Let's pray together as we come to the scripture. Our gracious and merciful God, we come again before you at that time in our service where we read and hear your word as it's preached. And we pray, O God, that you, for the sake of your own name and for the good of our own souls, that you would work in our midst in such a way that by the hearing of the word of Christ, faith would come to our hearts through hearing. Indeed, might we not be like those to whom you stretched out your hand all day long and were found to be disobedient and obstinate people. We would pray, oh God, that you would soften our hearts by your spirit and nourish them by your gospel. So bringing us to faith and trust in the Lord Jesus alone for our salvation, for the forgiveness of sins, for the promise and the pledge of everlasting life. Each of us left to him or herself is found in Adam deaf and disinterested in the things of Christ. and even antagonistic to them. Oh, we would pray, oh God, that you would not find in any here today an evil or unbelieving heart. But make us believing. And for those who believe, help us in our unbelief. Use your word this day. to press us back to Christ, and to have great confidence in our confession of him and him alone. God, we ask all these things for your praise and for our good. We ask them in Jesus' name. Amen. Well, if you would take your copy of the Word of God and turn with me to the book of Isaiah. Isaiah 65. Isaiah 65, beginning in verse 1. We have, these past several Lord's Days, been working through several large sections of the book of Isaiah. And we have another large section, probably the largest section that we've looked at in recent weeks before us today in Isaiah 65 and 66. But to kind of sum up in brief, we have seen back in chapter 62 the Lord God calling upon his people to plead with him for the well-being of the church. He has called upon us to sit as it were as watchmen on a wall and bring the Lord to remembrance of the promises that he has made to his church. We might think of it in terms of the Lord's Prayer where Jesus commands us to pray in this way, Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. We should on a regular basis, we are commanded by Christ. We are commanded by his word to be putting him in remembrance that he would make Jerusalem the praise of all the earth. That he would make Mount Zion to be the highest of all the mountains and summon the nations to her to worship and to give God glory. We've seen in Isaiah 63 and 64, last Lord's Day, we saw an example of the kind of prayer that pleads with God to rend the heavens and come down and descend upon the church and descend upon the world and judge the wicked and rescue the saints. Today we see in Isaiah 65 and 66 the answer to that prayer. So prayer has been commanded, prayer has been offered, and here in 65 and 66 Isaiah catches a vision of what the answer to that prayer will look like. I want you to be thinking in those kinds of terms as we read through this section. I want to go ahead and read the whole of the section, these two chapters, to you, with you, as we begin this morning under this general idea of the prayer for Jerusalem answered. Isaiah 65 1 through 66 24. God begins and says, 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 my name. I have 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 the 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 scorned me on the hills, therefore I will measure their former work into their bosoms. 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 and the Valley of Acre 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 who fill cups with mixed 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 servant will eat, but you will be hungry. Behold, my servant 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. And 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 100. and the one who does not reach the age of 100 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 the offspring those blessed by the lord and their descendants with them i will also come 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 the dust will be the serpent's food, and they will do no evil or harm in all my holy mountain, says the Lord. Thus says the Lord. Heaven is my throne and earth is my footstool. Where then is a house that you could build for me? Or where is a place that I may rest? For my hand made all these things. Thus all these things came into being, declares the Lord. But to this one I will look, to him who is humble and contrite of spirit and who trembles at my word. But he who kills an ox is like one who slays a man. He who sacrifices a lamb is like the one who breaks a dog's neck. He who offers a grain offering is like one who offers swine's blood. He who burns incense is like the one who blesses an idol, as they have chosen their own ways and their soul delights in their abominations. So I will choose their punishments, and I will bring on them what they dread. because I called and no one answered. I spoke, but they did not listen, and they did evil in my sight and chose that in which I did not delight. Hear the word of the Lord, you who tremble at his word. Your brothers who hate you, who exclude you from my namesake have said, let the Lord be glorified that we may see your joy, but they will be put to shame. a voice of uproar from the city, a voice from the temple, the voice of the Lord who is rendering recompense to his enemies. Before she travailed, she brought forth. Before her pain came, she gave birth to a boy. Who has heard such a thing? Who has seen such a thing? Can a land be born in one day? Can a nation be brought forth all at once? As soon as Zion travailed, she brought forth her sons. Shall I bring to the point