I want you to turn with me tonight
to Isaiah 65, and just hold your Bibles open at this chapter,
put a bookmark there, something so you can keep referring to
it. I want us to take an overview
of these 25 verses, and I want to show you, in the context of
the whole chapter, what this passage is talking about. Now,
you'll remember that in chapter 63, beginning at verse 15, Isaiah
began to call upon God in prayer, and the prayer which he uttered
as the representative of God's people is carried on through
chapter 64, down through verse 12. He's crying for God's intervention. He's crying out to God to show
himself, to make himself known, to manifest himself in behalf
of his people, for the saving of his people and for the glory
of his name. is God's answer to that prayer. In chapter 65, the Lord God tells
Isaiah exactly how he would intervene in behalf of his people. Now
in this chapter, remember Isaiah is running by divine inspiration. And being inspired of God, he
looks forward with prophetic eyes to the first advent of Christ
and to the second advent of Christ. Many times in reading the prophets
of the Old Testament, Sometimes people are confused because they
say, how can this be talking about the first advent? Something
doesn't fit. Or how can this be talking about
the second advent? This doesn't fit. The fact is,
the Old Testament prophets looked upon Christ's coming, both his
first advent and his second advent, almost as though it was one thing.
And when the prophets speak of his coming, often they speak
of the first and second advent as though they were mixed together.
And that's the case here in Isaiah chapter 65. Certainly, Isaiah,
I suspect, did not understand everything he wrote. But that's
irrelevant. He wrote by inspiration. And
as he wrote by inspiration, the spirit of God who inspired him
to write these words clearly understood exactly what he was
writing. And that's the spirit of prophecy.
look into those things of which they spoke, and they desired
to understand them more clearly, but they spoke by divine inspiration. Now, it's a mistake to limit
the words of this prophecy to the first advent of Christ, and
it's equally a mistake to limit them to his second advent. The
fact is, as we read through this chapter, it is obvious that parts
of it began to be fulfilled when the Lord Jesus Christ came into
this world and accomplished redemption for by His Spirit daily in the administration
of His grace, and parts of the prophecy will be fulfilled ultimately
and consummately when our Lord Jesus comes again. If you'll
follow with me through this chapter, I'm certain that you will see
the passage clearly teaching things in just this manner. Now,
the thing taught in this chapter, if you want a summarization of
the whole chapter, the thing taught in this chapter is this.
God's kingdom is a spiritual kingdom made up by God's decree
of chosen sinners among the Jews and the Gentiles. That is chosen
sinners out of every kindred, nation, tribe, and tongue in
this world. Redeemed by the blood of Christ
and made new creatures by God's free and sovereign grace in Christ.
It was never God's intention. It was never God's purpose that
he would build a kingdom and establish a kingdom only with
the Jewish nation. It was never God's purpose that
the Lord Jesus Christ should come here and be a king over
in Palestine and that he would cause the Jews to flourish as
a kingdom and he would have no people gathered among the Gentiles.
Never. Our Lord Jesus came here to die
upon the cursed tree. He came here according to the
purpose of God and was delivered into the hands of wicked men
by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God and those
wicked men, by their own will, nailed the Son of God to the
curse tree. As a result of their sins, they fulfilled the purpose
of God, and God fulfilled his purpose, and the Lord Jesus ascended
up into heaven, brought judgment upon the Jewish nation, and the
gospel was spread in the Gentile world, so that you and I now
believe. You and I have been called by
God's free grace, exactly as God purposed from the beginning.
Now let's look at this chapter. And let me show you five things
contained in it. We'll just take an overview tonight,
and then the Lord willing, in the weeks to come, we will look
more clearly at it. Look first at verse one. Here
we're given a clear revelation of the freeness of God's saving
grace. The Lord God speaks and says,
I am thought of them that ask not for me. You and I by nature would never
seek. We would never call on his name.
