Let us turn to God's Word in
the chapter that we were considering this morning, Isaiah 65. We then read as our text the
verses 8, 9, and 10. I want to read now from verse
11. Isaiah 65, reading from verse
11 through to 16. Isaiah 65 from verse 11. But ye are they that forsake
the Lord, that forget my holy mountain, that prepare a table
for that troop, that furnish the drink offering unto that
number. Therefore will I number you to
the sword, and ye shall all bow down to the slaughter. Because
when I called ye did not answer, when I spake ye did not hear,
but did evil before mine eyes, and did choose that wherein I
delighted not. Therefore thus saith the Lord
God, Behold, my servant shall eat, and ye shall be hungry. Behold, my servant shall drink,
and ye shall be thirsted. Behold, my servant shall rejoice,
but ye shall be ashamed. Behold, my servant shall sing
for joy of heart, but ye shall cry for sorrow of heart. and
shall howl for vexation of spirit and ye shall leave your name
for a curse unto my chosen for the Lord God shall slay thee
and call his servants by another name that he who blesseth himself
in the earth shall bless himself in the God of truth and he that
sweareth in the earth shall swear by the God of truth because the
former troubles are forgotten and because they are hid from
mine eyes. And I really want to take for
our text those last two verses that we've just read here in
Isaiah 65, the verses 15 and 16. These two verses, And ye
shall leave your name for a curse unto my chosen. For the Lord
God shall slay thee and call his servants by another name.
that he who blesseth himself in the earth shall bless himself
in the God of truth and he that sweareth in the earth shall swear
by the God of truth because the former troubles are forgotten
and because they are hid from mine eyes. Here in the Word of God in the
Bible it is so evident that there are just two families in this
world In the Old Testament, of course, we know it was the Jew
and the Gentile. It was the Jew and the Gentile
gods called a nation out of the bondage that they were having
to endure in Egypt. And there in Exodus chapter 33
and verse 16, Hosea says, So shall we be separated, I and
thy people, from all the people on the face of the earth they were of course the descendants
of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob God had entered into covenant
made promise to Abraham concerning that people that they were going
to come into the possession of the land of promise and so he
called them out of Egypt separated them unto himself from all the
people on the whole face of the earth. Again, the prophet Amos,
as the mouthpiece of God, utters those words in chapter 3, You
only have I known of all the families of the earth. And as
with the prophet, so with the psalmist at the end of the 147th
Psalm, he showeth his word unto Jacob, His statutes and His judgments
unto Israel, He hath not dealt so with any nation. As for His
judgments, they have not known them. Praise ye the Lord! And all these great blessings
belong so evidently to the children of Israel. And this morning we
did make several references to those those chapters I should
say that we have in in Romans Romans chapters 9 and 10 and
11 and I remarked there now those chapters are to be considered
as a unit in the middle of this book but remember those words
that we have in chapter 9 and we did refer to them this morning
the great lament of Paul there in the opening verses of that
chapter where he speaks of great heaviness and continual sorrow
in his heart even wishing himself accursed for his kinsmen according
to the flesh and he says who are Israelites to whom pertaineth
the adoption and the glory and the covenants and the giving
of the law and the service of God and the promises whose are
the Fathers, and of whom is concerning the flesh Christ came, who is
over all God blessed forever. Amen." How clearly these were
a people so separate from every other nation on the face of the
earth. And that is the great divines that we have there in
the Old Testament. There were the Jews, or the Israelites
we should say, and there were the Gentile nations. But when we come to the Gospel
it is so clear that that distinction has been removed. It's done away and it's done
away forever. There's that remarkable passage
that we find in what Paul writes to the church at Ephesus in chapter
2. there in Ephesians 2 at verse
11, the following he says, Wherefore remember that ye, being in time
past Gentiles in the flesh, who are caught on circumcision by
that which is called the circumcision in the flesh made by hands, that
at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the
commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenant of promise,
having no hope without God in the world but now in Christ Jesus
ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of
Christ for he is our peace who hath made both one that is Jew
and Gentile made one and has broken down the middle wall of
partition between us having abolished in his flesh the enmity even
the Lord of Commandments contained in ordinances to make in himself
of twain that is of two the Jew and the Gentile to make in himself
of twain one new man so making peace and that he might reconcile
both unto God in one body by the cross having slain the enmity
thereby and came and preached peace to you he's writing to
a The Gentile church at Ephesus came and preached peace to you
which were afar off, Gentiles, and to them that were nigh, that
is, the Jew. For through him we both, Jew
and Gentile, by one spirit have access to the Father. The old
distinction that's there in the Old Testament then is evidently
done away. And as I said this morning in
this chapter, the 65th chapter, we have the calling of the Gentiles.
In the opening verse, I am sought of them that ask not for me,
I am found of them that sought me not. I said behold me, behold
me, unto a nation that was not called by my name. I have spread out my hands all
the day unto a rebellious people which walketh in a way that was
not good after their own thoughts of people that provoke me to
anger continually. Now he goes on to rebuke his
people, the nation of Israel. There's a calling of the Gentiles
there in the opening verse but then there's also the solemn
rejection of Israel. the solemn rejection of Israel and that was where we referred to those chapters
in Romans and I remarked that in fact those opening two verses
of the 65th chapter of Isaiah are quoted right at the end of
the 10th chapter in Romans and then we go into chapter 11 Not all Israel are rejected. How does chapter 11 begin? I say, hath God cast away his
people? asks the Apostle. God forbid,
for I also am an Israelite of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe
of Benjamin, the great Apostle to the Gentiles. Well, this morning,
what I was trying to deal with as we considered these verses
here, 8, 9 and 10, I wanted to concentrate on the theme of the
doctrine of the remnant. How God's true Israel, God's
spiritual Israel has always been a remnant. And we have it in
those verses that we were looking at this morning. In verse 8,
I said to the Lord, as the new wine is found in the cluster,
and one saith, Destroy it not, for a blessing is in it, so will
I do for my servant's sake, that I may not destroy them all. It's
not the whole vine, it's just a cluster. It's always a cluster,
it's just a remnant. In the opening chapter, The Prophet
speaks of a very small remnant, except the Lord had left us a
very small remnant, we should have been like unto Sodom, like
unto Gomorrah, those wicked cities of the plain. There's a remnant. The 9th verse speaks of a seed
out of Jacob, speaks of mine elect, I will bring forth a seed
out of Jacob and out of Judah. an inheritor of my mountains
and mine elect shall inherit it and my servants shall dwell
there there's always that doctrine
then that God will have a people for his price it might be a very
small remnant but it's God's true people, it's God's true
Israel and so when we come to the gospel we have to recognize
that though the old distinction has been done away clearly done
away there is there still a distinction it's done away clearly enough
Galatians 3.28 there is neither Jew nor Gentile neither bond
nor free neither male nor female we're all one in Christ Jesus,
but the ministry of the Lord Jesus is clearly a discriminating
and a separating ministry. When we read through the Gospels
we see that so clearly and three times there in John's Gospel
we read of division, a division because of him, because of Christ,
or a division because of his teaching in John 7 43 and again
in chapter 9 and verse 16 chapter 10 and verse 19 three separate
occasions we see that the Lord's ministry was a discriminating
ministry there's still a difference when we come to the New Testament
and the day of grace but what is the difference now it's the
distinction between the sheep and the goats the sheep and the goats and of
course it's going to be made so abundantly clear at the end
of the gospel day the great consummation of all
things when the Lord Jesus Christ returns in power and glory the
one to whom all judgment has been committed and the books
will be opened and they make the final separation the sheep
on his right hand, the goats on his left hand and each solemnly sent to their
appointed place. Oh, that awful day of judgment
and the final separation in this world. How solemn it is. Sheep and goats. But what's the
mark of the sheep? Well, they are believers. The
Lord says of the Jews, you are not of my sheep, for you believe
not on my name. Here's the mark of the sheep,
they're believers. And the goats are the unbelievers.
But there's still that distinction and is it not something that's
made under the ministry of God's words? When Paul writes to the
Corinthians again in that second epistle, the end of chapter 2,
he speaks of his preaching as a savour of death unto death
to some and a savour of life unto life to others. The ministry
separates the people. There are those who embrace the
message, there are those who believe the gospel, those who
are trusting in Christ, there are others who hear the message
and it does nothing to them. They come, they go, but it does
nothing to them. As solemn it is, the savour of
life, but also a savour of death. Paul cries out, who is sufficient
for these things? But what I want to do tonight
really is return to these further verses in this chapter, the 65th
chapter in Isaiah, is to take up the theme of the two families
on earth. The two families on earth, spoken
of in verses 15 and 16. You shall leave your name for
a curse unto my chosen for the Lord God shall slay thee and
call his servants by another name that he who blesseth himself
in the earth shall bless himself in the God of truth and he that
sweareth in the earth shall swear by the God of truth because the
former troubles are forgotten and because they are hid from
mine eyes. The two families on earth first
of all the negative parts. Those who are referred to here
as being numbered to the swords. Those who are numbered to the swords. How solemn is
that word. Back in Verse 11 we read, Ye are they
that forsake the Lord, that forget my holy mountain, and prepare
a table for that troop, that furnish the drink offering unto
that number. Therefore will I number you to
the sword, and ye shall all bow down to the slaughter. Because
when I called ye did not answer, when I spake ye did not hear.
But did evil before mine eyes, and did choose that wherein I
delighted not. What is Isaiah speaking of? He's speaking of judgment, God's
judgment upon this people. And we made some remark this
morning concerning the historical context. He's ministering, remember,
about 700 years before the coming of Christ, seven centuries before
Christ came. He's exercising this ministry
there in Judah. And he does speak of things that
will happen within a hundred years. In 605 came the Babylonian
captivity and it was a terrible judgment upon the Jews. And in a sense we might say it
was a foreshadowing of another judgment that would come up even
in the day of grace because after the death of the Lord Jesus Christ
The Roman legions again came to do what the Babylonians had
done and to lay siege to Jerusalem under their general Titus and
in the year 70 Jerusalem fell and the Jews were scattered.
So in a sense what we have in the Babylonian captivity, the
scattering of them, they're going into exile. is repeated in the
events of the year 70, they rejected the Lord Jesus Christ. He came
unto his own, his own received him not, and God rejects him,
they're cast out. Now what were the reasons for
this terrible judgment that God visited on them? Well, Back in
Isaiah's day, of course, it was very much their idolatry. They were such an idolatrous
people. They wanted to really be like all the nations round
about them. Those nations around Israel,
around Judah, they had their gods. They had their idols. And in their foolishness, the
Jews wanted to be like the other nations. And what do we read? There in verse 11 we read of
that troop, that troop it says, and then we read of that number, that prepare the table for that
troop, that furnish the drink offering unto that number. It's speaking really of their
many idols, the different gods. and the sacrifices that they
want to make to these gods. And what are they doing in doing
this? They're forsaking the Lord. They're
forgetting God's holy mountain. God's holy mountain, of course,
a reference to Zion. And the temple of the Lord, the
place where God was to be worshipped. Oh, what terrible sin is this? They're guilty of idolatry. turning away from the Lord. Verse 3 A people that provoketh
me to anger continually to my face, that sacrificeth in gardens,
and burneth incense upon altars of brick, which remain among
the graves, and lodge in the monuments, which eat swine's
flesh, and broth of abominable things is in their vessels."
They were idolaters and God dealt with them for their idolatry.
That was the transgression, of course, of God's commandments. God had brought them to Himself. God had entered into covenant
with them there at Mount Sinai. He'd given them the Ten Commandments.
The first commandment, Thou shalt have no other gods before Me.
No other gods before Him. And the second commandment, they
shall not make unto thee any graven image, any likeness of
any creature, nor they were transgressors. They made their idols. But when
we come to the New Testament, there's also idolatry, is there
not? The Apostle speaks of that covetousness, which is idolatry. That covetousness. that inordinate
desire setting one's heart upon some illegitimate things covetousness. Gain Paul speaks of those whose
God is their belly who mind earthly things full of idolatry you see satisfying
only their senses or their damnation is just he says there is a sin
of idolatry it was so evident of course in the day of the prophets and so God is rejecting them
judging them because of their terrible sins the Lord God shall slay thee
it says in the middle of this 15th verse they are rejected
people now when we When we come to the New Testament, after the
Babylonian captivity, they're restored, aren't they, the Jews?
They come back to Jerusalem in the days of Ezra and Nehemiah.
There's the rebuilding of the Temple of the Lord. There's the
rebuilding of the walls of Jerusalem. And so the remnant is always
preserved. God preserves his true people.
Not all those who came back are going to be the true Israel,
but there's always a remnant in the midst of God's professed
people, in the midst of ethnic Israel. And then we come to the
New Testament. And what is their sin now? They're
not idolaters. That seems to have been so doubted
by God in the captivity. they don't practice that idolatry
anymore but in the gospel day their sin is worse really it's
infidelity it's unbelief when the Messiah comes he came unto
his own we're told and his own received him not his own received
him not what was their language we will not have this man to
rule over us we will not have this man to rule over us crucify
him! crucify him! they cried to Pontius
Pilate it's unbelief, it's infidelity
and in a sense unbelief we could say is another form of idolatry
when Paul is speaking to the Thessalonians remember the opening
chapter of that first letter, that first epistle to the Thessalonians,
he speaks about those Gentiles, it was principally a Gentile
church, turned from idols to serve the living and true God.
They turn from idols and they look to the true God. What do
Israel do? Well, they turn from the true God and they are their
idols in a sense. Covetousness. those whose God
is their belly, those who look into themselves. Or have I spoken of, we refer
to verse 5 this morning, they say, Stand by thyself, come not
near to me, for I am holier than thou. The religion of the Pharisee,
so much respected by the Jew in the days of the Lord Jesus,
they make a God of themselves, these people. These are a smoke
in my nose, a fire that burneth all the day, says the Lord God. You see, unbelief is a terrible sin, and
there's a curse in that sin. He that believeth not is cursed
already, it says, because he hath not believed in the name
of the only begotten Son of God. We're born, in that sense, under
a curse because we're born in sin and in unbelief. And all
our days that we're in unbelief, it's a fearful thing, really,
to be a non-believer. It's a terrible thing. And yet,
isn't it strange that in order to know what saving faith is,
we must first come to feel what that unbelief is. To know saving
faith, we must first feel our natural and native unbelief.
I like this sentence from an old writer. He says this, the
first step to true faith must begin with conviction of unbelief. The first step to true faith
must begin with the conviction of unbelief. to know that awful
sin, when the Spirit is come. What does Christ say of the ministry
of the Spirit? When the Spirit is come, He will
reprove the world of sin, of righteousness, of judgment. And He goes on, of sin, because
they believe not on Me. It's the root of all sin, unbelief. And it's a sin which does so
easily beset us. And it's a dreadful sin. And
that was the sin of the Israelites. And I suppose we have to say
that is still the sin of the Jew today, really. In this day
of grace, they're in unbelief. They've rejected the true Messiah.
They say they worship God, but the God that they worship is
not the true God. They deny the doctrine of the
Trinity, the God that they worship is a figment of their own imagination,
it's not the God of the Bible. A veil is upon their eyes, they
don't understand the Word of God. That is their fearful condition. And there is a negative here,
you see. We're not here to point the finger
at the Jew, how we have to point the finger at ourselves and examine
ourselves, and prove ourselves, and know ourselves, and what
unbelief is, and the fearful thing that it is, the curse that's
already upon the unbeliever. That's the amazing thing in those
words in John 3.18, either believeth not. It's the words of the Lord
Jesus. He says, either believeth not.
He's cursed already. because he has not believed in
the name of the only begotten Son of God or do we believe in
him the only begotten of the Father the one full of grace
and truth. Let us turn to the more positive
aspect of the text as it were. I want to say something with
regards to the name of those who were saved verse 15 you shall
leave your name for a curse unto my chosen for the Lord God shall
slay thee that's you know their old distinction
that's the Jew now you see they rejected God and called his servants
by another name well what is his other name? what is his other
name? well we read it didn't we in
the scriptures 11th chapter. We finished our
reading there at verse 26. The disciples were first called
Christians in Antioch. And it's after the Gentile Pentecost. And they're called Christians.
That's the name. That's the other name. That's
the name now of God's people. Of course, there's hope for the
Jew if he turns to Christ. There's no other way of salvation. There's no salvation for ethnic
Israel simply because they are the natural descendants of Abraham
and Isaac and Jacob. Like Gentiles, the Jews must
also be born again of the Spirit of God. They must be made new
creatures in Christ Jesus if they're going to know anything
of salvation. But as we think of this name of the Savior, I
want to mention some three things concerning them. So we can look
to ourselves and examine ourselves in the light of God's Word. What
three things do we notice here? Well, they are Christ's. That's why they're called Christians.
They're Christ's. I suppose really it's the best
name to go by really of all the names that Christians might give
to themselves or sometimes of course they're given names by
others and sometimes those names are
given to mock and to ridicule them but the best name is that name
that God himself has given us They're first called Christians
in Antioch. And what does it mean? Well,
they're Christ's. They're Christ's people. Behold, he says, I and the children
which God hath given me. They're Christ's children. They're
Christians. But look at what it says here,
in verse 16. concerning blessings. He who
blesseth himself in the earth shall bless himself in the God
of truth. And he that sweareth in the earth shall swear by the
God of truth. And you know, it's this verse
16 that really brought me to this chapter. Earlier in the
week, I think it was Tuesday the 18th, I just read the portion,
I think it was the evening portion, in Daily Light. And if you've
got a copy of that book, The Daily Light, you know how it
is, you have a text at the top of the page, and that sort of
gives you the theme really, and then the remainder of the page
is full of other texts of scripture all related to that one particular
text that's a general theme. And on the 18th of October, the evening,
the text at the top of the page was the word Amen. As I read
the various texts, one of them was this verse. What they did was they pointed
out what the literal rendering is of that expression God of
Truth. It's literally the God Amen. The God Amen. He who blesseth
himself in the earth shall bless himself in the God Amen. And
he that sweareth in the earth shall swear by the God. Amen. Now, who is the God Amen? Well, it's the Lord Jesus, who
is the image of the invisible God, who reveals God to us for
what He is. We know what Amen means. It means,
well, we have it rendered in our authorized version, time
of the game, by the word verily. in John's Gospel when it says,
verily, verily, it's literally, Amen, Amen, truly, truly. And who is this one who is the
truth? Christ says, I am the way, the
truth and the life. No man cometh unto the Father
but by me. He says there at the beginning
of Revelation, I am he that liveth and was dead, and behold, I am
alive forevermore. Amen. And have the keys of hell
and of death. And then later in chapter 3 of
Revelation, in verse 14, these things saith the Amen. The faithful
and true witness, that's the Lord Jesus. He is the God. Amen. And the wondrous thing,
of course, is this, that all the promises of God in him are
yea and amen. All God's promises are yea and
amen, not yea and nay. There's no ifs and buts and maybes
and possibilities and probabilities when we have dealings with this
one. All those exceeding great and precious promises. It's all
truth in the Lord Jesus Christ. And he that blesseth himself
is to bless himself in the God of truth, the God Amen. Or the
end of the 72nd Psalm. Blessed be the Lord God, the
God of Israel, who only doeth wondrous things, and blessed
be His glorious name forever. Amen and Amen, it says. These are Christ's people, you
see. And they confess Him and they know Him as that One who
is the only mediator between God and men. It's the only way
whereby they can come to God. All truth is in Him. They're
His people. So they're men and women of the
truth themselves. All they live their lives by
the truth that He said before them here in the Word of God.
They don't just delight in those exceeding precious promises. They delight in all the holy
precepts of the Gospel. They are true men. They are the
true followers of the Lord Jesus Christ. They live according to
His words. Christ. Secondly, secondly they
are called. They are called. Back in chapter 43, there at
the beginning of that chapter, God says, I have called thee
by thy name. They're what? Mine. I have called
thee by thy name. Surely when we read there in
John chapter 10 we see it again. The Lord Jesus. He calleth his own sheep by name,
doesn't he? He calleth his own sheep by name.