of birth and not give delivery, says the Lord, or shall I who gives delivery shut the womb, says your God? Be joyful with your Jerusalem. and rejoice for her all you who love her be exceedingly glad with her all you who mourn over her that you may nurse and be satisfied with her comforting breasts that you may suck and be delighted with her bountiful bosom for thus says the lord behold i extend peace to her like a river and the glory of the nations like an overflowing stream and you will be nursed you will be carried on the hip and fondled on the knees, as one whom his mother comforts, so I will comfort you, and you will be comforted in Jerusalem. Then you will see this, and your heart will be glad, and your bones will flourish like the new grass, and the hand of the Lord will be made known to his servants. But he will be indignant toward his enemies. For behold, the Lord will come in fire and his chariots like the whirlwind to render his anger with fury and his rebuke with flames of fire. For the Lord will execute judgment by fire and by his sword on all flesh, and those slain by the Lord will be many. Those who sanctify and purify themselves to go to the gardens following one in the center who eats swine's flesh, detestable things, and mice will come to an end altogether, declares the Lord. For I know their works and their thoughts. The time is coming to gather all nations and tongues, and they shall come and see my glory. I will set a sign among them and will send survivors from them to the nations. Tarsius, put Lud, Meshach, Tubal, and Javan to the distant coastlands that have neither heard my fame nor seen my glory. And they will declare my glory among the nations. And then they shall bring all your brethren from all the nations as a grain offering to the Lord on horses, in chariots, in litters, on mules, and on camels to my holy mountain Jerusalem. says the Lord. Just as the sons of Israel bring their grain offering in a clean vessel to the house of the Lord, I will also take some of them for priests and for Levites, says the Lord. For just as the new heavens and the new earth which I make will endure before me, declares the Lord, so your offspring and your name will endure. and it shall be from new moon to new moon and from sabbath to sabbath all mankind will come to bow down before me says the lord then they will go forth and they will look they will look on the corpses of the men who have transgressed against me for their worm will not die and their fire will not be quenched and they will be an abhorrence to all mankind. Oh, may God bless the reading of his word. If you would look in your bulletin today, starting on page nine, while your minds are still somewhat fresh, and we've just begun, we've read. I want to take you through a series of kind of some little charts that I've put together here for you and I hope these will prove helpful. Try not to look at all of them at once. So let's just start together on page nine. You've seen this before. This is the broad overview of Isaiah 56 through 66. We have As we've moved through the book of Isaiah, we've shown the book of Isaiah to be broken up into three major sections, chapter 1 to 39, that focus on the state of the nation of Judah, primarily there in those first 39 chapters under their various kings, Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah. When we came to chapter 40 and we made our way through Isaiah chapter 55, this is where we saw the work of the suffering servant who would one day come and be a redeemer for his people and rescue them. And then in Isaiah 56 through 66, we saw God's future plan, if you will, for the nations of the world, that he was going to gather them in some kind of a worldwide harvest and bring them to his holy mountain. And at the center of this diagram we've kind of laid out for you here, you see letter F, chapter 61, verses 1 to 11, we saw that the work of bringing in this worldwide harvest is the work of the Messiah. It is by the anointed Messiah or the anointed one, the anointed servant of God, He is the one who would bring about this end-time work. And we've noticed in 56 to 66, in this little chart we have here, we've noticed that Isaiah works in what we call a chiastic structure. In other words, he starts at one point, and he begins to work his way to kind of a central thought, and then he works his way back out. And you can notice here in the chart the letters A and B and C and D and on down to F. This is the way he works his way in to talking about the Messiah. He discusses first the gathering of a worldwide harvest. And then he lays out God's demand for righteousness. God calls for justice. He calls for righteousness. But we see that there is no justice and there is no righteousness. In fact, man is full of sin. And due to this sin, we see here in letter C in chapter 59, that there is a separation caused by sin. Sin has made a disconnect between us and our God. God looks on the world and he sees the plight of man. He sees the situation, has no one on the earth to intervene. So God himself comes. He extends his own arm to rescue his people. He comes as the warrior king in chapter 59, verses 15 through 21. And then we see, getting to this central section in chapter 60 and 61 and 62, we see that the bride, the church, is being prepared and the Messiah is coming to wed his bride and to marry her and rescue her. And then these same themes take us back out. We have another image of God as a warrior king coming in chapter 63. We see again separation caused by sin in 63 and 64. We see God demanding righteousness, and this is part of the section that we just read through, this call for righteousness. But men are constantly seen as gravitating toward evil, as as gravitating toward