Let's pray as we come to God's word. We thank you, oh God, for your word that we have been blessed with to guide us through a time of worship. Worship in reading, worship in singing, worship in praying. And we pray, oh God, now by your grace that we would worship you in the hearing of your word read and proclaimed. We ask God that this word would prepare our hearts even to come to your table today to taste and see of your goodness, to receive the blessing of the grace that you give us this day. We humbly ask that you would grant it in preaching, grant it at your table, grant it in this time of corporate worship. We do bless and glory this day in the name of Christ, who is our hope, and from whom is all our help. And we do come, O God, pleading for help because we are needy. I am needy. We are all needy. We ask, O God, your grace and mercy. Help us in our time of need. Draw us away this day after yourself for the praise and the glory of your name and the good of our own souls. We ask this in Jesus' name. Amen. Well, if you would take your copy of the Word of God and turn with me to Isaiah 65. Isaiah 65. You ought to have a handout in your bulletin. I hope that is there. And we will reference that here in a few moments. As you're turning to Isaiah, let me read to you a text from the Gospel of Matthew. perhaps is a familiar text to you that you've heard before. Jesus in Matthew chapter 10 says, do not think that I came to bring peace on the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I came to set man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law, and a man's enemies will be the members of his household. He who loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and he who loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me, and he who does not take his cross and follow after me is not worthy of me. He who has found his life will lose it, and he who has lost his life for my sake will find it. In the middle of that text is that one in Matthew 10 36 that says, a man's enemies will be the members of his own household. Perhaps it is no news to you that the gospel brings tension. The gospel even brings tension within one's own home. Perhaps Some of you have experienced that in your own home, perhaps when you were growing up or maybe in your own home now as parents or a married couple. The gospel brings tension and this is somewhat surprising because I think our normal reaction is that the gospel brings peace. Isn't the gospel the good news? Paul even says when we put on the armor of God, we are to shod our feet with what? The gospel of peace. It's not referred to as the gospel of division. It's referred to as the gospel of peace. Well, that is because the gospel brings about peace between God and man. But the effect of the gospel between man and man often is not peace, but is rather division, tension, struggle. Sometimes when we experience this tension, we think we must be doing something wrong. Because if I was doing it all right, we would all have what? We would all have peace. It would all be right. But Jesus comes and says, do not think that I came to bring peace on the earth. Why would he say, do not think that I've come to bring peace on the earth? Because that's exactly what many people did think. Many people anticipated a Messiah who would come to bring peace on the earth. I mean, we even hear it, don't we, at Christmastime? And peace on earth and goodwill toward men. Often said by people who have no love for Christ at all. and have no thought that men need to be brought to peace with God because they just assume we're already at peace with God and God is happy with us and we just need to find a way to work it out down here so we can all be at peace together. But in fact, in the plan of God and in the providence of God, when the gospel is going forth in the world as it should under God's sovereign power, it will bring what? Division. It will bring tension. In fact, if all your gospel is doing as you proclaim it, and as you try to have it make progress through the world, if all that gospel you're doing, that gospel work you're doing, is bringing peace among men who are at war with God, it's not what? It's not the gospel you're really promoting. It's just some form of humanism. It's just some form of earthly, man-made kind of gospel that brings about peace between men that are God-haters. And I think it's interesting on a day that's Easter, and I struggle with the calendar, and those of you that have been with me very long, you know that. We don't usually stop on Mother's Day and preach about mothers. Every now and then we stop about Father's Day and yell at the dads, because that's good, just to yell at dads a little bit. I don't usually stop. I just kind of keep marching forward like a Mack truck that has no interest in the calendar. But it's interesting to me that we make a big deal about Easter once every year, when in fact, Easter is something to be rejoicing every Lord's Day. We gather together on the Lord's day because this is the day on which Christ was raised from the dead. And how many people on Easter will find their way to church and never think about it again the rest of the year? I think I've mentioned to you the first time I met a CNA Christian. The Christmas and Easter Christian. Maybe you've met one of those. Maybe you've been one of those one time before. A CNA Christian is not a Christian who is at peace with God. He may find himself in a church today where he's told that everything's all right. Everything's good. We're so glad you're here. There's no problem whatsoever. Just keep doing everything you've been doing. You're a great person. and we'll see you next Easter. Make sure you grab a lily on the way out the door. And that's kind of the way I think so many places go through things on a day like today. But the gospel brings tension. The gospel brings tension within our own household. And when I say that, you're probably thinking in terms of your family household, mom, dad, couple of kids, and a dog or a cat. I'm not talking about that household. The household, in fact, that is disrupted in the text we're going to see today in Isaiah 65 and 66 is the very household of God. You know, Peter says something interesting in this regard. Peter says that judgment is to begin where? With the household of God. And if that's So unbearable. If that's so overwhelming, what must it be like with the unbelieving, the ungodly in the world? In Isaiah 65 and 66, the prophet Isaiah comes to the nation of Judah. He comes to God's household. He comes to an old covenant household. He comes to this household where people have been given God's laws and told, if they keep God's laws, that they will remain long in the land and things will go well for them. Their crops will increase. Their babies will be born. They will not miscarry. It was, in all sense, a temporal covenant. Yes, it typified, in a sense, and pointed toward a new covenant, a greater covenant that would be an eternal type covenant. a saving covenant. But in the context in which Isaiah comes in Isaiah 65 and 66, he is speaking to a people under the old covenant. And he's saying that the proclamation of the gospel in this day and age, his day and age, as he proclaims the gospel. And yes, the gospel did exist in the old covenant. It didn't come from the old covenant. But the gospel did exist in those days and Isaiah preached that gospel and as he preached that gospel, yes, a gospel of peace, what did it bring about in the household of God? It brought about division. It brought about tension. And that same gospel still brings about division. It still brings about tension. I'd like to address this issue of the tension that the gospel brings and the division that the gospel brings because God, in bringing this division of the gospel, he shows, as Paul says in the book of Corinthians, he says, is it not necessary that divisions exist in order that we might know who is approved? Well, as we make our way through these two chapters today, I want us to do three things. I want us to take a look at the structure of the text. And then I want us to kind of hone in and focus on some of the tensions in the text, tensions that it says are among brothers. And we'll look at that. And then I want us to take a look at maybe what we might take away from such a text. So a look at the structure, kind of like we've done before in previous weeks, previous sections. And then a look at the tensions, taking a closer look on a couple of passages. And then I want to see what we can take away. So if you have that insert that was in your bulletin today, go ahead and pull that out. And we're going to start with that. By this point in time, you're probably already assuming as you read a text in Isaiah, I wonder if there's a chiasm in here. And some of you are thinking, oh yeah, I know what that means. And some of you are going, what? Well, again, just briefly, a chiastic structure is a way that the writer of the Book of Isaiah, Isaiah, structures his text in such a way that in this particular section, if you look in your bulletin as well on page, I think page 10, we've had this in here for some time, and maybe kind of just kind of glossing past this because you've been here so long, But if you can look at this, this is a chiastic arrangement of the last two chapters of the book of Isaiah. And you'll see this A, B, C, D, E, D, C, B, A. He's working in. He's working back out. And as he works toward the center, this is the heart of what he's going to bring out in these two chapters. Isaiah 65 13 through 66 2a you see it there on page 10 in the bulletin right there in the middle of the page letter e 65 13 through 66 2a this is life in the new creation the new city the new house temple that's where he's going to get lord willing we'll be there in a few weeks i know people keep asking me how long you're going to be in isaiah and i have no idea but we're getting closer to the middle So hopefully here in the next few weeks, we'll get to that particular section and look at the new creation, the new city, and the new house temple. At this moment, we're working our way toward that. We've already seen letters A and B. We have seen in 65.1, mercy given to those who had not been called. And then in chapter 66, 18B through 24, at the bottom of that chiastic structure, we've seen mercy on those who had not heard or seen. people that were not looking, the Gentiles who were not looking for the Lord, who were just out there like sheep without a shepherd, who were going their own way, God found them. You today are those very Gentiles. If you can think back to the time when God interrupted your normal flow of life, maybe you were little, maybe you were big, maybe you were young, maybe you were old, but God sought you out, and God brought you to himself. And that's what letter A is all about. Having mercy on those not called, having mercy on those who had not heard or seen. But all don't receive mercy. In the providential plan of God, many. In fact, the road to destruction is what? It is broad. And many are they that find it, Jesus says. In Isaiah 65, 2-7, and in Isaiah 66, 14c-18a, we find not mercy, we find judgment. We find judgment on those who are rebellious people. We find judgment by fire on his enemies. Now in these next two sections, letters C and D, we find two kind of parallel ideas or contrasting ideas of welcome and exclusion. Some are welcome, just like some receive mercy and others receive judgment. Some are welcomed and others are excluded. Notice there on page 10 in the bulletin, letter C, 65, 8 through 10, the welcome of the chosen servants of the Lord. That's the way in this section Isaiah refers to God's people, servants. And that might ring a bell in your mind because as we've gone through the book of Isaiah, we've seen several times, especially in this latter section of Isaiah, from Isaiah 40 to 66, numerous times God's people were referred to as his servants. Israel was his servant to carry the light of the glory of God to all the nations of the world, but Israel was an unfaithful servant. She was a lame servant. She was a blind servant. She was a rebellious servant. So God had to send his singular servant into the world to rescue her and redeem her, and that singular servant was Christ. But now, now we're looking on the other side of the coming of the Messiah, and the Messiah comes, and the gospel is going out, and Israel, the servant of the Lord, is being rescued and redeemed, and now she's referred to as his servant again. And also there on page 10, the second letter C, Isaiah 66, 5 through 14, be the welcome of the newborn sons of Zion. So just as Israel was an unfaithful servant before, and now through the work of the servant, the Lord Jesus Christ, she has now been made a faithful servant once again, so Zion of old was an unfaithful city. It was a city to be destroyed. It's actually referred to in the book of Revelation as the great city that will be destroyed by the judgment of God. But the heavenly Zion, the heavenly Jerusalem, the newborn Zion, the church, is full of newborn sons. not old sons, old wicked sons that despise the father, but newborn sons that come to Zion, that come to Jerusalem, that find Jerusalem, Zion, the place at which she's nurtured and cared for and blessed. But we also find a whole other group of people, not servants and sons, we find the slaughtered and the idolaters. Notice there on page 10 again in the bulletin, letter D, 65, 11, and 12, the exclusion of the slaughtered. Or 66, 2b through 4, the exclusion of the idolaters. So we have this idea of division. We have this idea of division where some receive mercy, some receive judgment, some receive welcome, others are excluded. And then finally, in that middle section on page 10, letter E, 6513 through 662A. Finally, those who receive mercy and those who receive the welcome are brought in to a new city and a new heaven, a whole new house temple in which God dwells with men. Beloved, that is the hope, listen, that is the hope of every believer. If you're here this morning as a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ and your hope is not set on heaven to dwell with God forever, fight for that, brother and sister. Don't let the world pull you aside. Fight for that which is everlasting, for that which is eternal. You know, sometimes as a dad, I'm probably too grumpy on these particular points, but I can get after the kids when all they're doing is talking about things that I think are silly. Now, obviously, they're not talking about books or theology or libraries or going to visit wonderful places that we need to see that can help us. No, they're talking about silly things like, you know, I don't know, toys, and