Isaiah chapter 65. I'm going to read the chapter. The last two chapters have largely been prayers. God, remember us. Have you turned away from us forever? Are we no longer your people? And it finished in 6412 with these words, Will you restrain yourself at these things, O Lord? Will you keep silent and afflict us beyond measure? Well, here's what the Lord's response is. I permitted myself to be sought by those who did not ask for me. I permitted myself to be found by those who did not seek me. I said, here am I, here am I, to a nation which did not call upon my name. I've spread out my hands all day long to a rebellious people. who walk in the way which is not good, following their own thoughts, a people who continually provoke me to my face, offering sacrifices in gardens and burning incense on bricks, who sit among graves and spend the night in secret places, who eat swine's flesh, and the broth of unclean meat is in their pots, who say, Keep to yourself, do not come near me, for I am holier than you. These are smoke in my nostrils, a fire that burns all day. Behold, it is written before me, I will not keep silent, but I will repay. I will even repay into their bosom both their own iniquities and the iniquities of their fathers together, says the Lord, because they have burned incense on the mountains and they scorned Me on the hills. Therefore, I will measure their former work into their bosom. Thus says the Lord, as the new wine is found in the cluster, and one says, Do not destroy it, for there is benefit in it. So I will act on behalf of My servants, in order not to destroy all of them. I will bring forth offspring from Jacob, and an heir of My mountains from Judah. Even My chosen ones shall inherit it, and My servants will dwell there. Sharon will be a pasture land for flocks in the valley of Achor, a resting place for herds, for my people who seek me. But you who forsake the Lord, who forget My holy mountain, who set a table for fortune and fill cups mixed with wine for destiny, I will destine you for the sword. And all of you will bow down to the slaughter, because I called, but you did not answer. I spoke, but you did not hear. And you did evil in My sight. and chose that in which I did not delight. Therefore, thus says the Lord God, Behold, My servants will eat, but you will be hungry. Behold, My servants will drink, but you will be thirsty. Behold, My servants will rejoice, but you will be put to shame. Behold, My servants will shout joyfully with a glad heart, but you will cry out with a heavy heart. And you will wail with a broken spirit. You will leave your name for a curse to My chosen ones, and the Lord God will slay you. But My servants will be called by another name. Because he who is blessed in the earth will be blessed by the God of truth. And he who swears in the earth will swear by the God of truth. Because the former troubles are forgotten, and because they are hidden from my sight. For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth. And the former things will not be remembered or come to mind, but be glad and rejoice forever in what I create. For behold, I create Jerusalem for rejoicing and her people for gladness. I will also rejoice in Jerusalem and be glad in My people. There will no longer be heard in her the voice of weeping and the sound of crying. No longer will there be in it an infant who lives but a few days, or an old man who does not live out his days. For the youth will die at the age of one hundred, and the one who does not reach the age of one hundred will be thought accursed. They will build houses and inhabit them. They will also plant vineyards and eat their fruit. They will not build and another inhabit. They will not plant and another eat. For as the lifetime of a tree, so will be the days of My people. And My chosen ones will wear out the work of their hands. They will not labor in vain or bear children for calamity. For they are offspring of those blessed by the Lord and their descendants with them. It will also come to pass that before they call, I will answer, and while they are still speaking, I will hear. The wolf and the lamb will graze together, and the lion will eat straw like the ox, and dust will be the serpent's food. They will do no evil or harm in all My holy mountain, says the Lord. Amen. Four truths have been laid before Isaiah's readers throughout this book. He wrote it, remember, in the 7th and 8th centuries B.C. But these truths applied then in the time of Christ. They apply today and they are continuing. Through the prophet Isaiah, God has revealed that He will establish an eternal kingdom, a just and righteous kingdom, ruled by a righteous king. And there'll be a new city, a city of God, where there will be everlasting joy, a new Jerusalem where no one will hunger or thirst. We just read about that. His kingdom will include people from every nation of the earth. By His own hand, His own arm, God will bring about all of this. All that He's promised. How? He'll send His servant. He'll put His Spirit upon him. And through him, He will accomplish all these things. Now, God has spoken of His servant. And I put some of these in your Scripture sheets tonight. In chapter 7, chapter 9, chapter 11, 28, 32, 42 through 53, and of course, 61. Look at what we have here. 714, the Lord Himself will give you a sign. Behold, a virgin will be with child and bear a son. She will call His name Immanuel. Matthew cited that. As referencing the Lord. Isaiah 9, 6. For a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us, and the government will rest on his shoulders. His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace. And there will be no end, no end to the increase of His government or of peace on the throne of David and over His kingdom, to establish it and uphold it with justice and righteousness from then on forevermore. There's no time limit on this. Isaiah 11-1, Then a shoot will spring from the stem of Jesse, and a branch from his roots will bear fruit. The Spirit of the Lord will rest upon him, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and strength, the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord. And Jesus walked into that synagogue in Nazareth and read from Isaiah 61 these same words, The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, and set the book down and said what? Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing. Isaiah 28, 16, Therefore thus says the Lord God, Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone, a tested stone, a costly cornerstone for the foundation, firmly placed, and he who believes in it will not be disturbed. And Isaiah 32, 1, Behold, a king will reign righteously. Has that happened yet? No. This is for the New Jerusalem. The fourth truth though. On that day He returns, there will be judgment on all the wicked. And there's judgment on the wicked even throughout history. But all who oppose God will be judged. So this is the message of the prophet Isaiah. Throughout the time he prophesied, it's pretty clear there is no justice or righteousness in the world. God made a covenant at Sinai with the sons of Jacob. If they would obey him, serve him, honor his name, he would bless them, protect them, provide for them. They entered into that covenant with them, said, all that the Lord has said we will do. And what happened? They broke that covenant. They failed to keep it. They sought the aid of ungodly nations, Assyria and Aram and others, Egypt. They became idolatrous as we've seen. They worshipped false imaginary gods of other nations. And God said, even though you broke that covenant, I will make an everlasting covenant with My people. The old covenant would pass away, and now it has. But when His new covenant purposes are fulfilled, His people will eat, drink, and do all for the glory of God. The new covenant was inaugurated when Christ came 2,000 years ago. And it will come in its fullness on the day He returns. On that very day. As Isaiah was writing here, remember the northern ten tribes of Israel had already been scattered all over the world by the hand of Assyria. The people of that lone remaining tribe of Judah no longer saw the Lord's blessing. They feared they were no longer the people of God as we've read in the recent chapters. They knew they had possessed His sanctuary, His place of dwelling for a while, but now what? Their city had been overrun by their enemies. They were now, they said, as those who never were the people of God. Why? Why did God do this to them? Why did God abandon them? Why? Because of their own unfaithfulness to Him. Because of their own sin. The Old Covenant required their faithfulness to Him. Their hearts were hardened. They'd grown insensitive to God and His Word. They'd caused God to be displeased with them. And they had only one hope. What was it? What was the one hope they were left with? The only way they could be blessed by God would by His being what? Merciful. Their only hope was God's mercy. And I wish the church understood this today. Our only hope has been God's mercy. We didn't earn anything. We got His mercy. And so in the last two chapters, what we've seen is both a cry for revival and a cry for the mercy of God. Finally, this one who was praying acknowledges their sin, the real cause of their problems. God hadn't turned away from them. God doesn't turn away from anybody. They turned away from Him. They had all become, remember what He said last week, like one who is unclean. Under the old covenant, if you were unclean, you could not come in among the people of God. And the cause of their uncleanness was their own rebellion against God. The root of their problem, we saw 64-7. There's no one who calls on your name who arouses himself to take hold of you. For you've hidden your face from us and delivered us into the power of our iniquities. To call on his name is to seek the Lord with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, to abide in him. But none of them were doing it. Imagine God looking down on people and seeing nobody seeking Him. Nobody truly seeking to honor Him. Because of this, His face was hidden from them. And just like Paul wrote in Romans 1, they were given over to their sinful desires. Look at the words here in 64-7. They've been delivered into the power of their iniquities. God let their sin take them over. But they still knew God. They knew who He was. They knew of His saving power. And so they cry out for mercy. Don't be angry beyond measure. Don't be angry beyond the point of no return. Please forgive us. You're our God. We're your people. We no longer have anything. Our city's gone. The temple's gone. And you're gone. Everything that matters is gone. This is where they were. And so they finish this prayer, this lament really, In 6412, will you never deliver us from this wilderness? What is your answer, Lord? What is your answer? Will you restrain yourself at all these things? Will you keep silent and afflict us beyond measure? So this prayer that began in 63.15 with Isaiah, or the prayer agonizing over God's withholding His compassion from them, ends in 64.12 with Isaiah asking God to visit them one more time and pour out His blessing. Will he do it? Well, we're going to see God's answer tonight. 