false worship, as going astray from God, God holding out his hand all day long to a disobedient and obstinate people. And then we find in the very end of chapter 66, God gathering in again this worldwide harvest. If you look over on the next page, page 10, We see the structure of Isaiah 65 to 66, and this whole section we've entitled, The Prayer for Jerusalem, is answered. On the main overview of these chapters, we separated 65 and 66 under the headings of the Divine Demand for Righteousness and the Gathering of a Worldwide Harvest. And that's kind of the broad outline I've been going with now for several months. And as we've gotten closer, what I want to do with these two chapters is I want to put them together. I want to kind of press in and see what it is God is doing by way of answering this prayer for Jerusalem, and it seems best to take these two chapters and consider them together. And what we notice again, as we come into these two chapters, is that Isaiah does it again. Isaiah just seems to think in this patterned way of thinking. He works his way into a point, and then he works his way back out of a point. And he seems to do this over and over again throughout the book. It's not just in 56 to 66 that we see this. We saw this in chapter 1 through chapter 55 several times. But he seems to do it a lot toward the end. Let me see if I can just walk you through these two chapters and show you kind of where we're going to go. In the beginning of chapter 65, in verses 1 to 7, we find the twin themes that are contrasting themes of mercy and judgment. Now, if you jump down to the bottom of that little chart, you'll see in chapter 66, verses 14c through 24, the themes of mercy and judgment again, but when we come there, they're juxtaposed, they're switched. It's not mercy and then judgment. He talks first about judgment, then about mercy. Secondly, in the chapter, in chapter 65, verses 8 to 10, we find God welcoming to himself his chosen servants. He brings us in, as it were. And then, letter B, Down toward the bottom of the chart there you see 65 verses 5 through 14 b we find the welcome again But it's not the welcome of the chosen servants of the lord. It's the welcome of the newborn sons of zion It's just kind of how they're described But everybody's not welcome, you know, there might be a sign that says welcome here, but everybody's not welcome That call that draws men into Christ, what we sometimes refer to as an effectual call that affects the summons itself, all are not welcome. In fact, many are to be excluded. And in chapter 65 and verses 11 to 12, we find the exclusion of the slaughtered. We find a group of people who have been engaging in false worship. They've been eating at times, it says in here a couple of times, swine's flesh. There are people that are going through the external motions of religion, but it's false and it's just an external kind of obedience. And they will be led one day, God says, to the slaughter. And then in chapter 66, verses 3 to 4, we find the same thing, but they're pointed out to be idolaters. This is the exclusion of the idolaters. And then letter D, right at the heart. Right in the middle, this is what he's really pressing into for the chapter, for the section. Chapter 65, beginning in verse 13, through chapter 66, verse 2, this is life in the new creation and the new city. We're probably most familiar, are we not, with the new heavens and the new earth when we read the book of Revelation. But the new heaven and the new earth that John sees in the book of Revelation are written about by the prophet Isaiah at two different points in Isaiah 65 and 66 in our text. And at the heart here in verses 13, 65-13 through 66-2, we see that God has created something new. Remember we've been praying since 62 7 we've been praying for God to do what to make Jerusalem the praise of all the earth and now we see he is answering that prayer and he is making a new heaven and a new earth and a new Jerusalem Does that sound familiar? That's exactly what we see in the book of revelation, isn't it? And in the book of Revelation, Revelation chapter 21 and 22, we see what? We see this glorious city, this glorious city with walls and with gates and with multitudes from the nations being welcomed in, welcomed in as the servants of the Lord, welcomed in as the newborn sons of Zion. But we also see what? Many excluded that are not allowed into the city. Because remember, nothing unholy can enter the city. Outside, it says several times there at the end of Revelation, outside are the dogs, the cowardly, the unbelieving, the wicked are excluded. But everything in the city, as the psalmist would say, everything cries glory. Well, this is what's happening over these two chapters, I believe. Now, I want us to look a little more closely for just a moment at God's creation of this new creation and this new city. And so if you're still with me on these charts here, we're on the third one. This is the last one. That's the good news, I suppose. I've tried to kind of do this before without putting them in the bulletin. And last time we tried to do this, I remember I wanted you to make kind of a triangle, all right? So we're starting at the bottoms, left and right, working our way to the top. And I think I said a pyramid. I had several people bring me drawings of a pyramid after we were done. It was really difficult to get that three-dimensional pyramid in there. I just say pyramid. I'm really thinking triangle. But here I thought we'd just draw this out for you and hopefully this is helpful. You can maybe tear these out and I'd say stick them in your Bible because it'll take us several weeks to get through to the end. We're almost at the end, but we're not quite there. All right. So