they're talking about little stories and they're talking about books and they're talking about well in my house these days Ben's gone all the time so it's a bunch of girl stuff they're talking about those things that you know I estimate are are silly well dad has a way of talking about things that are silly too they're temporal things They're not bad things. I mean, obviously, when the kids are talking about bad things, we get after them and they understand the justice of that. But when I get a little grumpy as a, you know, getting old kind of dad, and I just think, we shouldn't be talking about silly things. Well, again, dad's just as guilty. We've got to be guarded, don't we? Brothers and sisters, we've got to be guarded against the trivial things of the world capturing our heart. Even the good things of the world, we don't want them to capture our heart. Because they'll hold us what? They'll hold us here, when our life is what? With God. We're made for another world. Remember C.S. Lewis, when he sits there and says, you know, God's promised a holiday at the sea, but the kids would rather just sit in the backyard making mud pies. You know, they find a little puddle of water. I saw a picture of some boys a few weeks ago, and there were some friends that we know, and there's a little picture of the brother, the two brothers, and they're playing in a puddle of water in the backyard with sticks. And I thought, what are they doing? You know, but then I thought for a moment, well when I was five, I probably would have done that too. I can remember when I was about 10 years old and we'd get a big rain and we'd go out in the front yard and we had this cul-de-sac. Remember a cul-de-sac in front of your house? Now they just have a big sidewalk that's taking up 10 feet of your yard. But we used to have a cul-de-sac and the big rain would come through and you'd go out there and you'd take your boat or your army man or whatever you wanted. You'd go to one side and you'd drop him in and you'd run to the other side to see him come out the other side. I can imagine, thinking of Lewis, my parents coming out at that moment, son, we're going to go. We're going to see the Pacific Ocean. Huh? I just want to play with my army man and watch him go from one side to the other. This is really cool. And Lewis says, we're far too easily, what, pleased. We're far too easily pleased. Why? Because God has pledged us and promised us something so much better. to take our hearts away. to capture us with Him and His beauty and to set us on things that are above. This is what we're moving toward, this E, this new heaven, this new earth, this new city, a place in which righteousness dwells, a place where God dwells with men. John saw it. John saw it in the book of Revelation. He saw, if you will, heaven come down to earth and make all things new. And he ended up, the last words of the book, he said what? Oh, you know, I'm really happy with Rome, Lord. I'm really kind of good here. Can we hold off on this for a while? No, he said what? Amen. Even so, come Lord Jesus. And to say that after he'd seen everything he saw in the book of Revelation was amazing. Even so, come Lord Jesus. This is where we're moving. But on the way there, the gospel continues to go forth. And it creates division. It creates points of tension. It separates the wheat from the tares, if you will. It separates the sheep from the goats. It separates the righteous from the wicked. And this is what I want us to see. So I want us to look more closely at letters C and D on the bulletin sheet here. But on the sheet in your bulletin, the one you pull out, they're not listed C and D. They're listed A and B. So I should have probably listed that differently. That might not have been so confusing. So I want you to notice, I'm now on the sheet that you should have pulled out of your bulletin. Big sheet of paper, all right? The chiastic structure here of Isaiah 65, several texts, 8 through 10, 11 through 12, and then 66, verse 3, through 4. See I listed that in the bulletin. I had one typo on my page. I want to make sure we get the right one. So Isaiah 65, 8 to 10. 65, 11 to 12. 66, 2B through 4. And then 66, 5 through 14A. It should be printed out for you there, and hopefully we can follow along with this together. Let me just read the text for us, and then we'll come back and note some connections about this structure. Beginning in Isaiah 65, 8 through 10, thus says the Lord, as the new wind is found in the cluster, and one says, do not destroy, 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. Isaiah 65, 9, I will bring forth offspring from Jacob, and an heir of my mountains from Judah. Even my chosen one shall inherit it, and my servants will dwell there. Sharon will be a pasture land for flocks, and the Valley of Achor a resting place for herds for my people who seek me. Now since we're not reading straight through Isaiah 65 and 66 here, let me jump down. I want to read the corresponding text out of chapter 66. So look toward the bottom of the page, Isaiah 66, beginning in verse 5. This is the other letter A. It starts out in a similar way. 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 things? Can a land be born in one day? Can a nation be brought forth all at once? As soon as Zion travailed, she also 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 Jerusalem and rejoice for her, all you who love her. Be exceedingly glad with her, all you who mourn over her. that you may nourish 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." Now let's come to the middle section of this text, beginning in Isaiah 65 11, letter B there. 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." Now then, chapter 66, beginning in verse 2a. That's probably not printed. I don't know if it's printed on your sheet or not. It's not printed on my first sheet. I did some editing. But I do want to add 66 2a to this section. And we'll talk about that in a moment. 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 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 one who blesses an idol as they have chosen their own ways and their soul delights in their abominations. So what will God do? 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. Now, obviously from the outline that's in your bulletin there, I want you to draw a sense of parallel between the two sections labeled A and A. and I want you to draw a sense of parallel between the two sections labeled B and B. A deals with the issue of welcome. He's bringing in these servants of his, these people who seek him. And the last section, A, he's bringing in, he's welcoming those who tremble at his word, and he's going to nourish them and comfort them and encourage them Letters B speak to the issue of exclusion, those that will be left out, those that will not be brought near, those that will not come and find him, those that will not be comforted, those that will be, if we use the imagery of John in the book of Revelation, those that will be left outside the city. I want to start with letters B, B and B. and then we'll move out to section A. So I'm going to talk first about this issue of exclusion. So what I want to help you do here at this point is see the connections between the two sections. Why would we take a section from chapter 65, verses 11 and 12, and say that it relates to a section in chapter 66, verses 3 through 4? And like I said, we threw in 66 to be, and we'll talk more about that in a little while. But what is it about these two sections from two different chapters that lead me to believe that he's thinking about the same kinds of things? Well, let's notice a particular passage. In 6512 and in 664, we have a text that is quoted almost verbatim. In other words, the same text is repeated in chapter 66 that we see earlier in chapter 65. And this just kind of originally clued me in to say, okay, he's repeating himself, and I know God's not wasting his words, and I know God doesn't just repeat himself for nothing. I repeat myself a lot as a parent. You know, as you get older, you feel like you're losing your mind, right? You just seem to be saying the same things over and over again. But God's not doing that just because he has nothing to say God's doing that for a reason notice in 65 12 Notice the second two lines. It says because I called and you did not answer I spoke and you did not hear and You did evil in my sight and chose that in which I did not delight. I Looked out in chapter 66 in verse 4 you find practically the same thing Because I called, but 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. Both of these groups of people, which I think are, in effect, the same group, are accused of having done the very same thing. When God came, listen, when God came with his word, when God called, when God spoke, they did what? They did not listen. They did not respond. We're going to find this is exactly the opposite response of the other group. The other group, when God speaks, they seek him. When God speaks, they tremble. But when God speaks to these, no one answers. No one responds. No one hears. No one listens. Notice there in 6512, I called, but you didn't answer. I spoke, but you didn't hear. No answer, no hearing. But what did they do? Did they do nothing? No. In fact, what they did do was evil in his sight and chose that in which he didn't delight. The same thing happens in 64 in verse 4. I called and no one answered. I spoke. They didn't listen. They did evil in my sight and chose that in which I did not delight." Men here do the exact opposite of what God called them to do. He called them to respond to Him. He called them to listen to Him. But they closed their ears. You might think of that scene in Pilgrim's Progress where men are speaking to Pilgrim and his friend and And they say, no, we buy what? We buy the truth. Or you might think of that time when Pilgrim was in the city of destruction, and the people were calling out to him to stay, stay, stay. He puts his fingers in his ears. He runs away. He's fleeing to the city. These men do the exact opposite. These men hear the word of God, and they turn a deaf ear to the word of God. Notice what else it says. It leads me to believe these are some parallel type ideas. Notice in chapter 65, verse 11, there are four things that are mentioned that these people do. They forsake the Lord, they forget God's holy mountain, they set a table for fortune, and they fill cups mixed with wine for destiny. What are they doing? Well, they're turning away from God, turning away from His mountain, climb up every other mountain, to worship every other god, to mix a fill cups of mixed wine for destiny, setting tables for fortune. These are like foreign pagan gods. They're turning away from God and his worship and turning to the pagans to learn how they worship. What will God do to them? In verse 12, he says, I destined you for the sword, and all of you will bow down to the slaughter. In other words, in 6511, he says, these are the four things that you do. 6512 says, this is what I'm going to do to you. And 6512, the last part, says, why? Because I called, you didn't answer. Notice what happens in 66. In 66-3, there are four things he mentions they do as well. So in 6511, there were four things they did. They forsook the Lord. They forgot his holy mountain. They set a table for fortune, filled cups of mixed wine for destiny. Those were four acts of rebellion. And here in 663, there are four other acts. Now, one of the Jews' moves, if you will, in the days of the Old Covenant was that they didn't forsake God completely. Sometimes it'll say that they turned away from him, but then they would look back and give God a glance. What they would often do is they would borrow from the pagan religions and engage in pagan worship, and then they would run to church on Sunday. Air quotes there, OK? Because they would run to church on the temple on Saturday. And so all week long, they'd They basically commit whoredom, giving themselves to pagan deities and all kinds of wickedness, and then run to the temple on Saturday for their worship, bringing their offerings. Remember earlier in the book of Isaiah, you can almost hear it. And he says, who is required of you this what? trampling of my courts. And so the idea was that they're running to the temple, making lots of noise like they're really into worship, but in fact they've been out doing all kinds of stuff under every high hill or on every high hill and under every green tree all week long. They've been engaging in pagan idolatry. So verse 65 talks about that pagan idolatry. You're not coming to my house like you should be. 66.3 talks about their, quote unquote, faithful worship of God. But in fact, it's just a bunch of hypocrisy. Notice what he says. 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 the one who offers swine's blood. He who burns incense is like the one who blesses an idol. What is this? Well, Let's think about the things it says they do. First, it says they kill oxen. Then it says they sacrifice lambs. Then it says they make grain offerings. Then it says they burn incense. All of these would have been what? Faithful expressions of devotion under old covenant law. This is them trying to look, here, pious. It's them trying to look righteous. But people never do that anymore, right? These people could check every box on their offering envelope. Only some of you get that because we don't usually use offering envelopes. I guess we have offering envelopes. Don't get back there, John. But they're not the offering envelopes from years ago with all the little boxes, right? Okay. Attended church. I mean, obviously you're filling it out, right? You're here. So yeah, attended church, uh, broad offering. That's why I'm filling it out. Um, but you'd be amazed how many kids when I was a kid, they'd fill out one of those things, never put Mary a penny in it. Why? They just wanted to fill it out because that way they got credit for being there. All right, attended Sunday school, attended worship, gave my offering, read Bible daily. That would always burn me because I would read my Bible six days and not seven or something like that and then feel like I couldn't check it off and I felt unrighteous. I grew up with that kind of mentality that you had to do so many certain things a week in order to really be considered what? Faithful. That was faithfulness. It crippled me as a young man. It crippled me as an adult young man trying to shed myself of all those ways of quote-unquote keeping God happy. Often they were just man-made ways. Brought a friend to church day, you know, that kind of a thing. Sat still and paid attention day. You could check it for all kinds of things. These