65-1, he says, "...I permitted myself to be sought by those who did not ask for me, permitted myself to be found by those who did not seek me. I said, here am I, here am I, to a nation which did not call on my name." God created the sons of Jacob and chose them to be his people. This is what he did. They rebelled against him. They turned away from him. And in the nation of Israel, this rebellion against God, this unrighteousness, we see in them what is true of every single person ever born. They're a picture of us. None are righteous. None really seek after God. So if there's to be an eternal righteous people of God who can dwell with Him, it has to be a work of God. Church doesn't seem to understand this anymore either. God has to do it. We can't do it. And the new people of God will be, he calls, a nation which did not call on my name. Those who did not ask for me. Those who did not seek me. This is a nation that will be comprised of a remnant of all the Gentile nations of the world. And as Isaiah has shown us and will show us here in 65, a remnant of the sons of Jacob. Whether this verse here speaks of a remnant of the Jews or the saved remnant of the Gentiles, these people who did not seek God, it does speak of the only means of salvation. And what is that? What's the only means of salvation? God's grace. Mercy and grace. They go together, don't they? Because His extending of His grace is an act of mercy. That's the only way in. That's the only way for anybody to be found by Him. There's none righteous, none seeks God, yet for His own glory, for His own glory, He saves some of those unrighteous. He reaches down into the pile of unrighteous and grabs some. for His own glory. So chapter 65 is going to focus on the salvation of the remnant of the Jews. Chapter 66 will turn to the salvation of the remnant of the Gentiles. It's the Lord who takes the initiative. That's what He's telling us here. I let myself be sought. I let myself be found. He takes the initiative in saving sinners. But we have to respond to that initiative. How has He reached out to us? What are the ways in which God reaches out to us? What's the main way? His Word? He brings us to rock bottom. And He does it though by this, right? By the Word, by the Gospel. That's how He reaches us. And oftentimes He takes us to a place where we're ready to respond to Him. Yes. He's talked about the salvation of the Gentiles a few times. Back in chapter 56, remember the eunuch and the foreigner. He's going to bring them in. We saw it again in chapter 60, speaking of the salvation of the Gentiles. They didn't know God. But neither could it be said that Israel was a place where the people truly called on His name. Now it's interesting because here in this chapter, Isaiah is going to be dealing with the remnant of the Jews. But in Romans 10 20, Paul grabs this verse 65 1 and uses it and applies it to Gentile believers. Look at Romans, we'll start in 10 19. But I say, Surely Israel did not know, did they? So he's talking about ethnic Jews here, sons of Jacob. First Moses says, I will make you, the Jews, jealous by that which is not a nation. By a nation without understanding will I anger you. So God is going to provoke the Jews to jealousy through whom? All of us. Yes. By the way, that hasn't happened yet. That's still lying out there. And Isaiah is very bold and says, I was found by those who did not seek me. I became manifest to those who did not ask for me. Paul appears to be referring to the Gentiles here. Because in the next verse he contrasts those people by saying, but as for Israel, he says, all day long, verse 2, I have spread out my hands to a disobedient and obstinate people. Look at verse 2 here in chapter 65. As soon as we make up our own religion, make up our own way, drift from the Word of God because it's unpopular, what happens? We've got a faith that doesn't save. We've got a gospel that doesn't save. God's judgment on the earthly kingdom and the earthly nation of Israel was based in its rebellion against Him despite His loving-kindness toward them. And look what Jesus said. Here it is, as clear as it can be, Matthew 21, 43, Therefore I say to you, the kingdom of God... He's talking to these Jewish leaders. ...the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people producing the fruit of it. That doesn't mean no Jewish people can come into the kingdom. It means the kingdom is not going to be called Israel anymore. It's going to be called Christ's church. And sometimes it even goes by the name Israel. But Israel's apostasy is seen here, and we're going to see it in full bloom here in the next three verses, in its rejection of God's presence, His ways, and His blessing. I have spread out my hands all day long to a rebellious people. What's that like? You know, you keep offering, you keep trying to help somebody, you keep offering yourself, offering yourself, and a year goes by, and two years goes by, and ten years, and a hundred years, and a thousand years goes by, and you keep offering to help people. At some point, there's a limit, and there was with these people. And they began to follow, not God's ways, but their own thoughts and devices. Now does anybody know any other countries that have chosen that path to reject God's ways and follow their own thoughts? This is what America has done. It's kind of amazing to me. And I think the church is becoming more and more aware of it. This is where this nation is. Following its own thoughts. The Bible thrown out of the schools now for over 50 years. Prayer to the only God out of schools for 50 years. The law of God in one aspect of life after another. Thrown out of our own legal codes. Even in the church, we want to do it our own way. God says you do it this way. No, no. You