maybe you're asking me sometimes, Pastor, are we home yet? Almost, we're almost there. So look a little closer with me here at Isaiah 65 verse 17 through 66 verse 2. Now there is a sense in which Isaiah 65 verses 13 through 16 also belong with this new creation, this new city, but we'll talk about that at a later day when we get there. The real focus of it is in verses 17 through chapter 66 verse 2. This is what characterizes the new Jerusalem. When we're praying for God to make Jerusalem the praise of all the earth, what are we asking for? What's it going to look like when we get there? And the Lord, through the prophet Isaiah, gives us a little glimpse of what this new creation and this new city will look like. He starts off in chapter 65, verse 17, and gives a picture of renewal. In other words, behold, I create new heavens and a new earth. Things are made new. And down in chapter 66 in verses one and two, this is where God says, I made all these things. God has renewed the whole of creation. We might say with Peter that we are looking for a new creation, a new heaven, a new earth in which righteousness dwells. It doesn't just visit there. It doesn't just come by in passing and go somewhere else. No, it dwells there. It's a renewed creation. Secondly, in chapter 65, verses 18 and 19, and then again in chapter 65, verses 24 and 25, we find this is going to be a place that is safe. No longer will be heard in this city weeping, mourning. You might think, for example, the book of Revelation, when it says in the new heaven and the new earth, death will what? Death will be gone. No tears will be there. You've probably already shed several tears this morning for various things. There is coming a day, friend, when every tear will be dry. He says in chapter 65, verses 24 and 25, that nothing evil, nothing harmful will ever come into God's holy mountain. It is a safe place. We see in chapter 65 and verse 20, and also chapter 65 and verses 22b through 23, that there's the idea here of longevity. It gives this imagery of longevity by talking about how long people are going to live, like unimaginably long kinds of lives. The youth that dies at the age of 100, one who doesn't reach the age of 100, is thought to be accursed. In other words, everything is elongated in this new kind of creation. It says later, as the lifetime of a tree, so will be the days of my people. My chosen ones will wear out the work of their hands. Longevity. And finally, in verses 21 and 22a, the first part of that, there's a picture of permanence. They will build houses and they will inhabit them. They will also plant vineyards and they will eat their fruit. They will not build and another inhabit. They will not plant and another eat. You don't just do the labor and the work, you actually get to enjoy in this new creation the fruit of it all. You stay, you remain, there's a sense. permanence. Now we'll see more of that as we kind of move through the whole of the passage over the coming weeks, but I just want you to kind of get a glimpse, a vision of where things are going. The new creation, the new city, the new Jerusalem is central to both chapters. It is the answer that God is making to the prayers of his people for Jerusalem. What I want to do in the time we have today is to take you back to chapter 65. Now, if you're looking through the outline that I provided for you there in the bulletin on page 12, there is a comment here about context, bookends, and core. Now we've already talked about the bookends. The bookends are chapter 65 verses 1 to 7 and chapter 66 verses 14c through 24. These pictures of mercy and judgment or judgment and mercy. This whole imagery of how God is going to come and bring in this worldwide harvest to the exclusion of some and the salvation of others. That's kind of the bookend for the entire section. The core is there in chapter 65, verse 13 through 66 too, and that's about the new creation and the new city. But what is this Isaiah 1 and 2? I want to take you back to the very beginning of the book of Isaiah for just a moment. In truth, we didn't need to wait until Isaiah 62, verse 7, where God says, give him no rest until he makes Jerusalem the praise of all the earth. We didn't need to wait till we got to chapter 62 to see that God was doing something that was going to make all things new. In fact, way back in the beginning of the book of Isaiah, in Isaiah chapters 1 and chapter 2, we see the initial disclosure of what is called in chapter 1, verse 1, the vision of Isaiah. And when we come to the book of Isaiah, if I was to ask you, where is the vision of Isaiah? You would probably say, Isaiah chapter 6. That's where Isaiah goes in the temple, right? In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord high and lifted up, and the train of his robe was filling the temple, and the seraphim were there flying, each having six wings. With two he covered his face, with two he covered his feet, with two that he flew, and they all said, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come. The whole earth is full of his glory." I mean, we love Isaiah 6. It's just a great Text and truly Isaiah 6 is a vision that Isaiah receives in the year that King Uzziah died Seeing the Lord high and lifted up in his glory filling the temple But in fact we could say Isaiah has been seeing things for a long time And we might say that in the pejorative today. You're just seeing things. All right, but Isaiah truly is seeing things and In fact, the entirety of the book of Isaiah, 66 chapters, is a massive vision, a prophetic vision that God gives to Isaiah. I'm not saying, by noting that it's a vision, I'm not saying it's not real history. Of course it is. Uzziah was a real king. Jotham was a real king. Ahaz was a real king. Hezekiah was a real king. Hezekiah was a, or Isaiah was a real man. The nations of Israel and Judah were real nations. The Babylonian captivity was a real experience. The coming of Christ in history is a real coming of Christ. The second coming of Christ, when he rends the heavens and comes down again a final time to glorify himself in his church and judge the wicked, that will be real history. But it's all unfolded. It's all given in the package of a vision. Isaiah 1-1, the vision of Isaiah. the son of Amoz concerning Judah and Jerusalem, which he saw during the reigns of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, Hezekiah, kings of Judah. Now in this opening of the vision in Isaiah chapter 1, God through the prophet is speaking to the people about the wickedness that is pervading the people of God in that day. You might remember down in Isaiah chapter 1 in verse 16, he says, wash yourselves, make yourselves clean, remove the evil of your deeds from my sight, cease to do evil, learn to do good, seek justice, reprove the ruthless, defend the orphan, plead for the widow. Come now, let us reason together. Though your sins are as scarlet, they will be as white as snow. Though they are red like crimson, they will be like wool. The situation that Isaiah finds the nation of Judah in is one of gross and increasing sin. But this situation that he finds them in chapter one is juxtaposed in chapter two against what he sees concerning Judah in the days to come. Notice what he says in chapter 2 in verse 1, the word which Isaiah the son of Amoz saw, again it's visionary language, saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem. Now it will come about that at the last days, now that tells you right there you're no longer in the present experience of Isaiah, that's chapter 1. But in the last days, this is prophetic code, if you will, for the days of the Messiah and beyond. He uses this phrase, the last days, over and over. We've seen it time and time again in the book of Isaiah. What's going to happen in the last days? In the last days, the mountain of the house of the Lord will be established as the chief of the mountains. and will be raised above the hills and all the nations will stream to it. And many peoples will come and say, come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob, that he may teach us concerning his ways, that we may walk in his paths. And the law will go forth from Zion and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. And he will judge between the nations and will render decisions for many peoples. And they will hammer their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not lift up sword against nation, and never again will they learn. war. And we've seen through our study of the book of Isaiah that these last days dawn and commence with the coming of the Messiah to his people in what we often refer to as the first advent of Christ. And these last days will culminate, they will be brought to completion at the second advent of the Lord Jesus Christ. We live today in what sometimes scholars refer to as the inter-advental age. We live in a day between the comings of Christ. He has come once, and the kingdom of God has come. But it's come, remember Jesus says in the gospels, it's come like a what? It's come like a mustard seed. It's imperceptible. It's small. It seems insignificant. But what happens to that mustard seed? It does what? It grows. And one day it grows to the point that it has these glorious branches of birds come and find their nest in its shade. And this is a picture of the spreading of the kingdom even out to encompass the Gentile nations of the world. So Isaiah chapter 1 is a vision about Isaiah's day. But Isaiah chapter 2 is a vision about a later day. And it's that later day that we've been looking at in chapter 56 through 66 that all centers around the coming of the Messiah that we saw in Isaiah chapter 61, who comes anointed with the Spirit of the Lord. which is fulfilled in the coming of Christ. We saw several weeks ago in Luke chapter 4 where Jesus comes into the synagogue and he preaches and says, and quoting from the prophet Isaiah, today this scripture is what? It's fulfilled in your hearing. That's the broader context of what's going on in the book of Isaiah. It's been unfolding since the very first verse in the very first chapter. He has been unfolding progressively for us this vision of the glory of God and the future of the nations. Now with that in mind, I want to go back to Isaiah 65, Isaiah chapter 65. Because as we begin this section in Isaiah chapter 65 in verse 1, we find a very interesting text that is picked up by the Apostle Paul in Romans chapter 10. I had Anthony read for us earlier from Romans chapter 10 a familiar text about confessing the Lord Jesus Christ and coming to him and believing on him. But Isaiah 65 verses 1 and 2 is a text that is quoted by the Apostle Paul in Romans chapter 10. In fact, we're going to find several texts from this section of Isaiah, just these two chapters. Just these two chapters are picked up by the writers of the New Testament at several points. Paul cites it in Romans chapter 10. Paul cites from this section in 1 Corinthians chapter 2. Stephen in his martyr speech, if you will, in Acts chapter 7, picks up on a text here from Isaiah 65 and 66. It is a wonderful text, a rich section that is filling the minds of the New Testament writers as they think about what God is doing in the church. since the coming of Christ. Let's look in chapter 65, verses 1 and 2. 