We would never worship him. We would never seek out his life,
his truth, his grace, and his salvation. We would never seek
to honor him or magnify him. But he says, I am thought of
them that by nature ask not for them. He comes and by his grace
makes us willing in the day of his coming. He makes us willing
to speak Him. He makes us willing to call on
Him. He makes us willing to obey Him, willing to confess our sins,
to be saved by His grace, and to follow Him in obedience in
all things. I am found of them that sought
me not. Those who were not my people,
they're my people. Those who would not seek me,
I'm found of them. You and I who live without this,
can God save us? We who live continually in rebellion
to God Almighty and would not seek Him, now seek Him and have
found Him. Listen to what it says. I said,
behold me, behold me unto a nation that was not called by my name.
In the preaching of the gospel, the Lord God comes and calls
sinners by the gospel and says, behold me. Behold me, and he
will teach himself to show his urgency and his insanity, so
that as the gospel is preached to cities in this world, God
says, behold me! Behold me, that is, look unto
me, and be you saved all the ends of the earth. For I am God,
and beside me there is none else. Now you may think, well pastor,
how do you know that's exactly what this pastor is talking about?
Because that's what the Holy Spirit tells us he's talking
about. Hold your hands here, and turn to Romans chapter 9,
I'll show you. Romans chapter 9. Let us go to Romans 10 first.
Romans chapter 10. The Apostle Paul is telling us
that whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be
saved. That is, whosoever among the Jews or the Gentiles, whosoever
throughout all the world, not just the Jews, but whosoever
in any nation, kin, tribe, or tongue shall call upon the name
of the Lord out of any condition or circumstance, he shall be
saved. And this is what Isaiah prophesied.
Look at Romans 10 verse 20. Isaiah is very bold and says,
I was found of them that sought me not. I was made manifest unto
them that asked not after me. But to Israel he saith, all the
day long have I stretched forth my hands unto a disobedient and
gamesaying people. Look in chapter 9, Romans 9 verse
24. After he described the casting
away of the Jews, and he described God being the potter and us the
clay, vessels of wrath and vessels of mercy, he says in verse 25
of it, as he saith also in Hosea, I will call them my people, which
were not my people, and her beloved, which was not beloved. And it
shall come to pass in that place where it was said unto them,
you're not my people, there shall they be called the children of
the living God. The Lord God sent the gospel
to you who were far off, and now has called us to Jesus Christ
the Lord. The Lord God has called us in
the gospel so that he says, we are his ambassadors, for God,
as though God did bespeak to you by us, we pray you in Christ's
name, be you reconciled to God. That's what the preaching of
the gospel is. I stand here and preach to you, but if God Almighty
is pleased to speak by this man, Lord, God's pleased to speak
by his hands. As the gospel is preached to
you, God himself calls sinners to repentance and thanksgiving. God himself does. That's what
makes gospel preaching so important. That's what makes this thing
of preaching the gospel something that ought to be referenced.
I know folks over the years, they wonder, well, why do you
insist on folks not moving around, or not having babies, crying
in the service system, And then it's some kind of auger. That's
not the case at all. This is too much. This is too
important to play games with. This is too important to play
games with. I'm here speaking for God. And it may just be that
God will speak to you. It may just be that God will
speak to you. Oh, what an amazing thing. But what an awesome thing. For as God speaks, you better
ask Him what God says. Second, look in verses 2 through
7. Here we learn the cause of divine reprobation. The Lord
God says, I have spread out my hands all the day unto a rebellious
people, which walketh in a way that was not good, a religious
way. He doesn't say to an irreligious
people. That wasn't the case. The Jews
were a very religious people, even in their most apostate days,
as they are today. Very religious people. But they
walk in a way that's not good. They walk after their own thoughts.
