Alright, now back in Isaiah chapter
65, we're going to begin to close
out the book of Isaiah, two more chapters. And not that you should
not have paid attention up to this point, but I emphasize,
pay attention to these verses here. This is a prophecy. This is, first of all, as you
know, we've been studying the prayer of the remnant from Isaiah
62 and 63, 64. As Israel, the nation, was in
rebellion against God in Isaiah's day, God sent his prophet. Isaiah
was not the only prophet, but he was the prophet in Jerusalem.
He was probably, as we studied this book and started it, and
mentioned that he was probably one of the members of the king's
court, maybe a relative of the king, King Uzziah. But he prophesied
in Jerusalem to a rebellious people, religious but lost. And
that's the setting. When I used to teach literature,
I always told the kids, if you want to understand the story,
think about the setting. And what basically we're talking
about is who's speaking, and who are they speaking to, and
what are they speaking about? Well, Isaiah is preaching to
lost, religious Israel. And he's talking to them about
their rebellion. He's calling them to repentance. And he's certainly showing them
the glory of the Messiah. Sometimes this book is called
the Gospel according to Isaiah, because it sets forth in such
vivid detail the glory of the person, finished work of Christ,
which was well into the future for Isaiah and the people here. But here he mentioned the prayer
of the remnant. There was a remnant in Israel.
That where nationally the people were in rebellion, at all that
time there was, and this was always the case in their history,
and it's the case in our history too, that when the world is in
rebellion, here Israel in rebellion, despite all their privileges
and all the blessings that God had given them temporally under
the old covenant, all of the revelation of himself, the kingdom
of God, the ministration of the gospel in type and picture and
shadow, despite all of that, the nation was in rebellion,
but there was always a small remnant, the elect remnant, the
scripture calls it. I know people don't like to hear
that term sometimes, but I'll tell you what I rejoice in. God
chose a people. God always has His people. And
the main proof of that is that God says He does. There are times
when the people of God may feel alone, may feel abandoned. They may feel like it's all over.
Sometimes we call that the Elijah syndrome. Remember when Elijah,
when he was being chased by a wicked king and queen? And he said,
is there nobody else, Lord? And the Lord revealed to him,
he said, don't despair, I've got others that have not bowed
the knee unto Baal. I think he said, what, 7,000?
Yeah. And so, you know, I often say, you know, well, if Elijah
was human, and I believe he was, he might have said, well, Lord,
could I meet one or two of them? Could I just get to know one
or two of them? But God always has His remnant. He's going to
save His people from their sins in spite of the rebellion of
this world, the unbelief of this world, and in spite of themselves. I'm going to tell you something.
If God saves you, if He saves me, it will be in spite of yourself,
it will be in spite of myself. That's right. Because we've often
said it, if the Lord would remove His hand of grace from us, we'd
fall a thousand times a day, wouldn't we? It's just so. And this is a warfare that we're
engaged in, but it's a warfare we can't win. Christ has to win
it for us. It has to be by God's grace.
So Isaiah the prophet, he prays. It's an intercessory prayer.
It's not just for himself. It's not a selfish prayer. It's
a prayer for the remnant. He stands as a representative
of the remnant of God's people, saved by grace, mercy in Christ
who is to come. And here, beginning in chapter
65, we see Jehovah's gracious answer. That's why I've titled
this message, Jehovah's Gracious Answer. Now, God will answer
the prayers of His people. And sometimes the answer is not
what we want to hear. Sometimes that answer seems like
silence. Sometimes the answer is just
flat no. But I want to tell you something
about God's answers to His people, His remnant. It's always a gracious
answer. It's always the right answer.
