For our scripture reading, I direct you to the prophet Isaiah, Isaiah's prophecy, chapter six. Those that have been here know that we have been going through the book of Isaiah verse by verse. Last Sunday morning and evening, By the grace of God, we looked at the first seven verses of this sixth chapter of Isaiah. And this morning, we're going to look at the concluding verses of this chapter. Let us ask for the help of the Holy Spirit in bringing forth his word. O God in heaven, I need thy help. Father, as we contemplate and meditated upon this great calling that you brought upon the prophet Isaiah, and the awfulness of the message that he was to proclaim to your people, what would I do if not in the midst of it we had such encouragements in that last verse? What would we do if not for the electing grace of God? What will we do if not for the mercy that we have in Christ Jesus? Father, help me by thy Holy Spirit this morning to bring forth these truths. May they be pleasing and glorifying to thee. May each one of us here learn from these words and apply them to our own hearts today. And in the midst of all the despair, may we be encouraged in the glorious gift of thy son to us, the great salvation that we have through his precious blood. May he be exalted, I pray in his name. Amen. We're going to see in these verses, verse 8 through 10, how the prophet was commissioned by God He accepts whereupon God communicates the commission to him. And what is the commission? What is the message? The message is that he is to announce a hardening and a blinding judgment upon the nation of Israel. And then in verses 11 through 13, we're going to see the outcome of this commission. Let's read together verse 8. Also I heard the voice of the Lord saying, whom shall I send and whom will go for us? Then said I, here am I, send me. I want you to first of all note how in this verse the Trinity is so clearly brought forth. It begins by the voice of the Lord saying, whom shall I send? But then it says, who will go for us? For us. Glorious pictures in Genesis 1 of the triune God. And the clear implication that the gospel and the sending forth of salvation is the work of the triune God, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit in all the offices. Now, Isaiah is quick to respond. He says, here am I. He hasn't heard the commission yet. But remember, as I mentioned to you last week, that no man nor woman can ever be sent of God, can ever be a sent one until two things have happened. First, they have seen God. And second, they have seen themselves. And we looked in depth last week as to what the outcome of this was in the life of Isaiah. Because Isaiah came to the place that Job came to. When Job says that I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear, but now mine eye seeth thee. And what happened? I abhor myself and repent in dust and ashes. This is what happened to Isaiah. It happened to Job many years earlier. Now he also saw, and this is so important, he also saw that Christ had washed him from his sins. By the blood of the Lamb, he understood the meaning that was revealed to him in the whole scene of the altar. and the seraphim taking the hot coal and placing it upon his lips. We went into that in great detail last week. And we showed that because of that experience and complete understanding of the salvation that was to come through the Lamb of God, Isaiah was enabled to prophesy and understand clearly, as he wrote in Isaiah 53, that salvation was truly of the Lamb of God. Therefore, what happened to Isaiah? Why was it? that he was so readily willing to go and be sent. What happened? Well, what happened to him is what should happen to every one of us in this room. And that is that the love of Christ should constrain us to be sent. What happened to Isaiah is the same thing that happened to Paul. And that he admonishes us in 2 Corinthians 5.14 when he said, for the love of Christ constraineth us. Because we thus judge that if one died for all, then we're all dead. And that he died for all that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them and rose again. Isaiah completely understood this verse before it was ever written. He understood that Christ had died for him. And he understood that henceforth he was not to live for himself. So the natural response at understanding and seeing the great salvation that was laid clear to him as he heard those precious words in the previous verse before we started today, where it said, and he laid upon my mouth and said, lo, this hath touched thy lips and thine iniquity is taken away and thy sin purged. Oh, what joyful news this was to him. And what could be the response? What was your response when you were saved? I know what mine was. This poor Jew. I had to go out and tell everybody. I had to tell everybody I saw of the great and glorious news that Jesus has saved me. He purged me from my sins. Delivered me from my iniquities. I had found grace in the sight of God. And that is what happened here to Isaiah. But oh, my brothers and sisters, he has yet to hear what the message was. And let's now look at verse 9 and see what it is that he hears. And he said, go and tell this people, hear ye indeed, but understand not, and see ye indeed, but perceive I want you first to notice the very awfulness of the very first words that God said. Go and tell this people. Do you notice that it no longer is my people? What an awful sound that was to the ears of Isaiah. What an amazing astonishment this must have been to him. Go and tell this people. because you see God had disowned them as we've seen because they had rejected him. Now, I said it often in the study of Isaiah that Isaiah itself is one of the best interpreters of its own book. And I want to take you to two places in Isaiah to show you what God said as it is elaborated by the prophet that he was going to do. Turn with me first of all to the 29th chapter of Isaiah. And let's look together at the 13th and 14th verses. Isaiah 29 verse 13. Wherefore the Lord said, for as much as this people draw near me with their mouth, and with their lips do honor me, but have removed their heart far from me, and their fear toward me is taught by the precepts of