["Pomp and Circumstance"] Well, good morning. Welcome again to the Bethany Associate Reforms Repeterian Church as we come together to worship the Lord our God on this blessed Sabbath morning. And as we come together to worship, just a couple of announcements to begin our day. First of all, just as a reminder, next Lord's Day, we will be having Rally Day as we see our young people move up in some cases, get awarded for perfect attendance and other things. Again, that'll be at 9.45 here in the sanctuary. We will have Mugs and Muffins next Sunday morning beginning at 9.15. So again, we invite everybody for Mugs and Muffins. Before we gather for Rally Day, just a couple of things for Rally Day. For the teachers, if you haven't gotten information from Mr. Jimmy about permanent attendance and who's moving up and things like that, please get that to him as soon as you can. Other things, we are still in need of a primary teacher for Sabbath school. So if you're interested in that, let Mr. Jimmy know at your leisure. Also, for today, we will be having the Lady Circle will be meeting at 4 o'clock. So again, we invite all the ladies for that at 4 o'clock down in the Fellowship Hall. Also, Sunday evening worship will be at 5.30 tonight as we continue our study on how Jesus uses the Bible. Also tonight, the elders will be meeting at 6.30 for their monthly meeting. So again, we welcome prayers for the elders as they lead us well. Also, this coming week there will be a youth party on Friday at 6 o'clock. If you know you're going to be here or you know you're not going to be here either way, please let Ms. Jean know as she makes plans and other things. Again, we invite all our young people to that. Again, thanks to Ms. Jean for all the work she does on that front. Also, Wednesday night, of course, we will gather together again as we continue to learn more about how it is we as Christians are to respond to various things going on in the world today. Also, there is a sign-up sheet on the back left lectern for the teacher appreciation supper. So if you know you're going to be here for that, please sign up for that today. so that we have good numbers for D-Notes. And again, thanks again to all our teachers for everything that they do. There's a sign-up sheet down front here for the JC Outreach Saturday, which will be the 21st of September. Again, we invite everybody to come just for a little bit, an hour or two, half hour, 15 minutes, doesn't matter. We'd just love to see you there as we invite folks to come to Bethany, but even more importantly, welcome people to know the Lord Jesus Christ. So again, we'll have a tent set up at the JC weekend and again the sign up sheet for that is down front. Let's see, what else do I have marked down here? Oh, also the men's book study will be making this Saturday at 8 o'clock and so again we invite all the men out for that. And as we prepare to come before the Lord this morning, let us take a moment to prepare ourselves for worship in a moment of silent prayer. Man, of course I always forget something. The adult quarterly is in for adult Sabbath school at 10 a.m., so we invite you to that. Also, the young adults had their first meeting this morning at 10 a.m., so again we invite all the other young adults to join them up in the library at 10 o'clock when we get that class going. But this morning again as we're here to worship the Lord our God I invite you to turn to the book of 2nd Timothy as God calls us into the presence of his glory and the blessings of his grace as we read from 2nd Timothy chapter 1 verses 3 through 7. Again as we hear the promises of God given to us by our gracious Lord. Again from 2nd Timothy chapter 1 beginning there at verse 3. Hear the word of the Lord. I thank God, whom I serve with a pure conscience, as my forefathers did, as without ceasing I remember you in my prayers night and day. greatly desiring to see you, being mindful of your tears, that I may be filled with joy when I call to remembrance the genuine faith that is in you, which dwelt first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice, and I am persuaded is also in you. Therefore, I remind you to stir up the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands. For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love. and of a sound mind. Amen. Again, as we show forth our love for the risen Christ and for the goodness that he has given unto us by his grace, I invite you to stand as we sing our opening hymn, hymn number 699 from the Red Trinity Hymnal. Again, let the Lord bless us as we sing with voices of praise. Let us stand together. It's not too late. Yeah! Oh! Amen. Again as we speak. rest we have in the Lord Jesus Christ. We are reminded that this day is the day that Jesus Christ rose from the dead. This is the day that we see the fullness of the promises of our God laid out in perfect blessing. And so as we rejoice in this good news once more, let us turn now before the Lord our God and pray. Let us pray. Gracious Heavenly Father, we give thanks again that you are the God of heaven and earth. That dear God, no matter the trials and tribulations of this life, no matter how much the evil one tempts us, no matter how much this fallen world declares war on our soul, dear God, no matter how weak we may feel this day, dear God, we come because you are our God and we are your people. Dear God, we are sinners. We recognize our fallenness, that we have broken your commandments. We have done that which we should not have done. We have said what we should not have said. Dear God, we come on this Lord's Day morning because you are the God of forgiveness. You are the God of grace. You are the God of mercy and of love. Dear God, may you move us this morning as we grow in love for Christ, as we grow in love for one another, and as you use this day to repair within our hearts all that is broken. God, we pray for the power of the Holy Spirit as you cover us in your promise that we might do all things well. We might serve one another in love. We might do so in the name of your