people are just engaging in activities that are required by the law of God, but they've externalized. Are you hearing that? They've externalized their obedience. Their obedience is not from the heart. Their obedience is not out of love. Their obedience is just ritualistic conformity to the required laws. God says, for that man, when he comes and kills an ox, it's like you've slayed a what? You've slayed a man. The man who comes and simply offers this sacrifice, externally speaking, and has no true heart for worship, you're guilty of murder. You're guilty of killing someone. You're guilty of some kind of premeditated act of killing one of your fellow men. He who sacrifices a lamb. is like one who breaks a dog's neck. In other words, let's imagine that you come to the temple one day and you have to offer your sacrifice. And you can offer a bull, an oxen. You can offer a goat or a ram. You can offer a lamb or maybe if you're poor you can offer some turtle doves or something like that. Or if it's really going bad for you and you just don't know what to do, you can found a dead dog on the side of the road and drag it in and say, hey, I broke its neck. Can you take this? I'm being facetious. Don't worry, Bethany, I didn't really just do that. What good would it be under old covenant law to bring a dog with a broken neck to the priest? It'd be no good. It'd be no good at all. Because offering a dead dog is not one of the prescribed kind of animals that you can bring. I guess that's called dead dog worship. It's just as dead as a dog. It's not going to amount to what? To anything. And he says, look, if you're the kind of people that forsake the Lord, forget his mountain, mix wine for destiny and set tables for fortune, engage in all this kind of paganism all week long, but then you come to my house on the Lord's day and you try to do all the things you're supposed to do. You're like a person who's guilty of murder. You're like a person who's brought a dog with a broken neck. If you come with your grain offering, you're like one who offers swine's blood. You're unclean. You burn incense, you're like one who blesses an idol. You're guilty of what? Ultimately here he says you're guilty of idolatry. This is the final estimation of their worship. And then notice, just like he does in chapter 65 and verse 12, he says what he's going to do. And now in 66-4 he says, so I will choose their punishments and I will bring on them what they dread. And most likely these people had been setting a table for fortune and mixing wine for destiny. Another word for destiny here is fate. In other words, they were hoping these pagan gods might help guard their future, might help protect them from all these things that they were afraid of in the world. The Bible says that Jesus has come in Hebrews to set us free from what? The fear of death. Men are held captive by the fear of death. And to avoid death, they'll do all kinds of things to escape that ultimate fear. And here, they're turning to pagan gods. God says, I'm going to choose their punishments, and I'm going to bring on them what they dread. What do they dread most? They dread death. And God's going to bring that to them. Why, it says in 66.4, because I called, and no one answered. I spoke, and they did not listen. So we see a parallel between these two sections. Both sections point to four actions that these people do. One, they are actions of paganism, going off and enjoying the pagan worship of the day. They are then told they will be destroyed by the sword and led to the slaughter because, why? Because God gave his word and they rejected it. In the second section, there are four acts again. Again, they're four acts of worship. But now they're not pagan worship. Now they're cultic worship, in the sense that they're part of the Old Testament cultus, things they were supposed to do. But they're unacceptable in God's sight. So God is going to bring punishment upon them. Why? Because God gave His Word, and they rejected His Word. Those two sections parallel one another. We have similar parallels when we compare section A and the first part at the top of the page and section A at the bottom. Both sections open with a declaration of a word from God. Thus says the Lord, 65 8. And then down again in 66 verse 5, hear the word of the Lord. Now the people in 65 8 through 10 are identified in a particular way. They are identified in 6510, at the very end of the text, as those, my people who seek me. My people who seek me. Now, in the broad context of Isaiah, why is it that men seek after God? Because God has first done what? God has first sought after them. God has called to them. He has sent out his word. And here we see a people seeking God, meaning that these are people who are responding. They're responding appropriately to the word that has gone out. 66.5, look there in the second section. These are a people who tremble at his word. In other words, they are people who also do what? They hear his word and they respond with trembling. Now, if we look earlier in chapter 65, verse 12 and 66, 4, these are the statements about how God sent out his word, but notice they didn't answer and they didn't hear. Or it says they didn't answer and they didn't listen. So, but in 65a and in 66a, those who seek the Lord, what are they doing? They're answering. They're doing exactly what these people did not. God sends out his word. These people seek God. They answer. But not only do they answer, they also listen. They hear it, and they make an appropriate response. They tremble. We don't have time to go into more comparisons, but I suppose we could summarize these two sections by saying that in 65 and 8 through 10, we find a group of people who are the servants of God who are seeking after God. They seek him in response to what he has called them to. And then in 66, in that latter section there of 5 through 14, we find not servants, we find sons. And these are sons who have heard the word of God, and they tremble at the word, and they respond appropriately to it. And in the middle, we have this section of those who are excluded. They are slaughtered, They are brought to shame. They are shown that indeed in the end their religion is worthless and it's brought them nothing but destruction. So that's a little bit of the comparison between those two sections. What I want to do In the time that remains, I guess that's the comparison of the two sections there, the structure of the text, and then noticing the tension between the two. I want to talk for the time that we have left, though, about maybe some application that we can make. I want us to think in terms of what these do who receive the Word of God. I want to come to another verse that I mentioned earlier, but I didn't comment on it. It's in chapter 66, verse 2. Again, I don't know on your sheet if it's printed or not. Like I said, I made two copies of the sheet, and the sheet I have in my notes doesn't have it in there. But in 66, 2a, I want you to look at this, or 2b, I'm sorry, I want you to look at this text. It starts with the word but. But to this one I will look, to him who is humble and contrite of spirit and who trembles at my word." So we've already seen there's two groups of people here, right? God has sent his word out and there are those who seek him There are those who tremble at what he has to say, those who