don't understand today's culture, Lord. We've got entire denominations taking that position. God didn't quite write for this generation. That was just for them 2,000 years ago. This is dangerous stuff. You follow your own thoughts and devices and what happens? It's how a people keeps God at a distance. It's how you keep God away. We will marry whoever we want to marry. We'll decide what gender we're going to be. Not up to you, God. And you keep God at a distance. You make up your own law, your own ways. And what are you at that point? You're a pagan nation. Doesn't give me any pleasure saying this, but it's clearly the truth. Now Isaiah's people, and this is true for people everywhere, when they rejected God, they didn't become non-religious people. What did they become? They were very religious. We know some religious people in the Gospels? The hypocrites. And they were whom? Pharisees. Very religious. But they followed man-made thoughts and ideas. And all man-made thoughts and ideas are pagan. All of them. By definition, they're pagan. Look what happened to them. Verse 3, "...a people who continually provoke me to my face, offering sacrifices in gardens..." That's a reference to sexual fertility rites. "...burning incense on bricks..." What's wrong with burning incense on bricks? That's right. You take an unhewn rock and make the altar from that. You don't build your own and you don't carve up the bricks. You take an unhewn rock. Big piece of rock and set it there. What's the difference between the one with the bricks and the one that we just grab and set there? Amen. God made the one and man made the other. What else did they do? They sit among graves and spend the night in secret places. They eat swine's flesh. What's wrong with that? It was against the law. It was against what God told them to do just as a sign of fidelity to Him. The broth of unclean meat is in their pot. So they're ignoring God's law. Why not? Well, God didn't understand. We'd have a lot of pigs available to us in these days. It sounds just like people today who want to change God's law about sexuality and other things. No different. They knew better. Many believe that the idolatrous practices were not renewed when they came back from the exile. I don't know if that's true, but there are many who believe that. That they did these things, were carried away to Babylon, 43,000 of them were brought back by the decree of 1st Osiris, and then they did not resume these practices, we're told. Don't know if that's for sure or not. But the point is they weren't worshiping God the way that God had told them to do it. This is why it's important. We are not free to make up our own service. We're free to do what God has told us to do. Period. So we don't add in things that aren't in Scripture as a means of worship. And you know disobedience to God often begins at something where it's tiny. Let's change this one thing. Next thing you know, you're changing everything. You can't reach God through ways He has not ordained. You can only reach God the ways He said you can reach Him. And of course, ultimately, that's through Christ. But He wants to be worshipped the way He wants to be worshipped. Period. Well, they were following their own thoughts. No different from any other pagan attempts to direct the divine. These people were self-righteous as well. They say, keep to yourself. Don't come near me. I'm holier than you. These, the Lord says, are smoke in my nostrils. Human religion, whatever form it takes, has some other tendencies. You know what else it does? It leads people to become a bit elitist. Self-exalting. I'm performing my religion. Self-righteous. Exclusionary. You people aren't doing what we're doing. Sanctimonious. And you know what else man-made religion always does? It makes people feel holy. It does. Your stance and, you know, whatever it happens to be. Devout. He's devout. She's so devout. Makes people feel pious when you're keeping some rules. You know what God says? God says, this provokes me to anger. anything that we do that's man-made and claiming to be righteousness. We have to learn, and the only place we can learn is in Scripture, how to distinguish between true holiness, true righteousness, and false righteousness. Pharisees never learned. Even when we saw in Acts 15, I think it's about verse 5, we've got some Pharisees who had come to believe in Jesus, but they're saying, well, you've got to still do these ceremonies. No, you don't. Every man made religion. This is important. You know, because there are people who, from good heartedness in a sense, say it isn't, you know, it bothers them that Christ is the only way. Why can't the Hindus in India come in? By practicing that. Look, every man-made religion, every one of them is an attempt by Satan to brainwash people into a false sense of holiness. That's what they are. Every one of them. And God is offended by any religion, including those that go around quoting the Bible, if it rebels against His Word, His authority, His ways, and sets its own moral standards, its own rules for its church, and its own conditions. And the last thing we're free to do is redesign His church. We pick up 1st Timothy chapter 3 and find out how He wants us to run His church. Period. We don't amend it to suit today's world. We just don't do that without incurring His wrath. So the solution is to get ourselves in the habit of doing things, even little things, God's way. we get ourselves in the habit of doing things God's way rather than our way or the world's way. And so He answers their question of, Will you keep silent? Behold, it is written before me, I will not keep silent. Well that