442, 443 on footsteps of the Messiah. And we're again looking at the millennial reign and the messianic kingdom and different aspects of it. We talked about the highway in the desert last week and all the implications of that. Anyone have any questions, just feel free to ask. No, there's a literal highway that Isaiah predicts. It is a literal highway, but it has spiritual, if you wanna say applications or implications. And so what we call that is a typology with a physical object. And you'll see typologies with a physical object, even in the Old Testament. I'll give you an example, Noah's Ark. Real Ark, right? But what's the typology of Noah's Ark? What does that wood boat represent? It represents being in the Messiah, being saved in the Messiah. The ark represents Messiah. How do you get into the ark? Through the window? How many doors did God put on the ark? Only one. And then he closed it, right? There's only one door. How many ways of salvation? Right? So even in physical objects, you will see typologies. If you ever studied the tabernacle on your own, the tabernacle, Moses' tabernacle, full of typologies, full of them. I mean, all over the place, it's the picture of the Messiah all over, whether you're dealing with the colors, whether you're dealing with the silver or the brass or the gold, whether you're dealing with the menorah. What's the menorah stand for? What's the typology of the menorah? Jesus Christ is what? The light of the world. Why is it, what, what? Okay, on the menorah, what are the branches, what is it supposed to symbolize? What branch of a tree is it? Olive? Almond. Almond. Why almonds? Why is it an almond? It's true, they bloom first, right? Almond tree, you're right. The almonds bloom first of any tree, right? It's the first fruits. But what else? Keep going. What's the almond tree? What did an almond limb do in Moses' day? For who? Aaron's rod to prove he's the high priest. Aaron's rod buds. It's an almond stick, but then it buds and then produces almonds, right? Produces fruit, okay? So that becomes A pitcher for what? Is it in the ark? Or was it in the ark? Aaron's rod was put in the ark. What else was put in the ark? The Ten Commandments, the law. And what else is in the ark? Manna. So three, manna, Aaron's rod that budded, the law. Okay, tell me then the menorah is shaped in the form, the branches of the menorah are shaped in almond branches. Why almond branches? You mentioned it buds first. It has to do with Aaron's rod budding. What's that a picture of? Any idea? Almonds represent something. They're the first ones that sprout their blooms. First fruit, and what is that a picture of? What's first fruits? What happened on first fruits? Right, Messiah was resurrected on first fruits. Oh, so Aaron's rod represents the resurrection of the Messiah? Yes, Aaron's rod represents the resurrection of the Messiah. What's the man represent? It's bread from heaven. But what did Messiah say about himself? I come down from heaven. You must eat my body or eat my flesh. I am the true bread of life. I am the true manna. So the manna represents Messiah. Aaron's rod represents Messiah's resurrection. What is the broken tablets in the Ark of the Covenant represent? The law and why are they broken? Not that, but it's that the law was broken. Remember, Moses smashed him. But it represents that we broke the law. We broke the law. Messiah didn't break the law, we broke the law. Lid, mercy seat covered with what? Blood. So when God looks down, he looks through the blood, he sees the provision of the Messiah, he sees the resurrection of the Messiah, and he sees the broken laws of Messiah fulfilled. So the picture of the tabernacle is a picture of Messiah and what he did and accomplished for us. So back to what Tom's question is about the road, the highway in the millennial. So as the precedent, as you can see in the Old Testament, even the physical objects could point to a final typology. The ark points to the Messiah, the tabernacle, the ark of the covenant, everything pointed to Messiah. And then, When you get to the millennium, there are pictures of the Messiah even in the millennium. And one of the pictures of the Messiah is the highway, the millennial highway that we talked about last week. It is a real road that will be made in the millennium. But that road is a typology to the anti-type, which is the Messiah himself. He is the only way. He is the road back to God. He is the ray of salvation. I am the way, the truth, and the life. And so does that make sense, Tom, that it's not a spiritualization, it's an application of the typology. It points to something spiritual, which is Messiah himself. But it is a real highway, no doubt about it. Can you think of any other things that are real in the Old Testament, an object, but then point it to something fulfilled in the Messiah. How about Moses' staff? Do you know anything about Moses' staff? One time he was told, I need you, everyone's getting bit by snakes, I need you to put the staff up there and I want a bronze serpent wrapped around it and I want everyone to look to that. It's the cross. What is the snake on there for? What does the snake symbolize? or evil or sin, right? Sin in the garden. So the serpent on the pole that Moses stood up, it's a bronze serpent. What did Jesus become on the cross? He became sin, it says. He took on sin. He took on sin for us. Not that he sinned, I'm not saying that, but the scriptures will say he took on sin. Paul will say he became sin for us. Not that he sinned, but he took it on, is the theological understanding. He himself is taking the punishment sinful man or a serpent sin on for to himself even though he's innocent so he becomes that and so he becomes the bronze serpent he told him that to Nicodemus right so you'll see all kinds of physical things pointing to spiritual realities and I think when you study typologies from a Hebrew