...to Isaiah 66. Isaiah chapter
66. Now I need to state a few things
before we begin to establish our text. The last days, when
you read in Scripture about the last days, you read in Scripture
about the latter days, They began when Christ came the
first time. We make a mistake if we think
that the last days are the end of this gospel age. That's where
a lot of mistake is made, is thinking the Lord is going to
save the Jews in the end of this gospel age. But you see, these
last days began when Christ came. That's when the old covenant
ended. That's when Christ came and established the new. And
the last days began when Christ came. We've been in the last
days for 2016 years. We've been in the last days.
God, look at Hebrews 1. I want you to see this. Look what it says here, Hebrews
1. It tells us there that in time
past, God at sundry times, different
times, and in different manners, spake in time past unto the fathers
by the prophets. But he hath in these last days
In these last days, He's spoken to us by His Son. You hear men speak of Antichrist. Look at 1 John chapter 2. You hear men speak of Antichrist. How He's going to come in the...
They're speaking of the last of these days. And they speak
as Antichrist coming in the end. Now look here what John said
right here. 1 John 2 and look at verse 18. He said, little children, it
is the last time. You see that? The last days are
now, He is saying. And as you have heard that Antichrist
shall come, even now are there many Antichrists whereby we know
that it is the last time. You see? There is not one Antichrist. Anybody, everybody sitting here
right now, who has not bowed the knee to Christ and confessed
Him to be the Lord and Savior of His people, your Lord and
your Savior, you are antichrist. And there are many antichrists.
Many. And it's been so ever since Christ
came. The first antichrist was among
the natural sons of Israel. They began to reject Him immediately.
So the last days are now. And we make a mistake then if
we think God began calling out His people among the Gentiles,
and then later will call out the Jews, His elect among the
Jews. He began with His elect among
the Jews. In these last days, He began
calling out His people among the Jews. That's what Christ
said when He came. I'm not sent, but to the lost
sheep of the house of Israel. Christ is called the minister
of the uncircumcision. Because during His earthly ministry,
He came declaring Himself to be the Christ and He came declaring
it to Israel, to the circumcision. I mean, He's the minister of
the circumcision. He came preaching this to Israel. And He called
out His elect among Israel. Now, in Isaiah 66, God's been
declaring what would happen when Christ came the first time. When
He came and these last days began, He's telling us what would happen.
Apart from any travail by His church, apart from His church
doing anything whatsoever, Christ caused all His holy nation, all
His true spiritual Israel, He caused them all to be born at
one time. Look at Isaiah 66, 7. Before
she travailed, that is before the church travailed, before
you and I did any works, she brought forth. Before her pain
came, Before she went into labor of any kind, she was delivered
of a man-child. That's Christ. Who hath heard
such a thing? Who hath seen such things? Shall
the earth be made to bring forth in one day or shall a nation
be born at once? I've heard a lot of people refer
to that and they think that's referring to the latter of the
last days. That's what they're talking about,
the last days, the end time of the end of this period. God's
going to turn to the Jews and they're going to all be born
in one day. But that happened when Christ came and went to
the cross. He took all the sin of His people and we were all,
all His elect Jew and Gentile were crucified in Him. And when
He was buried, we were buried in Him. And when He came out
of that grave and He arose, we were all born at once and we
arose with Him. Ephesians 2.6 says, even when
you were dead in sins, God quickened us together with Him, by grace
are you saved. And He raised us up together
with Christ. And He made us sit together with
Christ in heavenly places, in Christ. That's when His people
were born at one time. We were raised in Him and sat
down in Him at God's right hand. And then God declared how He
would cast off the natural children of Israel because they rejected
the Messiah. They rejected Christ. And they
did it attempting to make themselves righteous and holy by their works. By their works. We saw this last
time in Isaiah 66, 17. He said they sanctify themselves
and they purify themselves in the gardens. behind one in the
midst, eating swine's flesh and the abomination and the mouse.
And they should be consumed together, said the Lord, for I know their
works and their thoughts. God began this book, Isaiah,
He began it speaking to the children of Judah in Jerusalem. And He was telling them, you
come to My temple. And you come and you worship
these sacrifices. And you make many prayers before
me. But you're worshiping that. You think that's your salvation.