humble themselves and come to him. And then there are those who hear his word and they're disinterested. They're not drawn to what the Lord has to speak to. They're the ones who are going to be excluded. These two different groups are characterized by two different responses to one thing. The one thing that has gone out is the Word of God. The Word of God has gone to both groups of people. The Word has gone out to the servants and to the sons. The imagery of a servant is that of one who is under his master. A servant assumes a position of humility under his master and is drawn to serve him. That's the image that I get as I read this text of this first description of the group that responds positively to the word of God. They're called servants. They're called this several places. If you look in the broader text in chapter 65 and verse 8, he's going to act on behalf of his servants in chapter 65 verse 9 he mentions them again as his servants and we're going to see whenever we get to this next section in verse 13 and 14 and 15 they're also referred to the servants again and then in the end of 66 verse 14 He says, 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, what? To his servants. Numerous times in this passage, these two chapters, he refers to his people who have made a positive response to his word as his servants. And again, servants are those who stand in relation to God as a master. And the proper response of a servant to a master is one of humility. Imagine a servant who's full of pride. He asserts himself over his master. Well, that's not the picture we have here. The picture we have here is that of a servant who is drawn to seek after his master. He has heard his master's word, and he has responded positively. If we just use the imagery in 6512 or 664, we would say that I called and you what? You answered. I spoke, and you did hear, and you did good in my sight, and chose that in which I did delight. A servant, in relation to his master, assumes a posture of humility. He responds positively to the word of God. But there's another image here that is given. It's not that of a servant. It's that of a son. And the son emphasis is in, it's in, It's in chapter 66. I look there with me for a moment. He mentions these sons and the whole imagery in 66 7 all the way through 66 13. It's imagery of a mother It's imagery of a pregnant woman. It's imagery of birth, the bringing forth of a son, the comfort that the son receives at the breast of the mother. He is nourished and he is fed there. So notice 66.7. Before she prevailed or travailed, excuse me, she brought forth. Before her pain came, she gave birth to a boy. Unimaginable, right, ladies? I mean, that didn't happen for you probably, all right? No, our first child was born with much travail. It took hours and hours and hours. And Janice is thinking, what did you know? All right, all you did was sat there. Yes, I was there, all right? Each one came with various levels of difficulty, but none came, none came before there was travail. Who has heard of such a thing? Who has seen such things? Can a land be born in a day? Can a nation be brought forth all at once? As soon as Zion travailed." Now the imagery is like, as soon as there's travail, she also 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? When Isaiah envisions this future day of glory for the people of God, it is a day in which the sons, the boys, the nation, the city, the whole is born, as it were, in a day. And by the hand of God is the only way this can ever be brought about. So he uses this human illustration of childbirth that's full of travail, that's full of difficulty. And the idea of how to bring forth these sons of the kingdom, these sons of the new Zion, these sons of the new Jerusalem, these sons that will fill up the church. How will it ever happen? Remember, the present state of Jerusalem is sad and dilapidated. And we've been, if you can remember, back in chapter 62, back in chapter 62, in verse 7, we have been praying for Jerusalem. Remember that? This whole section is about the prayer for Jerusalem. And in 62, 7, it says, give him no rest until he establishes and makes Jerusalem a praise in the earth. the people of God are to be pleading with God that He would indeed bring forth this new day for Zion, this new day for Jerusalem in which sons would be born to her in a way, in a manner that is unexpected and unimaginable and unachievable by human measure. Nobody could have given birth to the church. Who would have imagined? Which one of the disciples you think would have imagined on Acts chapter 2, on the day of Pentecost, when they stood up to speak, they're filled with the Spirit of God, they speak with other tongues, and 3,000 people are born into the kingdom that day by the preaching of a group of men that a few days earlier were locked up in a room and didn't want to come out because they were afraid. They were waiting. What were they waiting for? They were waiting until God poured out power from on high. And when he did that, the church is born. When? In a day, in a moment, and it's born. And over and over and over for 2,000 years, God has been bringing sons into the kingdom and we're pleading with him. We're still giving him no rest until he fills the church with people from every tribe and tongue and language and nation that they might all surround the throne and sing praise to him who is on the throne and to the lamb be glory and honor and power and dominion. Why? Because he is worthy of no less than the praise of a multi-colored, multi-racial, multi-ethnic, multi-glorious looking group of people that will one day stand and sing his praise and his glory. These are the sons. These are the sons that are born and are being born into the kingdom. the physical sons of the kingdom. Jesus says they're going to be what? Thrown out. But men from the north and the south and the east and the west, they're going to come and gather and eat with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob in that day at the table of the Lord. They are the newborn sons of Zion. Notice these. Notice these who come. Be joyful with Jerusalem. Rejoice for her, all you who love her. Be exceedingly glad with her, all you who mourn over her, that you may nourish 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 ever-flowing stream. And you will be nourished, and you'll 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." Back in Isaiah chapter 2, Isaiah had a vision of the new Jerusalem, and the nations were streaming to her. And that's exactly what's happening as the gospel goes out to the nations now. They're streaming to Zion. This is why we spent so much time going through Acts. So we spent so much time in Acts chapter 1 and chapter 2 and chapter 8 and chapter 10 and chapter 13 and 15 to see the gospel going from Jerusalem to Judea to Samaria to the uttermost part of the age because Christ is with the church even today to do what? To continue to bring sons to Zion. You wonder why we spent so much time in Acts? This is why. Because now we don't have to go to Acts. do that for like three months. We can just say, see Acts, all right? We talked about that several months ago. As these servants are seeking after the Lord, and as these sons are coming as sons due to the father that they reverence and tremble at his word. Not in, not in, not because they're afraid of God. but because they have a holy and healthy fear of God and a reverence for God. Men, you don't want your sons to be afraid of you, but you better want your sons to fear you and to have some sense of respect for you and have some sense of honor for you as a father. But brothers, if that is the way it should be in a family on the earth, think how much greater it should be in the family of God. I am not deserving of honor. God has granted me some measure of that as a father. But God is worthy of honor. God is worthy of having his word, not disregarded, but trembled at. Ezra, when Ezra stood up to preach and to give a sense of the word, he called the people to repentance, those who trembled at the word of God. These servants, they seek the Lord. These sons, they come and tremble at the word of God. To this one, he says, I will look. To him who is humble and contrite of spirit and who trembles at my word." Well, just briefly, let me speak to you as those who are servants and those who are sons. It is the calling of God's people to be faithfully responding to the word of Christ and to the Christ who has granted his word. We are by his word given to us regularly, week in and week out. We are to be responding and growing in faith and hope and love. Let me just speak to those three issues. Those are very common things. We find them often in the scripture, especially in the New Testament, that Paul hears of the faith of the Thessalonians. He hears of their hope. He hears of their growth in love. Sometimes we refer to these as theological virtues. Paul says they're the greatest things, right? Faith and hope and love. These three, what? They abide, they remain. The greatest of these is love. In relation to this idea of the word of Christ, the Word of God going out to the people of God. We spoke this afternoon in Sunday school about preaching and how to be better listeners to the Word of God as we're hearing preaching. And we're gonna be talking about that for several weeks coming in Sunday school in the afternoon. So I would encourage you to come to that if you have an opportunity to do that. As the Word of Christ goes out to the people of Christ, they grow in faith. What do I mean by that? I mean they grow in the knowledge and the grace of God. Peter says that we should be growing in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. We should be growing in knowledge. And as we are taught the Word of Christ, we are taught the Word of Christ that is about Him. Correct? It's all about Him. We're learning about Him. We're growing in the knowledge of Him. We're learning about who He is in His person. We're learning about what He has done in His great work. We mentioned this afternoon that Paul decided that when he went to Corinth, he would know nothing except what? Jesus Christ and Him crucified. And as we thought about that, we thought, well, that sounds kind of brief, doesn't it? We're just going to go in and talk about Jesus and the cross. But if you really stop to think about the preaching of Christ and Him crucified, you're talking about the preaching of the person of Christ and the work of Christ. Well, think about the person of Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ is the Son of the everlasting God. The Lord Jesus Christ is who we often refer to as the second member of the Trinity, which implies there's a what? There's a first member of the Holy Trinity. There is the Father. We know the Father and the Son both send forth their what? Their Spirit in the world. So now, in speaking about the person of Christ, we're now talking about what? The Father, the Son, and the Spirit. As we talk about the person of Christ, we have to talk about the person of Christ as He is manifested in the flesh. But talking about the person of Christ as He is manifested in the flesh points us to talk about what? The person of Christ as He has existed for all eternity. There is never a time when the Son was not. He has always been. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God, and the Word was made flesh. Now we're talking about the enfleshment of Christ. Now we're talking about the manifestation of Christ in the flesh. But now we're also talking about the eternity of this one, talking about his person. We're talking about his work. We talk about His work as a mediator. But before we can talk about His work as a mediator, we talk about His work as creator, His work in eternity. You see, we're opening up all kinds of vistas as we talk about the person and the work of Christ, the work of Christ coming, Jesus Christ and Him crucified, talking about Him being crucified, talks about His life, implies His life before He was crucified. We talk about his obedience to the law of God, his active and his passive obedience, his adherence to every point of the will of the Father, his willingness to endure suffering to the point of dying on the cross. When we talk about his his work of suffering and dying, we have to ask the question, why? Why does Christ come? Why does Jesus come to die? Why? Because men are estranged from God. This takes us back to the garden. This takes us back to the fall. This takes us back to how things were before the fall. You see how we're just like, we're just taking those little dolls, one of those little Russian dolls or whatever, we're just opening one more over the other. And we have an immense amount. of an exhaustible amount of truth to grapple with in speaking about the person and the work of Christ. As we study these things, as we hear of these things from the word of God, we are growing in the faith and we are growing in our trust and our reliance upon the God that is being made known to us. We're also growing as we move forward. We're growing not only in faith, we're growing in hope. Our hope and the promises that this God has made to us, this God that we have studied, this God that we have seen, this God that we have learned about, He has made pledges to us and promises to us. In fact, it says in Corinthians that all the promises of God are what? They are, yes, in Christ. In Christ, God has covenanted with his people to grant them every promise that he has ever made. When I think about this particular idea of the hope of God's people, I think in terms of Isaiah chapter 66, because the hope in this particular context, the hope that God's people have is a hope that is going to be brought to fruition as they see Jerusalem, what, growing in glory and in praise from all the earth, the nations coming to her. Why is this important? Why is it important that the church or that Zion here, as Paul refers to the church as that heavenly Jerusalem in Galatians chapter 4, and also in Hebrews chapter 12, the writer of Hebrews speaks of that heavenly Jerusalem that we are coming to, and these are pictures of the church. Why is it important that believers today, in response to the word of God, why is it important that you see that God is working in the church her blessing, her maturity, her growth. The reason that's important for you is because all of these promises, listen, all of these promises that God has made to you in Christ, you receive, are you listening, through the church. Now that might sound really, really Catholic, but I want you to think with me for just a moment. Cyprian of Carthage made the statement years ago, a statement that sometimes has caused