Now, James Lee, that's a pretty good description of the whole
religious world around us. What's the basis of religious
authority in our day? The thoughts of men. That's all. That's all. What's the basis
of what men do? Well, I think. I've got this
idea. Let's do it. What's the basis? Well, this
looks like a good practice to me. They walk after their own
thoughts. The whole religious world. It
doesn't matter what denomination or tag you put on it. The whole
religious world has gone after its own thoughts and they walk
after a way that is not good. A people that provoketh me to
anger continually to my face. Now look how they provoke him
to anger. not by drunkenness, not by devilry,
not by fornication, not by the various things that we look at
and say, that's horrible, and those things are horrible. But
look how these folks provoked him to anger. To his very face,
they sacrifice in gardens, they burn incense upon altars of brick,
which remain among the graves and lodge in the monuments. Now
that's not talking about going out and decorating the cemeteries
on Memorial Day. That's not what we're talking
about at all. That's talking about folks who imagined that
demons were in the cemeteries. That's talking about folks who
practice witchcraft. They remain among the graves,
and they lodge in the monuments, among the tombstones, and eat
wine splash and broth of abominable things in their vessels. stand
by thyself, come not near to me, for I am holier than thou.
These are smoke in my nose, a fire that burneth all the day long,
a speaking fire. Behold, it is written, before
me I will not keep silence, but will recompense even, recompense
under their bosom, Your iniquities and the iniquities of your fathers
together, saith the Lord, which have burned incense upon the
mountains and blasphemed me upon the hills. Therefore will I measure
their former work under their blessing." Now listen carefully
to me. Listen carefully to me. Not much
point in preaching if you don't apply this to folks listening
to this. Not much point in preaching if
it doesn't have something to say to you right now. I recognize
God's total and absolute sovereignty in all things. I rejoice in it,
and I preach it constantly without apology. I know that all things
in time were predestinated by God from eternity. But you listen
to this preacher. Listen to this book. Throughout
the scriptures, we are given clear instruction about this
matter of divine reprobation and divine judgment. Reformation
and judgment are not arbitrary acts. They are not arbitrary
acts. God rejects men because they
reject Him. Now you mark it down. You mark
it down. Read this book one more time.
God rejects men because they reject Say, well wasn't this
ordained from eternity? I understand God, His purpose,
everything from eternity. But the basis of judgment is
man's rejection of God's counsel. That's the basis of judgment.
All the way through the scriptures. All the way through the scriptures.
So that when a man stands before God, and maybe some of you will, in the day of judgment and looks
for an excuse for his sin, You will find no hollow place in
God's sovereign decree. It won't happen. It won't happen.
Folks say, well, I mean, say to me, well, I did this because
it's predestined. No, this came back because it's
predestined. All right, I'm predestined to be saved. I'll be saved. I'm
predestined to go to hell. I'll go to hell. That's utter nonsense.
That's careless, careless, foolish jesting with God Almighty. I'm
telling you that if you reject the counsel of God against yourself,
you'll answer for it in judgment. You're responsible to God. I
am responsible to God to hear and obey the gospel of his free
grace. And any lack of obedience, any
lack of faith in the gospel, courts divine retribution. You
who hear the gospel are responsible to believe it and obey it. If
you refuse to do so, you will answer to God. I want
to say it right here. All the day long, I stretched
out my hands, stretched out my hands. Half in a picture. Is this stretching at all? It
is as though God Almighty, through His Word, stretches out His hands
out of compassion to Father, to a rebelling child. He says,
Lord, cease from your ways. All day long! Speech from evil now, look to
me! Look to me, and you say, I said
it ain't worth my attention. Hey, don't bother me. Don't bother
me. This is what he says. This is
what he says. This is not my language. This
is not my, my doctrine. This is what God says. He stretches out his hands in
the gospel and says, turn you in my recruitment. Behold, I
will pour out my spirit into you. You turn and I will pour
out my spirit into you. In fact, if you turn to me, it's
because I can pour out my spirit into you. I will make known my
words to you. Because I've called and you've
refused. I stretched out my hand and no
man regarded it. But ye have said, If not all
my counseling would none of my reproof, I also will laugh at
your calamity. I will laugh when your fear cometh.
When your fear cometh as a desolation, and your destruction cometh as
a whirlwind, when distress and anguish cometh upon you, then
shall they call upon me. But I will find it. They shall
seek me early, but shall not find me. For that they hated
knowledge, and did not choose the fear of the Lord. They were
none of my counsel. They despised all my recruits.