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 on my name. I have spread out my hands, all day long to a rebellious people." Now it's this text that I want us to focus our attention on for just a moment, but I want us to do it by looking at it through Paul's eyes in Romans chapter 10. So if you turn there with me to Romans chapter 10, let's look at this text we had read a moment ago. Let's begin again and look at this text beginning in verse nine. If you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation. For the scripture says, whoever believes in him will not be disappointed. For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek. For the same Lord is Lord of all, abounding in riches for all who call on him. For whoever calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? How will they believe in him whom they have not heard? And how will they hear without a preacher? How will they preach unless they are sent just as it is written, how beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news of good things. However, they did not all heed the good news. Notice he didn't say they didn't all hear the good news. They didn't all heed the good news. For Isaiah says, Lord, who has believed our report? So faith comes from hearing and hearing by the word of Christ. Now we hear the objectors. Paul has made some very bold and clear statements here back beginning in verse nine. We could go all the way back to the beginning of chapter 10, but just starting in verse nine and verse 10, he has declared that if you believe in your heart and confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, you will be what? You will be saved. Don't miss that. I mean, just think about how clear and how simple that is. If you believe in your heart and confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, you will be saved. Not you might be saved, not you put yourself in a category of people who could be saved. No, you will be saved. I had a conversation this past week with a gentleman and I asked him, I said, can you take the statement that the Apostle Paul makes to the Philippian jailer? Remember that? Remember that? The Philippian jailer comes out. He's about to kill himself. There's been an earthquake. And he thinks everybody's escaped. And Paul and Silas are there in prison and axed after 16. You can see him with his hand on his sword. And Paul cries out, don't. Don't do it. Do yourself no harm. We're all what? We're all here. And he's shocked. He's, surely they would have run away. Because he knows what's going to happen to him. You're probably going to be killed if they stay in the prison. We're all here. And the jailer says, sir, what must I do to be saved? What does he say? Very simply, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved. How complicated can it be? That's pretty simple, isn't it? Believe on Christ. trust in Christ, rest in Christ, you can be saved. Paul here says, if you confess with your mouth Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you shall be saved. Surely it can't be that easy. because a lot more people would have been saved, Paul. Surely, surely, surely, verse 18, surely they just haven't heard, have they? The problem in Romans chapter 10 is why has the gospel borne such little fruit among the Jews? They see the Gentiles coming to faith in Christ. Yes, true, many Jews had believed on the Lord Jesus Christ. But by and large, if Jesus indeed is the Messiah coming for the Jewish people, why is it that they haven't like rolled out the red carpet for this guy? Surely they just haven't really heard. Now remember Paul just said back in verse 16, they didn't all what? They didn't all heed. But the objector comes in and says, surely they just didn't hear. If that's the case, if Jesus really is the Messiah, if it's really as easy as you say it is, they would all be coming in. Surely they just haven't heard. What does Paul say? Indeed, they have, he said. And he quotes here, interestingly, from Psalm 19, verse 4, which is a text that's typically understood in Psalm 19 dealing with general revelation. The non-speaking words of creation go out through the sun and the moon, the glory of creation and all here. But Paul uses this to say their voice has gone out on all the earth and their words to the ends of the world. Paul says they have heard. There's more we could say there. We need to move on because we have to get to the text that we really are trying to stress down in verse 20. But I say, surely Israel did not know. Again, this is another objector. They haven't heard. They couldn't have heard. Because if they'd heard, they would have believed. No, Paul says they did hear. They just didn't believe. Second objector comes in in verse 19. But I say, this isn't Paul saying, this is Paul being the objector. But I say, objective number two, surely Israel didn't know. They just didn't understand. Okay, so maybe they heard. They just didn't understand. They just didn't know what they heard. Surely Israel did not know, did they? Paul says first. Moses says. Now at this point, this is interesting because what Paul does is Paul does this in typical Jewish fashion. Paul brings in two witnesses to speak in favor of his position. Witness number one is Moses, and witness number two will be Isaiah. Remember on the basis of the testimony of two or three witnesses, you had to have two or three witnesses to be able to bring a charge against somebody. So Paul is kind of doing this in some kind of a legal act, a legal angle to come and say, look, my case is ironclad. My case is rock solid. They have heard, they did know. Verse 19. First, Moses. This is quoting from Deuteronomy 32, 21. Now if we go back in the context of Deuteronomy 32, God is incensed with the people. They have made him jealous by worshiping other gods. So God says, just what you've done, you've made me jealous. You've stirred up my jealousy, my ire against you because you've