You think coming to my temple is salvation. Because you, by
your act, came to my temple. My earthly temple. You think
by your act of making a sacrifice, that's salvation. You think because
you pray and pray and pray that that's salvation. God said, why
should you be stricken anymore? You're just going to revolt more
and more and more. Your heart's hard and your neck is stiff and
you will not be corrected. And so he was telling Israel
from the very beginning, you sanctifying yourself, you're
trying to save yourself, you've taken these things that God gave
to picture His Son and to show His true people. Even at that
time, He showed His people these things are Christ. They show
Christ and they bow to Christ and they believe Christ. But
these people that kept saying, no, we're saved by these sacrifices,
they would look at that earthly high priest and they'd say, that's
our high priest. when that high priest was meant
to picture Christ. Everything about that temple
and that high priest and those sacrifices were meant to picture
Christ. And so when Christ came, they didn't see Christ. You know
why? They were caught up in all their
religious ceremony and all their practice and they were worshiping
their worship. You see, that's the problem when
the gospel goes into a place where people are preaching justification
by their works, or they're preaching divine election by the will of
man. I chose God. They're preaching effectual justification
by the will of man. He did all he could do, he died
for everybody, but now by my will, by my faith, I make his
blood effectual. That's preaching self-justification. To make faith the act whereby
you make Christ's blood effectual, that's preaching self-justification. And then they preach self-sanctification. Now you go to the law. You don't
ever leave the law in false religion. And you keep trying to sanctify
yourself and make yourself holy and make yourself more holy and
make yourself acceptable to God by your works under the law.
God said, I know their works. And He said, their works don't
measure up to the righteousness of Christ, my son. He came and
He's the righteousness of God. But because they were worshiping
their worship, they wouldn't receive Him as their righteousness.
They thought their righteousness was in their hands. And that's
the problem today. People won't hear the gospel
because they think righteousness is in their hands. And He said,
not only that, I know their thoughts, their hearts. Their hearts were
not that pure heart. that holy heart, that new nature
that's given. When Christ, our holiness, our
sanctification is formed in His people and He makes you holy. And because they were looking
to the works of their hands to make them holy, they rejected
Christ, our sanctification. But God said, I know their thoughts.
That's not the holiness My Son produces. That's not the holiness
He produces. And He says, So He's going to
consume them. They should be consumed together,
saith the Lord, for I know their works and their thoughts. Now
that's what He was saying about natural Israel. That's so of
everybody in the end. It will be so of everybody that's
trusting their works. But now just learn from Israel.
If He rejected them for that, He's going to reject you for
that. Learn from that and don't make that mistake. Don't try
to come to God by your works and your holiness. Don't do it.
God will reject you, you'll be consumed. So he said this, you
know in Isaiah 59, he said this, he said, I look to see your sins
as separates you from your God. He's speaking to Israel and he
said, and there was no man, there was none, there was no justice,
no judgment, no righteousness. And I, my own arm brought righteousness
to me. I sent my intercessor. And so
part of that work was casting off those who rejected Him. And
so that's what we see here. He made all His people to be
born at once when He went to the cross. And by Him coming
and by Him declaring the truth, He said, now those that reject
Me, they've got no cloak for their sin. And He told them,
your house is left to you desolate. He cast them off. Just because he cast natural
Israel off, don't dare think that he lost any of his elect
among Israel. Remember, Paul said, they're
not all Israel, which are in that nation Israel. God's true
Israel are His elect. They are sons of promise. They
are those God promised. I will bring them forth. I will
make them to be born. I will make them righteous. I
will make them holy. Because I have loved them with
everlasting love. I will do this for them. God
is showing us here now, He will not lose any of His elect. Not
among the Jews and not among the Gentiles. But He started
this among the Jews. When He walked this earth, you
remember, He called out His twelve. One of them was the devil, but
He called out the eleven. Remember that? And He began calling
out His children in Israel. And then even after He arose,
He set His hand a second time. And He began calling out His
people from among the Jews. And that's where we start with
our text now. I want you to watch this. When I read this, there
are no maybes in this. God's grace is not maybe, depending
on you. God, this is the only kind of
grace there is. It is I will and they shall grace. It's sovereign grace. That's
the only kind of grace there is. God saves sovereignly. He said, I gave them all this
space. I gave them my oracles. I planted my vineyard. I couldn't
have done anything else in that vineyard than what I did. And
they brought forth wild grapes. He showed that man by his wisdom
can't come to God. Man by his work can't come to
God. After that He said, now I'm sending my Redeemer to show
you He's the one who saves my people. And so He began in Israel. Now let's read this. What we
see here, God declares here how He would call out His people
from among the Jews by His Son and then send them to the Gentiles.
to call out His elect among the Gentiles. We're just going to
look at the Jews this time. I've titled this Calling the
Jews. Alright, verse 18. The second last half there. It shall come that I will gather
all nations in tongues, and they shall come and see My glory. And I will set a sign among them
And I will send those that escape of them unto the nations." Here
he's talking about I'm going to send them, those that escape
of them, of the Jews, I'm going to send them to the Gentile nations.
"...to Tarshish, Poole, and Ludd, that draw the bow, to Tubal,
and Javan, to the Isles afar off, that have not heard my fame,
neither have seen my glory, and they shall declare my glory among
the Gentiles." Now first, God gathered His Jews from among
all nations and tongues. That throws people. People read
that and they think, that's talking about the Gentiles. Now let me
see, let's see. He said here it shall come, I
will gather all nations and tongues. And they shall come and they
shall see my glory. And I will set a sign among them. Go over to Acts chapter 2. After
Christ came and that nation was born in one day by His death,
burial, and resurrection, after Christ ascended to the Father,
having accomplished the redemption of all His people, on the day
of Pentecost at Jerusalem, He gathered all nations and all
tongues. Among the Jews at Jerusalem,
He gathered all nations and all tongues. Let's read it here,
Acts 2, verse 4. He told them, now you wait in that upper room.
Just wait there. And they were waiting there,
verse 4 says, and they were all suddenly filled with the Holy
Ghost. That's His elect from among the Jews that He had already
called out. They were sitting there and He
baptized His church in the Holy Spirit and filled them with the
Holy Ghost. Now watch what happened. And
they began to speak with other tongues as the Spirit gave them
utterance. They were speaking a coherent
language that they had never learned. The Spirit gave them
ability to speak just like you who, you sitting here that don't
speak Russian. It would be like God giving you
the ability all of a sudden to speak Russian. And you speak
coherent Russian. Now to me, it's not going to
sound like anything but a bunch of gibberish. But to a Russian,
it's going to sound like Russian. Well, that's what he did. Watch
this. And they were dwelling at Jerusalem, Jews, devout men,
out of every nation under heaven. Now when this was noised abroad,
the multitude came together. He said, I'm going to draw them
together. God, by His grace, by His miracle of His grace,
He always draws His people together. He said, I'm going to gather
them together. And they all came together, and they were confounded. They were just confused by what
was going on here. Because that every man heard
them speak in his own language. You see that? They were speaking
in each man's own language. And they were all amazed. And
they marveled, saying one to another, behold, are not all
these which speak Galilee? In other words, they don't normally
speak our language. And here they are speaking our
language. And now here we every man in
our own tongue wherein we were born. Look at these nations and
these tongues that were there. You see there was all these different
nations and tongues. Parthians and Medes and Elamites. and the dwellers in Mesopotamia,
and in Judea, and Cappadocia, and Pontus, and Asia, and Phrygia,
and Pamphylia, and Egypt, and in the parts of Libya about Cyrene,
and strangers of Rome, Jews, and proselytes. There were some
Gentiles there too. Cretes and Arabians, we do hear
them speak in our tongues the wonderful works of God. God said that. He said it's going
to come now after I've pronounced upon my people that you've sanctified
yourself, you've tried to purify yourself, and all your sacrifices
and all your works, it's like you might as well have been killing
a man. You're as defiled as somebody who ate those things forbidden
in the old covenant law. You have not sanctified and purified
yourself. Your house is left to you desolate.
He said, and then it shall come. And I'll gather all nations in
tombs. And they're going to come now. They're going to come. And here He is. He's gathered
them at... He began this in Israel. And He used those Jews He had
called and He began to call these at Jerusalem. He gathered them
together. And they hear them preaching the wonderful works
of God. You see, don't be fooled by folks
who claim they're speaking in tongues. They get up and they
just speak a bunch of gibberish and fall out and act like they're... I'll never forget My friend,
I have a friend down in West Virginia, and he used to tell
me about how he grew up in a church that was charismatic like that.
And he said they would sit there together, him and his friend,
they'd sit there together, and he said they'd go, alright, it's
about time. Watch me so-and-so. It's fixed
time. It's fixing to happen to her.
And all of a sudden, about the tenth minute into the message,
she'd stand up, she'd do something, she'd fall out. And they said
we could time it by clockwork when they were going to get the
Holy Spirit, so-called. putting on a show, you know.
You say, OK, here comes Miss So-and-so. Watch her. Here she
goes. And sure enough, she'd jump up and do her thing. That's
just a bunch of nonsense. These men right here were given
the ability that men don't have today. God, establishing His
word, establishing His church, calling out His elect from among
the Jews, gave them ability to speak the gospel in languages
they had never learned. Now, God also said in our text,
hold your place here in Acts 2, God also said they shall come
and see my glory. They are going to see my glory.
Now do you remember whenever Moses asked to see God's glory? Do you remember where God put
him in order to show him his glory? He put him in the cleft
of the rock. That rock is Christ. Christ is the rock. That's where
you behold the glory of God. Christ is God's glory. And you
behold God's glory one place in Christ. So Peter stood up
that day at Pentecost. And you know what he preached?
He preached the glory of God. He preached Christ Jesus the
Lord. Look, Acts 2.22. He said, You
men of Israel, hear these words. Jesus of Nazareth. He made certain
they knew who he was talking about. Jesus of Nazareth, a man
approved of God among you by miracles and wonders and signs,
which God did by Him in the midst of you, as ye yourselves also
know." That's one reason Christ went about working the miracles
and doing the things He did when He walked this earth. God was
approving Him. God was showing, this is My beloved
Son in whom I'm well pleased, hear ye Him. He did things no
man ever did. He healed the blind, and He gave
the lame the ability to walk, and He raised the dead, and He
called out His people affectionately. All that picture of His miraculous
grace, His irresistible grace in saving His people from our
sins. And God was approving Him. God
was showing, this is My Son. Hear Him. Do you hear Him? Don't
ignore Christ in this gospel. God will hold you more responsible
for rejecting him after you've heard it than the man who never
heard it. Don't take this lightly. He, God's approved of him. But
they saw God approve of him and they rejected him still. And
so will we if He leaves us to ourselves. But look at verse
23. He said, Him being delivered by the determinate counsel and
foreknowledge of God, you have taken and by wicked hands have
crucified and slain. He said it was your wicked hands
that did this. This was your will. This was
the will of your heart. And this is the will of our heart
by nature. What you see happen at Calvary's
Cross, don't blame the Jews, don't blame the Romans. You know,
men, for a while they got in this big dispute over who was
it that crucified Christ. You crucified Christ. That was
in your heart, in your natural heart, just like it was in their
heart. God took the restraint off of them. because He determined
before that Christ would go to that cross. He determined from
the foundation of the world Christ would be the substitute of His
people and lay down His life for His people. So He took the
restraint off of man and He showed you what man would do to God
if we get our hands on Him. We would attempt to string Him
up and crucify Him. Mock Him. Mock Him. Beat Him. Scourge Him. Accuse
Him falsely. Lift Him up on a cross and nail
spikes through His hands and hang Him there and sit and watch
Him die. That's in your heart and my heart.
That was God the Son. And that's what our hearts are
by nature. That's why God's not going to receive you or me. All
your works of righteousness and all a man's works of self-sacrification,
you know what they are? They're taking Christ and nailing
spikes in His hand and saying, I won't have Him reign over me.
I'll save myself. That's exactly what all these
so-called works of benevolent deeds and all this obeying the
law and all this that men claim to be doing to make themselves
holy and righteous, it's just rejecting Christ. Crucifying
Christ afresh, the Hebrew writer said. Verse 24, here's the glory. whom God hath raised up, having
loosed the pains of death, because it was not possible, and he shall
be holding of it." God's glory is in Christ. He brought them
there, gathered them there, and He propped up His earthen vessel,
and He filled them with His gospel, and He said, now you preach My
glory. And He declared this Jesus of Nazareth, approved of God,
that you rejected, that you crucified, that you slew on a cross, God
raised Him up because by what He accomplished on that cross,
it wasn't possible that death could hold Him. Why wasn't it
possible death could hold Him? Because the reason He came was
to put an end to death for His people. You see, if you don't
have sin, if you're the righteousness of God and the holiness of God,
You don't have death anymore. Death is not even a thing anymore.
You just have life. Now that righteousness, the righteousness
of God and the holiness of God is life. That's life. When Adam
was made in God's image, there was no sin and he had life. If
he had never sinned, he'd live forever. But when sin entered,
death entered. Because sin is death. But see,
if you're righteous and holy, there is no death. And Christ
came and when He took the sin of His people and He satisfied
divine justice, He killed death. He put an end to death. He came
under the power of the law, under divine justice, under the power
of death. But by dying that death for his
people, paying the wages of sin which were owed, which was death,
by paying that, he put an end to death. And it wasn't possible
death could hold him. He was so satisfied God, it wasn't
possible death could hold him. And they knew what Peter was
declaring by that. They knew Peter was declaring
by that, that he satisfied the law. He put an end to the law.
He has made his people righteous and holy, which the law could
never do. Verse 32, This Jesus hath God
raised up, whereof we are all witnesses, therefore being by
the right hand of God exalted. And having received of the Father
the promise of the Holy Ghost, not only did He put away the
sins of His people on the cross, but God's raised Him to His right
hand and given Him the government as the God-man over the whole
universe, over the world, over His house, over everything. And
this word that you now see coming forth, Peter said, I didn't produce
it on my own. These men aren't preaching on
their own. And I'm not preaching on my own. This is the work of
Christ Himself. Look, He has shed forth this
which you now see and hear. God said, they're going to come
and they're going to see my glory. He said, what you're seeing and
what you're hearing is Christ's work and He's the glory of God. That's what he's telling them.
Look, for David's not ascended to the heavens, but he said himself,
David said himself, the Lord, the Lord said to my Lord, sit
thou on my right hand till I make thy foes thy footstool. He's
saying David was speaking of Christ. David was speaking of
this one right here, Jesus of Nazareth who you crucified. Therefore,
let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God hath made
that same Jesus whom you've crucified, both Lord and Christ." There
was his message right there. He's Lord. He sent forth this. He's the governor. Shiloh has
come. He's the one who the scepter
belongs to and the government belongs to and He has shed forth
this which you now see in air. He has the power to assemble
His people and fill His people with the Spirit and send His
people before the enemies and give them grace and power and
strength to stand up and declare My name. And He has power to
send forth this gospel in the midst and make you behold His
glory. He's got the power to do that.
You and me, You ever see a hand puppet? You put your hand in
that hand puppet, and it just does whatever you tell it to
do. Well, that's what we are with Christ in us. Where He moves,
you're going to move. When He speaks, you're going
to speak. What He does, you're going to do. God in you working
both to will and to do of His good pleasure. That's what He
was doing right there. He said He's the Lord. Not only
that, He's the Christ. He's the Messiah. He's the anointed
prophet, priest, and king of His people. He's the one that
death couldn't hold because He satisfied divine justice for
His people. He's our Lord and our Savior.
That's who He is. Now that's the glory. God said,
they're going to see it. But God promised something else
in our text. He also said, He said, I'm going to gather all
nations in tongue and they're going to come and see my glory
and I will set a sign among them. The word sign means ensign. E-N-S-I-G-A-G-N. Ensign. It's an ensign, a banner,
a flag. You know flags where soldiers
rally to a flag. They gather to a flag. Scripture
says Christ is shallow and to him shall the gathering of the
people be. To him. He said, He shall set
up an ensign for the nations, and shall assemble the outcasts
of Israel, and gather together the dispersed of Judah from the
four corners of the earth, wherever, all these different nations.
He said, I'm going to gather them together, and they're going to
see this ensign. That sign is Christ. That ensign
is Christ. Remember when Simeon, when they
came into the temple, Mary and Joseph, and they had the Lord
Jesus, and Simeon held Him up, He said this, this child is set,
God said I'm going to set a sign among them. This child is set for the fall
and rising again of many in Israel. And for a sign, for a sign, He
set for a sign which shall be spoken against. And He said that
the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed. What's the discerner
of the thoughts and intents of a man's heart? The Word of God.
You know why? It's not just any word, but the
Word of God. If you declare God's glory, declare
Christ Jesus the Lord, that's going to discern what's really
in a man's heart. That's right. They're going to
either love this Gospel and cling to Christ by His grace, They
can say they love it, they can pretend they love it, but sooner
or later they're going to say, I hate it. I loathe this light
bread. He's the dividing point. He's
the discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. That
day at Pentecost, those that He left to themselves, they heard
Peter stand up and preach. Left to themselves, they did
to Peter just what they did to Christ. They crucified Christ
so they could get back to their charade of religion. That's what
they did with Peter. They said, get him away from
here. We don't want to hear that. So
we can get on with working out our own righteousness and our
own holiness. You go preach the gospel someplace, folks may hear
it for a little while, but then sooner or later they're going
to say, you get out of here. We don't want that. We've got to
get back to our charade. But there were some there that
by grace God set that sign in their heart. And it was a whole
different outcome. Look here at Acts 2.37. Now when
they heard they were pricked in their heart, He set that sign
in their heart. And they said to Peter and to
the rest of the apostles, Men and brethren, what shall we do?
And Peter said unto them, Repent and be baptized every one of
you in the name of Jesus Christ for, and that means because of,
the remission of sin. Confessing your sins have been
remitted by Christ when He died, buried, and rose again, and you
shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. You'll be sealed
and preserved by the Spirit, for the promise is unto you."
What promise is he talking about? The one we're reading in Isaiah
66. I'm going to gather my people, and they're going to see my glory,
and I'm going to set my sign in their heart. He said, that's
written to you. It's written to you and to your children and
to all that are far off and as many as the Lord our God shall
call. Verse 41, Then they that gladly
received His word were baptized, and the same day there were added
unto them about three thousand souls. Look at the end of verse
47. And the Lord added to the church
daily such as should be saved. That day it was three thousand,
later it was five thousand. He continued to do it. continue
to do so. Paul said in his day, he said,
there's a remnant right now according to the election of grace. A remnant
left among the Jews according to the election of grace. He
didn't lose any. He didn't lose any. He'll never lose any of
his people. Now let me make this last statement and I'm done.
You think about this now. If I told you today what's going
to happen at the end of this day, and it came to pass, you
would probably say, that's impressive. But you might also say, but that
could have just been chance. Maybe that was just chance. There's
no such thing as chance. But you might just chalk that
up to, you know, just, I don't, we don't know, we don't know
if he really knew anything about that or made that happen. But
if I told you what was going to happen at the end of this
day, and then I told you exactly how I'm going to make it happen,
and then it all came to pass, You'd say, now that's amazing. You see, that's how God saves.
God declares the end from the beginning. He doesn't just declare
the end from the beginning. He tells you every detail about,
this is how I'm going to bring it to pass. So that when He's
called His people, now the Scriptures open up and you stand there and
say, wow! Our God is something else. He's
sovereign. And He's sovereign in salvation.
Alright. Next time we'll see how I used
him to call out the elect Gentiles. Let's stand together. Father, thank you for this word.
We pray now you meet with us, bless us, keep us, preserve us.
Be the discerner of the thoughts and tints of the heart. By Christ
your glory. Set that sign in our hearts,
Lord. Make us hear Him. Make us be pricked in our heart. Make us follow You. Forgive us, Lord, for our doubting.
Forgive us for fretting over providence and seeing how You
work everything, just like You've promised. Thank You, Lord. In Christ's name we pray. Amen.