Therefore, therefore, when they go to heaven, they shall eat
of the fruit of their own flesh. Now I'm telling you, no, what I say
in the world doesn't matter to a human being. God's telling
you. God's telling you. who suffers the wrath of God
in hell, eats the fruit of his own ways, and is filled with
his own devices. You look at this passage we read
here in Isaiah again, and you'll understand exactly what these
Jews did, by which God was provoked to anger. These four things still
provoke him to anger. Those who today do these things
are people who court the wrath of God and the judgment of God
against themselves. First, in verse 2, he says, they
despise my grace. And then in verse 3, he says,
they practice idolatry for pretending to worship me. They did practice idolatry, but
they pretended to worship me. You see it in verse 3? He says,
they provoke me to anger to my face. They sacrifice in gardens. I told them sacrifice at my temple.
I told them sacrifice on my altar and nowhere else, but they take
it upon themselves to sacrifice where they choose. They sacrifice
in gardens. They burn incense upon altars
of bricks. Not upon altars that I described,
not upon altars that I required, not made by human hands, but
altars that I've established by my hand. The altar of his,
upon which he accepts sacrifice It's Christ Jesus the Lord and
nothing else. Nothing else. These people were engaged in
this thing of witchcraft. Now, I probably am going to have
a good bit more to say about this in the next few weeks. Because
this chapter has a good bit to say about witchcraft as it's
practiced in our day. You folks listen to me. You ladies
and gentlemen who don't let you ladies know that you do. Forget the stupidity of reading
and following the horror stories. It's not a joke. It's witchcraft. Forget the nonsense of making
engravings. The paper today, I haven't read
the article in several weeks, and yet it's about tattooing,
taking on the endangerment. It's nothing but witchcraft.
It's just a remnant of witchcraft, and God forbade the carving of
your flesh. God forbade it. It's not a joke.
It's witchcraft. Don't play with rich witchcraft. Don't make games of it. Don't
make a joke of it. Don't make light of it. This
is serious business. They can start with star surveys
and look to the moon and the stars. I know I'm living
in farming country, but you better forget describing the harvest
that you get from the moon. Or the harvest you get to the
sign of the moon. The harvest you get comes from God Almighty,
not by the sign of the moon. Not by the sign of the moon.
That's exactly right. As a matter of fact, he mentions this very
thing down here in... Well, we'll get to it in a little
bit. They're talking about preparing the table for its truth and so
on. That's exactly what he's talking about. And these people
were horribly self-conscious. Stand by yourself. Don't you come near me. Don't
you defile me. I'm not like you are. Now I recognize
I'm not perfect by any means. I'm not, I'm not, I'm not suggesting
that I'm without sin or without fault. But I'm sure I'm like
that though. Oh yes you are. You're so diligent.
Oh yes you are. We came out of St. Voltafolk
and that's a compliment. We came out of the sewer called
fallen humanity. And all of us have the same nature,
all of us. So a preacher, we don't like
to be talked to that way. I know people don't. You'd like
it if you ever come to recognize that Jesus Christ has come to
seek you, to save you, really, lost you. Help us, help him. Thank Christ for that. And he
won't save anybody else. He won't save anybody else. Until
you take your place with the rest of all of humanity, In the
cure of humanity, you will never seek His mercy and grace. They
perished under the wrath of God because they would not confess
their sins. They would not be saved by grace
alone through the merits of Christ the sinner substitutes. They
sought to establish righteousness for themselves. And that's the
problem with every human being who refuses to believe on Christ.
Some of you are sitting here right now, I don't have any questions
at all. The thing that keeps you from trusting Christ, the
thing that keeps you from believing Christ is you still retain somewhere
in yourself the idea that you can make yourself acceptable
to God. That's the only thing that keeps
you from accepting Him. The only thing that keeps you from trusting
Him, the only thing that keeps you from seeking salvation by
a substitute is you have the foolish notion that somehow you
actually can. Thirdly, in verses 8 through
10, the Holy Spirit shows us a clear word of instruction as
to the cause of God's long suffering. Thus saith the Lord, as the new
wine is found in the cluster, and one saith, Destroy it not,
for the blessing is in it. So will I do for my servant's
sake, that I will not destroy them all. 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, and Sharon shall be a fold of flocks in the valley of Acre,
a place for the herds to lie down in, for my people that have
sought me." The only reason God did not destroy
and totally annihilate the Jewish people when he destroyed their
nation in 78 days. There's only one reason. Only
one reason. That is because he had an elect
people among them who must be saved. That's what he says right
there. He says, I will destroy the whole
nation because there's a blessed nation. There is an elect within
the nation. And so I will not destroy that
nation for my elect sake, whom I will save by my death. And
so it is with the whole world. The only reason God doesn't destroy
this world right now, and the only reason He has not destroyed
it long ago, is that He has in the fallen sons of Adam and elects
people whom He must and will save by His free grace. And that's
exactly what 2 Peter 3 and verse 9 teaches. Look at it one more
time. 2 Peter 3 and verse 9. When folks start quoting scripture
in defiance of scripture, they always quote little bits of scripture. They never quote the whole thing,
never quote it in context. That's because they're dishonest,
they're liars, they're deceivers. And that's not being hard, that's
just being pleasant, that's just pleasant. Folks who mishandle
the word of God deliberately are liars and deceivers. They're
not just mixed up, they're liars and deceivers. If you want to
handle something honestly, you handle it as it's written. And
you certainly do that with the Word of God. Here in 2 Peter
3 and verse 9, the Lord God speaks to us by the Apostle Peter, and
says, The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count
slackness, but is longsuffering to usward. That is longsuffering
to his people, his chosen, his elect, not willing that any should
perish, any who. Now, if he's just reading that,
and didn't have any idiot standing by telling you who they were,
who would you think he's talking about? Any of us, wouldn't you? He's not willing that any of
those to whom he has long suffered should perish, but that all should
come to repentance. That every one of us, every one
of his chosen, every one of those to whom and for whom he has long
suffered should come to repentance. Now this is exactly what God
does. He holds back his wrath. against the resurrection. And
he does not destroy this world because he has an elect Trinity,
of whom he said before the world began, I will be their God and
they shall be my people. And when he has saved the last
of his elect, then he will pour out his wrath upon this world.
That's the reason Peter says in 2 Peter 3 verse 15, that the
long suffering of God is And our Lord here speaks of his long-suffering,
even with this nation that took his son and said, crucify him,
crucify him, and delivered him to the Romans, and threw apart
him while they watched the Son of God die upon the cursed tree. The Lord draws all suffering
and allows him to go on because he has no less things to do with
his son. All right, look at the next thing.
Verses 11 through 16. The Spirit of God gives us a
stark contrast between God's curse and His blessing upon men
in this world. God's wrath and judgment is always
spoken of in Scripture as a matter of righteousness and just retribution. And you can mark it down. You
can mark it down. It always is. But ye are they that forsake
the Lord, that forget my holy mountains, that prepare a table
for that truth, that furnish the drink offering under that
number. That is, at the end of the year,
they prepare a table for the gods of the sun, all the gods
of And they prepare a drink offering for that number, that is, for
the gods of the moon. And they ascribe everything to
the gods, the meaning of the gods, the truth of gods, that
men worship in this world. Therefore will I number you to
the soul. Do you see the therefore? It
points right back to verse 7. Because you forsake me, you forget
my word, you forget my worship, you forget my holy mountain,
and do things your way. Therefore will I number you to
the story, and you shall bow down to the Father, because,"
here's the reason, when I call, you get past. When I spoke, you
refused to hear, but did evil before my eyes, and did choose
that wherein I delighted not. Now though it often appears otherwise,
God's people are, even in this world, blessed. And the wicked are, even in this
world. I know sometimes it looks otherwise.
Sometimes we're like David, we're envious of the prosperity of
the wicked. And we see things other way we can see them with
eyes afflexed. And we start to judge God's providence
by what we see. But don't ever do that. Don't
ever do that. God's people, even in this world,
are blessed to God. And the wicked, even in this
world, are cursed to God. And the blessings that they appear
to have are like grain being fed to a stalled ox. So Psalm
92 says, You look at the way people say, boy, everything's
going so well for him. Everything he invests in turns
to gold. Everything he does seems prosperous. He can't make any
mistakes. His family's happy. Everything's
going well. He's strong and healthy. Nothing ever goes wrong with
him. If you were starving to death,
and there's an ox standing over there at a crib, in the fall
of the year, and the farmer kept going out there throwing grain
to that ox, You understand why he's doing that, don't you? He's
throwing that grain in there because he's fattening that ox
up to kill him. To kill him! He wouldn't be envious
of the grave, even if he were prepared to eat the raw grain
by itself. Everything. God's just tackling
him for the slaughter. Let's read the book and see.
Here in verse 13. Therefore, thus saith the Lord
God, Behold, my servants shall eat, but you shall be hungry. I've been young and now I am
old, David said, and I'm not a righteous forsaken, nor is
he begging bread. God provides for me. But I think
there's a greater, more important application here. God feeds his
servants with his word, with his grace. and the wicked star
in heaven and earth. Behold, my servant shall drink,
drink of the water of life, and you shall be thirsty. Behold,
my servant shall rejoice, walk in this world rejoicing in God
our Savior, but you shall be ashamed, confused, confounded. Behold, my servant shall sing
for joy upon In the midst of heartache and trial and trouble,
they shall sing for joy of heart, but you shall cry for sorrow
of heart, and howl for vexation of spirit. And you shall leave
your name for a curse unto men. For the Lord God shall save thee,
shall slay thee, and call his service by another name. when we bless ourselves. We bless
ourselves by believing God. Recognizing that every blessing
must be traced to the throne of grace from which all the blessings
of grace and salvation flow to us. He says that he who blessed
himself in the earth shall bless himself in the Don't be surprised if I preach
a couple of times on that. How on earth does a man bless
himself? He's sure not talking about doing this mumbo-jumbo.
He's not talking about some kind of a mystical sign. No, no. What's the matter? He that blessed
himself, the greatest blessed with which he ever blessed himself. That's exactly what he said.
He blesses himself not in what he possesses. He blesses himself
not in the riches of the land. He blesses himself not in the
things that men seek after. He blesses himself in the God-truth. Read on. He that sweareth in
the earth, whenever swearing is necessary, he swears by the
God-truth. And he doesn't say it like a
blasphemer, he says it with reverence. God is my witness. The former
troubles are forgotten, and because they are his. Oh, what a blessing. All our former sins, all our
former troubles between us and God are gone, forgotten, and
it is for his blessing. In this last paragraph, verses
17 through 25, the Lord God promises and describes the new creation.
This new creation, let me help you with this, give me attention
for just a minute. This new creation began when the Lord Jesus came
into this world. When he accomplished redemption
and ascended into heaven, he poured out his spirit upon all
flesh. He poured out his spirit upon
his church so that we now live in what's described as the gospel
age or the gospel dispensation in the era of the spirit of our
God, worshiping God and walking in the spirit. This new creation
begins experimentally when a sinner is converted by God's pregnancy.
There came a time, buddy, when he made us new preachers in Christ
Jesus. New preachers. And this new creation will be
consummated when our Lord Jesus comes again. and says, behold,
I make all things new. And so the new creation is something
that is continual but shall be constant at the second coming
of Christ. So don't ever try to interpret
this passage as being something that refers to some imaginary
millennial age in which folks are going to have a second chance
and there's kind of going to be righteousness and not righteousness.
There's kind of going to be eunice and not eunice. But this is called
Messiah spiritual, altogether spiritual. And the instruction
here is altogether spiritual. He tells us here four things
about the kingdom of our God, about the church of our Lord
Jesus Christ. First, it is a kingdom of joy because it is established
upon the forgiveness of all sins. Look at verse 17. For behold,
I create a new heaven and a new earth. and the former shall not
be remembered, nor come to mind, but be ye glad and rejoiced forever
in that which I create. For behold, I create Jerusalem,
not the city, literally, my soul does." He's talking about the
new Jerusalem, the church which is above, the mother of us all,
the church and kingdom of God. I create Jerusalem, a rejoicing
and a people of joy. And I will rejoice in Jerusalem,
and joy in my people. And the voice of weeping shall
no more be heard in her, nor the voice of crying." I know
there's coming a time when that shall be constantly fulfilled. And there'll be no more weeping.
But it's begun now. It's begun now. Those who mourn
over their sins, are blessed now in the forgiveness of sin. One of these days I'm going to
exhaust it perfectly, but when I stand before you, perfectly,
I'll exhaust it the same time. This kingdom is a kingdom of
blessedness because it is a kingdom under the watchful eye and tender
care of God himself. Read what he says in the next
verse. Look at verse 20. There shall be no more since
an infant of days, nor an old man that hath not filled his
days. For the child shall die a hundred
years old, but the sinner, being a hundred years old, shall be
accursed. And I worked on that, worked on that, and I'm sure
it means more than what I've gotten from it. I get these things
from him. He's saying that in the church
and kingdom of God, abortion, the cutting off of the infants,
that just doesn't happen. That just doesn't happen. He's
saying that in the church and kingdom of God, there is the
blessing of the longevity of life. So that believers live
and they are blessed with long life, even in this world. And
he is telling us that though a man is blessed with long life,
if he's yet an unbeliever and a sinner, his long life is not
a blessing, but a curse. And they shall build houses and
inhabit them. And they shall plant vineyards
and eat the fruit of them. And they shall not build and
another inhabit. They shall not plant and another
eat. For as the days of a tree are
the days of my people, and mine and shall long enjoy the work
of their hands. They shall not labor in vain,
nor bring forth for trouble. For they are the seed of the
blessed of the Lord, and their offering shall be with them.
And it shall come to pass, and their offering with them rather,
and it shall come to pass that before they call, I will answer. While they're yet speaking, What
does that mean? As I said earlier, it certainly
has reference as a general rule to the longevity of life. It certainly has reference as
a general rule to an abundance of provision, so that God's people
are abundantly provided for. Is there anyone here who takes
a section of that? And God's people are blessed
in their households. Here in verse 23, it says, they
shall not labor in vain or bring forth for trouble for they are
the seed of the blessed of the Lord, the seed of Jesus Christ
himself. and their offspring with them. Let me tell you young people
one more time something. You have no idea. You have no idea. I can't stress it. You have no
idea. Ian Bartley, you have no idea
how blessed of God you are to have that man and that woman blessed privilege of being raised
in a home where God is known and privileged. And what an awesome
position to be in. And then the kingdom of God,
the kingdom of peace, because regenerating grace makes violent
rebels to be children of peace. We read here in verse 25, And the wolf and the lamb shall
feed together, and the lion shall eat straw like the bullock. Saul the Tarsus, the persecuting
lion, the lambs. The wolf and the lamb, the persecuting,
hating, devouring wolf, converted by God's free grace. by nature more akin to any beast
than he can be. He is man, by nature, more like
any ravening wild beast than to a lion. And here he is, feeding
in the green pastures of God's Word, with God's nails, and feeding. Oh, what a change. Grace. has made. That serpent who's
caused so much havoc, that serpent who has wreaked so much havoc
in my life and in God's kingdom, that serpent, the God of Peace, of course,
is Satan. And this kingdom, this kingdom
of our God, the church of our God, is a kingdom of message,
safety, and security. because it's the kingdom of God
Almighty. Look what it says, the last sentence. They shall
not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountains, said the Lord,
and so it shall be.