standpoint man you really get a good picture of what's going on there I know, right? Yeah, you got it. You nailed it. That's exactly what's happening. Everything in the millennium is pointing backwards. So what we're getting ready to study in the next few weeks is you'll see the millennial temple. And you're thinking, why do we need a millennial temple? Messiah's there, but yet he builds a millennial temple. But it's always pointing back. So when you're in the millennium, you look backwards, whereas we are, well, we look backwards too, right? To the cross. We still look forward to the kingdom, but once you're in the kingdom, everything is behind you. And so when you look at the millennial temple, the millennial temple will shout, scream, Messiah, Messiah, Messiah. It just reverberates. Whereas with Moses, everything pointed forward, he's coming, and this is what a picture of what he looks like comes. So it's just kind of like this thing. So Tom, you're right on target. That's exactly the way you should look at it. It looks backwards. That's a good point. That's a good point. But it would be true, though, in that time that Messiah is the only way of salvation, too, even in the Millennial Kingdom. That theme would continue on, obviously. Any other questions about that? I know that's kind of, when you get into typology, you can get kind of, it gets a little hairy a little bit. But even people will be typologies, right? David, Moses, Joseph, all of them are typologies. Cain and Abel, what's that a typology of? Where's Messiah in Cain and Abel? Can you see Messiah in Cain and Abel's story? Abel's Messiah. Cain is who? Oh, the religious leaders, really. Who killed, who sent Jesus to his death? It was religious leaders. Cain kills Abel. It's a picture of the religious leaders killing the Messiah. Right? You can see, you start looking at these stories and everything points forward to Messiah. Just like Joseph, right? Moses, Exodus. Going to the Red Sea represents baptism. Leaving Egypt represents salvation, deliverance. Wandering in the desert represents spiritual immaturity. You're saved, but you're still immature. Crossing Jordan represents crossing the threshold into spiritual maturity. Fighting in the promised land represents your spiritual fight in maturity. It's constant. It's constant theology being taught in the stories in a typological way. Anyway, we got to go on to the joy and gladness in Isaiah 51 3. Let's read that real quick on 442. For Yahweh has comforted Zion. He has comforted all her waste places and has made her wilderness like Eden and her desert like the garden of Yahweh. joy and gladness those the two hallmarks of the millennial kingdom shall be found therein thanksgiving and the voice of melody now here's the deal you see this term joy gladness righteousness holiness peace security those are all things actually you can have now even though there will be a in the environment as a staple of the environment, you actually can have and experience these personally in your life. They're the fruit of the Spirit a lot of times, okay? So let's take the issue of joy. How many Christians do you actually know have joy? Two people, maybe? Yeah. Right? And here's the question. Because only two have joy, which is accurate, Why are so many people, so many Christians missing joy? If this is the hallmark of the fruit of the spirit, and it's a hallmark of obviously the millennial kingdom, and peace, right? Oh, we love to have, I'm not talking about just a fake peace, I'm talking shalom peace, a real, real, real peace that you feel between you and God, you and your brothers and sisters in the Lord. Why is that so elusive? I talk to Christians, they say, I don't know what joy you're talking about. I don't feel anything like that. Well, yeah, and so if it just stops at salvation, then yes, you got into the club, so to speak, but you really haven't experienced the abundant life, and the abundant life is the life of maturity, and there's supposed to be joy found in that. One of the things I'll preach on when we're in Genesis next Sunday is, okay, One of the elements of really fulfilling what God wants you to do is you have to have purpose in life. And I'm not talking about purpose like, hey, I have a job. I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about a purpose that Yahweh, that Jesus wants you to do, that you have to be on task about what he wants you to do. Now, if you're building your own kingdom and you're doing your own thing, that's great. Now, his task will include your job and include your life and all this other stuff that you're doing. There's no doubt about that. He's not separating your life out from itself. But I'm saying is, you have to have a purpose that's on the, the point that God wants you to be on. You have to be doing what He wants you to do. If you're not, you will struggle with joy. You will struggle with that very issue because you're not on task. And that task, when you're on task, you'll go through your job, you'll go through life, but you're on task all the time. But the minute you're off task, you'll go through life, but you're off task. And you know when you're off task. You know when you're not doing what you're supposed to be doing. And when you're off task, you lose joy. Because you're made in order to obey the creator. And it's not just simply the rules of do's and don'ts. It's simply, I have a will for your life, and I need you to stay on that path for your life. And the minute you get off of that path, you won't have any joy. So when a Christian tells me that in counseling, I don't have any joy, I know they're off the path. And I usually ask them, okay, let me ask you this question. What are you doing for the Lord? What do you do in your personal life for the Lord in service to Him? Well, I go to church, yeah. Go to Bible study, yeah, okay. It's good. But no, I'm talking about service. What