Isaiah Lesson 20

And I want to say good afternoon to everybody, it's awesome to see you.

Just in case you're wondering, from everything I've heard, we've got more snow coming this week, so it's been beautiful, but I wanted to just tee this up with a passage in Psalm 57, and Jeff, I want you to get

Hebrews 4 .16 ready. We're in a section right now where we're being encouraged through the prophet

Isaiah as God is allowing us to see the future in his eyes, of how his plans are going to unfold and what his designs are, and it is difficult, it is difficult to look around what's going on in much of the world, much of our country, and find reasons to be excited, but I want to say that there's one amazing reason to be excited, and that's because what we're experiencing now is temporary, what we're experiencing now is, we're seeing in part, and God sees season whole.

Psalm 57, verse 2, I cry out to God most high, to God who fulfills his purpose for me.

And one of the observations Jeff and I were speaking about earlier this morning was that because we have a sovereign

God, our hopes become truth, our hopes become fact.

If his will is what we desire, then we know that his will is going to come to be.

Give me, if you would, Hebrews 4 .16. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

That is probably one of the most amazing and fulfilling words, and it's in Hebrews that, it's not if, it's when, when you're in time and you draw near to the throne of grace and you will find help.

The nation of Israel, the nation of Judah, is receiving input from God through the prophet

Isaiah because, quite frankly, they have lost, they have lost the bubble.

They have started to drift, and they need to be corrected, and they need to be drawn back.

And there are going to be times of difficulty. There's going to be times, God is a holy God, and because he's a holy

God, he cannot abide sin. And so there is judgment because of, because of that sin.

But interspersed throughout this book are things like the coming Messiah.

There are things like promises of things will be, will be made right.

We're, we're in the midst of that right now in, in chapter 11. And so that's, that's where we're going.

I'll just start out with one verse, then Jeff, you're going to open us in a prayer. The wolf shall lie down with the lamb, and then later on it says in verse 8, a nursing child shall play over the whole of the cobra.

And if you want to talk about things being made right again, there's some, some amazing, amazing hope there.

Pastor Jeff, open us please. So Father, thank you so much that we have this opportunity to come and open your word.

We pray that we would be encouraged to draw near to the throne of grace as we approach your word, that you would remind us of the coming millennium, which is a real and literal thousand -year reign of Christ on this earth, where the child can play with the cobra and the wolf can lay down next to a lamb.

God, we thank you that you will reign in righteousness and restore everything to Garden of Eden -like conditions.

And until that day, Lord, we pray that we would be found faithful in this world as it is, and even strive to better this world,

Lord, that we would be lights in a dark world, that we would be salt. God, so help us as we study your word in Jesus' name.

Amen. Amen. Pastor Jeff, you're going to give me Isaiah 11, 6 through 9, getting ready.

Bob, I would ask if you would have 1 Timothy 4, 4 ready, and Kimberly, Romans 8, 19 and 20, and Jeremiah 31.

Barbara, if you would have that ready, please. So go ahead and give me verses...

Jeremiah, you're going to get Jeremiah 31. It's kind of... Verses 33 to 34.

Yeah, it's about a third of the way down the page on my notes. It will be down there. Okay, so give me verses 6 through 9, please.

Okay. The wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the young goat, and the calf and the lion and the fattened calf together, and a little child shall lead them.

The cow and the bear shall graze, their young shall lie down together, and the lion shall eat straw like the ox.

The nursing child shall play over the whole of the cobra, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the adder's den.

They shall not hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain, for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the

Lord as the waters cover the sea. Amen and hallelujah to that. Yeah.

Filling in a couple of quick blanks in verse 6, the wolf shall dwell with the lamb.

And then down to verse 8, the nursing child shall play over the whole of the cobra.

Why are these things not happening today? Okay, we have an answer here, sin.

Let's just be a little bit more pragmatic. Why aren't these things happening today? What would happen to the lamb?

He'd get eaten up. What would happen to the little nursing child?

Get bitten by the snake. One of the things that I find intriguing on this little passage here is it speaks of the transition.

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. And at the end of each of the first five days, what did

God see? What did he say? It was good. And then at the end of the sixth day, when man is created, he said, it is very good.