worshipped other gods. I am going to give my grace and my kindness and my mercy to other nations to do what? To stir you up to jealousy. And that's going to flesh out in Romans chapter 11 about how the gospel going to the Gentiles is supposed to stir the Jews up to jealousy if they might come back and receive the Lord Jesus Christ as their Messiah, which indeed, since the time of Christ, has been what? Has been happening and continues to happen this very day. So he says, they did know. I told them back in Deuteronomy what I was going to do. I was going to make you jealous by that which is not a nation, by a nation without understanding will I anger you. Witness number two, verse 20. And Isaiah, Isaiah is very bold and says, That boldness here comes in in the sense that Isaiah boldly, emphatically, clearly, with no hesitation, spoke. So later in chapter 15, I think it is. Yeah, in chapter 15, verse 15, Paul speaks about how he has written to the Romans very boldly. Or you might think in Ephesians chapter 6, Paul asked the church in Ephesus to pray for him that he would speak the word of Christ boldly. We want clear speech, don't we, when it comes to the proclamation of the gospel, when we share the gospel with other people. We don't want to, you know, be hesitant or, you know, vague or leave people wondering, I wonder what I'm really supposed to do. All right. We want people to speak with clarity. And Isaiah here speaks with bold clarity. And this is what he says. And here he's quoting Isaiah 65 verses 1 and 2. And that's our opening text in our section from Isaiah 65. How did Paul use that? I was found by those who did not seek me. I became manifest to those who did not ask for me. But as for Israel, he says, all the day long, I have stretched out my hands to a disobedient and an obstinate people." Paul here says, taking his clue from Isaiah 65, that God has been sought by those who didn't ask. He has been found by those who didn't seek. Now just to kind of go back in Isaiah 65, and you might keep your hand on both of these texts for a moment, God here is saying in verse 1, that the way I'm going to answer the prayer to make Jerusalem, that's the focus, right? To make Jerusalem the praise of all the earth, to make Zion the highest of all the mountains of all the earth, that all the nations might stream to her, the way I'm going to do this is I'm going to turn to the Gentiles. to stir up the very nation I've been stretching my hand out to over and over again. Salvation came to the Jews what? First, right? It came first. God was incredibly fair. All right? He didn't, like, skip over them. No, He came to them. He even tells the woman at the well, salvation is from the what? It's from the Jews. The Christ, the Messiah, according to the flesh, Paul says in Romans 9, is from the Jews. It comes to them first. A Jewish Messiah comes to a Jewish people in a Jewish land. He's offering them the gospel, but they don't want it. They're hardened to it because it's not the kind of sales pitch, we might say, that they were anticipating. They were hoping for something to come and bolster them up in their own personal national pride. They were hoping someone would come and destroy the wicked rulers that were around them. But Jesus comes and exposes their own sin, their own rebellion. Isn't that exactly what Isaiah said was going to happen? I have spread out my hands all day long to a rebellious people, and the rebellious people in the context of Isaiah 65 are the Jewish people. Now this is not to say that the Gentiles are good people and the Jewish people are bad people. No, Paul's already done what in Romans? He's already said that all are under sin. There's none righteous. No, not one. But the way he's going to stir the Jews up, is by reaching out to the Gentiles. Is this not exactly what we see in the ministry of the Apostle Paul? On his first missionary journey, he comes to the Jews in the synagogue. He preaches them. They don't want it. So he says, from now on, we're going to do it. We're turning to the Gentiles. And the Gentiles rejoice. Now, we see Paul in the very next town. Back where? In the synagogue, preaching to the Jews again. But then again, he quickly turns again to the Gentiles. Paul is seeing here in Romans chapter 10 the fulfillment in the coming of Christ and the preaching of the gospel, the fulfillment of this initial phase of an answer to the prayer of the making of Jerusalem, the praise of all the earth. Now, we're really just about out of time, but let me see if I can press a couple of things upon you. Two in particular. And I want to go back to Isaiah 65 to make the point. In Isaiah 65, verse 1, he says, 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 on my name. Now, the nation here that is not calling on his name, that is not asking for him, that is not seeking for him, is a nation in a sense. It's speaking of it as like one nation. But it's really the peoples of all the nations of the world that he draws graciously to himself. Notice here, they weren't asking for God. They weren't seeking God. They weren't calling on God, but God made sure in his sovereign purpose, in his sovereign pleasure, that they would what? That they would seek him, that they would find him. I just want to press this point in the hopes of encouraging you to think in terms of the mercies of Christ, undeserved. The mercies of Christ are undeserved. Now that's not profound. Well, he went to school for that for a long time. The mercies of Christ are undeserved. Isn't that something that we can forget about even as Christian people? We easily fall back into patterns of performance as believers, even as believers. And we think that the way to make God happy with me is through doing things for him. I