men. Therefore, behold, I will proceed to do a marvelous work among this people, even a marvelous work and a wonder, for the wisdom of their wise men shall perish, and the understanding of their prudent men shall be hid. In other words, he is going to do a work of amazement, even as Habakkuk had been astonished when he saw the plan of God to destroy his very people by bringing the Assyrians and the Babylonians upon them. And here he calls it a marvelous work that he will take their teachers, their rabbis, their priests, and that he would blind them, harden them, and they would finite famine of the Word of God. Amazing, awesome proclamation. Followed up in the next chapter, in the 30th chapter, in the 8th verse, listen, we'll go on a little deeper here. He says to Isaiah, now go and write it before them in a table and note it in a book that it may be for the time to come forever and ever. that this is a rebellious people, lying children, children that will not hear the law of the Lord, which say to their seers, see not, and to their prophets, prophesy not unto us right things, speak unto us smooth things, prophesy deceits. Get ye out of the way, turn aside out of the path, and cause the Holy One of Israel to cease from before us. Now brothers and sisters, I assure you that it's unlikely that the Jews of that day actually said these words. But is it not the same today? Did not the Apostle Paul prophesy in Timothy that the time would come when the people would have itching ears? and they would seek out teachers that would give them that which is pleasing to the ears. Is not the church today so similar in many ways? Where they want another Christ, another gospel. They don't want to know holiness. They don't want to know godliness. They want a gospel suited to their own sinful lust. And this is what happened back then. And now we see why God is proclaiming a awful and devastating judgment that was going to come upon the children. Notice the verses that we read. He refers to them over and over again as his children. Disobedient and rebellious children. Now I want you to understand this very carefully from the beginning. When God says in many places in scriptures in similar language that these people would understand not and perceive now. I want you to understand that this is what the people would become because of their own wickedness. This is very important. Because in just judgment, let me explain to you what has happened here. God withdraws his spirit so that they are unable to do what they were before unwilling to do. Now you must understand this. There is much misunderstanding in the sovereignty of God. and unrighteous judgments of God, where when Paul in Romans 11 said, is there unrighteousness with God? God forbid. I sadly tell you that it seems that oftentimes you read writings that it actually accuses God of unrighteousness. You see, always remember this. This is what has made it much clearer to me in understanding God's righteous and just judgments. Remember what we read in Romans 3. There is none righteous, no, not one. There is none that understandeth. There is none that seeketh after God. They are all gone out of their way. Now, if that is true, then obviously all God need do for people to understand not and perceive not is just to leave them to themselves. He does not have to do anything himself, but withdraw his grace. And I admonish you, I really do, and exhort you to never forget what James taught us. Never forget that. Martin Luther, whom I love dearly, in much of his writings warned about this very thing and how the devil dishonors God by tempting us to think evil of God. Remember these words of James and let them sink in, deep into your heart and into your mind. Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God. For God can not be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man. Please brothers and sisters, never forget that. And also remember as I pointed out to you last week, God is light. and in him there is no darkness, and as James himself says later on in the same chapter, he is the father of lights with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning. We will see clearly God is just, righteous in his judgments. They receive what is due them, but never think as if God makes them evil or causes them to do anything that they by them very selves, because of their fall, because of their utter, complete, no interest in God, nor could they ever have it because of their fallen state, because of the utter depravity of their heart, there is none that seeks after God. So that any one of us that ever seeks after God, it can only be if it's true seeking by the grace of God. So obviously if God withdraws His grace, the natural consequence will be what we see all around us in the unsaved. They cannot perceive, neither understand. I have expounded, pounded, entreated, and pleaded with some of my own family from the Word of God. They neither perceive nor understand until the day come when God opens their eyes to see and unstops their ears. So let's see God in a proper perspective here in his righteousness and his justice and yet not one bit of diminish his holiness and his goodness. There's no contrast in a sense of contradiction. His goodness is still as good as it ever will be and his holiness as it always will be and his love as it ever will be and yet his judgment is perfect and actually He receives glory in his judgment because it's righteous as we're going to see. Now let's look at verse 10 and we're going to get into some deep things here. I'm building up to some areas that we're going to dig deeply, very deeply, whatever the time it takes, because I've got this on my heart to bring it all out today. We read in verse 10 a further explanation of this blinding and hardening. He says, make their heart of this people fat and make their ears heavy and shut their eyes less they see with their eyes and hear with their ears and understand with their heart and convert and be healed. Very figurative language. This proclaimed judgment against the Israel of the flesh goes back, did you know it, way back in the Deuteronomy. It didn't begin here. Moses said in Deuteronomy 29.4, listen to the similarity. Yet the