And it's always what we need, whether we know it or not. And
you must understand that. This is Jehovah's gracious answer. Who is Jehovah? He is God our
Savior. He's Christ the Lord. So this
is Christ's answer to the prayer of the remnant. And so, As Isaiah
has been doing this whole time of his ministry, as is recorded
here, he's still continuing to look forward to the coming of
Christ. He knows, as the elect remnant
always knows, that no matter what's going on on this earth,
no matter what's going on with us personally and in our minds,
our only hope is in Christ and Him crucified. Here in this chapter,
he describes the new creation, the new heavens and the new earth,
the new order of things, the new world which would begin with
the coming of Christ and the accomplishment of redemption
by Him, what He would accomplish on our behalf as we look back
at it in history, what He has accomplished on our behalf. And
again, the language here is inclusive of the whole work of Christ,
His first coming to put away our sins, to establish righteousness
whereupon God could justify us, and his death, burial, and resurrection,
his ascension into glory, his ministry here upon earth through
his church, his elect remnant, both Jew and Gentile, who now
has the responsibility of the kingdom, the vineyard that we
studied this morning has been given to the church, not to a
nation, not to a physical nation, but a spiritual nation. And so
Christ is even yet accomplishing His purpose. He works all things
after the counsel of His own will. And that's proven by the
salvation of sinners. Whether it's one sinner or one
million sinners, He's accomplishing His purpose. And so we see this, the preaching
of the gospel to the Gentiles, and the measure being fulfilled
right now, ultimately fulfilled, when Christ comes again. This
includes His second coming when He comes triumphantly to gather
his church together to glorify his people and judge his world.
Now we learn that Christ's kingdom is a spiritual kingdom. This
elect remnant, they're part of a spiritual kingdom. This world
is not their home, though they are by pedigree Jewish, children
of Abraham physically. But they're also spiritual children
of Abraham, as are we if we belong to Christ. Do you know that?
You do. You're a child of Abraham. You're
a spiritual child of God. And Abraham was emblematic of
that because God saved you the same way that he saved Abraham.
He justified the ungodly in Christ. And Abraham believed God, and
you did too, by the power of the Spirit, if God saved you.
So it's a spiritual kingdom. It's made up of God's people,
both Jew and Gentile. from all nations of the world,
justified by God's grace through the redemption that is in Christ,
born again by the Holy Spirit, kept by the power of God, and
soon to be glorified in Him. Here in this chapter we will
see reasons that are given by the Lord for the suffering and
punishment that would come upon national Israel. It was because
of their rejection of the gospel as preached by the prophets. It was because of their rejection
of the gospel as preached ultimately by Christ Himself when He would
come, and by His apostles. Now, we read about that this
morning in that parable of the wicked husbandmen, or vinedressers. God sent His prophets to them,
and they rejected the prophets. They beat them, they stoned them,
they killed them. They persecuted the prophets. You see, it's one
thing for the following generation to build a monument to the ones
they killed before. And that generation that builds
the monument would have done the same thing, proven by the
fact that when God sent his only begotten son into the world,
they killed him. Now again, I emphasize, don't
get the impression that that lets us off the hook. The Gentiles
were well represented there too. Fallen humanity. We all turn
thumbs down on God's Son. That's what we do by nature.
That's what we are by nature. Nothing but sin, rebelliousness,
idolatry, and depravity. And if left to ourselves, where
would we be? We'd be right there again. That's
right now. Somebody says, well, I don't
believe that. You don't know yourself. And I pray God will
reveal you to yourself. Isn't that right? know our frame." And then they
rejected his apostles, too, later on from that. And they chose
to cleave to the traditions of their fathers and to their own
righteousness rather than submit to Christ and His righteousness
as that which God alone saves us. Now, Israel's disobedience
and rebellion are aggravated here, we're going to see here,
by the fact that many of the Gentiles readily receive Christ. Now, that's no bragging or boasting
or giving accolades to the Gentiles. That's a sovereign testimony
of the grace of God, or a testimony to the sovereign grace of God,
rather. And so, but they did receive him. As soon as he was
preached to them, they listened and they embraced him by the
power of God. Nevertheless, there was a remnant among the Gentiles,
in whom the true grace of God would be found, and who should
have a name and a place in the gospel church, the spiritual
Israel, and an equal place in the gospel church. An equal place. And they would be preserved from
destruction. Now, let's look at these first
few verses. Look at verse 1. Here is a great definition of
the power and the mercy in the grace of God." Listen to this,
he says, I am, that's God, he's the only I am, and he says, I
am sought of them that ask not for me. There's a people that
are seeking me now that didn't ask for me. What does that mean?