sounds like it might be good news until the next four words, but I will repay. I will even repay into their bosom both their own iniquities and the iniquities of their fathers together, says the Lord, because they burned incense on the mountains and scorned Me on the hills. Therefore, I will measure their former work into their bosom. I will not keep silent. There's our answer. God's love doesn't mean He's not going to punish all sin. There's a worldly idea. A God of love would never send me to hell. Somebody says that, you know that person does not know God. Doesn't understand God. Hasn't come to Scripture to meet God. The world can seek to redefine and reinvent God, but God's not going to change. And He will judge all sin. And sin becomes more aggravated with each generation. Not that coming generations are punished for the sins of the previous generation. Ezekiel 18 shows us that clearly. But you see the effect of our sin. Our sin affects the lives of our children and our grandchildren. Because of their own iniquities, their idolatry. They burned incense on the mountains and scorned me on the hills. Because of that, God's vengeance will come upon the nation and the kingdom of Israel. And final judgment came on them in 70 A.D. Not all the Jewish people, but on the nation and on the kingdom. What's this deal, by the way, with worshiping on the mountains? Why are they going up on the mountains and offering sacrifices? Yeah, why are they doing that? Yeah, they're thinking only it's not God. They think they're a little more likely to catch Thor's eye up there if they're up a little higher. I mean, this is lunacy on top of being paganism. But this is what they believed. They wanted to get closer to God. Whether it was the true God or the false God they were approaching. But the problem with those high places and trying to approach the true God is he said, no, that's not where you do this. Now, I'll bet there were people in those days saying, look, God didn't understand. We couldn't make it to the temple. We couldn't make it to the synagogue. So we've got to go up to this mountain. He'd understand that. If He were around today, He'd understand us going up here and offering this or we can get close to Him. You know there were people doing that. You know how you know that? Because they were doing it and thought they were pleasing God. Canaanite religion was human initiative which sought to influence God into doing what they wanted. Well then, verse 8, he says, as the new wine is found in the cluster and one says don't destroy it for there's benefit in it, so I will act on behalf of my servants in order not to destroy all of them. I'll bring forth offspring from Jacob and heir of my mountains from Judah. Even my chosen ones shall inherit it. My servants will dwell there. Sharon will be a pasture land for flocks in the valley of Achor, a resting place for herds, for my people who seek me. Now the key here is this new wine. Anybody know what the new wine was? The word here is tirosh. It's used 38 times in the Old Testament. And it always refers to the juice that comes out of the cluster of grapes initially. It's not fermented yet. It really is. So the new wine is unfermented juice that's come out of the grapes initially. Now, he's saying as this new wine comes out of the cluster, there's going to be a remnant, even of you wicked, evil people. that I'm going to act on behalf of. Now remember, this cluster, what has it earned? This cluster. In the pictures we've seen in Isaiah in the last couple of chapters, where should that go, that whole cluster of grapes? The winepress of God's wrath. Remember we had the strong man coming and his clothes had turned crimson from what? From the winepress of His wrath. That's where the cluster belongs. That's where we belong. That's what we've earned by our own righteousness. But, here's what he says here, a remnant are chosen and saved. Even my chosen one shall not. So I'm going to act. Don't destroy it. There's something good in there. The point of this picture is that as there's something good that comes from this grape cluster, there's something good that's going to emerge from the nation of Israel. Now this could speak of two things. It could speak of the remnant of the Jews who will be saved. Or it could speak of Christ and His church which will also come forth from Israel. But here, in verses 8 through 10, the focus is on the sons of Jacob, the remnant of the sons of Jacob, the offspring from Jacob. And so it's the remnant of the Jews that he's talking about here. Now look at Isaiah 1020. Did I put this in your sheet? I did. Isaiah's been talking about the remnant. In fact, when Paul goes in chapter 11 of Romans to talk about the remnant of the Jews who will be saved, he goes back to this passage here. In chapter 10 of Isaiah, verse 20. In that day, Isaiah says, the remnant of Israel and those of the house of Jacob who have escaped will never again rely on the one who struck them, but will truly rely on the Lord, the Holy One of Israel. Not the whole nation. The remnant. This little what's coming out of the cluster. The new wine. A remnant will return. The remnant of Jacob. That's the third time we've seen that word here. To the mighty God. For though your people, O Israel, may be like the sand of the sea, Are they all going to be saved? What's the next clause say? Who's going to be saved? A remnant will be saved. This is what the Bible actually teaches. Only a remnant of them will return. A destruction is determined. It's a righteous destruction, overflowing with righteousness. For a complete destruction, one that is decreed, the Lord of hosts will execute in the midst