Well, okay, it's not good for man to be alone. Thank you. Boy, small group last night,

I really, I kind of made a mistake. Lori knows.

Pray tell, brother. The week before we had care group, but it was on Zoom because of the snow.

It was a big snowstorm. And it did not have the same energy.

And I'll be very honest, being able to look at your faces, see the body language,

Kimberly nods, or sometimes Kimberly goes like this. We were sitting alone and everybody was on Zoom.

And I made the comment that it just feels so good to actually have people here with me that I can interchange with.

And Sandy said, I was here. Dog house.

Yeah, dog. It's not good for man to be alone. All right. Here's the deal.

We do know that in the beginning God created and he saw that it was very good. And after he created man, it was very good.

Okay. But he needed to help me. Then we know in chapter three of Genesis, things went upside down.

And we know that the temptation, and in fact, in a couple of weeks, we're going to be able to see how that all came to be.

Because at one point in time, Lucifer, along with many of God's created angels, rebelled against God.

Lucifer said, I will make myself like the most high. And God said, you're out of here. And he sent him to earth, which means it had to happen after the first day because there was earth for him to be sent down to.

All right. And he convinced Eve, and it didn't take a whole lot for Adam.

All he needed was for Eve to say, come on, babe, let's go this way. And he said, fine. Eve needed to be convinced, but she was, did

God really say this? Did he really mean that? And so desire took over from devotion.

Sin came in and creation was hurt. Not just Adam and Eve, but creation was hurt.

First Timothy 4 .40, you have that, Bob? Now, taken into context, we're talking more about that we're allowed, we're not prohibited, but it does say that everything

God created was good. That's in compliance with Genesis chapter one, except that a child cannot play near the hole of an adder because there's danger there.

And a lamb cannot lay down next to a lion because there's danger there.

Romans 8 .19 and 20, Kimberly? That passage gives me the authority to say that creation is in decay.

Creation is upside down. Creation has been judged because of the sin of man, that creation groans because of it.

And so it is unnatural, but it's expected and understood that a child cannot play by the hole of a cobra and that a wolf can't lay down next to a lamb because this is the decay.

This is the destruction. So what God created at one point in time, which was good, and I would have to believe that before Genesis three, there were no children, but there was no danger of an adder and there was no concern that the wolf and the lamb, there was no concern for all of that.

So we went from good, very good, to this point of decay and contamination with the reality that we are going to go back to good.

And what a, yeah, praise God for that. What an amazing knowledge we have for that.

Jeff and I were working through a concept in one of my classes, and it talks about Jesus comes, the hypostatic union, fully

God, fully man, without sin, tempted in every way, but yet without sin.

Jesus really was fully man and that to the extent that man is dead in trespasses and sins, there's a void in who man is.

Now at the point of salvation, we're made back into a new creation, but we still have this flesh.

And Paul writes, I don't do what I want to do and what I don't want to do that I do.

And this conflict goes on, but there is going to be a time where we are now made new in the way that we are supposed to be.

There is a transition. It was good and very good. It's got a problem, but we do know that there is a time coming in.

It then says that the earth in verse nine, give me verse nine again, if you would. They shall not hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the

Lord as the waters cover the sea. The earth shall be full of the knowledge of the

Lord. And the first time I read that, I had to go back and realize it. It's not just talking about mankind.

The earth, all of creation, all of creation will be full of the knowledge of the

Lord. We know from John 1 10, it said that Jesus came to the world that he created, but the world did not know him.

It then goes on to say that he called his own and his own did not receive him.

But did you get that in verse 10? It says the world did not receive. The world is contaminated from being able to understand and perceive

God. In James 2 19, it gives one of the more important understandings of this reality of,

I perceive that there is a God as opposed to, I accept that there is a

God. Because in James 2 19, it says the devil believes, yet he trembles.

And in John 1 10, it said the world did not know him. It's not that the world did not know of him or be able to see that there was him.

In Mark 7, we have the story of the Gadarene demoniac.

Thank you, demoniac. There are other stories like this, but I raised this one up because in Mark 5 7, when

Jesus is approaching the Gadarene demoniac, and he's going to relieve this individual of this legion.

He says, my name is legion because I am many. The Gadarene demoniac says, what do we have to you with Jesus, son of the most high

God? He knew. He knew not only who

Jesus was, but he knew that Jesus was the son of the most high God.

And going back to James 2 19, the devil believes, you better believe he believes, but he trembles.

It's not that the world doesn't know that there is God. It's that the world's contaminated perception of who

God is prevents the world from even fully experiencing. Jeremiah 31, hopefully that's the right verse.

Correct. You see, there's a promise that there is a point time coming where not only the covenant and not only

God's bloodshed, but there is a time coming when God promises that he will write the law on the heart and that people will actually know

God, actually know, know God. And I believe that this continues because it says here in Isaiah that the whole earth will be full of the knowledge of the

Lord, that, that this King of Kings, Lord of Lords, creator of all, there is a time coming when man will acknowledge him.

Creation will be restored to having a positive understanding of who he is.

When will this happen? Okay.

Rich says when Jesus comes back, you're speaking of the Parsia, just before he inaugurates the millennial kingdom, that's when puts it out there.

And Bob is saying new heavens and new earth. Why do you say that instead of the

Parsia? We are not going to answer this question succinctly unless you have an insight to that.

I have an opinion. What's your opinion? I would weigh in that this is, I think the millennium, but like I say,

I think. We do know that in the millennial,

Jesus is going to reign. He will settle disputes, which presumes there are disputes, which presumes that there still is that vestige of the flesh, sin nature going on.

I, I, I I'm of the opinion, and fortunately this is not a salvific topic, so we can disagree.

Yeah. I will never teach contrary to what Pastor Jeff, Jeff says,

I will give scriptures. But in this case, I think because there are still going to be disputes.

And at the end of time, Satan is going to be released and he is going to deceive a lot of people.

And there's going to be another, another war that there are unbelievers, uh, in the millennial kingdom.

Those who are born during the millennial kingdom still need to choose. I choose

Christ or I, or I don't. I think that that ultimate complete restoration sounds like the new

Jerusalem, but I'm not dogmatically going to hold to it. And I will accept my pastor's opinion. Good boy.

Yes. This is, this is a topic that if you really get into the depths of somebody's systematic theology book, you'll probably find variations of opinion.

Uh, the answer as to when is this going to occur doesn't really drive though the impact and significance of this message.

And that's that it was good and it did get contaminated and all of creation groans because of it.

It anticipates and he came into his world and his world didn't know him, but there is a time, hold onto it, my friends, hold onto it because it may not be in our lifetime, but there is a time when all of these promises come to be.

Which is by the way, one of the strongest proofs against evolution is the second love.

Yeah, absolutely. Well said. Give me 10 to 16, please. In that day, the root of Jesse, who shall stand as a signal for the peoples of him, shall the nations inquire and his resting place shall be glorious.

In that day, the Lord will extend his hand yet a second time to recover the remnant that remains of his people from Assyria, from Egypt, from Pathros, from Cush, from Elam, from Shinar, from Hamath, and from the coastlands of the sea.

He will raise a signal for the nations and will assemble the banished of Israel and gather the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth.

The jealousy of Ephraim shall depart and those who harass Judah shall be cut off.

Ephraim shall not be jealous of Judah and Judah shall not harass Ephraim, but they shall swoop down on the shoulder of the

Philistines in the west and together they shall plunder the people of the east. They shall put out their hand against Edom and Moab and the

Ammonites shall obey them. And the Lord will utterly destroy the tongue of the sea of Egypt and will wave his hand over the river with his scorching breath and strike it into seven channels and he will lead people across in sandals and there will be a highway from Assyria for the remnant that remains of his people as there was for Israel when they came up from the land of Egypt.

Now if you decide to place my question when is this all going to happen into the context of this segment, well this last segment is really talking about second coming.

It's talking not about New Jerusalem, it's talking about second coming. So Jeff you have some validity to your opinion.

I was trying to tell you, you guys didn't want to believe me. It's kind of like, yeah, it's kind of like I had one opportunity to participate in drama when

I was in, I had lots of opportunities, only took it once when I was in high school and I was on the stage crew for our school's presentation of Camelot.

And my big job was at the end of the overture where the orchestra played a little piece of every song, you know, and the curtain is closed.

I'm the guy who raised the curtain. That was so exciting. Not for me, for the people on stage.

Yeah, I mean it's a, it's a, think about this and I love the picture that you just, I, you just sent me down a rabbit trail.

We know that there is, is, is this amazing restoration coming at the end of, of Revelation in chapter 20 and we, we know about the thousand -year reign and, and Jesus is going to reign on earth and, and, and we know all of that, that we're going to experience, but it's the overture.

It's the overture and we can look at that, we can be excited about that, but it's the overture because when does the real play happen?

When the curtain comes up and we have the new Jerusalem and everything is made right for eternity.

So thanks for giving me that one. Thank you very much. It says in verse 11, and we're talking about in that day, the root of Jesse.

So we do know that we're already talking about, about Jesus. We talked last night, last week, and I was going to look it up and I couldn't find it.

I spoke last week about back in the seventies, the iron curtain, the oppression of the

Polish people was symbolized by the cutting down of a tree. And there was a very famous picture taken of a tree stump.

And in the middle of the tree stump, a little green shoot was growing. And, and it's symbolized that you can't kill the, the national desire, the strength of these, of these

Polish people. The nation of Israel is, is, is, has been spread apart.

And today, yeah, they're back in the land, but the restoration hasn't, hasn't happened.

And, and Satan is doing what he can. He, he saw Jesus, you know, crucified on the tree. There is coming a day that the throne of David is not occupied today.

Not yet. There's this little shout shoot coming up from the stump of Jesse.

And, and we do know that it's Jesus coming and he is going to establish himself.

2 Samuel 7, it talks about how God promised to David that there would be a throne that lasts forever.

And don't read that and look at today because it will last forever. Yes, right now, it appears though it's not there.

We are in this second covenant. We are in the new covenant. We are waiting for the fullness of the

Gentiles to come in and God is going to reestablish it. And so what's going to happen is this root of Jesse is going to come up and it says that he is going to be a signal for all peoples, for all peoples.

Now I was trying to consider what is a signal? A signal is something that perhaps tells you of, of something, a feature that's coming up.

It may tell you it's time to stop so that people can go in another direction. In this case, this signal is a call out to all people.

When I was in the Navy, we would be in, in formation with, with many ships.

And there were times where because of what we were either involved with at that time, it was the

Russian Navy, or we were drilling and learning. We, we, we kept radio silence.

There was no communication by radio, calling, you know, so -and -so here, here's the message.

And so we would hoist signal flags up and all the ships could see the signal flag or we would use lights and we would use

Morse code and send a signal out so that it could be heard. There is a time coming where this root of Jesse is going to come up as a signal.

All people will be able to see the reality of this signal. I'm sorry, a banner.

There you go. It is this, it is this proclamation. It is this proclamation.

And then it says, he is the one to whom all peoples will inquire.

And I love that because it communicates. And we now know that this is in the millennial kingdom because up until that time, and in fact, as we, as we get into the depths of the book of revelation, it is absolute defiant rejection of God and of his truth.

We have the Antichrist, we have his beast. We have, we have so much that is going to go on that is an opposition to Christ.

What we're seeing right now is it's just the, it's the crescendo that's getting ready for it to happen.

But then there's going to be this time when all nations, all nations will come and inquire.

They're going to know that he's the source of wisdom. They're going to know that in this king of Kings sitting on his throne is knowledge and his truth and is everything else.

It said that he is the one to whom all people will inquire.

Pastor Jeff is going to be going, I think it's next week, you said? Yes. And without going into too much of a depth, there is a, there is a debate of, of holding true to certain doctrines and allowing certain compromises to infiltrate.

And Pastor Jeff's going to have the opportunity to stand and to hold true to truth and to refute some of these compromises scripturally because, because they're out there.

And unfortunately, how many of our churches have, have even gotten to the point of accepting these compromises?

It says that they will know that when they come to the Christ and they inquire, that's where they're going to inquire.

And then it says that the, his resting place will be seen as glorious.

You have the opportunity throughout your life and through the days of your life to share a word of Christ.

A brother in the Lord was sharing the opportunity that was there and that unfortunately was missed.

And in thinking about that after the fact, it's like, why did I let that go?

I mean, God put it, I do a lot of baseball. Yeah.