That sounds kind of weird, doesn't it? Sounds kind of skewed in
a way. All he's simply saying is that they're seeking me now,
but not of their own free will, not of their own volition. Not
because they're better than everybody else. Do you think, listen, have
you sought the Lord? Well, if you're saved, you have.
Now, the reason you sought the Lord, why did you seek Him? Were
you better than the rest of them? Were you? No. Absolutely not. This describes you. This describes
me. I am sought of them that ask not for me. We would go our
merry way on to hell. if God didn't inspire us by His
Spirit and His providence to seek after Him. For wherever
you find a seeking sinner, you're going to find that there's already
been a sovereign seeking Savior. Christ said, I came to seek and
to save that which was lost. That's a good description of
us before we were found. What were we? We were lost. What
is it to be lost? It means to be lost. It means
you don't know the way, you don't know the direction, you don't
know where you've been from, where you've come from, you don't
know where you are, and you don't know where you're going. But
God found us. Now, He didn't find us in the
sense that He didn't know where we are and that He was looking
for us, but He found us by His grace, by His purpose. He found
us on purpose. He set His eye and His heart
upon us before the world began in the annals of eternity when
He chose us and put us in Christ. And that's a humbling thought
now. So when he says, I am sought of them that found me not. Think
about it. He says, I am found of them that
sought me not. We found him. We sought him,
but not of our own volition, not because we were better than
everybody else. It's because he found us and
chose us and redeemed us and brought his spirit to call us
out of this lost mess of humanity. And here's what he said, look
at verse 1, I said, behold me, behold me. Now what he means
there, he says, look unto me. Look unto me and be ye saved,
all the ends of the earth, for I am God, there's none else.
He's saying, here I am, here I am. You think about this, how
many people have a Bible and don't know Christ? How many people
read it from Genesis to Revelation, have their yearly programs through
the Bible in the air? And that's not a bad thing, read
it. Read your Bibles. But the Pharisees searched the
Scriptures. Christ said, in them you think you have eternal life.
There they which testified Me. They weren't seeking Him. Saul
of Tarsus wasn't seeking Christ when he was on the road to Damascus.
He was seeking to obliterate the name of Jesus of Nazareth
off the face of the earth and everybody who followed Him. And
you know what Saul found? He found Christ. Saul, Saul,
why persecutest thou Me? Isn't that amazing? That's amazing grace. That's
what this book is all about. That's what Isaiah preached,
and man by nature doesn't want that. He wants to earn his way
into God's favor. He wants to think he deserves
to be there. He wants to think he's a cut
above. But we're not a cut above. We're fathoms below. That's what
the Scripture teaches. And were it not for the grace
and mercy of God, we'd all perish, and deservedly so, even right
now. I mean, even right now. You say,
but I've grown in grace. That's right. You've grown in
what? Grace. Here's your key. And in the knowledge
of Christ Jesus. He said, I said, behold me, behold
me unto a nation that was not called by my name. Now for nearly
1500 years, and we would say a little bit before because about
400 years before because of Abraham. Israel, as a nation, they were
known as a nation as the people of God. They were given the kingdom
of God, the ministration of the gospel on earth under the old
covenant. But you know, as we read back
over here in Matthew 21 this morning, in verse 43, in that
parable, the Lord said, Therefore say I unto you, The kingdom of
God shall be taken from you. That is the ministration of the
gospel, the privileges, all that you had and rejected, and he
said it will be given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof."
Now, notice he didn't say there in verse 43 it's going to be
given to a nation who deserves it or earned it, that there's
going to be one that brings forth fruits. Now, how do you bring
forth fruit? Well, there has to be life within first before
fruit. There's fruit-berry. Christ is
the vine where the branches, you see. So in other words, this
nation that bears fruit is not the nation that deserves to be
saved or deserves to have the kingdom of God who has earned
it. It's one whom God chose to give
life and bear fruit through. It's the result. This nation is the result of
God's mercy and grace in Christ. What nation is he talking about?
Is this one particular nation? No. This word, as I said this
morning in Matthew 21-43, is the word nation that in the book
of Matthew it always refers to the Gentiles. Now, it does not
exclude Jewish brethren. So his point is this, the nation
that he gives the kingdom to, the ministration of the gospel,
the lordship of Christ in the preaching of the gospel, that's
the kingdom of God. That nation is not a physical
nation. You won't find it on the map.
It's not America. It's not England. It's not Israel. It's spiritual Israel. And that's what he's saying here.
But because of the language of Isaiah 65 here, he is dealing
directly here with the calling of the Gentiles. Now Israel,
during the time of Isaiah, they were known as the people of God,
even though they as a nation, the leaders and the majority
of the people, were mostly in rebellion. You know, there were
very few times in Israel's history where you could say that the
nation was in submission to God's Word in the Old Covenant. There were a few times, but very
few, and it didn't last very long. But here he's making the
point that this nation is going to include a people, a nation
that was not called by His name. That's the Gentiles. Thank God
for it. Even though the vast majority
of the Jews rejected God's gospel, God would still have His glory
in the salvation of His people in a spiritual nation. That's
His answer to Isaiah. The nation was going to perish.
The nation was going to go into captivity. Now, they were going
to come back out and they were going to flourish for a little
while, but then they were going to be obliterated totally. Isaiah
is praying in his intercessory prayer, what's going to happen
to the remnant? Oh, Lord, save the remnant. Christ
assures him, don't worry, Isaiah, the remnant is fine. And the
remnant is going to be added to. There's going to be a people
which are not called by my name, but they will be called by my
name. They're going to be added to the kingdom here. God was
going to save some people. Now look over Romans chapter
9 with me. Now Paul the Apostle, as inspired
by the Holy Spirit, has a lot to say about this issue. A lot
to say. Because, you know, the Jewish
prejudices that remained as a carryover in the establishment of the New
Testament church, that was a big problem. You see it all the way
through the book of Acts. Because many of the Jews who
had given mental agreement to the gospel of God's grace in
Christ, claimed to be Christian, they wanted to retain their Jewishness,
their Jewish prejudices. They wanted to say that they
were specially privileged members of the kingdom of God, the kingdom
of Christ, because they were physical children of Abraham.
They wanted to have the male Gentiles circumcised. in order
either to be saved, or to be really saved, or at least to
be holier. And they wanted to bring people
back under the law. They wanted people to keep the
days. They wanted them to have the dietary laws. You can't eat
this. You could eat that. Paul the Apostle was the specific
apostle to the Gentiles. And you know, he just, you know,
he didn't really, he didn't He didn't win friends and influence
a lot of people as he was inspired by the Spirit to preach against
these things. He said, not for a minute. Remember,
he said he went down to Jerusalem and he said he wouldn't put up
with them for a moment. You know, we want to placate
people. We want to make sure, well, you don't want to hurt...
No. Paul said, no. There's no way. And he said, I withstood
Peter to the face over that. The Apostle Peter? Yes, sir. When he's wrong, he's wrong.
So Paul dealt with this. Well, look at Romans chapter
9. Look at verse 29. He says, "...and as Isaiah said
before, except the Lord of Sabaoth..." What does that mean? That's the
Lord of a great army. That's a term of God that means
invincibility. He cannot be defeated. He cannot
be stopped. Like Daniel, like Nebuchadnezzar,
when he came to his senses, he said, none can stay his hand
or say unto him, what doest thou? He's the Lord of Sabaoth. And
he said, unless the Lord of Sabaoth had left us a seed, we had been
a Sodom and been made like unto Gomorrah. Now, he's quoting from
Isaiah chapter 1. And that's a description of Israel
in their rebellion. The nation as a whole was no
better off than Sodom and Gomorrah. But God has left us a seed, a
remnant. And he says in verse 30, what
shall we say then? That the Gentiles, you see that? How he connects that with the
prophecy of Isaiah? The people that sought me not,
but found me. That's what he's talking about.
The Gentiles, which followed not after righteousness, they
didn't seek the Lord, they didn't have the Old Covenant, that doesn't
mean they weren't religious now. Gentiles were just, man by nature
is religious, but he's lost. He doesn't know Christ. His religion
is self-righteous. So the Gentiles, which followed
not after righteousness, have attained a righteousness. They've
attained righteousness. even the righteousness which
is of faith." Now, what is the righteousness which is of faith?