of the whole land. But He's going to save this new wine. He's going to save a remnant. Israel is being destroyed, but God will save a remnant. Now Paul is going to pick this up here in Romans 11. Because here's the question. God's saving the Gentiles. What's happening to His people, the Jews? I say then, God has not rejected His people, has He? May it never be. For I to Him in Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin, God has not rejected His people. He doesn't say the nation. He says His people, whom He foreknew. Do you not know what Scripture says in this passage about Elijah? How he pleads with God against Israel? And here's Elijah, "...Lord, they've killed Your prophets, they've torn down Your altars, and I alone am left, and they are seeking my life. But what does God say to them? I've kept for myself 7,000 men who have not bowed the knee to Baal." In the same way, There has also come to be at the present time… What? A remnant. A remnant. According to what? According to their worthiness? Because this remnant kept the law? No. According to God's gracious election. Because if it's by grace, Paul writes, it's no longer on the basis of works. No Jew or Gentile is going to ever be saved by performing any sacrifices or by his own righteousness. Because if it's on the basis of works, Paul says, otherwise grace is no longer grace. Not by any Judaistic rights. And there's people out there preaching that now. John Hagee among them. It's not true. Romans 11, 17. He uses the picture of an olive tree. Israel, the first people of God he establishes, calls them an olive tree. But he says, if some of the branches were broken off, and you, the Gentiles, being a wild olive, were grafted in among them, and became partaker with them of the rich root of the olive tree, don't be arrogant toward the branches. But if you are arrogant, remember, it's not you who supports the root, but the root supports you. Israel played a very important role. It's through Israel that God gave us His Word. It's through Israel that God gave us His Son. He wasn't born an Irishman. He wasn't born a German. He was born a Jew. Born of these people. But this nation turned against God and killed Jesus. So, God says here, and God's been speaking through this chapter, My chosen one shall inherit it. My servants will dwell there. Notice chosen ones and servants. These are two sides of the same reality. The sovereign fact of divine choice and the reality that the only right response is to become a servant of God. The only right response to His blessing and His grace is to be His servant. And then Isaiah uses local geography really here to make his point. Sharon was a plain, a pretty fertile plain along the Mediterranean coast. The valley of Achor was along the Jordan River. It wasn't fertile. But it would be. And the picture of one, again, is of the new heavens and new earth. There's going to be a time when things are going to be as they were intended. This is not a reference to giving back land to the exiles who came back from Babylon. And it's not a reference to any Jewish kingdom down the road. It's talking about what God's going to do in the new heavens and the new earth. And we'll see that in just a few verses. But on the other hand, You know, Isaiah constantly mixes the hope of blessing with the truth of judgment. There's no hope for those who resist God. It was true then. It was true in Christ's time. It's true today. It's going to be true until the day and the minute He returns. You who forsake the Lord, who forget My holy mountain, who set a table for fortune and fill cups with mixed wine for destiny, I will destine you for the sword. The Lord's mountain was where His house was built, where He made His home, where He dwelled among His people, where He called them to worship Him. To forget His mountain meant to forsake Him. And what did they do? They rejected Zion and favored the mountains of whom? Whose mountains were those where they went to the high places? Baal and the idols. They favored the mountains of idols. setting a table for fortune and cups for destiny. These are imaginary gods. And what they would do is they'd set up a table for them in order to try and gain their favor. Fortune was a Canaanite god who was worshipped, destiny an imaginary god of fate. And the people contrive these ridiculous rituals to try and bend fate and luck their way. They would arrange tables before these gods. and put a ritual meal of food and drink before them. Hear what I'm saying? They'd take a table and put some food out there, like people leaving food and cookies for Santa Claus. That's what they did. By the thousands. And the Jews took this up, despite the fact that they had known God. He'd given them a temple and a system of worship. But the false gods brought only a sentence of death. Look what he says. To you who do this, I will destine you for the sword. They refused God's Word. They refused His ways. That's how anyone who condemns himself does it. They contradicted his will, his word, his mind, and his heart. Look what it says. I called, I spoke. You did not answer. You did not hear. You did evil. I did not delight. And then Isaiah gives us a side-by-side of the people of God and those who reject God. And here it all is. You know, this might be a good passage to show to unbelievers. I know they don't believe and so that's why the passage doesn't hit, but here's what God says. Therefore, verse 13, thus says the Lord God, Behold, My servants will eat, you will be hungry. My servants will drink, you will be thirsty. My servants will rejoice, you will be put to shame. My servants will have a glad heart and shout joyfully. You will cry