Lord hath not given you a heart to perceive and eyes to see and ears to hear unto this day. This is not a new judgment. The difference is, and a very distinct difference, is here we get a time period that is devastating. Because back when Moses proclaimed, as he says, onto this day, meaning the day of Moses, even in Isaiah 29, 10, he said, for the Lord hath poured out upon you the spirit of deep sleep and hath closed your eyes. This is a very, a very picturesque choice of words. The idea, can you picture this? A spirit of deep sleep. It's like going into a hospital room and somebody's in a semi-coma. And you're trying to preach something to them or speak to them about something. You're talking to somebody who's in a deep sleep. That is what God said he brought upon these people. It's almost as if you were talking to somebody who was in a coma. They're in a deep sleep. and their eyes are closed, figuratively. Now, I won't turn you there, but even in Jeremiah 5 and Ezekiel 12, a similar language. But, this is what's important for us to understand today. That when we go to the New Testament, we find that this condition was still in effect the time the Lord Jesus came to the people of Israel and when Paul went out as the Apostle to the Gentiles because he was rejected by the Jews. Turn with me to Matthew 13, this is 2. What does the Lord quote? What does the Lord refer to when he speaks about the fact that the people have rejected him? Well, what does he do? He goes right back to the scripture himself. The Lord himself refers us back And he does this, by the way, in John 12. We're not going to go to John 12. We'll just read Matthew 13, verse 14 and 15. In response to their rejection of him, it says, and in them is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah, which says, by hearing you shall hear and shall not understand, and seeing you shall see and shall not perceive. for this people's heart is wax gross and their ears are dull of hearing and their eyes they have closed lest at any time they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears and should understand with their heart it should be converted and I should heal them." Notice he says their eyes were closed. But notice it's almost identical quote because it was the Lord Jesus himself who spoke the words. It's the Lord Jesus is the one who spoke the words to Isaiah directly. And here he is now, tabernacling amongst men. He came unto a people that were his own and yet they rejected him, they knew him not. But he, in an amazing way, prophesies what Isaiah had said, the reason being why they rejected him. Brothers and sisters, let me interject right now and say this. No man who has the spirit of God, whether it be Isaiah or whether it be the man Christ Jesus, can say these things and be sent by God to say them without weeping over it. Paul wept bitterly. My heart is heavy and in continual sadness over my people in the flesh. And the Lord Jesus wept bitterly. You cannot proclaim these things and be sent by God and deal with them as like some people, you know, you're going to get yours. No, no, no. No, this is not something that's pleasing. God takes no death, no pleasure in the death of the wicked. The Lord looks back to Isaiah 6 then for this Now I want to show you at the very end of Acts, near the end of Paul's ministry, I want to turn to one more place before we go on. Look at the last chapter of Acts and go right near the end to the 26th verse. Paul is about to depart. He's in Rome, he's in prison, he's going to be executed. He has come to Rome, he has spoken to the Jews. His whole ministry has been a rejection and what does he say? He also goes directly back to Isaiah chapter 6 and he says in verse 26, he says, saying, go on to this people and say, hearing you shall hear and shall not understand, and seeing you shall see and not perceive. For the heart of this people is wax gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes have they closed, lest they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and stand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them. Be it known therefore unto you that the salvation of God is sent unto the Gentiles, and that they will hear it. Now we know from And amen, brother, because if it wasn't for this, what did Paul say in Romans 11? He said, this was done unto the Jews that the Gentiles would receive the grace. And then we know he had much to say about what would happen to the Jews in the future, which we won't get into here, but praise God that this message went out to the Gentiles. The Israel of God, the circumcised in heart, as my brother was telling me, he said that he was a Jew. Yes. Amen. You are. You are the seed of all that are the seed of Abraham are the Jews. Amen. But here we're dealing with a special case. Can a mother forget her children? And there is a special relationship, a unique relationship between God and the ones in the flesh. And we're gonna look at it. We're gonna go into some deep things. I'm building up to it. Bear with me. Because we don't want to have a superficial message. We want to dig. I approached this, I said, Lord, I want no preconceived concepts of my own. I want no ideas because of what men say. I want to preach your word. What does it say? And that's what I, by the grace of God, intend to do as we go on, and particularly when we get into these next verses. Now, it's also quoted in Romans 8, 11 to 8. So what we see here is that Isaiah is given a commission. And what is it? He's to bring a curse. awful, a curse on Israel because of their unbelief and their obstinacy, their utter rebellion and rejection of the living God. And brothers and sisters, it remains to this day, it remains to this day. Blinded in part, Paul spoke about in Romans 11, where brothers and sisters, that part is big. That which is not blinded, like my brother Joe and myself, I'll call the remnant, we're gonna get into that in verse 13. But we are a small part, blinded in part to this very day. Let's look at the figurative use of the words a little bit before we go on. He said that the heart was made fat. That, in the Hebrew, that word is like, they're made stupid and senseless. Because fatness around a heart makes