You can turn in your Bibles to Isaiah, the Old Testament as we walked through Isaiah, or to the last sermon in chapter 65. And we'll be reading verses 13 through 19 in a moment. So we did go through most of Isaiah, or I'm sorry, we went through the whole book of Isaiah, but we didn't look at every chapter. There's so much more that we could have talked about in Isaiah. I just wanted to kind of do an overview in this sermon series of these prophecies that happened around 7 to 740 BC in the southern kingdom of Israel. So let's read God's perfect holy word in Isaiah 65, verses 13 through 19. God's word says, therefore, thus says the Lord God. Behold, my servants shall eat, but you shall be hungry. Behold, my servants shall drink, but you shall be thirsty. Behold, my servants shall rejoice, but you shall be put to shame. Behold, my servants shall sing for gladness of heart, but you shall cry out for pain of heart. You shall wail for breaking of spirit. You shall leave your name to my chosen for a curse, and the Lord God will put you to death. But his servants he will call by another name, so that he who blesses himself in the land shall bless himself by the God of truth. And he who takes an oath in the land shall swear by the God of truth, because the former troubles are forgotten and are hidden from my eyes. For behold, I create a new heavens and a new earth, and the former things shall not be remembered or come into mind. But be glad and rejoice forever in that which I create. For behold, I create Jerusalem to be a joy and her people to be a gladness. I will rejoice in Jerusalem and be glad in my people. No more shall be heard in it the sound of weeping and the cry of distress." And so that's how far we'll read in God's Word. It goes on, but that's where we'll stop. What if someone could tell you the future? Would you like that? If they could give you details of the future of your life? Maybe you wouldn't like it. Would you listen or would you walk away? Now, we all might answer that question differently. It's a hypothetical question. Nobody can tell you your future if they say they can. It's a sham. The Bible does actually talk about the future of people. Not the specific details of their life, but in general, the Bible does give the future for different people. And we call this eschatology, the teaching of the end times. Now, in this sermon today, in the text that we read, the verses, the main theme goes like this. People who are not God's servants will weep and mourn, but those who are God's servants will be happy and joyful because God will do great things for them. That's pretty straightforward. People who are not God's servants will weep and mourn, but people who are God's servants will rejoice and be glad. Now as we get to the end of the book of Isaiah, our last sermon, but the second to last chapter, a lot of the themes that will come up in these verses have already come up earlier in Isaiah. So a lot of the stuff Isaiah is kind of repeating in a different way to talk about a prophecy of the future. And so, again, when you read Isaiah and other prophets in the Old Testament, remember that the prophets were using imagery that the people back then would understand. So sometimes we don't quite get it, but back then they did because it was their language. But we still can get enough to learn good things and truth from the Word here. So first of all, I'm not going to go exactly straight through the text, although I'm sort of going to go through it, but not exactly. First of all, I'm going to look at those phrases in this text that talk about the future of people who are not God's servants. First point, what's going to happen to people who are not God's servants? The second point is about what's going to happen to people who are God's servants. What's the future for God's servants? And then finally, the last point, we're going to talk a little more about that, the future blessings of God's servants. So first of all, who aren't God's servants, and the rest of the sermon we'll look at the future of God's servants. Now in verses 11 through 12, talking about the first point now, not God's servants, Isaiah is talking to, if you look at verse 12, for example, who's Isaiah talking to? Well, he says the people who didn't answer when God spoke to them and who didn't listen. They did evil. Okay, so remember in Isaiah, God has called to all people to come to the feast, to come to the waters and drink for free and enjoy this great life-giving meal for no price, for free. But not everyone says yes to the invitation. Some refuse God's call. So if you refuse God's call to come to the feast, to drink of the living water of Jesus, what's going to happen? Well, in verse 13 of our text, it says, And it's interesting, there's this emphasis in the original, it says something like, Now I know, again, remember hunger and thirst. When we hunger and thirst, it's not really deep hunger and deep thirst because we probably just ate or drank, you know, less than eight hours ago or something like that. But I don't know if you've ever gone without food or without drink for two days or more or, you know, a day or more. You get a very deep hunger or thirst. In fact, you can't live that long without food and water. So Isaiah is saying, look, if you don't come to the feast, if you refuse God's call, you're going to be hungry and thirsty. But it's spiritual hunger and thirst. If you don't come to the water to drink this well of life, you're not going to have any fulfillment or satisfaction of your deepest desires of your hearts. You know that U2 chorus. I still haven't found what I'm looking for. That will be perpetually true for people who don't come to the waters. They will never find it because they