son, who taught his disciples to pray, saying, our Father, who art in heaven. Hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory forever. Amen. Again, this opportunity is provided for us in the very word of the living God to see what it is Jesus has done for us as his covenant people. We turn now to the 18th chapter of the Gospel of John as the apostle testifies to us What happened when Christ went to the cross? And so we go now here to the 18th chapter beginning at verse 28. Hear the word of God. Then they led Jesus from Caiaphas to the Praetorium. It was early morning, but they themselves did not go into the Praetorium, lest they should be defiled, that they might eat the Passover. Pilate then went out to them and said, what accusation do you bring against this man? They answered and said to him, if he were not an evildoer, we would not have delivered him up to you. And Pilate said to them, you take him and judge him according to your law. Therefore the Jews said to him, it is not lawful for us to put anyone to death, that the saying of Jesus might be fulfilled which he spoke, signifying by what death he would die. Pilate entered the praetorium again calling Jesus and said to him, are you the king of the Jews? Jesus answered, are you speaking for yourself about this or did others tell you this concerning me? Pilate answered, am I a Jew? Your own nation and the chief priests had delivered you to me. What have you done? Jesus answered, my kingdom is not of this world. My kingdom were of this world, my servants would fight so that I should not be delivered to the Jews. But now my kingdom is not from here. Pilate therefore said to him, Are you a king then? Jesus answered, you say rightly that I am a king. For this cause I was born and for this cause I have come into the world that I should bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth hears my voice. Pilate said to him, what is truth? He had said this, he went out again to the Jews and said to them, I find no fault in him at all. But you're the custom that I should release someone to you at the Passover. Do you therefore want me to release to you the king of the Jews? Then they all cried again, saying, not this man, but Barabbas. Now Barabbas was a robber. Amen. Thanks be to God for the reading of his holy and his perfect word. Please be seated. I invite the children to come forward for the lesson today. Good morning, everybody. Good morning. How are y'all doing today? Good. Good. Y'all having big plans for tomorrow? No. No? Just going to enjoy the day at school? Yeah. Yeah. I think it's going to be fairly nice tomorrow, so I mean, we'll get to enjoy that at least. Now, today we're starting a new sermon series from the book of Isaiah. Now, can anybody tell me who Isaiah is? Anybody have a guess? Isaiah was an old testament prophet now What's a prophet? But have any guesses as to what a prophet is Right a believer of God that's right a prophet believes in the Lord. That's good. What else the prophets do I? Right? Teach about God, right? You know, in the Old Testament, prophets were called by God. Now, when I say called, does that mean that God picked up his phone and called these guys? No, right? Did they have phones back then? No, right? So how do you think God got in touch with these prophets? That's right. He spoke to them, right? You know, we hear all the time in the Bible that God speaks. Now, when God speaks, right, what should we do? Listen, right? When God speaks, we should listen. So God calls these prophets, these old, these men who hear the voice of God, and what do you think makes a difference between a good prophet and a bad prophet? That's right, the good prophet believes in God and the bad prophet doesn't believe in God. And so one of the things that we're gonna learn from Isaiah here in a bit, and especially over the next couple of months, is that if we're a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, when God speaks, what should we do? We should listen, right? Now, do you have a lot of people during the week who try to tell you things? Now, how can you know whether those things are good or whether those things are bad? Right? You listen and you think about what they say. Does it make a big difference who says it? If your mom tells you something, Is that different from just a random person on the street? Yes, right? If your mom tells you something, what should you do? Listen, right? If some random person walks up to you at Walmart and says something, what should you do? Go away, right? Just go get your mama, right? But should you listen to them? No, right? So when we hear about prophets, and we talk about prophets, and we think about prophets in the Old Testament, right? The way we can tell whether somebody like Isaiah is a good guy, and whether somebody like, you know, Ahab's prophet's a bad guy, is very simply, is do they listen to God? Do they say what God tells them to? And do they do what God tells them to do? Right? That's the simplest way whether we can tell whether somebody is somebody we should listen to or somebody we shouldn't listen to. Do they say what God says? Do they do what God says? And do they encourage us to listen to the God of the Bible? And so when you hear things from various people during the week, that's one of the key things you need to do. You need to ask those questions. Do these people believe in God? Do they speak in a sense for God? Or are they seeking their own ways? Now, is that an easy thing to do? That's a hard thing to do, right? Because sometimes people who you're supposed to listen to don't tell you things that are right. Now, as believers, who should you ask for help in God, right? So how do you ask God for help? You pray to Him, right? And so one of the cool things, again, about being a Christian, especially as a young Christian, is that you can talk to God just as much as I can, right? Just because I'm a preacher doesn't mean I have a special line to heaven. All of us who believe in God can talk to Him, can ask Him for help, can see His face in all things. And so I want to encourage you as we hear from the prophet Isaiah, but as you hear things during the week, remember, God's given you the power to understand things. And all you need to do is ask. and you shall receive it. Y'all ready to pray? Let's pray. Great Son of the Father, we give thanks again for the goodness of your grace and the blessings of your truth. And God, we pray that as you raise us up in faith, as you build us up in understanding, that you will help us to see that we have a God who hears us, a God who loves us, a God who speaks to us through the scriptures. And God, may we not be afraid to ask that we might receive him. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Well, again, one of the ways that God's given us a reminder of the blessings of His grace and the goodness of His truth is by the word that He's provided for us that we might sing unto the name of our God. So I invite you to stand as we sing from our green Bible song book, Bible song number 253, The Word of Ground, Our Hope. Again, let us stand as we rejoice in the blessings of this word. We thank you, Lord, for the gifts you've bestowed upon us. To you, O righteous, I humbly bow. O gracious, I praise you, my Jesus, evermore. Teach me the new way, teach me the right way. The world will end, the world will end, and the world will spread out like a, like a sky. We'll see the new day, we'll see the new day, come what may. We've come a long way, but we've come a long way. We've come a long way. We've come a long way. We've come a long way. We've come a long way. We've come a long way. I did not ask for this, I just have to live. We treated her great, she treated us again. How can I say no? Yeah. Again, as we give opportunity again to hear the blessings of God's grace, let us now be seated as we are reminded once more of the opportunity God gives to us to bring our knees before him in prayer. Let us pray. Gracious Heavenly Father, as you grant unto us this day of rest, as you give us this Lord's Day in fulfillment of the promises made in the Fourth Commandment, as we remember what you have done, As we remember not only the very creation itself as you established each day. As you made the heavens for a purpose. As you made the seas to show your glory. The animals to bring joy unto the earth. You have made us your people to bear your image. We are the apple of your eye, as the Psalm tells us. You've given unto us responsibilities. You've granted us privileges which no other part of the creation has. Under God, we confess before you that we, like Adam, have sinned before you. We have rebelled against your name. We have heeded the words of the serpent. Hath God really said? And yet, even in the remembrance of this great sin. Dear God, we are reminded this morning of the promise that was made unto Eve. That out of her would come a seed. And that seed would die. and be placed into the ground. And that seed, like all seeds placed into the ground, would flourish in the day of the resurrection. That seed would grow into a great cedar, taller than all the trees of Lebanon, and would grant shade unto your people. as we remember this morning the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. As we remember our unworthiness to receive such a gift, dear God, our hearts are raised up into the heavens even more so at the beauty of your love for us. That you, dear God, did not forsake us nor forget us. You did not leave us in our sins. You did not leave us in our weakness. Dr. God, you have showed forth your strength in the death of your son, that we might no longer be enemies, we might be friends forever. Dr. God, as we think this morning especially of those who have sinned against us, as we think of the sins that we have committed on our own, through no help of the evil one. As we think of the weight of pain, the trouble that sin has caused. God, may we remember that the latter days are greater than the former. That the glory of the heavenly places are in no comparison to the temporary difficulties of this life. Dear God, we pray in the power of your Holy Spirit that we would look up onto the heavens even at this moment. That we would look at the bride arrayed for her wedding day. The joy of the new heavens and the new earth, the new Jerusalem. May we see the wonders of heaven, dear God. May they be the very lifeblood of our hearts. For Jesus Christ is altogether lovely. Gracious Heavenly Father, as we do confess these sins before you and as we lay ourselves at your feet to receive your mercy and your grace, God, we pray especially for those in our community, those around us who know not the Lord. Who are running as far as they can away from the free offer of the gospel. God, may you arrest their souls. May you give us opportunity, may you give us time, may you give us chance to speak Jesus. For God, we know not the time or the place where the seed has been planted and through the work of the Holy Spirit might grow again. May you help us not to look unto the lost and think themselves too far. For to God we recognize we were such as one of these. But through your providence you brought the good news of salvation unto our hearts. You changed us, you gave us new life, you born us again. To God may we have the courage, may we have the love for our neighbor to share this blessed truth. We pray for opportunities, especially the upcoming one at the JC's that the seeds which are planted might come to fruition. We especially pray for those of our number who are wandering, those who have once confessed faith, those who have received the covenant sign. And we pray for them as the father of the prodigal pray. Knowing not the time of the day, but knowing the promise. And God, we also think again this morning of things that are deep in our souls this morning. God, we give thanks again for the Word which tells us that the Holy Spirit searches out the depths of our hearts and knows our trials, especially those ones that are only known unto us. Sister God, we take time this morning to ask prayer for those unspoken prayers. We pray to God that you would bring healing unto our soul, that you would encourage us and strengthen us in your grace. Dear God, as we look up unto the heavens this morning, and as we remember the second coming of Jesus Christ, God, we do pray for this fallen world in which we live, especially this season in our nation. Dear God, we are inundated daily, every moment of every day, with so much. So much information, so much hatred, so much anger, so much wickedness, so much of everything. Dear God, we pray your protection upon our souls and our minds and our hearts. Dear God, may you give us wisdom to discern, wisdom to know, and wisdom to speak wisdom. And may you remind us of the need to go off unto a quiet place at times. Heavenly Father, we also lift up unto you those of our number who are unable to be with us this morning, especially due to sickness and to injury and to other needs at home. We pray to God that as you call their name unto our minds this morning, we pray to God that you would give them comfort and give them strength, bring healing unto their bodies. For God, you have made us body and soul. You care as much for our bodies as our souls. We pray that you would be especially with those who seemingly have no answer this morning. Pray to God that you would give compassion to their care providers. And to God we especially pray for the comforting work of the Spirit. And as we continue to worship you this morning and as we continue to serve you as disciples of Jesus Christ, And we pray that you would watch over us as we awaken from our beds tomorrow, as we lay our heads on the pillows tonight. God, may we do so by faith, may we do so in peace. In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Redeemer, our Savior, the author and finisher of our faith, in his name we pray, amen. ♪ His precious blood will freely flow again ♪ ♪ Through the world and air ♪ ♪ Alleluia, sing ♪ ♪ O blessed human beings ♪ ♪ Who sing of your saving ♪ ♪ Alleluia, sing, alleluia ♪ ♪ O blessed human beings ♪ Oh, what bright and wonderful day! Oh, what joy! Oh, what joy! Oh, what joy! Oh, what joy! Oh, what joy! Oh, what joy! The sun and the moon, the rain, the sun and the wind, the sun and the rain, the sun and the rain, And I, and I will love her always. I wish to hold her tight, and pray that she will die, and take her gracious leave. The world will never know The love you lost I, I, I, I, I As I noted to the children, of course, we are beginning a new sermon series in the fall, which will come to us from the book of Isaiah, and we're gonna be looking at chapter 65 and 66 in this portion of God's word. 65 and 66, and as we come together this morning, we're gonna be looking at the first five verses of chapter 65. So let us stand for the reading of God's word. Isaiah 65 beginning in verse 1 I Was sought by those who did not ask for me I? Was found by those who did not seek me I? Said here. I am here I am To a nation that was not called by my name. I have stretched out my hands all day long to a rebellious people I who walk in a way that is not good according to their own thoughts, a people who provoke me to anger continually to my face, who sacrifice in gardens and burn incense on altars of brick, who sit among the graves and spend the night in the tombs, who eat swine's flesh and the broth of abominable things is in their vessels, 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. Amen. Let us pray. Gracious Heavenly Father, we give thanks again for your word and for your providence, which has brought us on this day to this portion of Holy Scripture. And dear God, we do pray that you would use this time for your glory and for our benefit. And in Jesus' name, amen. Please be seated. You know, as we start this new series, kind of the main focus of our time in Isaiah 65 and 66 is gonna be the word hope. Now, these opening five verses don't exactly sound like somewhere you would go to immediately find hope. Here we have God telling the Israelites that they are finished, at least for now. that God has had enough of their rebellious nature. That God has seen fit now to leave Israel to the side for a time and to call out to a nation that did not ask to be his people. And that seems a little strange, again, as we're wanting to talk about hope. But the reason why this is hopeful to us is because we are the very people that Jesus is talking about here through the prophet Isaiah. We are the Gentiles. We are the nation that has not asked for God to come unto them. But what we hear is that God has come unto us. One of the reasons why we know that this is what this portion of the scripture is about is because the Apostle Paul tells us that's what this is about. You see, it's a blessing sometimes in Isaiah, which is one of the most quoted books in the New Testament, that every now and then we get direct quotations from the prophet. from the hand of the Apostle Paul, and in fact, in the middle of Romans chapter 10, the Apostle Paul tells us, but Isaiah is very bold and says, I was found by those who did not seek me, I was made manifest to those who did not ask for me, but to Israel, he says, all day long, I have stretched out my hands to a disobedient and contrary people. So that's why we know that we are the subject of these verses. Because Paul tells us in the Word that God has designed that there would be a time where the rebellious nation of Israel would be set to the side and the Gentile nations would be brought into the kingdom of God. That's what the book of Acts really is all about. That doesn't mean that Jews didn't come to faith. In fact, the vast majority of people that came to faith in the second chapter of Acts were a people of the book, were Israelites who were in the Passover on the day of Pentecost when the Holy Spirit came and 3,000, 5,000 people were converted in a day. But what this passage is really reminding us this morning is more so of our own rebellious nature. You see, part of the message of Isaiah 65 is not just to the Israelites, it's to the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ. When we hear these words that are spoken unto us in the second verse, it says, I have stretched out my hands all day long to rebellious people who walk in a way that is not good, according to their own thoughts, of people who provoke me to anger, continue my faith through sacrifice in gardens, and burn incense on altars of brick, who sit among the graves, and spend the night in the tombs, who eat swine's flesh, and the broth of abominable things is in their vessel. Who say keep yourself to not come near me for I'm holier than you Again there's a warning to be heeded here at the beginning of Isaiah 65 for the church in 2024 Because we are the rebellious people in this day and age Now that may be hard for some of us to hear but it's the truth Because you look at the state of the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ in 2024 and what do you see around you? Do we live in a time of great holiness? Do we live in a time where churches are faithful to the preaching of the gospel? Do we live in a day and time where the vast majority of congregations which claim the name of Christ preach what Isaiah preached? Preach what Jesus preaches. Preach as what Paul preaches. If we're honest with ourselves, we would say that in the West particularly, that the answer is no. We don't preach Jesus like we should. We don't follow after the word of the living God as we should. In fact, we are a rebellious people. And the nature of that rebellion is made clear to us in Isaiah 65, because notice what they say when the Lord comes to them. In verse 5 it says, who say, keep to yourself, do not come near me, for I am holier than you. See, the great problem in the church today is that we believe ourselves wiser than the risen Christ. We believe that we know a better way than what God has revealed to us in the Holy Scripture. Not only does that show itself in our worship, but it shows itself especially in how we treat one another. One of the ways that Israel showed forth its rebellion was its refusal to forgive one another. One of the ways that the rebellious nation of Israel witnessed itself to the nations was by its refusal to listen when God sent prophets among them. Now as I told the kids, and we talked about this in Sabbath school a little bit this morning, God doesn't send prophets like he used to. God does not come to men in dreams. He doesn't come to men in visions. He doesn't come to men and call them to leave their sheepfolds like He did with Amos to go to the north and tell them how they've rebelled. The Lord doesn't work directly like that anymore. So when we say that the church of Lord Jesus Christ doesn't listen to the prophets, what exactly are we talking about? Well, ultimately, who is the great prophet that was prophesied in the book of Deuteronomy? It's the Lord Jesus Christ. That's who the church does not heed or listen to today. That's who the church does not bow down to in all humility and witness to the goodness of the grace of our Heavenly Father. which is why the church is in the state that it's in. But again, I told you that this sermon series is gonna be about hope. So in the midst of all of this wickedness, in the midst of all of this weakness, in the midst of all of these things, where is it that again we draw hope out of these verses? What is that first verse? I was sought by those who do not ask for me. I was found by those who do not seek me. I said here I am, here I am to a nation that was not called by my name. You see one of the things about Paul quoting that Romans 10 is that in God's providence Romans 11 follows Romans 10. And that's not simply the fact just because that's the way the numbers work. See, Romans 9, 10, 11 is all about Paul giving us an understanding of what plan God has for the covenant people who he has set aside for a moment, who he has set aside because of their rebellion, because of their murdering of the Lord Jesus Christ, because of their refusal to hear the words of the prophets. And in Romans chapter 11, it tells us that in due time, the Lord will call Israel unto himself. And we're to understand that to mean literal Israel, right? Ethnic Israel will come unto the Lord Jesus Christ. What time, what day, we know not. But we know that there will be a mass conversion of the Jews in due time. And so there's hope buried in this warning towards the rebellious people. that God, in His grace, in His love unto us, will not forsake us, will not forget us, will never break the covenant that He has made with us. We may break that covenant. We may rebel against Him, we may sin against Him, we may refuse to listen to the words of His prophets, but our God is a God of assurance, a God of promise, a God who keeps His word. So brothers and sisters, as we think about our own walk with the Lord Jesus Christ this morning, we need to ask a very serious question of ourselves. Again, as we hear these words of rebellion, as we hear these words of warning, as we hear these words of, you know, do not come near to me for I'm holier than thou, is that how we carry ourselves before the living God? We say to ourselves again that I have no need of you. I may need you at times, I may need you in moments, I may need you in certain situations, but generally speaking, I don't need you. Is that how we approach the living and the true God? Do we come before the Lord our God on the Lord's Day and forsake Him the rest of the week? You know, are we kind of living that life where we are godly Christians between 11 a.m. and 12, 15 p.m., or if you're coming to Bethany, right? If you've come during that time, is that when you are in the presence of the Lord and then the rest of the week you are no different than the world around you? And do we really think that is what God has called us to be and to do? And that's what Israel thought. They were holy on the days that God called them to be holy. They came to the feasts. They sacrificed the right number of animals. They did the good works that others might see. They did this, that, or the other for the praise of their name. But the Bible tells us that when they weren't in the house of the Lord, what were they doing? They were sitting among the graves, spending the night in the tombs eating swine's flesh and the broth of a bottle of things in their baskets. Now, we know what Acts chapter 10 says. We know what Mark 7 says. We know one of the blessings of the new covenant is we get to eat swine's flesh. In fact, some of us here raise swine's flesh for sale. Some of us enjoy swineís flesh as the greatest thing Godís ever put on this earth. And Iíll gladly raise my hand to that. My granddaddy used to say that he used to eat everything on the pig except for the squeal. Because all of it was good. There's nothing wrong, of course, in the covenant with eating swine's flesh, but what's the point that's being made here by the prophet? The point that's being made by the prophet is that in the old covenant, were the Israelites supposed to eat swine's flesh? No, the ceremonial law expressly forbid the eating of swine's flesh. But there seemed to be this kind of division in the minds of the Israelites that as long as they did the outward things of the law on the Lord's day, on the Sabbath, on the holy days, on the days of requirement, that they could just do whatever they wanted during the week. But that's, again, not how we have learned the Lord Jesus Christ, is it? That's not how we have been called into holiness, into righteousness. The teaching of the prophet here is telling us that if we would be those who call upon the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, those who would not be in rebellion against God, those who did not listen to the name of what God has revealed in His Holy Word, then we are told that God will put us away for the season. Just like He did to the Israelites. And again, that's what we see today. That's why the church is so weak. That's why the church is so bad at converting sinners. We see a lot of church growth in our area. We see a lot of church growth, right? Churches get big. But the reality is, is those aren't new converts coming to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. The vast majority of churches in our area have big front doors and big back doors. We cycle Christians between churches around here. You go from one church to another. And it looks like church growth, right? But is it really? What's the kind of church growth that the New Testament calls us to? The kind of church growth the New Testament calls us to is sinners coming to repentance. Sinners coming to the knowledge of the truth. Sinners leaving their former manner of life and embracing Jesus Christ in the power of the gospel. That's the kind of church growth that we see in the days of the Book of Acts. That's the kind of church growth we see in days of revival in the land. When's the last time we had a revival in our country? You know, even back in the days of the Billy Graham rallies, their own statistics will testify to that very few people who came to a Billy Graham rally were converted. The vast majority of people were recommitting their life to Christ. They had been a member of a church. They had been baptized at some point in time. They'd walked away from the faith. And Billy, in all of his glory and blessedness, and we should honor those who honor our due, But again, there weren't mass conversions at those rallies. Why do we not see that kind of revival in our own day? One of the things we believe about revival, the Bible teaches about revival, is that we can't make it happen. We can't do some incantations and just make revival appear. That's not how the Bible understands revival. Revival comes by what? By the Spirit. But is revival going to come in a day where the church is in rebellion against the Lord? The answer, of course, is no. The reason why we don't see the conversions that we've seen in the past is because the church doesn't want people to be converted. Because what happens when people get converted? Things get messy. Things get strange. Things get weird, right? New converts don't know what to do. They don't know how to act. They don't know how to dress. They don't know how to behave. They don't know anything. All they know is that the Lord Jesus Christ has washed them in His blood. All they know is that the Lord Jesus Christ has given them new hearts and new minds and new souls and has brought them into His kingdom. And when freshly converted people come, what do they need? And the mature saints are ready to disciple them. And what does discipleship look like? Again, discipleship is messy. Discipleship is hard. Discipleship takes effort. Discipleship takes sacrifice. We think that, right? Every church under heaven does not want to get smaller. Every church wants to grow. Every church desires that there would be more people in the pews this Sunday than there were last Sunday. The part we get there is through prayer, of course, but again, when new people come into a church, things aren't the same as they were before. And so in some sense, most churches don't want to grow because they don't want things to look any different than they do now. Now that doesn't mean, of course, that churches are to change the teachings of the Bible, right? Churches aren't supposed to change the worship of the Lord. Churches aren't supposed to change anything, as long as they're consistent with what the Scriptures teach. But God here in Isaiah 65, as He is preparing the nation of Israel for the time of their exile, as He's preparing them for the new covenant which will come in the Lord Jesus Christ, as He's preparing them for the day in which those who will be found, who did not seek Me, come into the new covenant church. He is reminding them, first of all, that if they really want to see themselves not forsaken and forgotten of God, then who needs to change first? It's the Israelites who must change. It's the church that must change. And how much does the church change? How much do the Israelites change? Well, first of all, they need to forsake their sin and come unto Christ. The Israelites need to forsake their desire to follow after the gods of the nations and return back to Jehovah. Revival begins with the reformation of the church of the Lord Jesus Christ. The reason why there was a great outpouring of the Holy Spirit in the 16th century is because people wanted to follow Jesus. And Jesus came. And it's very clear those who rested in the work of the Holy Spirit in the 16th century who saw the outpouring of the blessings were those who were blessed by God. And those who sought everything they could do to destroy the work of the Spirit, they themselves were destroyed. And so the prophet Isaiah here in Isaiah 65 again is encouraging us again to ask ourselves a very simple question. Do we want to be reformed? And I don't mean that in some esoteric theology sense. I mean that in the actual sense of reform. Do we want to be changed by the power of the Spirit? Do we want to be obedient to the Lord our God? Or is just a little bit of obedience good enough for us? Just as long as we're a little bit more obedient than our neighbor, then we must be doing good. Because then we have somebody that we can look down upon and say, thank you Lord that I am not such as him. But again, what is the cry of the penitent sinner? Lord have mercy upon me for I am a sinner. Again, if we want to see reformation in the church, then we better be ready to have reformation in our own soul. And we must be ready to hear what it is the prophet has to say. Again, because God in verse 2 tells us that He has stretched out My hands all day long to a rebellious people. Again, God does not forget the promises made to Israel, even in the days of the exile, even in the days of the quiet time between Malachi and John the Baptist. He hasn't forgotten the promises made to Abraham even today. He stretches out His hand to a rebellious people. And He stretches out His hand to you this morning. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. He who believes in Him is not condemned, but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. Now those verses follow the verse that everybody knows. John 3, 16. For God so loved the world that He, what? gave His only begotten Son. That what? Whosoever may believe in Him may have what? Eternal life. That's what God again has done in the sending of His Son. And what does then Jesus say about that? For God did not send His Son to the world to condemn the world. Why? Because the world was condemned already. Jesus didn't have to condemn anyone. Because we were already condemned in Adam. We're already condemned in our own sin. We're already condemned in our own weakness. We're already condemned in our own rebellion against the Lord our God. But what has God then done for us? He has sent His Son into the world not to condemn, but to do what? To save us. To call us out of darkness into the light of His marvelous grace. And again, if we don't believe that that promise is for us, then we're not going to believe that promise is for anybody else either. You see, that's why reformation, that's why revival begins in our own hearts. Because if we desire to be reformed, if we desire to be revived, if we desire to follow after the living God, then what will we do but what we see every single time a person is healed in the New Testament? What do they do? They immediately go and tell everyone what Jesus has done for them. That's one of the reasons why we don't evangelize. Because we don't believe we've been evangelized. We don't understand what it means that we have been saved by the blood of the Lamb. That Jesus Christ has given us Himself at the cross. That Jesus Christ died for you at the cross. And until we understand and believe that, Of course we won't care if everyone dies around us. You know, there's a sense in which that in the book of 1 Corinthians, as Paul is speaking to the difficulties at the church at Corinth, he says that one of the things that they do, of course, is they seek their own. Seek their own well-being, right? They seek their own glory. They seek their own way. They seek their own understanding. They seek their own person before anyone else. What is it that the godly Christian is to do? 1 Corinthians 10.24, Let no one seek his own, but each one the other's well-being. That is what we are called to do as believers. We are first not to seek ourselves, but those around us, right? Love your neighbor. Of course that love your neighbor thing comes with a little clause at the end of it. Love your neighbor as yourself. What does it mean to love yourself? It means to love Jesus. But it means to love the one who has given you new life. And so what do you do in order to love your neighbor? You tell them about Jesus. Because you want your neighbor to be in heaven just as much as you want to be in heaven. We often get penalized or made fun of or mocked or however you want to put it in the reformed faith for believing in election and predestination and all that kind of stuff. And well that must mean that you don't believe in evangelism. If God has already determined who the elect are and who the reprobate are, what point is there in preaching the gospel? Well again, if we believe in election and predestination, we believe in the elect and the reprobate, it gives us even more reason to call out unto the lost. Because what are the means by which men and women come to faith? It is the preaching of the word. That's why Romans 10, 20 through 21 is so important. That's why the beginning of Isaiah 65 is quoted by the Apostle Paul. Because why has Jesus come to this earth? to call sinners to repentance. It has come to this earth that those who are lost might be found. That those who are in rebellion against our Heavenly Father might no longer be in rebellion. Again, we who believe in the sovereign power of God to save sinners should be even more actively engaged in the preaching of God's Word. Because we believe what it says. You know, one of the passages that gets read at weddings all the time that really isn't about weddings, but it's purty and all that, so it passes muster, is 1 Corinthians 13. You know, 1 Corinthians 13 is about the church and about the way the church should treat one another, about how the people within the body of Christ should treat one another. And of course, one of the passages that is important for marriage as much as the church is 1 Corinthians 13, 4 through 5. And what do those verses say? Love suffers long and is kind. Love does not envy. Love does not parade itself. Is not puffed up. Does not behave rudely. Does not seek its own. Is not provoked. Thinks no evil. Again, those are good words we should probably have on the wall of our house somewhere. Because that's something we probably need reminded of every day. But think about that in the context, again, of the preaching of the gospel of Jesus Christ. One of the things that the church cannot ever give up on is the preaching of the gospel. Because what does love do? Love suffers long and is kind. Love does not envy, love does not parade itself, is not puffed up, does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thanks no evil. Again, think about that in the context of the preaching of the good news of Jesus Christ. Again, if love suffers long, should we ever give up preaching the gospel to sinners? Is anyone so far gone that they don't need to hear about Jesus? You never know if that one word you say might be the very power that God has established in the foundational world to bring a sinner to repentance. You never know that the 48th time you've said it to somebody might be the time the Lord uses the Holy Spirit to awaken their souls. You know that old saying about About you know you add Thomas Edison right that old thing. He said right He didn't you know he didn't fail 10,000 times. He just found 10,000 ways. It didn't work Sometimes appreciate the gospel like it Persistence Perseverance is an act of love Now we ain't supposed to be rude about it right we ain't supposed to be jerks about preaching the gospel We ain't supposed to hide it either And if you love your neighbor, you will speak to them of Christ. Because you desire them. Because you love them. Because love doesn't envy and love doesn't praise itself. You see, that's where the Israelites, of course, got everything wrong. Because what did they do with this great promise that had been given unto them? They paraded it around like peacocks all over the place, didn't they? Look at us! Look how wonderful we are! God picked us to be the sovereign nation of the world. And where did it get them but destruction? Right, the church of the Lord Jesus Christ is meant to be witnessed to as those who are humble before the living God. Because what do we deserve? We deserve judgment. We deserve condemnation. We deserve hell. We deserve all of the promises of judgment in the Bible. Because we sinned before the Lord. We were in rebellion against Him. We were in league with our father Adam in the very garden and we ate of the fruits. But what has God done? God's loved us. God's persevered with us. God suffers long with us. God is kind to us. And God does not even seek his own in that judgment. What does he seek? What does 2 Peter chapter 3 tell us? That God desires that none would go to perdition, but that what? If it all would come to faith. If it all would come to the knowledge of the truth. Which again is why the church must be engaged in what? In the preaching of the gospel of Jesus Christ. We must be preaching Christ and Him crucified. That must be the very foundation of who we are. Because if it's not, then we don't need to be here. We're wasting our time. Wasting your money. Wasting your energy. Wasting everything else. And so Isaiah 65, one through five is a passage full of hope for us. Because we are the ones who we're not seeking, but we have been sought. We are the ones not wanting to hear, but we have heard the voice of our master. The voice of the great shepherd who says, come unto me all who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest. That's why we're here today. Because Jesus is taught. And Jesus has given unto us this new life. So let us incline our heart to the testimonies of the scriptures. And let us incline ourselves to the calling that God's given to us to reform our own hearts and stay founded upon the gospel of peace. Let's pray. Gracious Heavenly Father, we give thanks again for this reminder, again from the book of Isaiah. Again, the way that you have called, that even though your pleas fall mostly on deaf ears, dear God, we know that those deaf ears are unplugged. We know that those deaf ears become listening ears in time. So let us not grow weary in well-doing. Let us not grow weary in the gospel calling you've given to us. Enter God, may you, through the power of your Spirit, lift us up this morning. Remind us of what has happened to us in Jesus Christ, what has taken place in the forgiveness of sins, in the washing of our bodies in the blood of the Lamb. Enter God, may you give us hearts which seek that others may know, that others may be at peace. And in Jesus' name we pray, amen. Let us stand as we sing our closing Bible song, Bible song 177, as we rejoice in the name of our God. Oh, say does that star-spangled banner yet wave O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave? I will shine in the blue skies. This nation will all be free. Again, as we close our worship this morning and as we rejoice in the good news of our Savior, and again as we come together and as we rejoice on this Sabbath day, if you have need to speak unto me or the elders, we are here to help in any way that we can. Again, hear the word of the benediction this morning from Ezra chapter 7, beginning there at verse 27. Hear the word of the Lord. Blessed be the Lord God of our fathers who has put such a thing as this in the king's heart to beautify the house of the Lord which is in Jerusalem and has extended mercy to me before the king and his counselors and before all the king's mighty princes. So I was encouraged as the hand of the Lord my God was upon me and I gathered leading men of Israel to go up with me. Amen. Oh, say does that star-spangled banner yet wave