Protestants to cringe, and it should not. You cannot have God for your father unless you have the church for your mother. Some of you are, like, squirming at the moment. Oh, where's he going? He just went Catholic this week. What happened? All right? Let me read you something else. And I'll quote. I will start them with the church. in whose bosom God is pleased to gather his sons, not only that they may be nourished by her help and ministry as long as they are infants and children, but also that they may be guided by her motherly care until they mature and at last reach the goal of faith, so that for those to whom he is father, the church may also be mother. And this was so not only under the law, but also after Christ's coming, as Paul testifies when he teaches that we are the children of the new and heavenly Jerusalem. Calvin, Institutes, chapter 4, book 1, chapter 1. Calvin says also, I'll go ahead and tell you who this is going to be now, since I've already let him out of the bag. Calvin in his commentary in the book of Galatians and Ephesians, Philippians and Colossians says this, the heavenly Jerusalem which derives its origin from heaven and dwells above by faith is the mother of believers. For she has the incorruptible seed of life deposited in her by which she forms us, cherishes us in her womb, and brings us to life. She has the milk and the food by which she continually nourishes her offspring. This is why the church is called the mother of believers. And certainly, he who refuses to be a son of the church desires in vain to have God as his father. For it is only through the ministry of the Church that God begets sons for himself and brings them up until they pass through adolescence and reach manhood. This is a title of wonderful and highest honor." What a fascinating statement. Certainly not here made by a Catholic. This is the same guy that will say the Pope is the Antichrist and have nothing to do with the papacy. I think what Calvin's doing, he's drawing these kinds of thoughts. Yes, it's a commentary on Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, and Colossians, but it's right here in Isaiah 66. Listen to what it says again. Be joyful with Jerusalem, and rejoice for her, all you who love her. Be exceedingly glad with her, all you who mourn over her. Why should I be glad that these glorious days are coming upon the church? Because that you may nurse and be satisfied with her comforting breaths, that you may suck and be delighted with her bountiful bosom for thus says the Lord behold I extended peace to her like a river and the glory of the nations like an overflowing stream and you'll be nursed and you'll 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 and your heart will be glad your bones will flourish like new grass and the hand of the Lord will be made known to his servants." God has done a lot of great mercies in my own life in 55 years. And I've changed a lot in the last 30, 35 years in particular. I grew up in several churches. They were probably fairly Arminian Baptist churches. Then early on in my own ministry, I pastored a, you know, Arminian, Calvinish something church as we kind of moved toward reform. And our own church has reformed quite a bit over the last 10, 15 years. But you know what? I'm thankful. I'm thankful for all those churches I was in as a boy. They didn't have everything right. We don't have everything right. But I practically grew up, I felt like a church. My mom and dad were at church all the time. I wasn't as thankful for it as I should have been. Sometimes I probably wasn't thankful for it at all. But brothers and sisters, God has appointed the church for you to be a place where your soul is nourished And he holds out to you through his church his precious promises one for you by christ We call them the means of grace Preaching Baptism wasn't it nice wasn't it wonderful to see baptism here We've seen several in the last several months Let's see more of those We have the Lord's Supper every week. I'm so grateful for that. I'm so thankful that every week I can hold a piece of bread in my hand that pictures for me the body of my Savior who died for me. I can hold a cup that represents the cup of the new covenant in my hand that pictures his blood that was shed for me. Because without the shedding of blood, there's no remission of sin, no forgiveness. of my sin. It reminds me every week as I hold it, my sins have been forgiven. Every week when I stand to sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs with you, I know you don't always know the songs. I don't always know the songs. And that's probably my fault because they were written a long time ago. You know, they're right in here. But I get to sing them with you. I get to hear you. I know some of you can probably only hear me. That's what my kids tell me sometimes. Dad, we just hear you. We get to pray together. And you could stay at home. You could stay at home and read your Bible, listen to a podcast, eat a snack, sing a song, and you can call it You can call it church, but it's not. We're called to be together. I'm glad we have Zoom. Glad we have these electronic things. And we're blessed by, I don't even, I'm looking at the back of the computer. I don't know who's joined us today, but some people have joined us today. I'm thankful for that. But my, my, my, my desire is to what? See us all what? Together. Here together. Why? Because coming together I am nourished on the promises that God gives to me and he communicates them through the means of grace that he has appointed in the church. This is indeed the most important thing that happens in my life all week long and it's not just because I'm a preacher. It's because I'm a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ and coming together with you every week is the most important thing that ever happens to me. My faith grows as I respond to the word of God. My hope is strengthened and I grow in love. I grow in love for God. I grow in love for my neighbor. Every time I grow and respond to the word of God, and am nourished by his promises. I grow in thankfulness and worship and in love for him. And every time I gather with you, I grow in my love for you. And I'm nourished in that and encouraged in that. So I speak to you as servants. I speak to you as sons. I speak to you as my brothers and sisters, that we are to be in the church, nourished in the faith and the hope and the love that we have. in Christ and I pray he would continue to nourish us and strengthen us in faith and hope and love until he takes us home. When faith and hope are gone and love is the only thing that remains. Let's pray together. Father we bless your name and we thank you for your word and we thank you for the promise that you've made to us that you indeed, by it and by your Holy Spirit, you will grow us in faith and hope and love. I pray for my brothers and sisters, fellow servants, fellow sons of the kingdom. I pray, God, that you would continue to grow us, to look like Christ, to be like him. God, we thank you so for all your work that you do in the church and we pray oh god that you would continue to nourish us that we might indeed be comforted here that we might indeed be fed that we'd be carried along that we were brought to our everlasting father we thank you for your grace and your mercy and we ask all this in jesus name amen