It's the righteousness of Christ revealed in the Gospel. That's
what they had said. They believed in Christ. Christ
is their righteousness. They submitted to Him. And so
he says in verse 31, "...but Israel..." which followed after
the law of righteousness." In other words, they were seeking
to be made righteous. They had the law. They have not
attained to the law of righteousness. Now, they didn't make it. There
were certain Gentiles who didn't seek it, but they attained it.
And then there were Jews who sought it and didn't attain it.
Now, look at verse 32. Why? Wherefore? Why did they
not attain it? He says, because they sought
it not by faith. Now, what is it to seek it by
faith? Well, here it is. But as it were, by the works
of the law. They sought it by works of the law, for they stumbled
at that stumbling stone. Now, you know that's an emblem,
a symbol of Christ, who is the stumbling stone. As it is written,
Behold, I lay in Zion a stumbling stone. He's quoting here from
Isaiah 28, verse 16. And a rock of offense, and whosoever
believeth on him shall not be ashamed. The stumbling stone
here is a him. It's a person. So he says in
verse 1 of chapter 10, brethren, my heart's desire, prayer to
God for Israel is that they might be saved. For I bear them record
that they have a zeal of God. They're religious now. They're
sincere. They're dedicated. But not according
to knowledge. They're missing some vital knowledge. Don't let any preacher ever tell
you that knowledge is not necessary. It is necessary. Not because
we all have to be Einsteins to be saved. That's not what it's
talking about. It's a knowledge of Christ. It's a knowledge that
God gives His people by His Spirit. And He says, "...for they, being
ignorant of God's righteousness, and going about to establish
their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto
the righteousness of God. For Christ is the end of the
law for righteousness to everyone that believes." Christ is my
righteousness. Then look down at verse 20 of
Romans chapter 10, the last two verses here of chapter 10. He says, But Isaiah is very bold
and saith, I was found of them that sought me not. I was made
manifest unto them that asked not for me. That is quoted exactly
from our text. Isaiah 65. But to Israel he saith
all day long, I have stretched forth my hands unto a disobedient
and gainsame people. That's the next verse. Let me
read one more verse before we go on back to Isaiah. Look at
Romans 11, look down at verse 25. Now, the people of God, now
this is the case. You know, this is a sad, sad
story of a nation that rejected God. But the people of God need
not despair because there is a remnant. Chapter 11. He says, For I would not, brethren,
that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should
be wise in your own conceits. That blindness, in part, has
happened to Israel. That's God's judgment upon Israel
for their rejection and unbelief. Why did it happen? It happened
until the fullness of the Gentiles be come in, until God saves His
people among the Gentiles. And he says in verse 26, "...and
so all Israel shall be saved, Jew and Gentile, all spiritual
Israel. As it is written, there shall
come out of Zion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness
from Jacob." Look back at Isaiah 65 now. Look at verse 2. See how this is all connected
now? You see, it's all fulfilled. And he says in verse 2 of Isaiah
65, he said, I spread out my hands all the day unto a rebellious
people which walketh in a way that was not good after their
own thoughts. Speaking of Israel, who rejected
the truth of God's grace, as Paul explained, as we read there
in Romans 10, this idea is repeated in several different places in
Scripture. The phrase in the book of Judges. that characterize
this kind of wickedness, the wickedness of the age, it goes
something like this. It's repeated twice in Judges. And it says this, everyone did
that which was right in their own eyes. Not according to God's
Word. Proverbs, it's repeated once.
There is a way that seems right to man, but its end is the way
of death. for sinners to live according
to their own thoughts. You know, that may sound like
freedom. Did you notice that? This is why the Jews of Christ,
they said, we be free, we're in bondage to no man. They said,
well, they think what they want to think. That sounds like freedom,
doesn't it? You know what it is? It's bondage.
It's the bondage of darkness. It's the chain of self-righteousness. God's solution to living according
to our own thoughts is revealed in his book, and he says, Submit
yourself unto the Lord. Christ said, Come unto me, all
ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I'll give you rest. Take
my yoke upon you, for my yoke is easy, my burden is light.