He put it on the tee. That's how you teach the little kids how to play baseball. You put the ball on the tee and they hit the bat because there's no curve balls.

There's nothing. God put it on the tee and, and, and losing the opportunity. What is really going to be exciting at this point in time is where Christ rests will be seen by the world, by all nations as glorious.

Luke 2, 29 to 32, Bob, I'm going to ask you to pull that one out.

In Exodus, it talks about this Shekinah glory that as they, as they set up the tent of worship, and then eventually as they set up the tabernacle and as the ark of the covenant goes in, and as all of the accoutrements are put in place, this

Shekinah glory comes down and settles on, and that's God's presence.

It's his very presence. It's not there now. In fact, coming out of captivity as they rebuild the temple, there's no indication of the

Shekinah glory, but there is going to be a time where his very presence will be recognized as glorious.

Give me Luke 2, 29 to 32, please. Now, this man

Simeon had, had a little bit of the curtain peeled back for him, and it's so beautiful.

This man Simeon who, who desired to know God and, and the, the young child is brought in to, to the temple and Simeon sees him and he prays this prayer, mine eyes have now seen the glory of God.

Now, we as believers have that privilege through the Holy Spirit by the grace of God.

Blessed are the pure in heart for they will see God, but it says here unequivocally that when Jesus sits on that throne as the

King of Kings in the millennial, all nations will come and inquire and his resting place is going to be seen as glorious.

Give me verse 11 again, please. In that day, the Lord will extend his hand yet a second time to recover the remnant that remains of his people from Assyria, from Egypt, from Pathos, from Cush, from Elam, from Shinar, from Hamath, and from the coastlands of the sea.

Okay, what's going to happen at this, in this verse, what's going to happen? All right.

Now I got a, I got a question with you because let's do a little bit of a timeline analysis. Okay. This revelation is pretty much expected somewhere around 713

BC. It could be give or take, but it's pretty much recognized as being around 713

BC, which by the way is eight years after the nation of Israel is taken into captivity in roughly 721

BC. So the nation of Israel is gone, but it's about 27 years before the

Southern Kingdom will go into captivity. That's 586 BC. Okay.

This is in the middle of the two of them. The Southern King Judah still is there. They've been under siege.

They've been under, but it isn't until 586 where, by the way, what ends up happening, we've talked about this before, the nation of Israel broke, broke with the

Lord and offered that which was unclean in the temple and the

Shekinah glory departed. And now the temple was unprotected and the siege takes place and the temple is destroyed.

But my point here is that in that day, he will extend his hand a second time to recover the remnant of his people.

At this point in time, Judah is not gone. And what do they need to be called back for?

Because they're not gone yet. This is God looking into the future and knowing what is going to be happening because his people are going to be sent away in 586.

Now they're going to come back. But then as time goes by, Christ comes in 70

AD. That's when the temple is destroyed. Things just go scattered. Things just go scattered.

This isn't something God is going to be caught off guard with. He says that in that day, he will extend his hand a second time to recover his people, the remnant of his people.

Now, this is a definite look back into when

Jesus called his people out of Egypt. That's the first time. This is the second time.

And it has to relate to the fact that the tribes have been scattered. And if you go to Revelation chapter seven, verses four to eight, it is calling by name the 12 tribes that are coming back and will be sealed by the

Lord God. 144 ,000, absolutely 12 ,000 from each of 12 tribes listed by name to be sealed by God.

And he says in that day, he will extend his hand a second time. The first time coming out of Egypt, the second time he's going to be calling them because they're scattered.

Now, yes, there are people living in Israel right now, but the fullness of this prophecy is yet to come.

And it starts to come when we get into Revelation. So now, give me, if you would, verses 12 and 13.

He will raise a signal for the nations and will assemble the banished of Israel and gather the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth.

The jealousy of Ephraim shall depart and those who harass Judah shall be cut off.

Ephraim shall not be jealous of Judah and Judah shall not harass Ephraim. So God is going to restore his people.

And not only is he going to restore his people, but he is going to restore it into the full blessings of his intended fellowship between the tribes of his people.