a person dull and heavy. So the Holy Spirit uses these words, their heart is made fat. Or the psalmist in 119 talks about the heart being like grease, fat like grease. God, by way of his judicial judgment, has been, as I said to you, withdrawing light, withdrawing the help of the Holy Spirit and giving them up to the power of Satan and his power is great and the lust of their own flesh. That's all God had to do is just let them alone and they would fall into this condition of first of all having hearts that are fat and then it says make their ears heavy. Or that's figurative language for making a dough of hearing that they would not be able to hear. What was the result of this? We have an interesting comment in Jeremiah 6, 10, it says, to whom shall I speak and give warning that they may hear? Jeremiah is saying, who can I tell this message to, Lord, that they're going to hear? Behold, their ear is uncircumcised and they cannot hearken, behold the word of the Lord is unto them a reproach, they have no delight in it. Jeremiah, having not been told yet, or understanding as Isaiah did, why he's saying to God through the Holy Spirit, what good is it going to do me to bring them the message? They have uncircumcised ears, they're dull, and their hearts are such that they do not comprehend. They have no delight in it. For 40 years of my life, I had no delight in the things of God. They were dull, dead. You see, if you look at anyone who's saved, and particularly, it's very clear in someone who was never in a church, it's more difficult for church-going people to see the line of demarcation, the great change that takes place. But someone like me, wicked me, to see how that dull ear, that fat heart, and eyes that were blind, when God was pleased to reveal his son to me, life gave him like that. Now take that and reverse it. Here's the people that were not saved, the ones who he does this to, but they still were under grace, like it talks about in Hebrews 6, they were exposed to the Spirit, they were exposed to the things of God, They had the temple, they had the worship. It hadn't been destroyed yet. But when God withdrew His grace, just as He gave me grace, if He withdraws grace, what little they have, there's nothing left, and they will fall into this condition. Then He says that they should shut their eyes. Isaiah 44, 18, they have not known nor understood, for He hath shut their eyes that they cannot see. in their hearts that they cannot understand. Brothers and sisters, if God shuts your eyes and your heart, it's got to be Lazarus. Did nothing less than Lazarus rise. Because every single person, as I was, is dead. They are dead spiritually, pictured in a literal sense as Lazarus was dead, a stinking corpse. until the Lord Jesus said, Lazarus, rise on, bind him. And Satan had to loose him. Awful judgment. And then he says, lest they see. Well, see before they were willing, now they're not able. And look what the Lord said. These verses, every time I read it, it's just, it kinda, it's, It's an awesome statement. The Lord Jesus said this about those people. He said, but if thine eye be evil, the whole body shall be full of darkness. And if therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness. Well, you see, that's the state of every unsaved man and woman and child and the state of these people when God withdrew his grace And then he goes on and says, and be converted and be healed. In other words, if they were not blinded, if God gave them light and sent his spirit, then they would turn from their sinful ways and they would be healed of sin. Now, is God unjust because he leaves them in their own condition which they deserve because they rejected grace? No, never, God forbid. God forbid, I'll have mercy on whom I will. God wills that all men should be saved and come to Him, He says in His Word. But if He doesn't draw, you're not going to come. And when He doesn't draw in heaven and in glory, we'll see that God the Lord is righteous in all His ways and holy in all His works. And that all men will praise Him because we will see His love and His goodness and that everything He did is wonderful. We will be so happy to praise Him for everything He did, because we will see it to be so holy and just and right that we just love Him more. There's no unrighteousness with God. Never, ever, ever, ever will be, nor can be. Well, now we come into these, the part that really, really must have astonished Isaiah, and it astonishes me, and it's difficult to deal with, and we're going to answer it. The natural question in verse 11, Isaiah, hearing this commission, this awful commission, would say what you and I would say. Then said I, Lord, how long? And he answered, until the cities be wasted without an inhabitant, and the houses without man, and the land be utterly desolate. And the Lord hath removed men far away, and there be a great forsaken in the midst of the land. These are difficult verses of which I am going to deal fairly and squarely as I wait on the Lord and I'm going to give you the only answers I can to these words and not skip them. You know what's amazing to me is, I'll get into that in a minute, I don't want to get ahead of myself. We know that the overwhelming majority of the churches, I studied it diligently, throughout the generations, the overwhelming majority, the Puritans and most of the people, believe emphatically in the restoration of Israel. Without a doubt, it is the majority. Those who do not believe it, such as the Lutherans, because Martin Luther didn't, but I'll tell you that Martin Luther, in one of his sermons that I read, I was talking about Israel, and he was the leader of the, what they call the Amillennial position that the whole Lutheran Church follows. He said in German, something to the effect that if Israel, if the Jew in the flesh ever gets back into the nation of Palestine as a people again, he said, I'll eat my hat. Gotta be careful what we say. He said it was impossible, so. He was the minority, and even today it's the minority. The majority of people believe in the Restoration, but here's the problem. In, as I'm going to quote something that Spurgeon said, in my years of study in this area, and I don't