Before God brings us to a saving knowledge of Christ, he says
we're alienated in our minds by wicked works, our efforts
to try to save ourselves. But then we're reconciled to
God as we see that Christ has already finished the work. All
righteousness, all forgiveness, all glory is in Him. Look at
verse 3 of Isaiah 65. He describes them. He says, "...a
people that provoketh me to anger continually to my face." That
describes Israel's sin, rebellion, and idolatry to his face. You
know what that is saying? They are not ashamed of it. Whatever
is happening here are things that they are by nature not ashamed
of. You know what man is not ashamed
of by nature? His religion. His idolatry, even
His unbelief. You see, all who persist in such
things will one day be made ashamed. We read that in Romans 9 there,
you know. Those who stumble over the stumbling
stone, reject Christ, seek not righteousness by faith, they'll
be ashamed. They'll be ashamed. But they're not ashamed to provoke
God to His face. They deny His glory. They deny
His purpose. They deny His grace. They deny
His Son. Look at verse 3. It says, "...that
sacrificeth in gardens." Now, what that is, Jeremiah called
it the groves. Prophets of the groves. Where
idols were worshipped. In other words, it was away from
and against the house of God. God's prescribed way of worship.
Whenever you find Him worshipping in the gardens or among the trees
or in the groves, that's man going his own way. My way is
just as good as your way. You hear people say, well, I
can worship God anyway. Well, you can in a sense, but
listen, you better not reject his prescribed way. You better
not be in idolatry. It says they burnt incense upon
altars of brick, not upon the golden altar where the priest
brought the incense that represented Christ's intercession for his
people, our advocate, Jesus Christ, the righteous, and his people's
prayers for him. Look at verse 4, he says, which
remain among the graves. You know what that means? There
was a preoccupation in Israel with the dead. You say, well,
that sounds strange. Does it? What about our day? Don't you hear people talking
about speaking to the dead, holding seances? Watching programs about
people going on to find ghosts here and ghosts there. There's
programs all over there, all over TV about that. Preoccupation
with the dead. They think they can speak to
the dead and the dead can speak to them. They think they can
learn from the dead. They think they can learn about
the future from the dead. You know, that's why the old
covenant, the book of Numbers, chapter 19, there's a command
against contact with the dead. The dead are dead. Christ said,
let the dead bury the dead. Now, they're not out here in
some haunted mansion or some haunted house, and they're not
hovering over you, looking upon you. If they're in Christ, they're
with Him. And I'll tell you what, this thing
about preoccupation with the dead, it's ungodly. It's flat
ungodly. He says in verse 4, he says,
they lodged in the monument. Men love to build monuments to
the dead. They love to sleep in the temples
of idols among the dead. They love to think they can commune
with the dead. They eat swine's flesh and broth
of abominable things is in their vessels. That's the breaking
of the laws of purity and died in the old covenant law. And
all of it showed no regard for God, no trust in God, no worship
of God. Look at verse 5. Here's a greater
problem now. He says, which say, these people
say, stand by thyself, come not near to me, for I am holier than
thou. You know, there's so many religious
phrases that people use they think's in the Bible that are
not. Well, here's one that is. You think you're holier than
thou. Get away from me. Don't eat with publicans and
sinners. Don't consort with the dregs
of society. Do you know who I saw that preacher
with the other day? I wouldn't be seen with that kind
of person, such people, in that kind of place. Stand off! I'm holier than thou. Self-righteousness. I'll tell you what, God hates
a proud look. Period. Mark it down. I'm better
than you. I'm a cut above. All of this
kind of thing, the big I and the little you, that describes
Israel's self-righteousness. And think about it, all this
along while they were breaking God's law, they can still say,
keep to yourself, don't come near me, I'm holier than thou. That's why the Lord says in Luke
chapter 16 and verse 15, that which is highly esteemed among
men is an abomination unto God. And that includes ourselves.
We highly esteem ourselves. You can mark it down. You're
an abomination to God. Oh, I tell you, if we don't take
our place by the power of God's spirit in the dust. Old Brother
Scott Richardson said, put your shotgun down and make your headquarters
in the dust. And that's just exactly where
we belong. The dust. We don't have anything to brag
about or boast in. We think we do, but we don't.