We thought of it last Lord's Day morning. We were looking
at that 10th chapter in John, remember. some of the marks of
the sheep. And we remark that he calls his
sheep by their name. How does he call Saul of Tarsus,
that man who was such a persecutor? He says, Saul, Saul, why persecutest
thou me? Who art thou, Lord? I am Jesus,
whom thou persecutest. It is hard for thee to kick against
the pricks. The Lord calls his people by
name. Maybe you read something of the experience of that great
divine John Gill. He was converted at the age of
12, remarkably. A young man, a child I suppose,
in many respects, 12 years old. And he heard the minister preaching
from those words in Genesis 3 after the fall of Adam and Eve, after
the transgression. Remember that they're in the
garden and the Lord God comes into the garden in the cool of
the day. It had been a paradise. They'd enjoyed fellowship with
God and now they've sinned, they've transgressed. And finally they're
trying to conceal themselves, to hide themselves from the presence
of God. And God says, where art thou? Where art thou Adam? And Gil
said when he heard that sermon, oh he came home so personally,
where art thou John Gil? Oh where art thou John Gil? Saul,
Saul, why persecutest thou me? They're called by their name. And they're not called in Israel
or out of Israel, they're called out of the whole world. That's
what we see in this 16th verse. He who blesseth himself in the
earth, it says. He who blesseth himself in the
earth. He that sweareth in the earth.
It's not confined to one nation, this name, the name of the Saved.
What is the commandment of Christ to His disciples at the end of
His earthly ministry? Go ye into all the world and
preach the gospel unto every creature. It's a gospel for every
creature, for all sinners, sinners of the Gentiles as well as sinners
of Israel. And they're called, they're all
called They are called out of every kindred, every tongue,
every people, every nation. And what does God do with these
people? God puts His name upon them. Acts is a remarkable book, isn't
it? Because it shows that transition,
you see. When the Lord's ministering during the period of his tabernacling
amongst men, whilst he is here upon the earth, his ministry
is confined to the Jew. He is sent to the lost sheep
of the house of Israel. All his ministry is in the confines
of Palestine. But when we come to the Acts, well it begins at Jerusalem,
then it's Judea, then Samaria, than the end of the world. It's
the gospel going out. And there in Acts 15, 17 we're
told all the Gentiles upon whom my name is called. All the Gentiles
upon whom my name is called. Or they're called Christians.
They're Christians. Salvation is for Christians. It's as much for the Gentile
as it is for the Jew. We're never to lose sight of
that. They're Christ, they're called, and finally, they're chastened. They're chastened
of God. That's a mark of their sonship,
really. We've referred already to those words in Amos, Amos
3.2, You only have I known of all the families of the earth
says God, therefore all there's a therefore, there's something
to follow here therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities God punishes his children not
judicially because that punishment of their sin has been dealt with
in the work of the Lord Jesus Christ Christ has borne all the
wrath that was there just as that but God does chasten his
children whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth and scourgeth every
son whom he receiveth if ye endure chastening God dealeth with you
as with sons says Paul what son is he whom the father chasteneth
not if our fathers love us they'll correct us and we'll be thankful
for it when we're when we're in maturity we'll recognize they
corrected us, they chastened us and sometimes it was smarting
to be corrected but it was the Father's love no chastening for
the present seemeth to be joyous but grievous is poor nevertheless
afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness to them
who are exercised thereby or to be exercised And you see,
those who know the Lord and know His dealings, they'll come to
rejoice in Him, and they'll glory in Him, and they'll thank Him
for all His dealings. Oh, He's too kind to be mistaken. He's too good to be unkind. He's a good, He's a gracious
God. They're Christ, they're called,
and they're chastened. The words then of the text, ye
shall leave your name for a curse unto my chosen, that's Israel
in the Old Testament. God had spread out his hands
all the day to such a rebellious people. When the Lord comes,
how they refuse him and reject him. For the Lord God shall slay
thee and call his servants by another name. that he who blesseth
himself in the earth shall bless himself in the God of truth.
In the God's, Amen. He that sweareth in the earth
shall swear by the God of truth. The God, Amen. Because the former
troubles are forgotten, and because they are hid from mine eyes. Oh the Lord, be pleased and to
bless his word to us and grant that we might know that name.
He calls His servants by another name, the name of the site. That's
the Christian. May the Lord bless to us His
Word. Amen.