like to get into it anymore, I have to now because I'm dealing with this subject, but I became like Spurgeon, I like to talk about Christ crucified. I have found that when those who believe in the Restoration of Israel come to this verse, Even blessed brothers like Errol Halston, his wonderful blessed book, Restoration of Israel, the Jews, totally and completely passed it by. He just sidetracked it. By the same token, multitudes who are against the restoration of the Jews, Either take extreme liberty with your word, or avoid multitudes of passages that seem to clearly and inevitably teach the restoration of the truth. When you look at these verses here, it looks like it's utterly impossible. Why? Well, remember this. It was proclaimed in Isaiah's day, and we're going to see what happened with the Babylonians and the Romans. But now here comes the Lord Jesus on the scene, and the Apostle Paul, and it's still being proclaimed today. And brothers and sisters, right now, July 1st or 2nd, 1995, this condition is exactly the same. Therefore, if you are able to say today, how long, and we read these verses, from appearance at least, from most of what the other Bible verses speak of, it appears that this is the end of time that they're speaking of. But we have a tendency to come to conclusions sometimes, and I'm not coming to any conclusion. I want you to listen carefully to what I have to say. Before I get into this explanation, I want to quote Spurgeon, because this is the key that many have not understood to this day. Spurgeon said, and remember this, His entire, absolute entire ministry, he believed in the restoration of the Jews. He changed his ideas from pre-mill, and what could be post, and so forth, but he never changed, never changed, right to the very end of his life, I've got his writing, that God was going to restore the Jews to the nation, and would show favor to them as a people, not saving each and every one, but a large lump. And yet, Spurgeon said this, he said, the more I read the scriptures, as to the future, the less I am able to dogmatize. I believe every prophetical work, and I have seen and I have read very many such versions, I believe that every work is wrong in points, in some points, in many points. And he came to the conclusion that he believed these things were going to happen, but he utterly and completely gave up in trying to figure out how it was going to happen. And yet we have today people who are always going to tell us how it's going to happen. I believe Mr. Spurgeon was exceedingly wise. And I've come to the same conclusion. I was very dogmatic for many years in my opinion on eschatology. Very dogmatic. It had to be this way. If you don't see it this way, obviously you just don't have light. But God in his mercy brought me down. I don't know, but I want to show you how it might be possible for this to be true. But on the surface, it looks like this judgment is going to continue. Here's what I want to get into. Now listen to this part carefully. What we just read in verse 11 and 12, it seemed to be talking as Isaiah, the whole chapter 24 speaks of. The whole chapter of Isaiah 24 seems to be a time that every time I ever read it before, it was clearly the end of the world and judgment day. I mean, there's no ifs or buts about it. Because in Isaiah 24, the word earth is used many, many times. And the Hebrew word is the word Eretz, Joe, as you might know. And that means, like, the earth at large. In other words, Isaiah chapter 24 is not speaking about the nation of Israel, but the whole world. I want to read a few verses to you and see if they do not sound identical to this picture that was presented as to how long this curse would stay upon the Jews. Turn with me to Isaiah 24. I hope I'm not getting too deep for you. But you gotta follow along on this to get what I'm trying to bring out. Let's first of all look at the first few verses here. First six verses, and then I want to look at two other verses. Listen to this language, see if it's not similar to the language in Isaiah's prophecy. In chapter 6, Behold, the Lord maketh the earth empty, and he maketh it waste. He turneth it upside down. and scattereth it abroad the inhabitants thereof. And it shall be as with the people, so with the priest, as with the servant, so with his master, as with the maid, so with his mistress, as with the buyer, so with the seller, as with the lender, so with the borrower, as with the taker of usury, so with the giver of usury to him. In other words, this is universal, everybody on earth is talking about. It says, verse three, the land shall be utterly emptied, and utterly spoiled, for the Lord hath spoken this word. The earth mourneth and fadeth away. The world languisheth and fadeth away. The holy people of the earth do language. The earth also is defiled under the inhabitants thereof, because they have dressed the laws, changed the ordinances, broken the everlasting covenant. therefore hath the curse devoured the earth and they that dwell therein are desolate and therefore the inhabitants of the earth are burned and few men left and then look at verse 20 the earth shall reel to and fro like a drunkard and shall be removed like a cottage and the transgression thereof shall be heavy upon it and shall fall and not rise again. And it shall come to pass in that day that the Lord shall punish the host of the high ones that are on high and the kings of the earth upon the earth." Brothers and sisters, when I read these words in Isaiah 24, and I look at those words in Isaiah 6, 11 and 12, to me, I can't see it any other way but what I've always believed to be the end of the world. to be judgmental. And for years and years that's the only explanation that I ever had about it. Well, there are those who have attempted to answer this. Not all have skirted it or avoided it, but some of it has faced squarely as they've looked and meditated and saw that you just can't pass it by and just give a quick answer. First of all, we know for sure that this blindness exists today. As a rule, most Jews, all the ones that I know just about, are agnostic. There's a segment of them that are orthodox, but they are the small segment. Most Jews today are