out with a heavy heart. You will wail with a broken spirit. You will leave your name for a curse to My chosen ones. And God turns to singular here now and says, And the Lord God will slay you. The word you has been plural for several verses. Now it's singular. My servants, though, will be called by another name, because he who is blessed in the earth will be blessed by the God of truth. So, my servants here speaks of the remnant of verses 8 through 10, but all of these blessings are assured for all of the people of God, Jew and Gentile. And you notice what he does, and Isaiah does this frequently, and he'll do it now for the rest of this chapter. He uses a picture of physical needs, hunger and thirst, God meeting those, but he's really talking about and using these as a metaphor for God's fulfillment of spiritual needs. It isn't that we're going to go to heaven and what's going to be so great is we're going to have plenty of food. Although we will never hunger and never thirst, we're going to have God and we will be fully satisfied. This is a piece that we don't quite know yet. but God will slay those who are against Him. By contrast to the name which matches the curse, there's another name, he says, which attends to this new nature. And when he says my servants will be called by another name, I don't think it's insignificant that while the promise of Christ was known to Israel at the time Isaiah wrote, the name of Christ wasn't. I can't be sure of that. but it sure strikes me isn't it interesting that we got a new name when Christ came that the people of God did and then he finishes with this because he who is blessed in the earth will be blessed by the God of truth and I don't know if this is what he's getting at but I haven't had an opportunity to say this and I know there are people on TV saying this too let me say it there there is no hope for salvation after physical death. That's a heresy to say that there is. But there are people on the TV who will say that you can come to Christ and be saved after you die. That is a lie. Once this physical life is over, your opportunity to come to Christ is over. And from God's perspective, what joy here. The former troubles are forgotten. They're hidden from my sight. The old has passed away. Behold, all things have become new. And now He begins to show us what He's talking about here. He's not talking about earthly things. Behold, I create new heavens and a new earth. That's not just a New Testament thing. And the former things will not be remembered or come to mind. Won't even remember all this. All that we see now will one day be gone. All will be changed. A new heaven and a new earth. Former things not remembered. The Lord repeats what He said back in verse 16. And this is the vision that's shown to the Apostle John in Revelation 21. Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth passed away. There's no longer any sea. I saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out from heaven. These blessings are for the New Jerusalem. It's coming down out of heaven from God made ready as a bride adorned for her husband. I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, Behold, the dwelling, the tabernacle of God, is among men. He will dwell among them. They shall be His people, and God Himself will be among them. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and there will no longer be any death. There will no longer be any mourning or crying or pain. The first things have passed away. See, John's not the only one who saw this. Isaiah saw it too. This description of God's kingdom shows the radical transformation that will take place when Christ returns, when God establishes His kingdom in all its fullness, all its glory, all its majesty. The past world will not only be forgotten, it's going to pass away. It'll be replaced. And this new creation will be marked with what we're really and truly always seeking, isn't it? Joy and gladness for both ourselves and others. And that's exactly what God's going to deliver. It'll be the end of sorrow. And people will live forever. We're about to have a verse that'll say they'll live to a hundred. It's a metaphor. People will live forever. Jesus promised, he who believes in me has eternal life. There'll be peace among men. There'll be peace among all of us. Peace with one another and peace with God and fellowship between God and His people. And it'll be better than Eden. What'll be better about the New Jerusalem than Eden? What's not possible there? No sin, no fall. The fall can't happen when this comes. All good and not capable of turning bad. He says, be glad. Rejoice forever in what I create. Forever. For behold, I create Jerusalem for rejoicing and her people for gladness. Forever. 25-8 and 30-19 and Isaiah both told us about no more tears. And you know who else is going to rejoice in the New Jerusalem? God, I will also rejoice in Jerusalem and be glad in my people. And there will no longer be heard in her the voice of weeping and the sound of crying. Now some Bible publishers, at least one, has the heading over verse 17 New heavens and new earth. And then comes to verse 18, and despite the fact he's talking about rejoicing forever, they stick a heading there that says millennial conditions in the renewed earth. Of course, Isaiah hasn't said a word about any millennium, nor has any other prophet or any other Bible writer except John's vision in Revelation 20. But this view, which sees the passage here as referring to a future thousand-year reign of Christ on earth, ignores the fact that verse 17 just spoke of a new heavens and new earth, and that verse 18, this very verse, calls the reader to