haven't done enough. I haven't been good enough. I'm not saying you shouldn't do things and you shouldn't be obedient and all those kinds of things. But your obedience didn't merit. God's initial draw of you to himself. He didn't look out and say, man, she's great. I'm going to bring her. Oh, he's, he's the guy I want on my team. I'm going to, I'm going to bring him. He's got promise. He's got possibilities. He'll, he'll, he'll do a lot for my team. That's not the way God did. God looked at you and you were like a sheep wandering from the fold. You were like a sheep without a shepherd. You were false and full of sin. There was nothing about you. There was nothing about you that commended you to God. God comes to people who are not seeking him. He comes to people who are not asking for him. He comes to people who are not calling upon him. All we like sheep have gone astray, right? But he came to you and he says, 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 love this phrase. I said, here am I. I mean, it's a bold statement. He's not just saying, here am I, I'm over here. He is coming, boldly declaring, here am I. His mercy to you is undeserved. You never could have merited his favor. You cannot merit his favor now. It's undeserved. You should spend time thinking on the undeserved mercy of God because if you don't if you don't take time to regularly remind yourself that salvation is by grace through through faith because of Christ and not because of anything you've ever done or might do you see everything in your world is very performance-oriented. You blow it with a test, and you get a what? You get the F. You blow it with a job interview, you don't get the job. You blow it in a relationship, you may lose the relationship. You blow it in a friendship, your friend is mad. You blow it by yourself, and you kick yourself. I mean, you know, just... Everything seems to be built around performance so often. You speed, you get a ticket. I guess you should. But with Christ, it's so different. It's radically different. His mercy to you is undeserved. It was undeserved when you were a little boy or girl and came to Christ. It will be undeserved when you're an old man or an old woman. It will be undeserved when you stand before him one day and he welcomes you into his presence. It will be because of nothing that you have done or could ever do. His mercy is undeserved and his mercy is new every morning. Great is his faithfulness. You need to regularly remind yourself, I'd say daily remind yourself, maybe moment by moment remind yourself of the undeserved mercy of God because your heart and your mind will slip back into a sinful way of thinking that's wrong And you'll begin to think that somehow you're going to be measured before God by your performance. I'm not saying God doesn't want us to obey him. He does. I'm not saying there aren't commands. There are. But in none of them am I meriting the favor of God. Even if I could do everything right, at best I would be an unprofitable servant. Not only are the mercies of Christ undeserved, the judgments of Christ are just. The judgments of Christ are just. And these, also, you should regularly remind yourself of. Because the only hope, the only hope of escaping the judgments of Christ are fleeing to Him for refuge today. His judgments are just because all day long he has held out his hand to a disobedient, obstinate people. How many times have you in your life heard the gospel of Jesus Christ? How many times has someone told you that the way to be saved is to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ? How many times? I am 54 years old. I cannot tell how many times I have heard someone tell me the simple gospel of Christ. It's not complicated. And shame on the one that complicates it. It's not complicated. It is believing on another for his righteousness and not my own. It is trusting in him to receive my judgment that I might escape It is believing on one, only one by whom I can and will be saved. Whosoever calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. Not might be, not could be, but will be. His judgments are just. If you don't believe on him, you will be damned. If you do believe on him, you will be saved. I love how in this amazingly complicated couple of chapters, and it's complicated, I about just drove myself nuts this past week trying to figure out how to make heads or tails of it. But how Jerusalem is going to come from being the the scum of the world to the praise of the earth It's gonna come by God answering the prayers of his people, because he sent Jesus to be the savior of men, and his mercies are undeserved. You can never earn them. And his judgments are just. You can never escape them. I think these are two things to grab hold of as we Start to move through these final chapters of the bible of the book of isaiah. Let's pray Oh father I pray That you would give us believing hearts Let us never get away from the simplicity of the gospel of jesus christ that God has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world, that whosoever believeth on him shall not perish, but shall have eternal life. O God, let us hear the message of Paul to the jailer. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved. O Father, we thank you that these mercies are undeserved. And I pray, O God, that we would receive them, call upon you, rest upon you, trust in you. For, O God, your judgments also are just. And for the one who hardens himself against the Lord Jesus Christ, these just judgments will be inescapable. I pray, God, that you would bless your word to our hearts Bless our hearts by your word. Oh God, encourage us in the gospel of Christ Jesus. We bless you and we praise you and we thank you in Jesus' name.