just what I was all my life, agnostic, materialistic, and ungodly. That picture, that is me in the epitome of what I was. And how can they be restored as a nation or as a majority, if all the cities are going to be wasted, and all the inhabitants of the land are going to be desolate. This is what I was confronted with. How is it going to be? If it is, I truly believe in my heart, down deep now, that God is going to restore the Jews. Brother Earl Holtz led me into some books. I reread the Puritan Hope, and I read some great students of the Word of God filled with the Holy Spirit. I don't want a student without a filled with the Holy Spirit. And I see they have great reason to hope for this restoration. Differing in how it's going to come about. But I said, Lord, how am I going to answer this? Well, how has it been answered? What's been answered? What you do with the answer is up to you. But here is how some of the Puritans have including men like Jonathan Edwards and John Howe and others, have come around to seeing that this could all take place, the whole world being in that condition, and yet still the restoration is coming. Let me show you what they said. The Lord, in Luke 13, 35, speaking to the Jews, said, Behold, your house is left unto you desolate. And look at this verse. And they say, there is the Lord speaking of the condition that existed then and now. Behold, your house is left unto you desolate. And verily I say unto you, you shall not see me until the time come when you shall say, blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord. Now this is what they say, many of them. They say that in Isaiah 65, 17 and Isaiah 66, 22 and in 2 Peter 3, 13, it speaks about a new heaven and a new earth which I have always believed. In my understanding, it was the end of the world. They say no. But they say that Isaiah, and we're gonna look at it, 32, verse 14 and 15, in Isaiah 35, 1 and 2, explain what is taking place. So let's first look at these verses and then I'll give you the answer. First of all, in Isaiah 32, what we see here is a picture of great desolation, just like we read in our prophecy and we read in Isaiah 24, great desolation. But it precedes a time that's called the spirit being poured out from us, for us from on high. Look what it says in 32, 14. Because the palaces shall be forsaken, and the multitude of the city shall be left, and the forts and towers shall be for dens forever. Now notice it says forever. I mean that's the same kind of language that I've been reading. A joy of wild asses and a pasture of flocks. Well, wait a minute, how can it be that that's going to be forever? Just like we read in Isaiah, desolate seems to the end in Isaiah 24. I'll show you what they say. They say there's no contradiction. Because the next verse says, until, in other words, there's going to be a forever, but there's still going to be an until. Doesn't seem to make sense, but I'll explain it. Until the Spirit be poured upon us from on high, and the wilderness be a fruitful field, and a fruitful field be counted for, as a forest. What a statement. First the Spirit's going to be poured out from on high. Now some say that happened the day of Pentecost, but no. What this is talking about, we haven't even seen this yet, I'll tell you why. The wilderness is going to be fruitful, it doesn't stop there. But the fruitful field is going to be a forest. Edwards and many, they said we have not seen that yet, and Edwards predicted rightly so, that he's coming today, not too far off, that you're going to see India and China and these nations, which at the time he said it, he said you're going to see a great movement of outpouring of the Spirit yet to come. In other words, Edwards said, you know, you can't go back to Pentecost, it hasn't happened yet. Now, in Isaiah 35, in chapter 1 or 2 it goes on, it says, the wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad for them. In other words, here's a wilderness and a solitary place, just like we read in Isaiah 6, 11, 12. But this wilderness and solitary place shall be glad for them, and the desert shall rejoice and blossom as a rose, and it shall blossom abundantly and rejoice, even with joy and singing. The glory of Lebanon shall be given unto it, the excellency of Carmel and Sharon, and they shall see the glory of the Lord and the excellency of our God. This is what they say. In God's picture, and God's plan, and God's view, and God's use of language, he talks about forever being desolate. And he used those words that we just read here. But they say that what this new heaven means, and this new earth means, is not the destruction of the old. But as the pastor once mentioned to me, he knew this, they're talking about a renovation or an alteration. not a total destruction. That's how they say that these verses that they cannot deal with in light of all the other verses, that is the answer to those who have given it serious study. In other words, the new heaven and the new earth is not going to be coming after God comes in final judgment and destroys all this like melting away like the language of Peter. But they say it is an alteration, a renovation And after that renovation, it's like everything's going to be new. And in some way, there's going to be this great outpouring. And all you have to do if you want to really study this is get a hold of Jonathan Edwards' writings on a narrative he wrote about the coming forth of the great revival. I forgot the total name of it. It's a long name. But that book was used mightily around the world to encourage missionaries to go forth. because he believed, as well as many of the Puritans, that this is what God was going to do. Now, my brothers and sisters, what should be our view of this? Not be dogmatic, that's what our view should be. As God is in his nature, glorious, and we know that, right? So in the end, shall all things be glorified? Let's just let it be. God will be glorified in all that he does. Now we come to this 13th verse that in a way I'm going to show you ties into what I just shared with you. Because these difficult words, and this is a very difficult verse, very difficult. I've given it time and meditation. And you're going to see