refused it. They'll never be hungry or they'll never have their hunger or thirst quench. So that's the first thing. If you don't come to these waters, if you don't come to the feast, you're going to be forever hungry and thirsty deep inside and soul and heart. Now verse 13 says, and you yourselves will be put to shame. You'll be put to shame. Now, again, if you don't come to the feast, if you don't come to the living waters that Jesus gives for free, you're going to be put to shame. Now, you know the word shame in our culture, it means something like it does in the Old Testament, but the Old Testament word for shame is deeper. It means to be totally humiliated deep in your heart and soul. It means to fall into public disgrace because you failed or something you trusted in failed. And everyone knows it, that you're a failure and what you trusted in is a failure, and it's a public thing. So, it's hard to give an illustration, but maybe when you were in high school, there was this loudmouth who always bragged about how his car was the best, his car was the fastest, it had the best gas mileage, and it's going to last forever. And then he goes on a road trip with his friends, and a hundred miles later, his car breaks down. Bad, the timing chain breaks, and the car's just, you know, wrecked, shot. Well, he's put to shame, right? Because he was bragging about it, and it failed epically, publicly. But this kind of shame is like that, only it's deeper. It's a spiritual shame. Because you know that God's words were true, and that you should have believed, but you still hate him, and you're put to shame. So if you reject the call to come to this feast, you'll be put to shame. Now look at the next thing for people who aren't God's servants in verse 14. The end it says, and you shall cry out from pain in heart. That's my translation. This pain in heart, that's interesting. It's here in the ESV. Well, that's what it says in the ESV. It means grief or suffering deep inside. The Net Bible says you will cry out as sorrow fills your heart. So if your heart is a container, it will fill up with sorrow and you'll cry out because of it. This is the opposite of joy. This is that cold feeling of hurt in the core of your being. The Hebrew dictionary says this word means anguish gripping at the whole person right in the center. It's maybe like that rich man in the parable in Luke 16 who is in the torment of Hades, cries out, Father Abraham, have mercy on me for I am in anguish. So, for those who don't come to the waters and drink freely, they'll cry out from pain and heart, anguish. And the end of verse 14 says it in kind of a different way, and you shall wail for breaking of spirit. The NASB says you will wail with a broken spirit. That's like in the New Testament, James 5 says rich people who are not believers, unbelieving rich people, should weep and wail for the miseries coming upon them. But what is a broken spirit, it says here, or breaking of spirit? This word spirit is, it means like mind and heart and psyche all put together. And whatever it is, it's broken. It's not whole. It's wrecked. So one commentary says, when they're finally punished for their sins, their pride and selfish spirit will finally be broken. But then it will be too late to change their destiny. All they can do at that point is to regretfully cry out in anguish because they will fully realize the desperate consequences of their foolish choices. Broken in spirit. And there's a couple more, two more. In verse 15, that's very interesting. So if you don't come to the living waters, it says, you'll leave your name to my chosen for a curse. The NIV says, you'll leave your name for my chosen ones to use in their curses. So the elect will use unbelievers' name as a curse, something like that. What that means is they're literally cursed people, so to use their name is to kind of like talk about a curse. You know, like if you'd say something like, this fire is as hot as Sodom, in a serious way, you'd be using their name kind of in a negative context because they were judged for their sin. Like Proverbs 10 says, the name of the wicked will rot. So if you reject God's call to come to the feast, your name will become a curse. And then finally, the last difficult reality for people who refuse to come to the feast, it says in the middle of verse 15, and Adonai Yahweh, or the Lord your God, will cause you to die or put you to death. Now what's interesting in the text here is before this, when it was talking to you, it was plural. But here, in verse 15, it says the Lord your God will put you singular to death. Now it comes down to the individual. Like one commentary says, it brings the threat of judgment home to the individual. So it's not just some general, you know those people randomly who might reject the call? God will put them to death? You know those people over there? But now it comes to you. If you reject God's call, the Lord will put you to death. It's very straightforward. The wages of sin is not life, but death. To say no to God's feast is to say yes to death. So those are seven things that will happen to those who reject God's call. You can go through them again. Those seven things. Now, just briefly, before we move on to the next point, you can kind of see this coming. Remember that great feast that God is throwing, it's imagery. If you come to the water of life and drink freely, for free, you'll receive life. Turn from your sins, believe in Jesus, drink from this well, and you'll live and enjoy a great feast. But what happens if you say no? It's not going to be well. You're going to hunger and thirst forever. And you have to eternally suffer the consequences for your stupid choice of rejecting coming to the feast. And they can't blame God. Can they blame God if on Judgment Day someone says, well, I thought I had to pay for the feast? You could say, no, no, it's very clear, it's free, just come and drink from Jesus' well of life. They don't have a good excuse. It's kind of like if a major tornado was coming hard and fast and you were in your house and you saw a guy on the sidewalk, you know, texting as if nothing's happening, you would say to him, come in here, come in my basement, there's a tornado, I can see it. It's raging. If he would look at you, you know, up from his phone and laugh at you and say, yeah, that's funny. And he'd keep texting and walking away. If he ended up getting killed by the tornado, it wouldn't be your fault. It would be his for making a foolish choice. So that's what happens to those who reject God's call to come to eat of this great feast. You've got to take that to heart. I'm not making up a story here. This is the words of God's prophet, God himself. Now the text does turn, there's good news in this text as well. There's a contrast here. There are also, so there's seven, you can maybe count it different, but there's seven bad things that will happen to people who reject the call to come to the feast. In contrast, there's seven awesome things for those who do come to the feast. So let's look at that second point. Now we go back to verse 13. It says, Now first of all, what does it mean to be a servant of Yahweh? Well, you can think of a couple examples. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, remember their story in Daniel? It says it's the same term, ebed, for servant there in Daniel. They were called God's servants because they trusted in God, and they would rather die than bow to a false god. So that's what you think about when you think of a servant of God in Old Testament terms. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, loyal to God, who trusted in Him. Caleb in the Old Testament, in Numbers 14, was also called God's ebbet or servant because he followed the Lord wholeheartedly, it says. So those are different examples of what it means to be a servant of God. You trust God, you obey God, you're devoted to Him from the heart. In the New Testament, we would call this a disciple, a follower of Jesus, a bondservant of Christ. So people who are God's servants, who trust and obey Him and follow Jesus, they're going to eat and drink. Now, we talked about this theme already, so I'm not going to expand on it, but it's a metaphorical way to say that when you go to God, when you go to Jesus and believe in him, he'll give you this water of life that will satisfy the deepest craving that your human heart has. And he'll give you his own life, which is like the bread of life, which will also satisfy the deepest craving of your soul. So you'll be full, spiritually speaking. It's kind of like, this is maybe not the best imagery, but you know after you have one of those great meals, you know what I mean by a great meal? You're done with it, and you sit back, you take a deep breath, and you think, no, I'm satisfied, that's good. This is that in a spiritual way, where you drink from the water of life of Christ, and you think, I'm good, I'm full. So servants of God will not hunger or thirst, they'll eat and drink. But another thing here in verse 13 says, my servants shall rejoice, behold. It's like, look, my servants will have joy. Now, those who don't serve God will be put to shame, but if you do serve God, joy is in your future. And this is awesome, this is cheer, this is happiness, this is a smile on your face that comes from a smile in your heart. It's laughing and beaming with cheer. Kids, what's the happiest time you can remember in your life? Maybe Christmas or a Florida vacation or something like that? Well, this kind of joy is that times a thousand. It's joy. And also in verse 14, there's more good things in store for the servants of God. It says in verse 14, behold, look, check this out, my servants will sing for gladness of heart. They'll sing for joy because of a good heart. Because there's good gladness in their heart, it's going to come out and they're going to sing out loud for joy. It's when somebody's so happy that they can't help but sing, a tune comes to their tongue. Now, I know that some people, you know, we're all different, we all have different backgrounds and cultures. You know some people who are pretty level all the time, just kind of mellow. They never really go down into a funk, but then they never really go high into, you know, elated joy. But it seems like on this day or in the future, when this time comes, even God's servants who are mellower level will not be able to help but sing out for joy because it's so good. Then let's look at the next one. In the end of verse 15, his servants he will call by another name. Now, another name would be a new name, right? And a new name in the Bible usually means a new status. Abram to Abraham. Hosea, it says, not my people become my people, because you have a new name, a new status. And actually, you don't have time to do it, but in Isaiah 62, it gives some ideas for this new name. A holy people, redeemed is your name, sought after by God, a city no longer deserted. Those are Isaian terms for your new name. Of course, in the New Testament, we would say your new name is Christian. Your new name is child of God, sons and daughters who are loved by the Lord. So there's another reason for joy. You'll get a new name. Now, the last one for this point is verse 16. It's interesting. It is kind of tough. It says, So he who blesses himself in the land will bless himself by the God of truth. And he who takes an oath in the land shall swear by the God of truth. You can look at different translations. They're somewhat helpful. But basically, the servants of God use his name with reverence and with honor. And there's blessing in that. It's good. However you translate this, this is a good thing. They're blessed because they use God's name in a good way. So those are seven things that are in store for those who eat from the feasts that God freely gives. Great things. This is eschatology, this is future hope. And it was for God's people back in Isaiah's day, maybe even forward to those who were in the exile when they were in exile, but it's also for us. Just keep this in mind if you're a servant of God, just keep it in mind that someday you're gonna be so happy and so joyful that you can't help but sing out and cheer to God. It might not be today. Sometimes we cry out to God with tears in our eyes like the psalmist. But someday in the future, it's a certain thing because God promises here that your heart and your soul will be satisfied with God's blessings and it will mean pure joy and cheer for you. And so that's why Paul says in the New Testament in Romans 12 that we can rejoice in hope or rejoice with hope. You have hope. for this great joy to come. And thankfully, we can already taste it now through Jesus. He gives us joy. We can rejoice in the Lord always now because of this great hope that we have for even greater future joy. So just remember that. If you're a servant of God, it might be tough now, probably is, but there will be a day where you'll know nothing but pure joy and happiness and cheer. Well, let's look into this a little bit more. So we talked about those who aren't God's servants, we talked about those who are God's servants, but now Isaiah gets a little more specific for those who do serve the Lord. Look at the end of verse 16. That's an awesome phrase. I've said this before, right, if you highlight in your Bible. That's a highlightable phrase because the former troubles are forgotten. That's why you can rejoice. Now what are former troubles though? That word trouble means it is a general Hebrew word for distress or calamity. So if you don't have to do it now, but if you read later in Isaiah 65, it talks about young children dying. and miscarriages and infants dying. And it also talks about adults prematurely dying, but that's not going to happen anymore in the future. So those would be troubles that are going to be forgotten. Death. Or verse 23 talks about laboring in vain, just working and working and never getting anywhere. That's a trouble, but it's going to be forgotten. So it says in verse 19, it says, So the troubles are forgotten and the sound of weeping or crying out is not going to be heard anymore. They're gone and forgotten. Trouble's gone and forgotten because God gets rid of them. They're hidden from his eyes. So think about this weeping and crying out that verse 19 talks about. Why do people cry today? Why do you weep? One reason we cry in this world is because there's evil. Straight up, dark, demonic evil in this world. Bad people do bad things. I watched a video that was to help prevent child abuse, training in preventing child abuse. and there's some evil things in this world and we cry because of them. Or people cry because they mess up big time and they hurt themselves and others. We sometimes fail and we hurt people and there's tears. Or we cry just because of physical pain. I was skiing I think last year and I saw a guy get hurt on a snowboard on one of the ramps and he came down on his knee and he was just crying huge tears of pain. That's a reason we cry. We cry when someone we love gets hurt. If you have to go visit a child in the hospital who has a terrible case of pneumonia, there's tears involved. And of course we cry when there's death. It's normal to cry at a funeral, isn't it? It's not bad or wrong to weep at a funeral. Those are reasons we cry. But it says, in the future, you're going to forget your troubles, And you're not going to hear anybody cry anymore or weep. And it's not because your ears don't work. And it's not because everyone's going to be very stoic. No, we don't cry here. We're robots. But it's because the troubles are gone and forgotten, and there's no reason to cry. Pain and death are gone, and evil is gone, and disasters are gone. So there's no reason to cry. And we already learned this earlier in Isaiah 25, death will be swallowed up, tears will be wiped away, your reproach will be gone. You can read about this in Revelation as well. So, someday all these terrible things will be gone, and we'll forget them, and nobody's ever going to cry again. You're not even going to hear it. Put that in your imagination, your Christian imagination. It's hard to imagine this, but the prophet says it. that our past pain and sorrow and troubles will be forgotten. And you're not going to hear weeping anymore. They'll be forgotten. This is what I would call a blessed forgetfulness. Forgetting all the troubles. So once again, there are troubles now. There's some hard ones. There's some troubles in our lives that keep us up all night, literally, and we can't sleep because of them. And our pillowcase is wet with tears. But there's gonna be a day where you'll be rejoicing and you'll forget your troubles and no one will cry again. Again, put that in your Christian imagination. Now, the text even goes on. There's more good things for God's servants. It says here in verse 17, now we'll go there. It says, for behold again, for look, I, I'm creating a new heavens and a new earth. More eschatology, end time stuff. So that's another reason to rejoice. Because your troubles are going to be forgotten, your joy is going to be full, and God is making all things new. Now this word for new can mean like restore or renew. It's kind of like