do you do for Him? That's your duty. It's just to go to church. I mean, if you think that's service, you're fooling yourself just to go to church. What are you doing in your personal life? And, you know, I'm a real busy pastor and I'm working like $100 a week and, you know, I got a lot of kids and they're busy. I got it. I got kids too. But at some point, if you're looking for that elusive thing of joy, you better get on track. because you're not going to have any if you keep doing what you're doing. And sometimes they get it, sometimes they don't, man. And it's not about leaving your job and going on the mission field. It's not about that. It's that, are you using your job, everything for the mission that you're supposed to be on? And once you do that, you'll find that, OK, man, I feel good about this. I feel joy. And it's not happiness, because happiness is based on circumstances. Joy is, I'm fulfilling the will of God, and I know it. And so that's how the millennial kingdom be, but you actually can experience that right now in the abundant life. And so I want to put that out there for you. Anyway, it continues on in Isaiah 55, 12, the same things, this joy and peace. For you shall go out with joy and be led forth with peace or shalom, which is very elusive to have shalom. The mountains and the hills shall break forth before you into scene and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands instead of the thorn. What's that a reference to? Anytime you see thorn, Where do thorns come from? The curse. Jesus wore a crown of thorns. Anytime he says, no more thorn, which means I'm removing the curse. shall come upon the fir tree, and instead the briar shall come up the myrtle tree. And it shall be to Yahweh for a name, for an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off." Basically a public display, what Isaiah is talking about, of the glory and blessing of Israel. That's what he's talking about there. Last one in 61, it says this, I will greatly rejoice in Yahweh, my soul shall be joyful in my God, for He has clothed me with the garments of salvation. That's an interesting term, I'll talk about that in just a second. He has covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decks himself with a garland, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels. For as the earth brings forth its bud, and the garden causes the things that are sown in it to spring forth, so the Lord Yahweh will cause righteousness and praise to spring forth before all the nations. Obviously it's a reference to Israel, but notice what it's saying. It's saying that the garments of salvation or the robe of righteousness will be put upon the nation of Israel because they're all saved. Okay? So we talked about that before. The whole nation is saved at this point in time. And so they wear those garments of salvation robe of righteousness. Okay. Personal application. There are two clothings that you can receive. The first one is the robes of righteousness that Isaiah right here in 61 is talking about. The garments of salvation that you get upon accepting Yahweh or accepting Messiah as your Lord and Savior. So you will wear that clothing. It's the garments of salvation. But then when you jump into the New Testament, a nuance starts happening and we start seeing that there's an outer tunic or an outer garment that's available conditionally on those who deserve rewards. And you can see this in Revelation 19.18, which is a different garment. Let me read it real quick for you. And to her, it was granted to be arrayed in fine linen, clean and bright. For the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints. You notice that? There's two garments. One represents the righteous acts of the saints. Isaiah says, so the garment of salvation that gets put on you. So the garment of salvation is an automatic. If you come to faith in Messiah, you get the garment of salvation, the garment of righteousness. But, If you do enough in your life to earn rewards, you get the garments of rewards. So kind of like an outer tunic on top of the garment of salvation, if you want to think in those terms. So, well, you know, I've talked to you guys about rewards and stuff. Bottom line this, Brandon, about rewards. The rewards are given to believers, and I don't want to get into specifics, because there's tons of specifics. but are given to believers who go the second mile. That's their main issue. And then the particulars are laid out in Revelation 2 and 3 and all over the epistles. But the main principle you have to think about is you only get rewarded if you have to sacrifice something of your life. You must become a living sacrifice, pleasing to the Lord. The problem with a living sacrifice is they tend to crawl off the altar. Because they're living, right? They don't stay dead. They get up there, okay, go for it. And didn't they say, I don't like this and I'm getting off. Because they're living sacrifices, right? They get off. Well, Mike the headless chicken, right? He supposedly is dead. I will change his name, not to Mike, that gives a bad connotation. But the idea is then, okay, so my service to the Lord must then cost me something. What do you mean cost me something? Well, you must somehow give up something in your life in order to serve Messiah. You must give up time, you must give up energy, you must give up something that maybe you want to do for him. You must give up something in your lifestyle. So now you start seeing, oh, okay, I see the game that's being played. This is why very few people will be rewarded because they're not willing to give up things in their life. They just won't sacrifice it. And my challenge to you when you read this is you want those robes. You want those rewards because those rewards are pretty, pretty important. If they weren't, he wouldn't mention it. He says, behold, I come and my what is with me. Reward