something in this verse that might just be an unraveling also of what God's going to do. Let's read together verse 13. But, in other words, Isaiah, I've just told you some awful things. I told you about a blindness and a hardness, and I don't want to leave you discouraged, and I don't want to leave you depressed. But, yet, in it shall be a test. and it shall return and shall be eaten, strange language, it shall return and shall be eaten as a teal tree and as an oak whose substance is in them when the tester leaves so the holy seed shall be the substance thereof. Paul said to the Roman church And I could say the very same thing as so could Joe. Hath God cast away his people? God forbid, for I also am an Israelite of the seed of Abraham, amen. You rather you rejoice it? I've got mine. Paul saying, has God cast away all his people? The first response of the Gentiles, if they were reading and be like the Bereans and dig deep, they would have said, brother Paul, It looks like God's finished with the Jewish people. So the first instance he's gonna say, even back then, way back then when Isaiah said that, and even today, no, no, he's not finished with his people. At the very first chapter that we studied in Isaiah, in the midst of his beginning to bring forth judgment, what did he say in the ninth verse? Except the Lord of hosts had left unto us a very small remnant, we should have been a Sodom. A very small remnant is left. Otherwise we should have been a Sodom. And then in the fourth chapter that we studied, in the third verse he said, and it shall come to pass that he that is left in Zion and he that remaineth in Jerusalem shall be called holy, even every one that is written among the living in Jerusalem. In other words, God's sovereign elective grace. He said, I'm not going, I said, I'm not going to, I'm not going to just do away with my people now. There's gonna be a small remnant, like this tree I want to tell you about. It's like this teal tree, it's very interesting, I did some research on it, like an oak. So you cut this tree, and you cut it down, have you ever seen, I pass by and I see sometimes they, they come along and they cut a tree almost down to the bottom. They come by about six months later, All of a sudden there's branches coming out of that dead tree that I thought was a dead tree. In fact, they have to put some kind of a tar or something on it to keep it dead. Now, Paul said in Romans 11.5, even so, at this present time also there's a remnant according to the election of grace, and that's what we had at the time of Isaiah. That little group went off to Babylonian captivity afterward. There we had the Daniels and the Meshachs. In Paul's day there was that remnant. In our day there's that remnant. It's been the same continually and God said it would happen. But what about this? It says about this remnant that it shall be eaten as a teal tree and as an oak whose substance is in them. Very interesting language. It'll be eaten. what we have here is an amazing prediction Isaiah like Daniel is looking ahead and he sees the Babylonian captivity and he sees the remnant come back and then he sees it eaten by the Assyrian kings in the Maccabees time and then he sees it coming back and then he sees it eaten again by the Romans in other words he is just teal tree, oak tree It's been cut, it's been devastated, it's been left desolate. But God says, I got a lemon in it. The key word is the substance, you see. The substance is that remnant, it's still in it. In other words, God still has his corporate people of the Jews, they're still there. Beside the Gentiles and all, he's got a substance left. Every time it comes up, it's sliced down. In our day, Nazi Germany killed, they say, six million Jews. should have been destroyed again, right? There's a seed, there's a holy seed in there somewhere. God's preserving the tree. He's preserving the whole tree, still. Because that tree of national Israel, that tree here can never be pictured as the whole church at all. But then you have to take the judgment against the whole church. He won't ever do that. So what a picture we're beginning to see here is going to unfold. There's a substance in them. And he predicts what's going to happen. And who knows? Who knows if not even in our day the Arabs will destroy the Jews again. But if they do, and many have talked about a holocaust coming about, you know how many times a lot of the prophecy people talked about the invasion and Armageddon and all, who knows? But I'm going to tell you this, if it happens, there's a substance in there, and it's never going to be destroyed. It's never going to be destroyed. The elect, now that's the elect, but let's carry it a little further, almost closing out. Now, this teal tree never dies. It never dies. It still has its root and it still has its body and it will bring forth over and over again branches, leaves and fruit and then there it is, it dies, it gets killed again. Now, this holy seed that's spoken of Maybe this holy seed, the number of elect, maybe folks, just maybe, will look upon him whom they pierced and they mourn over him and they receive him as Zachariah 12, 10, just maybe, let's not be dogmatic, maybe that teal tree representing the corporate nation, the ethnic Jew, Just maybe, Zechariah 12.10 is talking about a future, as many believe it is, but I'm not going to be dogmatic about it. And maybe they're going to look upon him whom they pierced and mourn and repent. And you know how it talks about each child going into his own place and mourning. The pastor likes to quote that verse, it's a great verse. And maybe this holy seed, when they cast their leaves, will be a great number. a great number. You see, these teal trees, every winter, the leaves would fall off. They'd wither. And they become desolate. You look at them and it looks like a dead tree. And then, they always had the substance still in them. And if that tree had the substance in its root, and it had to sap within it to come back up. God says, this tree that I'm telling you about, you're my people. I got a substance, a holy seed that's in them. And it's in the root. And in due time, in due time, it's going to come up. And it's going to be a lot of