Now, you can go back and it's easy to go back into second Kings chapter 12, Rehoboam, Jeroboam, the sons of Solomon, Rehoboam with the southern kingdom,

Jeroboam revolting against and taking 10 tribes with him up to the extent that they set up their own place of worship up into the north.

And the Kings are bad and very bad. But you can actually go back to second Samuel in chapter two,

Ish -bosheth, David's, no,

Ish -bosheth, Saul's son, Jonathan's son. You're right.

I'm sorry? Meshibosheth. Not Meshibosheth. All right. Nina, get me second

Samuel two verses eight to 10, please. Chapter two, verse eight.

Ish -bosheth. That's not, that's not

Manhattan. That's Mannheim. Okay.

That's good. This is not, Rehoboam and Jeroboam aren't the first time that there's been a dispute over who's their rightful king.

My point is that if you go to first Kings 12, 24, God's talking to the nation, don't go to battle against your brothers, southern kingdom, northern kingdom.

It's God's design for his people to live in harmony. It says that God is going to restore his people.

And it said that Ephraim, Ephraim is basically the northern kingdom. Okay. Will not be jealous of Judah, the southern kingdom.

And Judah shall not harass Ephraim. He is, he wants them to be restored, not only bringing them all together, but restoring them into fellowship with each other.

Give me 14, please. But they shall swoop down on the shoulder of the

Philistines in the west, and together they shall plunder the people of the east. They shall put out their hand against Edom and Moab, and the

Ammonites shall obey them. Okay. So now this is now God setting the stage where the nation of Israel is going to, is going to prevail over against the enemies of God, if you would.

Joshua 1 .9, God promised Joshua, when you go in, be of strong and of good courage.

I am with you, I am going before you. All right. So the reality that God is going to fight the fight.

There's an interesting understanding in this one though, because it says, and the Ammonites shall obey them.

As the nation of Israel is going into the promised land, what are they to do with the

Iths? Destroy them. The Hebrew word there is harem.

And it's, it's holy words. It's used in other contexts. It's used, harem is used in an exacting punishment, like Achan and his family.

The exacting of complete punishment, just punishment. But the concept of harem is also that the

Jews are to destroy, completely destroy the Iths. This says, and the

Ammonites shall obey them. For whatever reason at this point in time, it's not harem, it is defeat.

But for some point, some reason at this point, it's understood that there will be Ammonites left over, but the

Ammonites will be left in obedience to the victorious God's people.

Give me 15 and 16, please. And the Lord will utterly destroy the tongue of the sea of Egypt, and will wave his hand over the river with his scorching breath, and strike it into seven channels, and he will lead people across in sandals.

And 16. And there will be a highway from Assyria for the remnant that remains of his people, as there was for Israel when they came up from the land of Egypt.

And this is the end of this story, because what needs to happen now as we approach the millennial kingdom is going to be a return of all of God's people.

Under his authority and under his rule, there will be a return of God's people. What he's going to do, and what it says here, is he is going to destroy all the water barriers that are in the way.

He is going to make a dry path. They'll be able to walk as with sandals.

So much like he did with the Red Sea, much like he did with the River Jordan, he is going to prepare a way.

And it says that he is going to be there. God's power is going to guarantee the fulfillment of his plan.

Job 26, it expresses the heavens and the sea, everything obeys God. It's his creation.

And Job 42 too is going to say that no purpose of God can be thwarted.

And so what we have here is God calling his people back, God establishing his reign back on earth,

God enabling his people to come back together to live in fellowship, no longer bickering, you know, like the brothers bickering that anybody have sons, you know how sons can bicker, but living in harmony and in fellowship and then be able to have dominion and victory.

And all nations, all nations, seeing that where God resides is the place of glory.

And he's going to make it happen. He's going to set it in motion. Do you want to give us a prayer?

Yes. So God, thank you so much that we have this hope. We know that this millennial reign is coming and the new heaven and the new earth.

God, it is, it is our blessed hope, the return of Christ. And we look for him and God, even until then, we know that you are our banner,

Jehovah Nissi. You are a banner and we can raise you up Lord, that we can lift up the name of Jesus to the nations even now.

And individually people can come to saving faith. So we pray that as we go forth today, we would go forth to lift the banner of the gospel, that we would go out in power by your

Holy spirit to preach the name of Jesus to the nations. In his name we pray.