Let's pray together as we come to God's word. Father, we thank you for your enduring word. We thank you that it's the same as its author yesterday, today, and forever. That it is, as the psalmist says, forever settled in the heavens. We thank you that it is perfect, and sure, and right, and pure, and clean, and true. We ask, O God, today that you would use this word for your glory and our good, that you would, by its reading and proclamation, that you would draw our hearts away again after Christ. And may we find in him that which would truly satisfy our souls. I thank you for the time we have. I ask God your blessing upon both the reading and the preaching of the word of Christ. We ask all this God in his name. Amen. Well, if you would take your Bible and turn with me to Isaiah chapter 65. Isaiah 65. You ought to have an insert in your bulletin. I'm just calling it a sermon supplement for lack of more creative things to call it. And you'll have a bulletin. In the back of the bulletin, there is an outline that's provided. We'll talk about that outline in a minute and what happens when you make the outline and the bulletin on Saturday. And then you get up on Sunday morning Well, you make a supplement to go with your outline, and then you change the outline. So anyway, just kind of hang loose on those outlines for a moment. But I want you to have both those things kind of in hand. Let me ask you a question as we kind of get started. If you had to pick all the doctrines of the Bible, the one that gives you the most trouble, or angst, or concern, or, you know, you just really have a hard time with that particular doctrine. Which one are you going to pick? I mean, this is somewhat rhetorical, you know, before everybody starts, you know, responding with their answer right away. Which one would it be? Maybe it's the doctrine of God. The Trinity, it's just a tough one to get your head wrapped around that and you find that challenging. Maybe it's the doctrine of election. Maybe you think that's why I had Anthony read Romans chapter 9. It is in Romans 9, but that's not why I had him read Romans 9. There's another doctrine in Romans chapter 9 It's the question of justice. It's the question of, is God just? A related doctrine is the one that R.C. Sproul responded to when he was questioned about what doctrine he struggled with the most in the Bible. And his answer was hell. Don't show your hands, but I wonder if that was the one you picked. It certainly is one that we don't think about very often. And were it not for expositional preaching going through books of the Bible, you know, chapter by verse or verse and chapter sequentially, we might not come to it too often if we just were kind of subject to what the preacher wanted to talk about. Well, that might surprise you or maybe it comforts you that his answer was the same as yours. I want, however, today to think about hell. Specifically, I want us to think about what hell represents. Hell being the place of the just judgment of God on his enemies. forever without end. Sproul once described hell as, quote, the place where not one of the benefits of God's grace penetrate. Just kind of think on that for a moment. It is the place where not one of the benefits of God's grace penetrates. Men say things like, life is hell. My job is hell. My marriage is hell. This situation, it's like hell on earth. You've heard those kinds of phrases before. Maybe you've said those. I remember when I was a young boy, I'm not too young. I forget when the Empire Strikes Back came out, but I was probably pretty young. And there's this line in the Empire Strikes Back where Luke is out in the middle of nowhere, frozen on one of those big, giant creatures. And Han Solo is going to go rescue him. And somebody tells him, you'll die out there. And Han Solo has one of those great Han Solo lines. Well, then I'll see you in hell. I remember hearing that as a boy at one. I was kind of shocked because it was not the way you should say things. I'll probably get reminders later this afternoon. You said that in your sermon. But I also was just taken aback by him saying that because I thought, I just, I don't think he knows what that means. And I hadn't even seen the princess bride yet. We have four people in here who've seen The Princess Bride. Okay, you can kind of tell. Or they've seen it more than once. How about that? I thought he doesn't know what he's saying. He's a conscious, breathing person, thinking, and he flippantly says to someone else, I'll see you in hell. I don't get the impression in reading the Bible that I'm going to see anybody in hell if I happen to go there. It's not a place where you go and socialize and, you know, discuss things and hang out together. But the most important thing that I want to stress with you is that when men talk like this, that life is hell, my job is hell, this situation is like hell on earth, they are all lies. None of them are true. You may have a miserable job and a miserable marriage and a miserable life, but you, this very moment, have breath in your lungs and you are yet to see what hell is really like. Sproul says again, there is nowhere you can go in this world where the benefits of God's grace are absolutely absent, where the sun doesn't shine and the rain doesn't fall and the air isn't there to be breathed. All of those are expressions of what we often call common grace. God causes the rain to fall on the righteous and the wicked. Did you know that there are over 160 plus references to hell in the New Testament alone? It doesn't even account for all the things that the Old Testament says about that place of the judgment of God. And Jesus, Jesus owns the personal rights, well, to all of them, but he owns the personal rights specifically to 60 plus of those 160. And when Jesus talks about hell, Jesus doesn't just refer to hell. There's a place called hell. You may go to hell. Be careful. Be warned. You might end up in hell. No, Jesus describes hell. And he does so vividly. I mean, he spares nothing. You ever had those family Bible reading times where you come to one of those passages and you just kind of, you cringe? Do I read this? I know it's the Bible. In Luke 16, hell is eternal torment. You get what that is, right? That is torment that goes on forever. In Mark chapter 9, hell is an unquenchable fire, a fire that cannot be put out. In Mark 9, hell is a place where the worm doesn't die. I mean, think about that, a worm. How fragile is a worm? Matthew 13, it's a place where people are always gnashing their teeth and anguish and anger at God. Luke chapter 16, hell is described as a location from which men cannot return and in which people cannot pass from one place to another. Hell is a place described in Matthew 25 as outer darkness. If darkness wasn't enough, hell is outer darkness. In Matthew chapter 10, it's compared to Gehenna, which is a burning pit of trash outside the city walls of Jerusalem. Just like smoldering. If you've been to a dump before, you get the picture. It's nauseating. You don't want to go near it. Matthew 25, it is a reality that never ends. And in Matthew 24, it is a place where people are cut to pieces and thrown. This is hell. you probably get the picture. Now, the question is often asked when we talk about unquenchable fire, a place where worms don't die. People are gnashing their teeth. People are trapped there. They can't get anywhere. They can't go anywhere. It's outer darkness. It's a reality that never ends. People are being cut to pieces and thrown there. And you hear all that, and you want to know, is this to be taken literally? Is it hyperbole? Is it symbolism? There are arguments for all these different ways to think about hell. And I don't know the full and perfect answer. And I don't want to go there to find out. But let's think about these images for a moment as symbols. I do this for a reason. Because there's some conflicting imagery if it's literal. It's outer darkness and it's unending fire. It can't be both if it's literal. You can't have blazing flames of fire and absolute outer darkness. So let's just think about it symbolically for a moment. I don't want to make a metaphor out of it and drive it away. But some people might sit there and say, that's great. It's not literal. It's a symbol. Before you get too encouraged, would that really make it better for you? Because again, here's something else from Sproul. Jesus here makes use of the most ghastly images that he can conjure up to symbolize the reality of hell. How else can he describe something that is unendingly horrible? But by borrowing some kinds of images that people can relate to. And making it symbolic or seeing this as symbolic does not lessen the intensity. But listen, it would actually increase the intensity because the symbol only approximates the reality. I love what Sproul said here. He said this. He said, I think the person in hell would give anything if he could just be in a lake of fire. In other words, lake of fire is like one of the worst things you could possibly imagine describing. Can you imagine being thrown into a lake that burns forever and you never die and you just keep burning? Now imagine if you can the reality of hell. and you'd rather be in an actual literal lake of fire than actually be in hell. Hell is the place where you are absent of all the benefits of the grace of God's presence. God is present in hell in the fullness of unending, unabating wrath forever. This picture of hell is the horrible reality of judgment. which is the subject of our text today from Isaiah 65 and Isaiah 66. So I want to take you there in Isaiah 65 and 66 and there are two portions from these chapters which will be our focus today and they're found in Isaiah 65 verses 2 and 7 and in Isaiah 66 14b the very end of the text all the way through 18 A. Now, you can look, if you want, at the little supplement that was in your bulletin. This is the text that we're going to use. But I'm going to come back and talk about the actual structure of that in a moment. Let me just read it to you from my copy of God's Word, Isaiah 65, beginning in verse 2. God says, 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 bosom." If you look over to chapter 66, beginning at the end of verse 14, in the New American Standard, it's with the word but. But he will be indignant toward his enemies, for behold, the Lord will come and fire and his chariots like the whirlwind to render his anger with fury 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 all together declares the lord for i know their works and their thoughts. I'd like us to do three things with these passages today. First, I want to take that sheet that's in your bulletin and I want to note a few things regarding the structure of the passage and maybe help you make some connections that I see that kind of encourage me to lay the text out this way. Secondly, I want to take a closer look at the sin of the people for which God is going to judge them. I think it's important that we have a clear look at what it is these people have done, and we're going to find what these people have done is really not much different than what people do across the board. whether we were to go back to Eve in the garden or even come to you and I today, take a closer look at sin. And then third, I want us to address the issue with some thoughts on judgment, all right? What I would call the just judgment of God. I want to think about the judgment of God on sin generally, and that it's a just judgment. God is fair and right in his judgments. People often have a problem with that. They think that God's just not what? God's just not fair kind of like they're in Romans chapter 9 and I love that line where he says Who are you? Oh man to answer back to God, you know Shall the thing molded say to the Potter the pot the Potter kind of conversation. I And then I want to come and look specifically at the nature of judgment as it's lined out in the passage, all right? So those three things. I want to talk about structure a little bit, help you make some connections on this sheet that I've put in your bulletin. And then I want to take a look at sin. And then I want to come and take a look at judgment both generally and specifically. And when we look at it specifically, we'll also try to make some points of application. Now, just one quick word about your bulletin. I don't even have a bulletin. Where's my bulletin? Here it is. So if you look in your bulletin, I really want the outlines to help you. And today, it just won't help. So look on page 11 in your bulletin. If you're a note taker, if you're not a note taker, just bear with the rest of us that are note takers. On page 11, you'll read that little comment. It says, the justness of judgment, a first look. OK? See that on page 11? Scratch it out. Just scratch it out. All right? If you feel violent, make lots of little scratches. If you feel nice, just put a little line. OK? Then turn over to page 12. There's another block. It says, the justness of judgment, a final look. Scratch it out. OK. Now we're done. So you can use those pages to make notes. We're going to get to the takeaway. We're going to get to the application. But three things we're going to do. So again, observing the structure, looking at this sheet, looking at sin, looking at judgment. And when we look at judgment, we're going to try to make some applications. So that's where we're going. So now we're going to hop in the car and we're going to get there. All right? At least we're going to try. So let's look at this sheet that I've got in your bulletin. And it's just, it's just the text that I just read, okay? But it's laid out in a little more interesting format. At the top of the page, it uses that word, that chiastic word, that chiasm, all right? It comes from the Greek letter chi, which just kind of looks like an X, okay? And you can see if you look at this sheet, we have A and B, and then B to A. We're kind of moving into X, and we're moving back out. and that little line. Now this is a chiastic arrangement of Isaiah 65 2-7 and Isaiah 66 14d through 18a, but it is set within the larger framework or context of Isaiah 65 and 66. So on the back of your sheet you ought to have that larger framework. It's also printed for you in the bulletin if you don't have it on the back of your sheet. Is it on the back of a sheet? Somebody nod yes. Okay great it's on the back sheet. There we go. It's also in the bulletin on page 10. Now we've looked at this before so we're not going to take time to look through the whole thing but I do just want to let you know that if you look at this larger structure of Isaiah 65 to 66 on page 10 or on the back of your sheet there you will see we are on letter B. Letter B is Isaiah 65, 2-7, judgment on those who were a rebellious people. Then at the bottom, letter B again, Isaiah 66, it says 14C through 18A, it should say 14D, Maybe that'll give you encouragement to realize I'm still studying this, and I'm still learning, and I'm still trying to figure things out. But I think 14b is what we want to use. Through 18a, judgment by fire on his or God's enemies. That's where we are in the bigger picture. We're trying to work our way to the middle, to that section on the new heavens and the new earth. So let's look at the front of the page that says ABBA. this arrangement of 65, 2 to 7, and 66, 14d through 18a. Now, this chiastic way of structuring the text, all right? I know sometimes you may hear that and go, oh, man, a chiasm. That's just so boring. This is helping us think the way Isaiah is thinking. Isaiah did not sit down and pen his book and start at verse 1 of chapter 1 with a blank scroll and just start writing. We believe the Bible is the divinely inspired Word of God. We believe that every word of it is true and every word of it is inspired. It is the Word of God. But it is also the words of men. It's the Word of God in the words of men. And the prophets, sometimes they are inspired and directed by some form of dictation. They have a vision, where the vision is communicated with vivid display and even words. And the prophets will, by the Holy Spirit's guidance, they are directed to write certain things down by dictation. Other times, it is clear the writers of the Bible are not just writing things by dictation. They're writing things by what we might call inspiration. They're being guided by the Holy Spirit. Peter speaks about this in 2 Peter chapter 1. They're guided like the wind in a sail guides that boat along, and they are guided to write down things that are true and right and pure and clean and just the way God wants them to, but they're making use of their own Verbiage, they're making use of their own structure. They're trying to arrange things in certain ways. So the Bible is, in every way, it is literature. And when we read it, we need to be thinking like that. It is a literary document. It borrows from literary methods on how to frame itself and put itself together. There is a lot of coherence and clarity in the structure of the books of the Bible. And it helps us if we can see what kinds of structure the writers are using to help us know what they're intending to communicate. And what we get when we use this larger framework in the bulletin on page 10 of this entire last two chapters, we see that Isaiah is working into a central theme or a central thought about the new heaven and the new earth, and he's kind of working this from both ends, and he's starting at the beginning, start at the end, working his way forward, working his way backward, and he's going to focus our attention, laser focus, on this idea of a new heaven and a new earth. As Peter says, it's a place where righteousness dwells, and in fact, Isaiah is going to tell us in Isaiah 66 verse 1, it's the house in which God himself Dwells and that's where you and I are going to live forever now if we just keep marching on And Isaiah 65 and 66 we kind of move past that but Isaiah wants to focus our attention in on it Well in this section here as well regarding judgment, Isaiah wants to focus our attention in on judgment, and he puts a section toward the beginning in verses 2 to 7 and toward the end that talk about very similar things, sin and judgment. He begins in chapter 65 verse 2 with an opening statement that really kind of covers the whole, and that is this statement, I have spread out my hands all day long to a rebellious people. This is probably one of the most important statements in this section and this is the statement you might remember that the Apostle Paul quotes in Romans 10 21. when he's speaking about how Israel as a whole had hardened themselves to the gospel and had been hardened to the gospel, and so much to the point that the question is driven in Romans chapter 11, then has God rejected his people? And Paul says what? No. Where did you get that idea? May never be. By no means. I'm here. I'm a picture. of the remnant but God spreads out his hands all day long to rebellious people which is a fascinating verse for me because we're fixing to talk about sin and judgment but how does Isaiah open the door to the discussion of sin and judgment with a statement about God and his enduring mercy? I mentioned last week that last week was the mercy sermon and this week was going to be the judgment sermon and this was heavy So it's heavy to work through and as Sunday got closer and I'm spending more and more time in the text and I'm thinking about this. It was hard this morning. It was just my desk and I was just kind of like overwhelmed. This is a hard passage. But as I get into this passage about sin and judgment, and as I want to take you into a passage about sin and judgment, I want to remind you that the God who is a God who judges sin is also a God who has an enduring open hand of mercy, ready to give the one who will repent and believe in the gospel forgiveness and life and hope I have spread out my hands all day long to a rebellious people. The word, the imagery there of spreading out your hands, it is usually used in the Old Testament in referring to people in a posture of prayer. Remember Paul tells Timothy in 1 Timothy 2, I think it is, I want the men in every place to pray, lifting up holy hands without wrath and dissension. The posture, the posture of lifting up your hands in prayer to God was a very common Jewish posture. Sometimes you'll find people laying down prostrate to pray. Sometimes they're kneeling, sometimes they're sitting, sometimes they're standing, but often you will find them doing what? lifting their hands to God in prayer. These are not just the charismatics. It's okay if you want to lift your hands in prayer to God. But here, it's not people pleading God in prayer. It's what? It's God pleading with men. Isn't that great? That's a great image of God. What is your image of God when it comes to sin and judgment? Is your image of God when it comes to sin and judgment a God in the heavens with a lightning bolt just Ready to kill? Ready to destroy? No, he says to the prophet Ezekiel to the people, he says, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked. God is not a vindictive God that just sits in the heavens waiting to flick us off like you might, you know, like a little six-year-old boy. Some of us haven't gotten over the six-year-old boy thing, and we just find ants, and we just want to go, and we feel powerful. And the girls are like, oh, no, don't squish him. Or the ants, I don't know. But if it's like a cricket or a doodle bug, kill a doodle bug as a dad and be banished forever. Because they're all the cutest little things ever, right? They're adorable. Doodle bugs, they're fun. I would take those things, roll those things up. You could shoot doodle bugs a long way when I was a kid. That is the picture sometimes that people have of God when it comes to sin and judgment. They just see God as somehow laughing in the heavens and flicking people off into the flames of hell. Friends, when God addresses his people here on the subject of sin and judgment, people that he is going to judge, people that by the time we get down to verse 14 of chapter 66, he is going to refer to them as his enemies. His posture says everything. It's, I'm reaching, I'm pleading with you to come to me. That's God. That's how he opens. The next thing he says in verse one here, He says that they are a people who walk in a way, in the way which is not good. They walk in a way which is not good, following after their own thoughts. I'll say more about this in a moment, but I want your eyes to jump down to the bottom of the page, the very end of our section, 6618, and God says, I know their what? I know their works and their thoughts. This is what literary analysts would call an inclusio. Or we might get a little, make it a little easier and call them bookends. You know bookends, so they keep your books from flopping over and you find them and you put them at the end and they hold the books together. This idea regarding sin and judgment is all going to be held together by this idea of God knows something about these people. He knows something about these people that is more than just bare observation. He knows them intimately. He knows their ways and he knows what? Their thoughts. Friends, this can be said about every person in the world. This can be said about every person in this room. God knows your ways. God knows your thoughts. I want you to notice something else about these people. They're engaging in religious practices and they're making these offerings and sacrifices in the gardens. They've constructed places where they want to go to worship and we see this in chapter 65 verse 3 of people who continually provoke me to my face offering sacrifices in gardens But notice 65 66 17 they sanctify and purify those who sanctify and purify themselves to go where to go to the gardens Again, we see the first section and the last section bearing similar thoughts and similar ideas. As they go to worship in the garden to make these sacrifices, notice verse 17 says they sanctify and purify themselves before they go. In other words, they're going to a religious exercise. They're engaging in some type of sanctification and purification, some type of ritual Notice in verse 5 of chapter 65 toward the top what they say about themselves They say to other people that they meet keep yourself keep to yourself Don't come near me from what I'm holier-than-you. They've sanctified themselves. They purified themselves They see themselves as holy as they go to these gardens to offer these sacrifices notice what they do. I Notice in 65.4, they sit among graves and spend the night in secret places. They eat swine's flesh, and the broth of unclean meat is in their pots. Notice 66.17, down toward the bottom. As they go to these gardens, they eat swine's flesh, detestable things, and mice. Now, my point here is not to compare every phrase in the first section and the last section. My intention is simply to say that I want you to see that when we're in this first section of 65, 2 through 5, and when we're in that last section of 66, 17 through 18, we are treading familiar and similar ground. You get the point? All right? He's revisiting in the second section what he's already visited before. He's already walked here. He's already spent some time taking us on a stroll through this area. And now he's going to come back and do the same thing in a little different way. Notice something about the middle section, the B sections. All right. Notice the dominance of the phrasing of God doing things. So the first two sections, A, the first A and the second A, it's about what people are doing. Preparing themselves to engage in false religious practices eating swine's flesh detestable animals and mice Thinking of themselves as rather righteous And all the while they're engaging in all this fallacious worship God is saying I'm I'm almost done with you And when I'm done, I will do something notice the first and second sections be a Behold, it is written before me, I will not keep silent, but I will repay. I will even repay into their bosom. Or then at the end of verse seven, therefore, I will measure their former work into their bosom. 66, 14, that second section of B, he will be indignant. Here, it's speaking about God in the third person. He will do this. 65, six and seven is first person. God saying what he's gonna do. I will, I will, I will, I will, four times. But then that second section, he will, verse 15, the Lord will, the Lord will come and fire and his chariots like whirlwind. Verse 16, the Lord will execute all those who are slain by the Lord. In other words, The sections A and A emphasize what men do. B and B emphasize what God's going to do. God's judgment, hear this, God's judgment is a response to human sinfulness. Because we're going to address the issue in just a moment of God's judgment being just. You need to see here that God's judgment is a response to human sinfulness. God's judgment is not arbitrary. You're not just sitting down here miming your own beeswax, doing your own thing, being a pretty good person, and then God comes and casts you into hell. That's not how it works. Now make no mistake, God does send people to hell. The guy that sits there and says, well, God never sends anybody to hell, you send yourself to hell. No. You will justly go to hell if your sin is not atoned for. But God will be the one sending you there. And God will justly send you there because judgment is a response to what? Human sinfulness. So, that's point number one. I wanted you to see those connections in that text. Let's look at number two. I want us to talk about sin. Specifically, I want us to talk about the sin of these people in this text. Now if we start in chapter 65 verse 2. We've already made the comparison between 65-2 and 66-18, and we've seen that God knows their ways, and God knows their thoughts, which means, friends, God knows your ways, and God knows your thoughts. I mean, let's not just keep this in the academic realm. God knows all of our ways. God knows all of our thoughts. It's like that girl that used to sing that song on Christian radio, and she's talking about how her life isn't working out right, and she's doing this wrong, she's doing this wrong, and then she says to herself, but it's okay. God knows my what? God knows my heart. I remember hearing that song the first time on the radio, maybe 10, 15 years ago. I don't even know who sings it. I don't want to know who sings it. I do hope that maybe they're not singing it anymore. And when they, she sat there and said, it's all okay because God knows my heart. I think in my car, I just screamed. I'm really glad people aren't with me when I hear things like that because it would just be like terrifying. My family hears things like that sometimes and they wonder what's going on in my office. God knows my heart. If you're comforting yourself by the fact that God knows your heart, you should be terrified because God does know your heart. It's wicked and deceitful above all things. And who can understand it? Out of it comes every form of debauchery ever. And for it, you will be cast forever into hell. If your confidence is in your heart, your confidence is in the wrong place. You wonder why you do the things you do? It's because it's in your heart. That's what needs to be refixed. It's in your mind. It needs to be renewed. It's in your heart. It needs to be cleansed. Their sin, the sin of the nation, the sin of the people, their sin is that they walk in a way that is not good. Notice verse two, who walk in the way which is not good. and they walk in that way because they are following their own thoughts. Your life, please hear this, your life, your actions will follow your thoughts. What you think about, what you dwell on, It's going to affect your affections. It's going to affect your behavior. If you're wondering why you're doing the things that you're doing, it's because you're thinking about the wrong things. Fix what you're thinking about. And that doesn't mean that overcoming sin is just an intellectual exercise of getting smarter. No. Because what you're thinking about is what you're going to be meditating upon, dwelling upon, cherishing, treasuring, loving, following after. And as you think about those things, you will see your life change. This is why Paul says, in view of the mercies of God in Romans 12, 1, do what? Be transformed by the renewal of your mind. Your mom ever tell you to get your mind out of the gutter? There's a reason for that. Because people that have their mind in the gutter usually have lives that are full of just yuck. What's in the gutter? Yuck. nasty, garbage, smelly, sewage. Yuck! Get your mind out of the gutter. Get your mind captivated, captured by thinking about the things of Christ. What does Paul say in Colossians? Let the Word of Christ dwell in you passively from one Sunday to the next. Make sure you never listen to the sermon. Make sure you never think and read about the Bible during the week. Get your Bible. Dust it off. get it out of the back of the car with yesterday's soda cup cans or whatever, bring it into the house, read it, read it with your family, read it yourself, let it mull over in your mind, come to church, engage in worship, listen to the sermon, even if you can't understand the whole thing, listen and listen and listen and think and think and think, and you will have new thoughts, transformed thoughts, different thoughts, and you'll live different. You'll be different. That was not on my notes. That was free. Okay, so we're back. Go to Isaiah 55. Isaiah 55. Isaiah 55 verse 8. God says to the people, my thoughts are not your thoughts. Oh, what a revelation, huh? I thought God was just thinking about what I was thinking about. No. My thoughts, God says, are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts. Friend, but listen, this is what has to happen. You've got to get your thoughts after God's thoughts. You've got to think the thoughts of God after Him if you're ever going to walk on the path that He's leading you to walk on. And here's what he's thinking about. It's right here in the Bible. It's not complicated. It's just here in the Bible. You don't have to go to school or have a PhD to understand the Bible. You can read the Bible. You come to church and you learn about how to study the Bible. You watch the Bible being taught. You think through the Bible. You know, church is a funny thing. Things happen at church you don't even know are happening. You are learning every Sunday when you come together, you come to Sunday school, you hear a sermon, whether it's me or Michelle or Julius or some guy from out of town or some other pastor comes through here. If you are engaging and listening and following along with the sermon, you are learning, even though you may not know it, you're learning how to read the Bible. You're learning how to think about the Bible. You're learning how to put pieces of the Bible together. They should be thinking God's thoughts. Then they would be walking in God's ways, but they sadly are not. But no, rather they're walking in their own ways as a result of following their own thoughts. Look in chapter 65. Most of our time will be spent here in 65. We'll reach over to 66 as we need to. But I want you to think through a few things about their sin. What is it specifically that they are doing? It says generally in verse 2, they walk in the way that's not good. They follow their own thoughts. But what are they doing? Verse 3. A people who continually provoke me to my face. How? Because they're 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, quote, keep to yourself, do not come near me, for I am holier than you, close quote. These are smoke in my nostrils, a fire that burns all the day. Well, let's just kind of take these one at a time. There are people who continually provoke me to my face, offering sacrifices in gardens and burning incense on bricks. These people have embraced a false and self-made pattern of worship. The object of their worship is no longer God. The location of their worship is no longer in the temple and the method of their worship is no longer something that God has lined out in his word. Think about these for just a moment. The object of their worship is no longer God. He says, they are a people who continually provoke me to my face. What is the first commandment? Thou shalt have no other God besides me. It's the same word here that's used in Exodus 20 verse 3. Let's translate this a little differently. A people who continually provoke me to my besides me. In other words, they're provoking me by choosing a what? Another God besides me. This is what he's saying here. They are provoking me continually to my face. The object of their worship is no longer the God who has rescued them. Isaiah chapter 1 verse 29. Let's just look over there for a moment. Isaiah chapter 1 verse 29. says, surely you will be ashamed. This is another section on rebuking the people for their sin. Surely you will be ashamed of the oaks which you have desired, and you will be embarrassed at the gardens which you have chosen. You might recall in the days of the kings, one king would die, another king would come up, and it would say, this king did not walk in the ways of David, This king walked in the way of his fathers and or it'll say this king Followed the Lord it was obedient Lord. He removed all these things, but he didn't remove the high places remember that all right The high places were places of pagan worship They would usually have gardens associated with them. They would have trees associated with them. They were like fertile places and And pagan cults would worship at these high places. This kind of pagan worship would often accompany sexual intimacy and prostitution and the like. They were fertility cults often. And to appease the gods and to please the gods would then bring you prosperity in giving you children. which would help strengthen your country and give you offspring in that regard. And here the people are running, not to the temple, they're running to the high places. I mean, after all, the high places were easier to get to, weren't they? I mean, if you lived in Israel in the day, and you had to go to Jerusalem, you had to go to the temple, but there was a high place just like, you know, a few hundred yards away from your house, you can imagine how the people would be tempted not to go to the tabernacle, but go where? Go to the high places. And then what they would do is they would blend Israelite worship with pagan worship, kind of a syncretistic type worship, And they'd put them all together, kind of like, you know, throw a little bit of truth in and a little bit of air, put it in a blender and see what you get out. What do you get? You don't get truth anymore. You get a mess. And they would go to the high place. Notice what else they would do back in Isaiah 65. They were all for sacrifices in these gardens, and they will burn incense on bricks. The King James here says they would burn incense on altars. of bricks. There's not time to look this up right now, but if you can look up later, Exodus 20 verse 25, which is the end of the giving of the Ten Commandments, and also Deuteronomy 27, 5 to 6, talks about how when you made an altar, when you make an altar in the true sense of an altar for worship, the worship of God, you had to make the altar of uncut stone. Bricks are cut stone. Your altar had to be uncut stone, like rocks that you just found and put them all together, because that uncut stone had a picture of a lack of human engagement or human involvement. It was like man hadn't touched it. It was like the stone the way it was supposed to be. Just get that big stone, roll it over, get a few more, make an altar that way. But you know what they would like to do. Men like to make things that are nice and look sharp and show their own abilities to be able to manufacture places of worship. And so they would make cut stones and they would smooth the edges out and they would make them look nicer. These would be, in fact, more impressive. If you're trying to impress men with your altar, then you want to make a what? An altar of bricks. If you don't care what men think about your altar, and you're just trying to worship God, any old stone, you're just going to grab a stone. Because it's not about the altar, it's about the fact that I'm coming to sacrifice on the altar. This is what will please God. But if I'm obsessed with the altar itself, There's a story in the Old Testament. I forget which one it was. It's one of the kings. I get kind of lost sometimes in those kings. I have sympathy for you if you get lost in those kings. And there's a king who realized there was an altar being made. I think it was up in Assyria. And he sends a representative to go. And I want you to go and look at that altar. I want you to copy the structure. I want you to come back and build me an altar just like theirs. So we're learning from the nations about how to worship. So here we have a bunch of people who are embracing a false and self-made pattern of worship, but it gets worse Notice the next verse it says who sit among graves and spend the night in secret places. It's interesting, John Oswalt in his commentary on the book of Isaiah, which generally has been very good and helped me much in the last three or four years, John Oswalt says of this that Isaiah is using hyperbole, just trying to use kind of gross and weird looking things or whatever. And I mean, while that's possible and you can make that kind of an argument, I think it's better to see these as Isaiah is reaching back into his own culture and pre-exilic Israelite sin and worship. This is what they did. They did these kinds of things. They made altars out of bricks, like they weren't supposed to do. They went to the wrong place to worship, which they weren't supposed to do. They worshiped other gods besides God, which they weren't supposed to do. Commandment number one, they weren't supposed to do that. They often embrace false and self-made patterns of worship. I mean, we can go back to Nadab and Abihu for that, right? And many others. But now, he says, these are people who sit among graves and spend the night in secret places. Who would do such a thing? I mean, maybe when you were in high school or whatever, a bunch of kids want to get rid of flashlights and run out to the cemetery and scare each other or something. That's not what they're doing. These are people who are going to the graves. They're going to the what? Listen, they're going to the dead. They're going to the dead. The whole idea of consulting the dead like a form of necromancy. I remember having a friend in the Air Force years ago, I think I've told you about this young man, his name was Tim, and he was a new believer, at least we thought he was a believer, and through a series of events he forsook the faith, and I had lunch with him one day at Hardee's, and we're sitting there talking, and he's telling me about a book he's reading on necromancy. This is not just stuff that happened years ago. This is stuff that happens today. It's like witchcraft. It's demonic worship. It is wicked. It is evil. Go back to Isaiah 8. It's interesting how we've already encountered this kind of stuff earlier, so I don't know why John Oswald is thinking this is just hyperbole. It's just ground we've already covered. Isaiah chapter 8, look in verse 19. Isaiah 8 19 when they say to you consult the mediums and the spiritists who whisper and mutter Should not a people consult their god? Let's go to the graves Let's have a ceremony over the grave. Let's try to resurrect some dead spirit. Let's hear what they have to say All you're going to get is a bunch of muttering and chirping and you know mumbo jumbo Why why won't you consult god? Notice the next question. Should they consult the dead on behalf of the living? To the law and to the testimony, if they do not speak according to this word, it is because they have no dawn. Some translations have they have no light of dawn. There's no light or life in them. Here we have a people in Isaiah 65 who not only embrace a false and self-made pattern of worship, they reject the word of God in favor of their own foolish reasonings. They are men who seek messages from the dead rather than the living. They are like Eve in the Garden of Eden. who systematically and slowly moves herself away from God's word. And the more she moves herself away from God's word, the more she is moved away from God. You know what's interesting here? Alex Moitur makes the comment. He said, when people cease to heed the word of God or the word of revelation, it is not that they believe nothing. Men don't just abandon truth and now believe nothing. Rather, he said, it is not that they believe nothing, but that they will believe anything they'll go to gardens and pigs and rats. I mean, notice what happens there in 65. They sit among the graves and spend the night in secret places and they eat swine's flesh and the broth of unclean meat is in their pots. And if you look over to chapter 66, it says in verse 17 that they follow one in the center, which probably means that they're following a leader. This This imagery here in Isaiah 66 verse 17, it says, following one in the center who eats swine's flesh. That verbiage of following one in the center is used in one other place. It's in the book of Ezekiel, and I have it written down somewhere, but I'm not sure where. We'll come upon it later on. But it's talking about a leader who takes the people into the temple to do abominable things. And notice they eat swine's flesh and detestable things and mice. Some of you were here 20 years ago, probably only a few of you, but you might recall we had a missionary that came and visited our church once on a Sunday night. and he was a missionary from India. Do you remember this guy? Jeff remembers. Okay, well Jeff and I'll talk. So this guy came and he's showing these pictures from this Indian rat temple where the rats are hanging on the edge of a bowl. I mean like a big bowl 40 rats, all hanging over the edge, drinking the milk in this bowl. And the people will come along and drink the milk with the rats. Yeah, sorry. Kind of got that reaction from Janice earlier today, too. If we were to go into northern India to the Tar, T-H-A-R, the Tar Desert, to a town known as Bikain, In Bikain, in northern India, is the Kani Mata temple. It is a 19th century Indian temple that houses 25,000 plus rats. These rats are believed to be the reincarnated souls of their ancestors. They refer to the rats as their family. In the 19th century, there was a woman by the name of Karni Mata who is held by them to be a saint and a goddess. In this temple, these rats have priests. The priests drink, eat, and sleep with the rats. They are their family. The particular documentary I looked at regarding this, to kind of refresh my memory on this guy, I couldn't remember if I, am I really remembering this right? I looked it up, and yep, I'm remembering this right. It's like a tourist attraction. People go to go to the temple, you have to take your shoes off to walk through the temple. You can imagine what that's like. There's one man appointed in the temple for cleanup duty. That's his job. You're always cleaning up after your family. And there are tourists literally bending down on their knees to take pictures of the rats. Now, that's disgusting. I don't share it to be disgusting. But there is something worse. than the disgust of it. It is tragic. It is tragic. This is where leaving the God of the Bible can take you. To the worship of a rat. Having departed from God's worship, and having set aside God's word they now view themselves as altogether righteous and everyone else as unclean and unfit. Look back in chapter 65. It says in verse 5 that they say keep to yourself do not come near me for I am holier than you. I mean, how could you engage in sexually perverse worship? How could you engage in necromancy and seeking answers from the dead? How could you engage in the worship and the eating of animals and disgustingly unclean type things, thinking in terms of their Judaic culture? How could you do that and still come out with the conclusion that you're holy? They are defiled in every sense of the word, yet they are ruled, listen, they are ruled by self-righteousness. You will often find some of the most wicked people in the world feel righteous about what they do. Their conscience is seared. Everything about them is defiled. And they think they are more righteous than you. Friend, the further, the further that you get away from God, the more righteous you will think you are. But the closer you get to God, the more you will see your sin. This is what happened with Isaiah, is it not? He went to the temple to pray. He saw the Lord high and lifted up the train of his robe, filling the temple, seraphim flying here and there with six wings each. With two, they flew. With two, they covered their face. With two, they covered their feet. And they said, holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come. And the smoke began to fill the temple. The fire from the altar was like a blazing fire. And Isaiah saw God and said, Woe is me, for I am ruined, for my eyes have seen the Lord of hosts. Peter was in a boat one day fishing. Peter, the professional fisherman, Jesus, the carpenter, the non-fisherman, tells him after a night of fishing, when they've caught nothing, just throw your net over there Peter says, we've been fishing all night, Lord. But then Peter, in a moment where he actually caught his tongue before he said any more, thought and said, but because you say so, we'll do it. And they threw the net on the other side of the boat, and they drew in such a catch of fish it began to break. And as they're struggling to get all the fish into the boat, and as the boat is beginning to sink, Peter decides, this is the moment I'll fall on my knees before Christ and say, depart from me, for I am a sinful man. Can't you imagine James and John? What are you doing? This is not the time for revival. The boat is sinking. We're all about to die. We're going to lose all these fish. I have other things. It's like Mary. She just doesn't pay attention to Martha anymore because Jesus is in her house. Therefore, she'll do what? Nothing. I'm just gonna sit here and listen to Jesus. Friend, the further you get away from God, the further you get away from God, the more you'll think you're okay. But the closer you get to him, The more you'll see you're not okay, and you'll want to stay there until he makes you okay. That's the grace of the gospel. That's what God does, who, yes, judges sin and will judge it forever. But it's the same God who judges sin that's the God who has his arms out and says all day long, I've held up my hands. Come to Christ. Believe on Christ. Have your sin forgiven. Have hell subdued. And find that there is indeed honey. Honey for you and a sweet, sweet rock that God will satisfy you with. Let's pray together. Father, we thank you. We thank you for your kindness. We thank you for your word. Father, forgive us. Forgive us when we push away your word. Forgive us when we follow our own thoughts and make our own ways. Father, forgive us when we feel self-righteous. Forgive us when we think we're the ones that are good. But truly, there is none good. There is none righteous, no, not even one. But Christ is good. Christ is righteous. Christ the God-man is the righteous one. So we pray that you would draw our hearts away after him even this day. Might you bring us close. Might you keep us. that you cover us with the righteousness of your son. Feed us with that sweet honey from the rock that is Christ. Pray, God, that you would indeed nurture and nourish our souls this day in the Lord Jesus Christ. We pray in his name. Amen.