okay, that's important. Why does he name that because they're big deal man. It's the currency of heaven It's the currency of the Millennial Kingdom, and if you don't have that currency man It's not a good thing to be you'll be considered least in the kingdom of heaven and no one wants to be considered least in the kingdom of heaven Cleaning toilets and picking up gum off the sidewalk. You just don't want to do that I've had people tell me, you know, Brandon, it just, you know, I can't do it because man, I'm real tired and my job makes me tired. And I'm like, yeah, we're all tired, dude. We're all tired. I think you remember, see that quote by Winston Churchill that the world is run by tired men and women, I would say. But I wanted to say to this millennial, I said, I don't know if you know what life is like, but we're all tired. We are not getting enough sleep and we're all dragging. But you know what we do? We gut it out. We pick ourselves up and we go to work and we do what we do. And yeah, I'm tired probably 95% of the time. I could take a nap in an instant. And the guy just looked at me and said, oh, I thought that you've got to feel fresh and 100% to do life. And I said, I don't know what world you live in. We're all dragging. We're all tired. And if you have kids, we're all ultra tired. So my thing to you is here's what's going to have to happen. You're going to have to gut it through. You're just going to have to gut it through, even though you're tired, you don't feel like it, you just got to gut it because it's the second mile gut that gets the reward. Oh yeah. Oh, you really want to mess people up, don't you? This will really, really affect you. When you actually, what he's talking about, and I think I shared it with our Sunday school class, when you do the calculations of how much time you actually have per week to do anything you want to do. Okay, anything you want to do, it's all yours within a seven day period, 24 hours a day, okay? Now you have to factor in sleep and eating and all that stuff that you have to take that out, because that's what you have to do. Getting kids ready, taking the car to the shop, all that stuff. Per week, on average, each individual gets about 15 hours per week, per week. that you can do anything you want with those 15 hours. How you spend those 15 hours, believe it or not, is what's gonna get you your rewards. Because you're not getting rewards for sleeping. You know what I mean? You're just not gonna get that, right? So you can sleep all day long all you want, but you're not gonna get a reward for that. You're not gonna get rewards for eating either. I'm just gonna tell you that too. Right? I know I'm stating the obvious, but people don't really think through this because it shows you, you don't have much time to serve. So you're given about 15 hours a week to do anything you want to do. Okay. And so you get to spend them however you want because others, the other stuff, you got to go to work, you got to get the kids fed, you got to get them down. You just got to do duties. You just, that's part of life, right? And duty, we're got to recall, doesn't get rewarded. Duty is your duty. And there's a parable about that, that he gave about these slaves working in the field, and when they come in, he says, hey man, don't expect a reward. And I'm paraphrasing, he goes, just simply say, we have done our duty. You don't get rewards for duties, is his point. You only get rewards for how you're gonna spend those 15 hours per week in going the second mile. Now, if you're using those 15 hours a week, and you're using it for His purposes. I'm not saying you have to use all the 15 hours. I mean, you gotta have, you know, your own fun or whatever built into that, whatever. What I'm saying is, that's really all you have. And that's shocking to people. I only have 15 hours a week to do what I need to do for the Lord? Yeah, just about. If you choose to do Frisbee golf, well, that's gonna cut into it. That's fine, you can do Frisbee golf. And I do, you know, occasional hobbies as well. And you need to have your outlets. I'm not saying don't have your hobbies. I'm saying have your hobbies, but there's gotta be a portion of that 15 hours you've got to somehow figure out how you're gonna serve the Lord. There's got to be there. It could be two, three hours, whatever, four hours, whatever it is. Yeah, that's right. Absolutely. And so, We're not saying all your life doesn't count. We're saying as you do your life, because the Great Commission is, I know it says in the English, go, but it's as you're going, is the way the Greek is formed, is as you're going through your normal life, be mindful of doing the Great Commission. Right, it does, through life. So if I'm going to the grocery store, I know what Jim's gonna do at the grocery store. Right, and then, so Carol's sitting there waiting for him. And you know what Jim's doing, he's witnessing to the clerk. I know what he's doing, right? And slows things down, but he's doing that. Yeah, it slows her 15 hours and she wants to do something else. And Jim's witnessing, God bless him, and Jim's gonna get that crown. But that's what I'm talking about. It's not means you stop and become a missionary, it's just as I'm going about my daily life, I do the Great Commission. Now what's the Great Commission? Is it just simply evangelism? No, what does it include? I'm making disciples along with it, right? So it's not just simply evangelism. I could do evangelism and I've got to be making disciples at the same time to be balanced. And if you do that in your normal course of life, watch, the joy will hit you. You'll get that peace, the shalom, and then you'll be rewarded because you're going the extra mile. So the extra mile a gym at the store is he's taking some of his time he could be using to walk the dog or whatever, but he is using that to further the gospel. So that's good.