if I would buy a 65 Mustang to restore, I would say something like, I'm going to make it new. That's what God is doing. He's going to restore and make all things new. And we know how history goes. Remember in Genesis 1, God created the heavens and the earth, but Adam and Eve sinned, and sin came into the world and ruined it. Now in the present, creation is subject to futility and corruption because of sin, Paul says in Romans 8. But in the future, God is going to make a new heavens and earth. He's going to renew it all. And so this is New Testament as well. 2 Peter 3 says, Or the end of the Bible, Revelation 21, John has this vision. That's another good short memory verse. to put in your mind for those difficult days, when the troubles are overwhelming. Behold, I'm making all things new. A new creation is coming, a perfect place where righteousness dwells, God's kingdom in its fullness. So one preacher said, not only the former troubles will be gone, but everything about the old order will be gone in this total renewal. No more thistles and thorns that frustrate our work. No more storms and floods and earthquakes or other natural disasters that hurt and kill people. And that's what it says in the end of verse 17. It echoes this forgetfulness. It says, the former things shall not be remembered or come to mind. You'll forget your troubles and tragedies and hardships. Depression? What's that? I don't know. Cancer? I've never heard of it. Divorce? That's not in my vocabulary. I don't know. War and violence? No. Forgot. And Matthew Henry says this, God's servants will forget this present world because they'll be completely taken up by the other. What's your favorite thing to do in the world? If you had, you know, a half of a day or a day just to do something that was good and you really enjoyed, what is it? Well, whatever it is, when you're doing it, you forget your troubles, don't you? Because it's so good. That's kind of what Matthew Henry is saying here, that this new creation is going to be so good that you're going to forget your old troubles. And God says, too, He says, look, I'm creating Jerusalem to be a joy in verse 18. Jerusalem that fell to her enemies, I'm rebuilding it to be a joyful place. And God even says in verse 19 that He's going to rejoice over Jerusalem and His people there. It's interesting, God enjoys our joy. Or when God sees us joyful, it makes Him joyful. You can think about that from that verse. Verse 19, I will rejoice in Jerusalem and be glad in my people. So think of this Jerusalem theme. In Revelation 21, it says, I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, come down out of heaven, full of glory. And this new Jerusalem had beautiful gates, and the beautiful gates were open, and people were coming in. They were streaming in. But nothing evil or bad was there. It was only good all the time. And so this is great. We get a new name and a new creation, and we'll be living, or citizens of this new city. Alec Moitner says it's total happiness, total security, total peace, where death has no power and sin has no presence. Death has no power and sin has no presence. Here's a challenge for you this week. Think about a new creation where death has no power and sin has no presence. Meditate on that. That's amazing. And that's why God's servants are so incredibly happy. We get that theme repeated in verse 18, but be glad and rejoice forever in that which I create. It's rejoice for a long time because I'm creating a new heavens and a new earth, a new Jerusalem. Or like Jesus said before he ascended, I am going to prepare a place for you. So we can rejoice now, the church can rejoice now because of this future reality when the Lord says to his servants, enter into the joy of your master. It gives us joy even now, like I said. Our tears will end. Our pain will end. Death will be gone and forgotten. Disasters will disappear and not come to mind. And we'll only know joy, real joy. Joy because our hearts are satisfied in God and in his Messiah who has given us the waters of life. Joy right now because our future is secure and our future is more awesome than we can even imagine. Peter calls it inexpressible joy in 1 Peter. That's why we have that line of the hymn, lift up your heart, lift up your voice, rejoice. Again, I say rejoice. So I don't know the details of your future. You don't know the details of your future this week. God does, of course, but He hasn't disclosed all the details of the future. But I do know from Scripture that what God has taught us this morning in His Word that, again, for people who are not the servants of God, who are not followers of Jesus, it's not a good future. It's not. And I want you to take that to heart. If you haven't committed your life to Christ, if you haven't said, yeah, I'm gonna be a follower of Jesus, if you haven't, you know, trusted in him or repented of your sins, it's not a good future to reject Jesus. And if things go downhill, don't blame God. Now thankfully today, the feast is still on the table, so to speak, and God's arms are still wide open, and the call goes out today, come all who are weary, Jesus says, and I will give you rest. The feast is still available for free. You can come to Jesus today. And so for you who are servants of God, who are followers of Jesus, again, you have a great future in a new creation, in this new city, and you'll have a new name. And that will not change no matter what troubles you go through here. So even through the troubles, you can rejoice because you know your future is secure. You're a citizen of a new city where it's only awesome all the time. So we can rejoice now in that reality. Or like Paul says, rejoice in the Lord always. Again I say, rejoice. Let's pray.