My friend, our only hope is the blood of Christ. Our only hope
is the grace and mercy of God. Look, it says here in verse 5,
these things, these are a smoke in my nose, a fire that burneth
all the day. God detests them, just like smoke
that irritates the nostrils. That's how God looks upon such
holier than thou. He won't have them. Look at verse
6, he says, Behold, it is written before me, I will not keep silence,
but will recompense. That's justice now. Give them
what they deserve. You see, our hope of salvation
is not in getting what we deserve. Do you understand that? Lord,
don't give me what I deserve. I deserve death. I deserve hell.
Eternal death. And so when God says I'm going
to recompense, that means I'm going to give them justice. Exactly
what they deserve. Even recompense into their bosom.
You've heard the term, they take fire into their bosom. That's
exactly what's happening. Verse 8 or verse 7. Your iniquities
and the iniquities of your fathers together, saith the Lord, which
have burned incense upon the mountains and blaspheme me upon
the hills. Therefore will I measure their
former work into their bosom. They'll get what they earned.
They'll get what they deserve, they'll get what they earn. I
don't want what I deserve and I don't want what I've earned.
I want Christ. He took fire into His bosom in
my place as my substitute. My sins were laid to His charge
and He drank damnation dry in those hours that He spent on
the cross of Calvary so that I wouldn't get what I deserve
and what I've earned. I want what He's earned for me,
eternal life and glory in heaven. That's the only hope I have.
It's the only hope you have. And this is what he's saying.
God's judgment will be sure and severe and just against such
persons who justify themselves. God only saves the penitent.
God be merciful to me, the sinner. That's what we need to take our
place in. Christ is our only hope. Well, in these last few
verses, 8 through 10, here's the gracious answer. All will
not perish. Yet all will not perish. Look
at it, thus saith the Lord, as the new wine is found in the
cluster, and one saith, Destroy it not, for a blessing is in
it." A blessing is in it. Oh, I'll tell you what, when
you look at all of the sin of ourselves and of each other as
we go through this, how in the world could it ever be said a
blessing is in it? But there is. He says, so will
I do for my servants' sake that I may not destroy them all. You
see, God still has a people. You mean out of this mess? Yes,
sir. Out of this mess. He'll bless
them. He'll restore them. His elect
shall inherit this blessing. And the only reason why God did
not totally annihilate the Jewish people when He destroyed their
nation was this. He yet has an elect remnant among
those people who must save. be saved. He must save them.
That's what he said, I came to seek and to save the lost. The
lost sheep of the house of Israel and the lost among the Gentiles
whom he purposed to save, he said them also I must bring to
myself. So it is with the whole world.
The only reason God doesn't destroy this world is the fact that he
has yet a remnant in this world whom he chose before the foundation
of the world whom he justified in Christ based on his righteousness
alone, whom he redeemed by his precious blood, and whom he's
calling by his Spirit into the fold. And they must be saved. I'll come back to these verses
next time, but let me just read this. Verse 9, he says, I will
bring forth a seed out of Jacob, that's spiritual Israel, and
out of Judah an inheritor of my mountains, and mine elect
shall inherit it, and my servants shall dwell there. And Sharon
shall be a foal to fly. Christ is the rose of Sharon.
Remember that. I'll give you some more information
on that next time. And he said in the Valley of
Acre, a place, Acre means trouble. Back in the days of Joshua, when
they come into the Promised Land, there was a man named Achan who
blasphemed the Lord and they stoned him and they buried him
in Acre. Trouble. That's the name of the place
from then on. Well, he says the Valley of Trouble will be a place
for the herds to lie down. Now, you can identify with that,
can't you? You've faced a lot of trouble. I have too. We'll
do that the rest of our days here on earth. But we know in
this valley of trouble, there's also a place to lie down. We
lie down in the green pastures of our great shepherd, our good
shepherd. And he says, for my people that have sought me, Christ
is our lying down place. Our place of peace and rest in
this valley of Acre, the Rose of Sharon, is the place to lie
down and rest in the glory of His person and finished work.