trees with big branches and many leaves and fruit. These teal trees brought forth fruit. And if you go back now and read those verses in Isaiah 32, 35, talking about something like that, isn't it? They're dead, they're desolate, and all of a sudden they come back. Well, in Isaiah 65, we're almost finished, I'll just keep you a little bit longer, then I'll give you the application of all this. In Isaiah 65, we have a picture this time of a grape, a cluster. But you can substitute this cluster for this teal tree. And Isaiah is telling the people through the Holy Spirit in verse 7, Thus saith the Lord, as the new wine is found in the cluster, and one saith, Destroy it not, for a blessing is in it. So will I do for my servants' sakes, that I might not destroy them all. And I will bring forth a seed out of Jacob. And we know that's the Lord Jesus Christ, first and foremost. And out of Judah an inheritor of my mountains, the Lord Jesus, and mine elect shall inherit it, and my servants shall dwell there. He pictures here the same kind of a picture. You know, three times it says in that parable, the husbandman comes at a landowner and says, you know this is not coming up too good. We're nourishing it, we're feeding it, and it's not bringing forth fruit. And the Lord says in his parable, well, he says, should I destroy it? He said, no, just go ahead one more time again, bring forth, nourish it and feed it and see what happens. He didn't tell us what the answer is going to be. He said one more time. We're still in that day of one more time. Well, we don't know what God has preserved for himself. Now I've given you much to think about because if I'm going to go through this book of Isaiah, faithfully and honestly. I cannot pass over verses I don't like. I've done the best I could. But how does all that I spoke about today apply to us? What's the application of all this to us today in our lives? Well, the first and foremost application is watch and pray fervently that none of us fall under this awful curse of blindness. Brothers and sisters, let the Lord send tribulations into our lives. Let him send afflictions, distresses, necessities, whatever need be. But oh my God, don't send blindness. There comes a day where people who today are called the people of God, just like they were called the people of God, the corporate body that represented the church today in many denominations. This is God's body, his church. Paul, in many places in his epistle, prophesized the same kind of a situation, that God would send a hardness and a blindness. You know what he said in Thessalonians. He warned them about a delusion, a strong delusion, he would send so they would believe the lie. We must be constantly in prayer and seeking to know the will of God and to know our hearts. But I always remember this and I'm really blessed as I go through this study because over and over again already in these first six chapters, over and over again, I've seen the tender appeals and the words of God that express divine compassion towards those who seem bent on their own room, bent on their own room. I'm amazed at how many warnings, how many prophets, you know how the Lord sent the man who owned the vineyard kept sending down his servants and he killed them all and then he sent his own son and he killed him. is the essence of long-suffering long-suffering, he suffers long over his people but come of the day where he said to these people before he called Isaiah and commissioned him to bring forth this word many a time he warned them and warned them and warned them and was long-suffering with them to turn away from their wicked ways but praise be to God for his marvelous grace as we've seen it in this last verse. Because God overrules sin and unbelief. He overrules it. As he said, and Paul could not say it in any better way than he did in Romans 11 verses 2 through 6 about this incredible grace of God. He says to them in verse 2, God hath not cast away his people, which he foreknew. What is not what the scriptures sayeth of Isaiah of Elias, how he maketh intercession to God against Israel, saying, Lord, they have killed thy prophets, and eat down thine altars, and I am left all alone, and they seek my life. But what sayeth the answer of God unto him? I have reserved to myself seven thousand men, who have not bowed, the knee to the image of Baal. Even so then, at this present time, also there is a remnant according to the election of grace. And if by grace, then it is no more of works. Otherwise, grace is no more grace. But if it be of works, then it is no more grace. Otherwise, work is no more work. Brethren and sisters, if you sit here today and I stand here, and I haven't been blinded and my ears have not become dull, and my heart did not become fat like grease. It is nothing but the grace and mercy of God. Because I would be exactly where I was 20 years ago, dead in my trespasses and sins. Utterly dead except for the distinguishing grace and mercy of a loving God. So on one hand we're to be mourned As Jude said, let not us turn the grace of our Lord into lasciviousness, a warning. We've got this grace, let's be careful we don't take it as a liberty to sin. Be presumptuous on God, because the Jews were presumptuous on God in that day. The Lord knoweth them that are his, and he will save them by his grace, and this is encouraging. God's nature and ways, this is the third application I want to make. His nature and ways are a depth that we can see. We could see the immensity of the ways of God being deep, but how deep it is, we cannot see. For who hath known the mind of the Lord, or who hath been his counselor? Paul's final response to all this discussion from verse nine through 11 of the Jews, he just said, who hath known the mind of the Lord, or who hath been his counselor? For of him and through him and to him are all things to whom be glory forever. Amen. In response to these mysterious ways and these unanswered scriptures, who has given counsel to God? Of him and through him and to him are all things. And let us just do one thing. Let's just give glory to God and never forget that the Lord is righteous in all His ways and holy in all His works. Brother Robert, you close it.