going to be in Babylon? How long has the Holy Spirit told Daniel and everybody they're going to be there? They're going to be there 70 years, right? That's what the Bible says. They know the end. They know that there's going to be a day, a time when this is going to take place. And Jeremiah tells the young people as they go into the land that they are to do what? That they are to get married, that they are to have kids, they are to build houses, they are to dig gardens, they are to take care of livestock, and they are to raise their children up in the fear and admonition of the Lord. Like they are to, in New Testament parlance, baptize their infants They are to teach their infants of the ways of the Lord and when the day comes that that God raises up a Cyrus as he's promised in Isaiah 46 to bring Cyrus to bear and Cyrus brings them back into the land that they are ready to inhabit the land that God has prepared for them now unfortunately What do we know that they do? Well, they don't do that, right? They don't obey the commands of the Lord because they're not looking forward to the new heavens and the earth in that sense, right? They're not looking forward to going back in the land because they're comfortable in Babylon. They're happy in Babylon, right? Because Babylon takes care of them. The trains run on time in Babylon, right? The water works in Babylon. Things don't seem that bad in Babylon. And that's one of the reasons, again, why the prophecy of I 65 is so important for us today. Because I think a large part of our problem is because we're comfortable in Babylon. We're pretty happy in Babylon. Things aren't that bad in Babylon. I mean, you get up in the morning and you turn the light on, do you have much worry that it's going to work? A little bit, right? Do we have armed guards standing outside the church because somebody might break into our cars while we're in here? If I was to poll you, how many of y'all's cars are unlocked out there? Now, I know we're live streaming, so don't anybody raise your hand and let anybody know that that's the case, but why do you feel safe doing that? Things ain't that bad, right? In Clover, right? And what's the problem with being comfortable in Babylon, being comfortable in these places? Well, again, we not just let our, you know, kind of physical guards down, we let our spiritual guards down as well. We aren't preparing ourselves for the coming of the Lord Jesus, right? We're not preparing ourselves for new heavens and earth. We're not preparing ourselves for, you know, the day that we'll come back. That's one of the reasons in my estimation why God gave us the book of Revelation. You know, the book of Revelation is given to us that we might look and see the history of the church and be warned about the danger of hearing the siren song of the evil one. You know, the voice of Satan is quite seductive. One of the mistakes that our artists and stuff have made through the years is how is Satan usually visaged? We're going to have trunk or treat here in a month and a half and despite what we might try, there's going to be people show up in all kinds of crazy looking outfits. And somebody's going to come dressed as the devil. And traditionally, especially in the last 40, 50 years, how does the devil picture? He's got red tights on, and he's got horns, and he's got his thingamajigger. I don't know why I can't remember anything today. But he's got all this stuff going on. But how does the Bible describe Satan? The Bible says Satan is the most beautiful of all the angels. You know that he is the most wise of all the angels, right? He is the most capable of all of the angels, right? That's what made him such an arrogant person. And again, the voice of Satan is quite alert, especially in the day of coming. And that's again why Isaiah is preaching this word at this time in the history of Israel, because they don't believe judgment's coming. They don't really believe that the Babylonians are going to come and lay waste to the city. Even until the very day that they come, they don't believe it. The same thing, of course, happens with the Babylonian kings too, remember? All the writing on the wall and everything. The very Persian army sitting outside his door in Belshazzar is having a good old time. Again, the examples we have here, again, are those people we should negatively see. That's why Peter in the first epistle he writes says in 1 Peter 4, 7, but the end of all things is at hand, therefore be serious and watchful in your prayers. Part of the reason again why God gives us these prophecies of the future is so that we might be ready when the future comes to us. that we might not be twiddling our thumbs when the judgment comes and it's power. But also, in the positive side, that we might be ready to inhabit all of these blessings that are coming in the new heaven's new earth. We'd be ready to hit the ground running. Sometimes Jesus tells his disciples that we have not because we ask not. Sometimes I think that's true, especially of outreach work that we do as a church. Part of the reason why we don't have visitors is because we don't want visitors. We don't put the effort into actually going outside these walls and asking people to come in. Because there might be some trouble if people from outside come. But Jesus here in Isaiah 65 is telling us that if we believe in the promises of God, if we believe in these glories that are to come, then we better get to working. We better be getting to putting our feet on the ground and our hands to the plow. And putting seeds into the ground. And when they pop out of the ground we better be working on them. We better be doing the work. We better be putting the effort in to getting these things ready. Because the promise we hear of Jesus in Matthew 16, 28 is just as true for them as it is for us. Surely I say to you there are some standing here shall not taste death till they see the Son of Man come in His kingdom." Again, do we believe that? Do we believe that the kingdom is coming? Best believe that we act that way. That we rest and trust in the promises that have been given to us. That we rest and trust in these eternal truths that have been provided for us. Because as 2 Corinthians 5.17 says, Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. All things that pass away, behold, all things become new. Again, there's a sense in which these heavens and the earth are already in you right here. You've been made a new creature, right? You're, in a sense, already inhabiting the new heavens and the new earth. And as somebody who knows that, what should you desire but that all people might know what it means to be a new creation? What it means to receive and have within yourself again all of these glories, all these blessings? Should it not be the very movement of our hearts each and every day that others might be at rest? Again, let us think on these things as we go about, again, our daily life, as we look forward to that new heaven and new earth, as we think about, again, what God has given us to do here, Bethany. Again, to behold the days are coming, says the Lord. Again, is that the testimony of our hearts? Or are we like those who are comfortable in Babylon, who are just waiting for the judgment to come so that we can get it over with? Just sitting around waiting for the Babylonians to come tear the doors down so we can go to heaven. Or do we want other people to be here with us when we go into the glories? That's part, again, of what it means to have hope and to be at peace in the Lord Jesus Christ. For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given, and the government will be upon his shoulder, and his name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and peace, there will be no end. Upon the throne of David and over his kingdom, to order it and establish it with judgment and justice from that time forward, even forever. The zeal of the Lord of Hosts will form this. Again, that great testament of Isaiah 9 is our testimony, or it should be this morning. So let us go forth in the zeal of the host of the Lord, seeking not only to be at rest in the new heaven and new earth, but see fit that the ground is ready for when the Lord Jesus returns. In his name we pray, amen. Let's now stand as we sing our closing Bible song, Bible song number 66, Bless an Apartment. Let us sing this in the name of the Lord Jesus. I love you. I am free! I am strong! As we close our worship this morning and give thanks again for the hope that we have in the Lord Jesus. The hope that we have today, the hope that we have in the future, and the hope that we have forevermore. And if you have need to speak unto me, the elders, we are here to help in any way that we can. So again, here's the benediction this morning from the fourth chapter of the book of Philippians, chapter, verses 21 through 23. Hear the word of the Lord. Every saint in Christ Jesus, the brethren who are with me, greets you. All the saints greet you, but especially those who are of Caesar's household. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen.