WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:06.960 well-deserved rest. And we get to hear God's word proclaimed by other godly men. Please be seated. 00:00:07.400 --> 00:00:13.480 Sorry. We're pleased to have one of those men with us this morning. Steve Kamer is an elder 00:00:13.480 --> 00:00:19.519 at Grace and Peace here in Colorado Springs. He's a Colorado native raised right here. 00:00:20.240 --> 00:00:25.120 He and his wife Kendra have three boys, Owen, Tao, and Kai. I think I got that right. 00:00:25.120 --> 00:00:33.600 He loves spending time with his family outdoors. And one of his two favorite quotes is, 00:00:34.120 --> 00:00:42.079 and I may get this right, nachos. It's amazing what you can discover about folks online. So, Steve. 00:00:42.079 --> 00:00:57.719 I don't know where he found that online, but I guess he did. When you didn't send that in and 00:00:57.719 --> 00:01:03.019 someone says one of his favorite quotes, you pay attention. It is good to be with you this morning. 00:01:03.099 --> 00:01:07.959 I'm going to open with our passage. Do you normally stand for the passage when we read it? Okay. 00:01:07.959 --> 00:01:16.439 I'm going to be reading from Isaiah 65 is our passage this morning. And I'll be reading verses 00:01:16.439 --> 00:01:26.839 one through four and then 17 until the end. This is God's word. I was ready to be sought by those 00:01:26.839 --> 00:01:34.599 who do not ask for me. I was ready to be found by those who did not seek me. I said, here I am, 00:01:34.599 --> 00:01:42.859 here I am to a nation that was not called by my name. I spread out my hands all the day to a rebellious 00:01:42.859 --> 00:01:51.799 people who walk in a way that is not good, following their own devices, a people who provoke me to my face 00:01:51.799 --> 00:01:58.959 continually, sacrificing in gardens and making offerings on bricks, who sit in tombs and spend the 00:01:58.959 --> 00:02:07.819 night in secret places, who eat pigs' flesh and broth of tainted meat is in their vessels. For behold, 00:02:07.939 --> 00:02:14.939 I create a new heavens and a new earth, and the former things shall not be remembered or come to mind, 00:02:15.120 --> 00:02:24.900 but be glad and rejoice forever in that which I create. For behold, I create Jerusalem to be a joy 00:02:24.900 --> 00:02:33.700 and her people to be a gladness. I will rejoice in Jerusalem and be glad in my people. No more shall 00:02:33.700 --> 00:02:41.560 be heard in it the sound of weeping and the cry of distress. No more shall there be in it an infant who 00:02:41.560 --> 00:02:48.460 lives but a few days, or an old man who does not fill out his days. For the young man shall die a hundred 00:02:48.460 --> 00:02:55.240 years old, and the sinner a hundred years old shall be accursed. They shall build houses and inhabit them. 00:02:55.640 --> 00:03:01.280 They shall plant vineyards and eat their fruit. They shall not build and another inhabit. They shall not 00:03:01.280 --> 00:03:08.480 plant and another eat. For like the days of a tree shall the days of my people be, and my chosen shall 00:03:08.480 --> 00:03:17.260 long enjoy the work of their hands. They shall not labor in vain or bear children for calamity. For they 00:03:17.259 --> 00:03:23.439 shall be the offspring of the blessed of the Lord and their descendants with them. Before they call, 00:03:23.599 --> 00:03:29.959 I will answer. While they are yet speaking, I will hear. The wolf and the lamb shall graze together. The 00:03:29.959 --> 00:03:39.319 lion eat straw like the ox, and the dust shall be the serpent's food. They shall not hurt or destroy 00:03:39.319 --> 00:03:47.719 in all my holy mountain, says the Lord. Let us pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you so much for 00:03:47.719 --> 00:03:55.560 your word this morning. I thank you for this glorious vision of the kingdom of God, what you have in store 00:03:55.560 --> 00:04:04.719 for us. And as we read it, as we dive in and meditate on your word, I pray that you would be seen as our 00:04:04.719 --> 00:04:11.340 beautiful Savior this morning. That you would be seen as a beautiful Christ, and that you would be 00:04:11.340 --> 00:04:16.399 glorified, and that each of our hearts would be moved to love you and know you more. And we pray this 00:04:16.399 --> 00:04:24.339 in your name. Amen. Well, it is good to be with you this morning. It is a joy. Like Jim said, my name 00:04:24.339 --> 00:04:31.779 is Steve Kamer. I serve as an elder over at Grace and Peace Church, just actually really not too far 00:04:31.779 --> 00:04:38.139 from here, just a little bit north in downtown Colorado Springs. And I also serve as in ministry 00:04:38.139 --> 00:04:46.019 as a director with Third Mill or Third Millennium Ministries, where we provide biblical seminary 00:04:46.019 --> 00:04:53.759 education to pastors, church planters, and leaders all over the world with seminary education. And with 00:04:53.759 --> 00:05:00.000 that, I'm in the seminary loop as well, under care of the presbytery. So I do thank Matthew for the 00:05:00.000 --> 00:05:06.860 opportunity to share the word with you this morning. And honestly, I can't imagine a place I'd rather be 00:05:06.860 --> 00:05:14.000 than a church that opens with worship with a Christmas song on September 3rd. And that, I mean, 00:05:14.060 --> 00:05:19.719 that's not even a joke. I love that song. It's probably my favorite Christmas song. And you've even 00:05:19.720 --> 00:05:25.780 saying all the extra verses that you never hear on the radio, that there is joy to the world because 00:05:25.780 --> 00:05:35.800 of our King. And as we look at Isaiah chapter 65 this morning, I love this chapter because it's as if 00:05:35.800 --> 00:05:45.140 the whole book has been building to this point to bring home one last glorious vision of the kingdom 00:05:45.139 --> 00:05:54.899 of God. In this chapter, God gives us a vision of himself and his kingdom to motivate us to live for 00:05:54.899 --> 00:06:03.719 him and have him at the center of our lives. I'm a big fan of music. Ever since I was a little kid, 00:06:04.319 --> 00:06:10.620 I've loved music. I grew up here in town. And when I was little, my parents gave me a little 00:06:10.620 --> 00:06:15.899 little transistor radio. It had just one speaker and I would sit in my basement and listen to it 00:06:15.899 --> 00:06:23.220 hour after hour after hour because I always had a favorite song. And much like today, if you listen 00:06:23.220 --> 00:06:28.000 to the radio, whatever the most popular songs are, they play them over and over and over again, right? 00:06:28.040 --> 00:06:33.220 Every hour, almost on the hour. And so I would listen to my favorite song. And I remember one of my very 00:06:33.220 --> 00:06:39.819 first favorite songs was I Love Rock and Roll by Joan Jett and the Blackhearts. And I still, 00:06:39.819 --> 00:06:46.579 I still crank that up every time it comes on, but I always had a favorite song. And what I noticed 00:06:46.579 --> 00:06:53.159 about my favorite songs is there was something true about every single one of them. In almost every 00:06:53.159 --> 00:06:57.959 single one of my favorite songs, there was a portion probably towards the last fourth of the song 00:06:57.959 --> 00:07:03.579 where they would repeat the chorus one more time. It's almost as if it'd been building up to this. 00:07:03.579 --> 00:07:09.859 And when they repeat that chorus, all of the music, the instrumentation would fade away. 00:07:10.339 --> 00:07:17.759 Maybe you'd have the drums and just the voices. And it's kind of that final punch of a song that has 00:07:17.759 --> 00:07:22.519 that. And I remember I did a bunch of research. I even went and talked to some composers to figure out 00:07:22.519 --> 00:07:27.120 what is this device called in a song when a song does this. And they told me it's called 00:07:27.120 --> 00:07:34.240 the breakdown. It's the breakdown. It's the climax of the song as if it's building up to hit that chorus 00:07:34.240 --> 00:07:45.840 one more time. Well, in the book of Isaiah, chapter 65 is the breakdown. All else falls away. And Isaiah 00:07:45.840 --> 00:07:55.680 paints this picture of the kingdom of God one more glorious time. This isn't the first time Isaiah has 00:07:55.680 --> 00:08:02.780 referenced or talked about like the full restoration that will be coming when the kingdom of God comes. 00:08:03.000 --> 00:08:06.560 He talked about it several times in his book. The whole Old Testament 00:08:06.560 --> 00:08:13.560 points to places of prophecy when the kingdom of God would eventually come. 00:08:14.120 --> 00:08:19.560 It's peppered throughout all of the Old Testament, even into the New Testament. The whole Bible 00:08:19.560 --> 00:08:26.740 is pointing to the ultimate end of the future when God's kingdom comes. The new heavens and the new 00:08:26.740 --> 00:08:33.120 earth when everything is restored and made right. You even see it in the prayer we prayed this morning. 00:08:33.460 --> 00:08:41.940 The Lord's Prayer, right? That this was what Jesus used to teach his people how to pray. And you see the 00:08:41.940 --> 00:08:48.419 kingdom element throughout this prayer as well because you start with our Father. And you get this idea that 00:08:48.419 --> 00:08:53.959 God is our Father. This would have blown away the disciples when Jesus taught it to them. They weren't 00:08:53.959 --> 00:09:02.419 used to being able to address God as a Father, a loving Father. Even the sense of Daddy, Abba, is in that. 00:09:02.479 --> 00:09:10.779 And then you have who art in heaven, which showed him as King, enthroned in the heavens, our glorious, 00:09:11.000 --> 00:09:17.419 good, and loving King. So you have King and Father. And then what's the very first petition 00:09:17.419 --> 00:09:20.979 in the Lord's Prayer that we prayed this morning? It's, 00:09:21.339 --> 00:09:26.899 Hallowed be thy name. I don't know if you've ever paid much attention to what that word means, 00:09:27.019 --> 00:09:30.759 Hallowed be thy name. We don't use that word really ever in English. 00:09:31.500 --> 00:09:37.219 Often you hear it said like, Holy be thy name. But if it was just holy, the translators could have put just 00:09:37.219 --> 00:09:43.179 holy instead of Hallowed. Because Hallowed doesn't make a lot of sense. There's not a great English equivalent 00:09:43.179 --> 00:09:51.919 to it, but it means so much more than just holy. It certainly encompasses holy. But Hallowed, 00:09:52.639 --> 00:09:59.019 we want God's name to be Hallowed. And in fact, we're praying for it. It's to treat something as 00:09:59.019 --> 00:10:07.120 absolutely sacred and ultimate. To make something your ultimate concern. To make it the most important 00:10:07.120 --> 00:10:12.820 thing in your life. To make it the most crucial thing. The ultimate thing in your life. The supreme 00:10:12.820 --> 00:10:19.720 beauty. And the supreme aim of your life. So when we pray, Hallowed be thy name, we are praying that 00:10:19.720 --> 00:10:26.500 God's name, God, would be the most beautiful, central thing in all of our lives. I pray that it's one of 00:10:26.500 --> 00:10:31.759 the prayers I pray the most. I pray this for my family and my kids and my wife every day. And those 00:10:31.759 --> 00:10:37.559 I pray for, I always throw this in, that God's name would be Hallowed in their lives. That God's 00:10:37.559 --> 00:10:45.460 name would be Hallowed in my life. That I would have God at the center. The most ultimate, central 00:10:45.460 --> 00:10:58.080 thing. The thing that's most beautiful. And he did this because he needed it. We need it. And as it went 00:10:58.080 --> 00:11:04.940 on, what's the next petition? Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven, which is a 00:11:04.940 --> 00:11:13.020 description of God's kingdom. When his kingdom comes, God's will will be done perfectly on the new earth 00:11:13.020 --> 00:11:23.700 and new heavens, just as it's done in heaven. And why did Isaiah paint this glorious picture of the kingdom 00:11:23.700 --> 00:11:32.360 of God? Why do we have it in the word of God to us today? And it's because we need it. We needed it. 00:11:32.560 --> 00:11:39.180 We need it. And Israel needed it. A little bit of a history of Israel. You guys are studying the book 00:11:39.180 --> 00:11:45.900 of Judges, right? And last week you discussed, Matthew said it's the last decent judge. From here, it really 00:11:45.900 --> 00:11:53.160 does go downhill. And I know he talked about that. Othniel is the judge. And what you see over and over 00:11:53.159 --> 00:11:58.980 again, it's kind of a rough book. I love the book of Judges, but it's kind of downhill from here. And you 00:11:58.980 --> 00:12:02.899 guys will get to experience that. I'll probably listen to them online because I really love the book 00:12:02.899 --> 00:12:11.779 of Judges. But each judge gets worse and worse. And the people of Israel continue to turn their back 00:12:11.779 --> 00:12:19.559 on God. They continue to marginalize God. They continue to move away and forsake him and worship 00:12:19.559 --> 00:12:25.079 other gods. It happens all throughout the book of Judges. And you see that theme verse in the end of 00:12:25.079 --> 00:12:31.919 it where the author says, there is no king in Israel and all the people did what was right in their own 00:12:31.919 --> 00:12:37.500 eyes. This theme doesn't exactly end in the book of Judges, unfortunately. And it goes through much of 00:12:37.500 --> 00:12:44.579 the history of Israel. We see the time of kings with Israel. And they do have some times that are 00:12:44.580 --> 00:12:50.040 beautiful under King David and King Solomon. But they end up in a similar place to where they are 00:12:50.040 --> 00:12:56.820 in Judges, forsaking God, forgetting God, and worshiping other gods. And Isaiah is prophesying 00:12:56.820 --> 00:13:03.860 in chapter 65 about the Babylonian exile, where the Babylonians had come into the southern tribe of 00:13:03.860 --> 00:13:12.640 Judah and carried them off into exile. And they're in exile suffering. And Isaiah is prophesying to them 00:13:12.639 --> 00:13:19.779 because he wrote this glorious vision of the kingdom so that they would remember God, so that 00:13:19.779 --> 00:13:25.259 they would walk with God, so that they would serve God, so that they would see God as the most central, 00:13:25.879 --> 00:13:32.279 beautiful thing in their lives. They needed to hear it. And we need the exact same thing, right? 00:13:33.220 --> 00:13:40.700 I think it's hard for us to use a word like forsaking God. You can easily see it in the Old Testament 00:13:40.700 --> 00:13:50.720 that the people of Israel did that. But we do it too. It's really easy for us to forsake God as well, 00:13:50.840 --> 00:13:57.920 to turn to other things. We might not like bow down physically and worship other gods like the people 00:13:57.920 --> 00:14:05.420 of Israel did. But we can find ourselves marginalizing God, pushing him out to the suburbs, 00:14:05.419 --> 00:14:11.399 and worshiping something else that we think we need. Often it doesn't just look like a ditching of 00:14:11.399 --> 00:14:17.039 our faith and just fully worshiping Buddha or something, but it's often Jesus. We have Jesus. 00:14:17.139 --> 00:14:25.099 We know we have Jesus. And what else we think we really need to be happy, to have fulfillment in life, 00:14:25.379 --> 00:14:32.679 to have things seem like they're okay. It's Jesus plus something, and then we'll have what we think 00:14:32.679 --> 00:14:39.079 we need. And I don't know what that something for you is this morning, but even as we did our corporate 00:14:39.079 --> 00:14:44.739 confession of sin, what are some of those things that come into your mind? What is it for you that you 00:14:44.739 --> 00:14:51.899 might tend to put up there, that if it's Jesus plus this, maybe it's Jesus and then my job. If I have a good 00:14:51.899 --> 00:14:57.779 enough job, things will be okay. If I make enough money, things will be okay. Or Jesus and the people 00:14:57.779 --> 00:15:05.559 around me see that I'm valuable and like me. Or maybe it's Jesus and I'm physically fit and can 00:15:05.559 --> 00:15:12.799 climb all these mountains behind us, and people will notice that. Or maybe it's Jesus and I'm in 00:15:12.799 --> 00:15:24.279 control, and people do what I think they should do. Or Jesus plus I get my way, and people do the 00:15:24.279 --> 00:15:29.480 things I want them to do. Or my Jesus plus my kids turn out well. Or Jesus plus I have the perfect 00:15:29.480 --> 00:15:36.000 spouse. I mean, I could go on and on and on. What is it for you this morning? I know I do this. I'm not 00:15:36.000 --> 00:15:42.879 free from this at all, but I think often it's for me, it's Jesus plus being comfortable. I struggle with 00:15:42.879 --> 00:15:48.240 the idol of comfort because whatever that other thing is does become your God. And when you don't have it, 00:15:48.620 --> 00:15:52.259 it can be very destructive. And that's how you can see what those things are when they're taken away 00:15:52.259 --> 00:16:00.100 from you. How does your heart respond? When I lose my comfort, my heart can respond pretty poorly. 00:16:01.299 --> 00:16:06.720 There's four drivers in our family. The two oldest kids drive, and we have like six cars right now 00:16:06.720 --> 00:16:11.340 because two of them keep braking before we can get rid of them. And every time I get a call from one of 00:16:11.340 --> 00:16:17.019 my children, the car broke and you need to come pick me up. My wife can attest to this. I tank a little 00:16:17.019 --> 00:16:22.279 bit. And I'm just like, ah, like we can't go on like this, blah, blah, blah. It's because my comfort 00:16:22.279 --> 00:16:31.139 has been disrupted. And you see it right there that I'm responding not with this scene of the King, 00:16:31.340 --> 00:16:36.419 Jesus, and God being the most beautiful thing in my life at the center, but that man, if my comfort 00:16:36.419 --> 00:16:45.460 gets disrupted, there's going to be heck to pay, right? What is it for you this morning? Because what Isaiah 00:16:45.460 --> 00:16:53.920 and God through Isaiah and his word is trying to do is have us have Jesus at the center, have the 00:16:53.920 --> 00:17:02.840 glorious King as the most beautiful thing in the world so that we worship him and him alone, so that 00:17:02.840 --> 00:17:10.840 we can repent of our sins, so that we can grow. Because to the extent that you understand the glory of 00:17:10.839 --> 00:17:17.299 what God has in store for us in his kingdom, when everything gets made right, you will find 00:17:17.299 --> 00:17:23.119 yourself growing and loving him more. To the extent that you know who our King is and what he has done 00:17:23.119 --> 00:17:30.099 for us, you will find yourself loving him more. And our passage this morning shows us this in three ways. 00:17:30.459 --> 00:17:37.019 The first is a vision for God's love. The second is a vision of hope for the future. And the third is a 00:17:37.019 --> 00:17:43.680 vision of God's Son. I want to look back at the first few verses we read again. One commentator 00:17:43.680 --> 00:17:51.839 said of this, I found it very striking. This is hardly a dignified picture of God when this opens. 00:17:52.779 --> 00:17:59.500 This is God saying, I was ready to be sought by those who did not ask for me. I was ready to be found by 00:17:59.500 --> 00:18:07.920 those who did not seek me. I said, here I am, here I am, to a nation that was not called by my name. 00:18:08.339 --> 00:18:14.720 I spread out my hands all the day to a rebellious people who walk in a way that is not good. 00:18:16.660 --> 00:18:22.940 Following their own devices, kind of just like the end of the book of Judges, a people who provoke me to 00:18:22.940 --> 00:18:30.039 my face continually, sacrificing in gardens and making offspring on bricks. And it just gets worse 00:18:30.039 --> 00:18:37.200 from there. But they said it's hardly a dignified picture. It's almost a humiliating picture of God 00:18:37.200 --> 00:18:44.720 as he's there with his hands stretched out, waiting for a people who are rebellious, stubborn people who 00:18:44.720 --> 00:18:53.059 won't turn to God. But yet, this is God's posture and disposition towards them, longing for them to 00:18:53.059 --> 00:19:01.380 come with his arms open, saying, here I am, here I am. That's God's posture towards those who don't know 00:19:01.380 --> 00:19:07.680 him. This is a description of not Christians, right? People who don't know the Lord. This is God's posture 00:19:07.680 --> 00:19:13.660 towards them. If you're here this morning, and you've never put your faith in Christ, or you haven't trusted 00:19:13.660 --> 00:19:20.840 him, and you don't know the Lord Jesus, this is his posture towards you. This might not be what you 00:19:20.840 --> 00:19:25.620 usually think his posture is. Normally, I think it's easier to see it like this, you know, arms folded, 00:19:26.720 --> 00:19:34.000 tapping his foot, you know, wag it like, you better get things right, or it's all going to be a lot of 00:19:34.000 --> 00:19:41.200 trouble for you. I think that's what's often portrayed, but that's not God's posture towards you. 00:19:41.200 --> 00:19:48.160 And what about the rest of us here who know the Lord? Each of you know people who don't. 00:19:49.440 --> 00:19:54.860 Maybe it's your neighbor across the street who doesn't know Jesus. Maybe it's a co-worker 00:19:54.860 --> 00:20:00.840 who doesn't know Jesus. Maybe it's your neighbor who's actually not very nice, and he's mean, 00:20:00.960 --> 00:20:06.400 and you don't like him very much. Or maybe it's that co-worker who's a Democrat when you're a Republican, 00:20:06.480 --> 00:20:09.740 or a Republican when you're a Democrat, and you fight about it all the time, and you don't really like 00:20:09.740 --> 00:20:17.359 them. You find it hard to want to see them come to Christ. But this is his disposition towards them 00:20:17.359 --> 00:20:26.240 as well, right? How does your disposition towards them reflect God's? Because this is an opportunity 00:20:26.240 --> 00:20:34.880 for us to be involved in God's kingdom work, to be engaged in showing them God's heart towards them, 00:20:34.880 --> 00:20:43.300 right? This is an opportunity for us to be engaged with the king in the Great Commission, 00:20:43.500 --> 00:20:49.560 to represent him to other people. Or how do you represent God on social media, or on Facebook, 00:20:49.560 --> 00:20:56.820 or on Twitter? Is it like this? I mean, I have no idea. I don't know a lot of you, but I know on Twitter 00:20:56.820 --> 00:21:02.500 and all the social media that a lot of times we see Christ represented by people who represent him with 00:21:02.500 --> 00:21:10.240 arrogance and pride, no gentleness, and a mean spirit. It's not this. Here I am, here I am, 00:21:10.339 --> 00:21:19.900 all day long, come to me. But it's an opportunity. As you see God's love for those, does it move your heart, 00:21:21.019 --> 00:21:29.480 that vision of it, to have a heart like that as well? Do you feel it moving your heart as you see 00:21:29.480 --> 00:21:36.420 God love those around you who don't know him, even those that are hard to love? Secondly, we see in 00:21:36.420 --> 00:21:43.839 this passage a hope for the future. A hope for the future. In the Old Testament, as the Israelites were 00:21:43.839 --> 00:21:49.380 waiting for the Messiah, there were two main things that happened over and over again that they were 00:21:49.380 --> 00:21:54.940 looking for, that they knew that was prophesied that the Messiah would bring. The Israelites didn't 00:21:54.940 --> 00:21:59.980 realize that Jesus was going to come and really sort of start and inaugurate the kingdom, but then 00:21:59.980 --> 00:22:04.460 there was going to be a big gap that we're living in, and that when Jesus would return a second time, 00:22:04.799 --> 00:22:10.580 or come a second time, return, and bring in the full kingdom. But they were looking for these two 00:22:10.580 --> 00:22:18.440 blessings. The first was an end to all the evil in the world and all the evil people who had continually 00:22:18.440 --> 00:22:25.840 been subjecting the people of Israel to suffering. And the second one was a full ushering in of the 00:22:25.840 --> 00:22:33.660 blessings of full restoration. We see it. I didn't read this part in the passage this morning, but it's 00:22:33.660 --> 00:22:40.759 still, it's just right after where I stopped. In verse 11 of chapter 65, God says this, 00:22:40.759 --> 00:22:48.119 because, you know, the people of Israel had been suffering a lot under foreign powers for many, 00:22:48.160 --> 00:22:55.299 many, many hundreds of years. You had the Egyptians, and then you had the Philistines that they were 00:22:55.299 --> 00:23:00.359 struggling with, and you get the Assyrians who totally ravaged the northern kingdom. Then you have 00:23:00.359 --> 00:23:05.799 the Babylonians, and this is going to go on and on and on into the Persians and the Greeks and the Romans. 00:23:05.799 --> 00:23:14.059 Romans, the people of Israel longed for the restoration from the evil governments. They were 00:23:14.059 --> 00:23:21.740 subjecting them to slavery and killing them, and just bad after bad after bad. And they knew that Jesus 00:23:21.740 --> 00:23:29.079 was going to bring, the Messiah was going to bring justice. So verse 11, but you who forsake the Lord, 00:23:29.379 --> 00:23:35.200 who forget my holy mountain, who set a table for fortune and fill cups of mixed wine for destiny, 00:23:35.200 --> 00:23:42.860 I will destine you to the sword. And all of you shall bow down to the slaughter, because when I called, 00:23:43.480 --> 00:23:51.580 you did not answer. When I spoke, you did not listen, but you did what was evil in my eyes and chose what 00:23:51.580 --> 00:24:01.539 I did not delight in. Here comes, therefore says the Lord God, behold, my servants shall eat, but you shall 00:24:01.539 --> 00:24:09.139 grow hungry. Behold, my servants shall drink, but you shall be thirsty. Behold, my servants shall rejoice, 00:24:09.619 --> 00:24:19.000 but you shall be put to shame. Behold, my servants shall sing of gladness of heart, but you shall cry out 00:24:19.000 --> 00:24:30.559 for pain of heart, and shall wail for breaking of spirit. This is the justice that will come to those 00:24:30.559 --> 00:24:40.940 who do evil. This is a description of hell. No, it's not a popular word today, but hell is marked by this 00:24:40.940 --> 00:24:52.820 hunger, hunger, thirst, shame, pain of heart, breaking of spirit, and wailing. The enemies of God, this is 00:24:52.820 --> 00:25:00.059 where they end up for eternity. And God is bringing this to the people. And I know I just got finished 00:25:00.059 --> 00:25:06.140 talking about God's disposition of this to those who don't know him, right? And this could seem like a 00:25:06.140 --> 00:25:11.980 little bit of a contradiction, but it's not. This is God's disposition. We had the first few words of 00:25:11.980 --> 00:25:21.920 God's word saying it, but there is a caveat. The caveat is this is God's disposition for now. For now. 00:25:22.700 --> 00:25:27.780 Because if you pass on or Jesus comes back and you have not turned to those arms, 00:25:28.980 --> 00:25:34.200 your chance is over. Not that we would call it a chance. I wouldn't call it a chance. 00:25:34.200 --> 00:25:44.200 But you can no longer do so. Right? And that might seem really harsh, but we long for this, right? 00:25:44.580 --> 00:25:50.980 We long to see injustice. We long to see justice in the world. Every single one of us, probably 00:25:50.980 --> 00:26:00.940 Christian or not. We long to see an end of injustice, genocide, terrorism, trafficking of women and 00:26:00.940 --> 00:26:07.259 children. We can identify with the Israelites. And we see that when God comes, when the kingdom comes, 00:26:08.120 --> 00:26:15.920 that will be dealt with. God will bring justice. Evil will be abolished. 00:26:17.180 --> 00:26:25.400 That first thing that Israelites longed for will happen. And second, they longed for the full 00:26:25.400 --> 00:26:32.320 blessings of the kingdom of God to come. And I said it here in verse 17, 00:26:32.980 --> 00:26:40.960 for behold, I create new heavens and a new earth. This is the first time Isaiah had mentioned this 00:26:40.960 --> 00:26:45.420 in the book, in his book. This is the first time he mentioned, even though he'd referenced the coming 00:26:45.420 --> 00:26:49.840 kingdom, new heavens and new earth. And many Christians out there think that when we die, 00:26:49.839 --> 00:26:57.519 we're going to spend eternity in heaven, spiritually, up in the sky with God face to face. And I think 00:26:57.519 --> 00:27:01.659 that would be pretty awesome, but it's not what the Bible teaches. And what the Bible teaches is much, 00:27:01.779 --> 00:27:09.199 much better. That we're actually going to spend eternity in a new heavens and a new earth. A fully 00:27:09.199 --> 00:27:17.939 restored physical reality with fully restored and new bodies. I create new heavens and new earth. 00:27:17.940 --> 00:27:24.200 And man, when you, when you really let that sink in, does it not move your heart to see God is the 00:27:24.200 --> 00:27:34.620 most beautiful thing to hallow it, to hallow his name, right? The former things shall not be remembered 00:27:34.620 --> 00:27:44.380 or come to mind. The former things shall not be remembered or come to mind. About this one commentator 00:27:44.380 --> 00:27:50.880 said, and I just loved it. I had to quote it here. About five seconds in to this new world, we'll turn 00:27:50.880 --> 00:28:00.500 to one another and we'll say, cancer, terrorism, broken relationships. What were they? Hmm. I can't seem 00:28:00.500 --> 00:28:09.940 to remember, but let's go, you know, into this glorious new restored world. But be glad and rejoice forever 00:28:09.940 --> 00:28:18.600 in that which I create. For behold, I will create Jerusalem to be a joy and her people to be a gladness. 00:28:19.440 --> 00:28:27.000 I will rejoice in Jerusalem and be glad in my people. No more shall be heard in it the sound of 00:28:27.000 --> 00:28:34.539 weeping and the cry of distress. There'll be no more tears in the kingdom. There'll be no more distress. 00:28:34.539 --> 00:28:41.079 The things that break your heart. The broken relationships. The people who have died. The hurt 00:28:41.079 --> 00:28:46.579 that just comes in being in a broken world and brings tears to your eyes and distress to your heart 00:28:46.579 --> 00:28:54.299 will be gone forever. No more shall there be in it an infant who lives but a few days or an old man who 00:28:54.299 --> 00:29:00.279 does not fill out his days. For the young man shall die a hundred years old and the sinner a hundred years 00:29:00.279 --> 00:29:06.119 old shall be accursed. It's not that there will be death in the kingdom. We know that from all sorts 00:29:06.119 --> 00:29:14.200 of other places in scripture. But Isaiah here is using a poetic understatement to get them to understand 00:29:14.200 --> 00:29:20.200 the only thing they've ever known is death and hurt will be gone in a way that is even hard for them 00:29:20.200 --> 00:29:26.299 to comprehend. They shall build houses and inhabit them. They shall plant vineyards and eat them. 00:29:26.580 --> 00:29:31.700 They shall not build and another inhabit. Other countries aren't going to come over and take your 00:29:31.700 --> 00:29:37.819 homes. Other people aren't going to steal from you. They shall plant and they shall not plant and another 00:29:37.819 --> 00:29:45.920 eat. People won't steal your food. This speaks to even relational restoration for everyone. And it goes on 00:29:45.920 --> 00:29:51.340 and on and on. I encourage you to go home and study the rest. I could talk for way longer than I have 00:29:51.340 --> 00:29:58.880 about the rest of Isaiah 65 and how awesome the picture of God's coming kingdom is going to be. 00:29:59.220 --> 00:30:08.700 And here's the deal. How is God going to do this? How's God going to do this? In one of the places 00:30:08.700 --> 00:30:15.380 earlier in the book of Isaiah that Isaiah is talking about the kingdom, in Isaiah 52 10, he says this, 00:30:15.380 --> 00:30:21.180 and I love this image. I've been praying it all week. I've been working it into my life and into my heart. 00:30:21.180 --> 00:30:26.780 And it says, as it's talking about the kingdom that's coming, Isaiah says this, 00:30:26.900 --> 00:30:35.720 the Lord has bared his holy arm before the eyes of all nations and all the ends of the earth will see 00:30:35.720 --> 00:30:45.360 the salvation of our God. The Lord has bared his holy arm. This is an idiom in Hebrew for an idiom 00:30:45.380 --> 00:30:51.160 almost exactly like it that we have to roll up our long and loose sleeves, to roll up our sleeves. 00:30:51.500 --> 00:30:55.600 Have you ever rolled up your sleeves to do something like you're getting ready to do some hard work? 00:30:55.740 --> 00:31:01.280 That's kind of what it meant. And God is rolling up his sleeves to show the strength of his arm to 00:31:01.280 --> 00:31:08.560 engage in strenuous hard work. And here's what I can guarantee you. If the all powerful, all good, 00:31:08.559 --> 00:31:16.019 all loving God of the universe is rolling up his sleeves to make sure salvation happens and the 00:31:16.019 --> 00:31:22.519 kingdom comes, you can be sure it's going to come. There is no question. It's like watching a Rocky 00:31:22.519 --> 00:31:31.039 movie when you know he's going to win no matter what, only infinitely greater. It's like watching a movie 00:31:31.039 --> 00:31:36.779 where you know because you've seen it before, the good triumphs over evil, but infinitely greater. 00:31:37.539 --> 00:31:44.420 God is rolling up his arms. He's rolling up his sleeves to bring salvation in the kingdom into your 00:31:44.420 --> 00:31:54.460 life. And can you see that the more we get that, the more that you're able to meditate on that, to trust 00:31:54.460 --> 00:32:01.660 that, to let that work its way deeply into the heart, to your heart, the more you'll be able to 00:32:01.660 --> 00:32:08.559 hallow God's name, the more you'll be able to see him as our beautiful savior, the more you'll be able 00:32:08.559 --> 00:32:15.539 to obey him and walk with him in troubled times because you know what he has done in the future 00:32:15.539 --> 00:32:24.319 that he has in store for you. But it gets even better because after having a vision, 00:32:24.460 --> 00:32:32.360 of hope for the future, we have a vision of God's son, Jesus, who we also see here. Because it's very 00:32:32.360 --> 00:32:40.660 important that you see that without Jesus, his life, death, and resurrection to pay the price for our sins 00:32:40.660 --> 00:32:48.160 and give us new life, none of this would be possible. There would be no kingdom coming. There would be no 00:32:48.160 --> 00:32:55.320 restoration. There would be no forgiveness of sins. And remember when I said at the beginning, 00:32:55.580 --> 00:33:02.320 when you have Isaiah pointing out that, well, God is stretching out his hands, and I said that's almost 00:33:02.320 --> 00:33:11.540 a humiliating picture of God's love. We have an even more humiliating picture of God's love 00:33:11.539 --> 00:33:19.099 in Philippians chapter 2 verses 7 and 8 when it says of Jesus, he emptied himself by taking the form 00:33:19.099 --> 00:33:27.579 of a servant and being born in the likeness of men. He humbled himself, humbled himself by becoming 00:33:27.579 --> 00:33:37.019 obedient to the point of death, even death on the cross. Our passage starts out with God saying that 00:33:37.019 --> 00:33:42.200 he held out his hands all day long saying, here I am, here I am, where there's going to be a second 00:33:42.200 --> 00:33:49.859 stretching out of hands. Because Jesus on the cross had his hand stretched out and nailed to it. 00:33:51.559 --> 00:33:58.799 And there, remember that description of hell I read? The hunger and thirst and shame and pain of heart 00:33:58.799 --> 00:34:11.340 and wailing fell on him so that it would never have to fall on you. Several years ago, I guess 15 years 00:34:11.340 --> 00:34:16.820 ago, we served with a crew or Campus Crusade for Christ, and we were in Long Beach, California for 00:34:16.820 --> 00:34:21.820 the summer, taking college students on a summer mission. It was Father's Day, and we were in our hotel 00:34:21.820 --> 00:34:27.079 room that we were living in for the summer, and my middle son, Teo, he was two years old. He's about this 00:34:27.079 --> 00:34:31.880 big, and he's walking across the room, headed towards a window that had a little banister of 00:34:31.880 --> 00:34:36.940 the window about right here, the same height as his head. And he's walking over it to look out at 00:34:36.940 --> 00:34:42.500 the ocean. We're getting ready for church. It's Father's Day. Kendra had made a coffee cake, and on 00:34:42.500 --> 00:34:48.960 his way over there, he trips, and he hits his head on the corner right here, right above his eye on the 00:34:48.960 --> 00:34:54.579 corner of that windowsill. And he started to cry, and I didn't know how bad it was yet, but as any parent 00:34:54.579 --> 00:34:59.000 would, I jumped up, and I got over to him, and I picked him up, and as I turned him around, I saw 00:34:59.000 --> 00:35:03.719 that his eye was split all the way open, all the way to the bone. And right away, I told Kendra, I was 00:35:03.719 --> 00:35:08.699 like, we got to go to the hospital. And she's like, what? And I was like, look. And she's like, oh. And so 00:35:08.699 --> 00:35:14.940 we jumped in the car, and we ran to the emergency room, and I hadn't given much thought to how you give 00:35:14.940 --> 00:35:21.059 stitches to a two-year-old, but of course the doctors have. And he needed stitches, and they brought him in, 00:35:21.059 --> 00:35:26.799 and there's a special table for a child. Because when you're giving stitches right above the eye, 00:35:27.159 --> 00:35:33.420 you need a kid not to move. And this table has a lot of straps on it, and they strap down his legs, 00:35:33.460 --> 00:35:37.719 and they strap down his chest, and they strap down his arm, and last, they strap down his head. 00:35:38.460 --> 00:35:42.900 And Tail was completely, thankfully, I don't think he remembers this, but he was completely 00:35:42.900 --> 00:35:49.719 unable to move. And then comes out the big needle, right? If you've ever had stitches, that big needle 00:35:49.719 --> 00:35:54.379 that goes in first to numb it up so they can give you the stitches, and they stuck that right in that 00:35:54.379 --> 00:36:00.179 giant hole above his eye. And I remember I was sitting there, I had my hands on the chair, and I 00:36:00.179 --> 00:36:03.439 was squeezing it so hard, because what I really wanted to do, even though I knew the doctor was 00:36:03.439 --> 00:36:09.519 helping him, was jump over that table and throw him out the window. But there was Tao. He had no idea 00:36:09.519 --> 00:36:16.759 what was going on. He was terrified. He was scared, and a strange man had strapped him to a table 00:36:16.760 --> 00:36:21.920 and was hurting him. He didn't know it was to make him better. And Kendra and I sat there, 00:36:22.320 --> 00:36:27.120 and I had my hand on his leg, and Kendra had his hand, her hand on him, and we're just like, 00:36:27.140 --> 00:36:31.180 it's going to be okay. We're comforting. We're walking our two-year-old through this. And I remember 00:36:31.180 --> 00:36:38.140 he was okay. If you see him later, he's still got the scar right here. But I remember thinking later, 00:36:38.340 --> 00:36:46.180 what is the worst thing that could have possibly happened to Tao in that moment? And I think what the 00:36:46.179 --> 00:36:52.319 worst thing was, is if his mother and I would have got up, turned around, and walked out the door, 00:36:52.539 --> 00:36:57.000 and been like, you're on your own, Tao. Your comfort's gone. You got to take care of this. 00:36:58.460 --> 00:37:07.259 Jesus on the cross had this, but infinitely greater. Jesus, who had had a perfect relationship 00:37:07.260 --> 00:37:15.180 from eternity past of intimacy, of this kind of kingdom beauty and intimacy with his father on the 00:37:15.180 --> 00:37:24.840 cross as he bore our sins, it's as if God got up, turned around, and walked out of the room and left 00:37:24.840 --> 00:37:32.320 him alone. He turned his back on him because he could not be in the face of that sin. And it was 00:37:32.320 --> 00:37:42.580 infinite pain. It was the pain of hell and shame. And he did that for us so that the kingdom could come 00:37:42.580 --> 00:37:55.400 to us. And here's the result. This is something that you can wonder on and wonder on and think about 00:37:55.400 --> 00:38:03.800 and praise and meditate and reflect on and celebrate every day, every moment, every time you come into 00:38:03.800 --> 00:38:09.200 church, every time you meet for Sunday school or in a small group Bible study, because doing this 00:38:09.200 --> 00:38:14.880 moves it into your heart and brings you to a place where God is at the center and you live for him 00:38:14.880 --> 00:38:21.400 and him alone. And it doesn't become Jesus and something else. It's just Jesus. The something else's 00:38:21.400 --> 00:38:26.559 will always be there, this side of the kingdom, because we'll always struggle with sin, but it opens 00:38:26.559 --> 00:38:34.280 up for you to repent of those sins and grow. And we do that through the word of God. We do that through 00:38:34.280 --> 00:38:40.079 prayer. We do that through the means of grace and spiritual disciplines. We do that by being here this 00:38:40.079 --> 00:38:48.340 morning. And I hope that I've engaged your imagination towards how awesome God is, how beautiful he is, and how 00:38:48.340 --> 00:38:55.200 awesome it is the kingdom that he is bringing to every single one of us who knows him. And we celebrate 00:38:55.200 --> 00:39:01.220 that this morning, even as we're going to go into the Lord's Supper, to know he did it for us, to bring 00:39:01.220 --> 00:39:09.480 us this kingdom, to show us that he loved us. And as you come up, let yourself believe that. Ask yourself 00:39:09.480 --> 00:39:13.980 if you do, because the more that you believe it, the more that you trust it, it will change everything. 00:39:13.980 --> 00:39:22.900 Let us pray. Heavenly Father, I do thank you. Jesus, I thank you for your sacrifice on the cross 00:39:22.900 --> 00:39:28.860 so that your kingdom could come, so that your name would be hallowed in a way that we can't even 00:39:28.860 --> 00:39:35.019 imagine. And I pray that your name would be hallowed in each and every one of our hearts as we continue 00:39:35.019 --> 00:39:42.579 in worship this morning, as we go out of here today to be lights for you, to walk with you, that we would be 00:39:42.579 --> 00:39:48.319 encouraged to do so because of the vision of your kingdom that you were given this morning in the 00:39:48.319 --> 00:39:51.619 book of Isaiah. And we pray this in your name. Amen.