rejoice forever. Clearly, Isaiah is speaking here of the eternal state, the new heaven, the new Jerusalem. And again, this promise of no more weeping, no more mourning. No longer will there be in it an infant who lives but a few days or an old man who does not live out his days. For the youth will die at the age of 100 and the one who does not reach the age of 100 will be thought accursed. Now remember he's talking about The new heavens and the new earth. And when Christ came, He explained the meaning of this symbolic and metaphorical language of Isaiah. Nobody dies anymore. Nobody. Death was defeated somewhere. Where was that? At the cross. And it's going to be forever abolished when Christ returns. And it's thrown into the lake of fire. Again, a metaphorical picture, but expressing a truth. So Isaiah is picturing in figurative terms the fact that the inhabitants of the new earth and the new heavens will live incalculably long lives, in fact, eternally. Isaiah uses images of things that we know to create impressions of what is to come. So using images again of ancient Israel, Isaiah then portrays a joyous, fruitful city. And what he's doing here is he's saying in verse 21 and 22 that those restrictions, those things that kept you from really coming to me and being my people in the old covenant, they'll be removed in the new covenant. Remember what he had said in Deuteronomy 28.30. If you disobey, you'll plant, but somebody else is going to eat it. Same thing in Leviticus 26. So here's what he says. They'll build houses and they'll inhabit them. They'll plant vineyards and eat their fruit. They will not build and another inhabit. They will not plant and another eat. The old covenant will not dictate the terms of the new. The new covenant won't be like the old covenant. And he repeats these promises, "...for as the lifetime of a tree, so will be the days of my people, and my chosen ones will wear out the work of their hands. They won't labor in vain, they won't bear children for calamity, for they are the offspring of those blessed by the Lord and their descendants with them." And then the greatest blessing of all. What's the greatest blessing of all in the New Jerusalem? This ought to be an easy one. Yes, God Himself. God Himself. We will be with God. We will be in fellowship with God. It will also come to pass, verse 24, that before they call, I will answer. And while they're still speaking, I will hear. And he gives us this picture that shows us how dramatically everything has changed. He gives us a picture of a wolf not killing, but grazing with a lamb. I don't know if there's going to be wolves and lambs in the new heavens and new earth. I hope so. But if there are, all hostility and death and evil and harm between them even will be over. The wolf and the lamb will graze together. The lion will eat straw like the ox. What does that mean? No more killing. No more death. Again, these are probably metaphors, but maybe not. And dust will be the serpent's food. Well, there's one being for whom things haven't changed. They will do no evil or harm in all my holy mountains, says the Lord. So in God's kingdom, peace with God, total harmony, oneness among all of us. Oneness with our Lord, oneness with one another. And you know, there's another new creation going on here. What is it? Look at 2 Corinthians 5, 17. If anyone is in Christ, He is a new creation. The new creation, that the one who is born again of the Spirit of God, is no less a new creation than the new heavens and new earth we're talking about. If you're a new creation in Christ, Paul says, the old has passed away. Behold, the new has come. Same language he used it for the new heavens and new earth, isn't it? If you're in Christ, God has not just patched you up. He's made you new. Well, Ortlin says this to us, you know, every day you and I are tempted to throw this hope away. We are. And for what? For the stuff of this broken down world. The filth of this world. And it isn't worth it. 1 Corinthians 2, 9. Here's Paul quoting from Isaiah 64, verse 4. Things which the eye has not seen and ear has not heard, and which have not entered the heart of man, all that God has prepared for those who love Him. That's what we're living for. Not for the weekend, but forever. Isaiah has told us enough about the glory to come to stir us to seek God and His kingdom with all our heart, souls, mind, and strength. And he's saying what he said back in verse 1 of this chapter. Here I am. Even, even if you're a really bad person, I'll save you. You come to me. You come to Christ. You trust in His sacrifice. And no matter how bad you are, I'll save you. give you a place in this new Jerusalem. What an answer to the prayer that we saw back at the end of 64. Well, Lord, what are you going to fix? They're so earth-minded, aren't they? God says, don't worry about this stuff. If you come to me and trust me, you'll get all of this. You're going to get blessings beyond what you could ever imagine. So far from being angry forever, which is what they were fearing, God says, come to me and I'll give you a paradise for all eternity. Lord, this is just such a blessing to dig into this chapter, to see what you have prepared for those who you've called to yourself, who've come and who trust in you and respond in gratitude, worship, and obedience. Lord, make us a faithful people. Make us a people, Lord, who are not only obedient to you, but are desirous and filled with a need to share this good news. Lord, help us to be effective witnesses of your glory, of your gospel, of all that you've done, of who you are, and what you do have planned for those who love you. In Christ's name, Amen.