WWUTT 2189 I Have Opened My Hands to a Rebellious People (Isaiah 65:1-12)

In Isaiah 65 to the Lord says, I have spread out my hands all day long to a rebellious people who walk in the way which is not good following their own thoughts.

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Now here's your teacher, Pastor Gabe. Thank you, Becky. In our study of the book of Isaiah, we are officially in the home stretch.

The last two chapters, 65 and 66, where God responds to the prayer that had concluded at the end of chapter 64.

And not only is this answer going to be for a group of people, a rebellious people that he had sent into exile and will bring back into their land, but we're even looking deeper into the future, into a group of people

God is going to call to himself. And we even have the prophecy of the new heavens and the new earth that are mentioned here in these last two chapters.

So let me go ahead and begin here, Isaiah 65 verses one through seven. I'll read through this section first, and then

I'll kind of give you an overview of this particular chapter. This is out of the legacy standard Bible.

Hear the word of the Lord. I permitted myself to be sought by those who did not ask for me.

I permitted myself to be found by those who did not seek me. I said, here am

I, here am I to a nation which did not call on my name.

I have spread out my hands all day long to a rebellious people who walk in the way, which is not good, following their own thoughts.

A people who continually provoke me to my face, offering sacrifices in gardens and burning incense on bricks, who sit among graves and spend the night in secret places, who eat swine's flesh and the broth of offensive meat is in their pots, who say, keep to yourself, do not come near me, for I am holier than you.

These are smoke in my nostrils, a fire that burns all the day.

Behold, it is written before me, I will not keep silent, but I will repay.

I will even repay into their bosom, both their own iniquities and the iniquities of their fathers together, says

Yahweh, because they have burned incense on the mountains and reproached me on the hills, therefore

I will measure their former work into their bosom. So this is talking about those who had rebelled against God and will not come to repentance.

When God brings his people out of exile, remember they had been exiled to Babylonian captivity and then into the hands of the

Medes and the Persians. When God brings them back, there will still be those who remain rebellious and those are the people that are not truly with God.

But then what we're going to hear next as we continue in Isaiah 65 is that there will be a remnant whom

God will restore to himself. And as we continue even deeper into Isaiah 65, we anticipate that there are

Gentiles who will come into the fellowship of God through the gospel call.

So there is an immediate fulfillment of these things that we're reading about here. The immediate fulfillment being that God is going to bring his people,

Judah, out of exile and bring them back into their land. But this is all type and shadow. This is all pointing toward a people of Jews and Gentiles.

God is going to call to himself through the gospel. And then the forever land that they will inhabit won't be this temporary place that exists on earth, a specific geographical location.

But the heavenly kingdom is truly what we desire. That's talked about in Hebrews 11.

I'll bring that up even as we go through these last couple of chapters, 65 and 66. So let me break down this chapter here,

Isaiah 65, I'll break it down for you more specifically. So first of all, in verses 2 through 7, we have the rejection of those

Jews who did not repent of their unbelief. Then in verses 8 through 10, we have a mention of a remnant.

And also in verse 10, a mention of those Gentiles who will come to fellowship with God because of the gospel call that is going to go out.

And then in verses 11 to 16, the judgment of God that will continue out on those who remain rebellious.

In verses 17 to 25, we have the blessings that will come upon those who indeed come into the favor of the

Lord. We might get that far today. We'll see. So let's come back to verse 1 where the

Lord says, I permitted myself to be sought by those who did not ask for me. I permitted myself to be found by those who did not seek me.

I said, here am I, here am I, to a nation which did not call on my name.

Now that verse kind of sets up the chapter. And there are a couple of different ways in which we could take that.

It could be that God is responding only to the Jews, which would have been the people that were praying at the end of chapter 64.

How long, oh Lord, are you going to forget us? Are you going to restore us to yourself or are you going to leave us in this exile and destroy us?

This again is the last verse of Isaiah 64. Will you restrain yourself at these things, oh Yahweh?

Will you keep silent and afflict us beyond measure? And so God's response here is not really a direct response to that question that came at the end of that prayer.

It's really God responding as God will respond. He is under no obligation to have to answer us directly by whatever question that we may ask.

And so with the way that he states this at the beginning of 65, it could be in reference to either

Jew or Gentile. So we could be speaking specifically to the Jews since that would be the prayer that concludes at the end of 64, or it could be that God is saying this to everybody.

There's a certain context in which this applies to the Jews and another context in which this applies to Gentiles.

Because of course we read in Romans chapter one that God has made the evidence of his existence plain to all.

Romans 1 20, for since the creation of the world, his invisible attributes, both his eternal power and divine nature have been clearly seen being understood through what has been made so that they are without excuse.

And we know that those in the world who do not seek God as talked about in Romans three, they do not call on his name.

He has made himself known. I have permitted myself to be found by those who did not seek me.

I said, here am I, here am I to a nation which did not call on my name. So that could be talking about those rebellious

Jews. It does also have application to Gentiles. So Isaiah 65 one kind of sets this up.

And then the next section, as I mentioned in the outline versus two through seven address those those rebellious

Jews that don't ever come back, they don't ever come to repentance, but they remain in rebellion against God.

Verse two, I have spread out my hands all day long to a rebellious people who walk in the way which is not good following their own thoughts.

Now we see that same reference come up in Romans where Paul talks there in Romans about a rebellious people.

They knew God. They had been given the oracles of God, and yet they rebelled against God. But there would be a remnant that God would save.

We hear the reference to the remnant coming up here shortly. So verse three, a people who continually provoke me to my face, offering sacrifices in gardens and burning incense on bricks.

This is sacrifices where God did not permit sacrifices to be offered incense where incense was not to be burned.

They're worshipping their own way. They're not worshipping the way that God has said is to be worshipped. They're doing it really like the pagans.

And so verse four, who sit among graves and spend the night in secret places who eat swine's flesh and the broth of offensive meat is in their pots.

Those things that God did not permit them to eat. And remember when we talked about when we were in Mark seven, if you're with me in the

Mark study as well, it was in Mark seven where Jesus had said to his disciples and to the crowds that nothing that goes into a person can defile him.

But it's what comes out of a person that defiles him. What goes into a person goes into the stomach and is then expelled.

It goes into the sewer. And then you had the parenthetical reference there. Thus, he declared all foods clean.

And we see also in Acts 10 where Jesus appears to Peter, says, rise, Peter, kill and eat.

And Peter at first abstains and says, I can't do this, God. I've never eaten anything that has defiled me in this way before.

And Jesus says to him, do not call unclean what God has called common. And what this was communicating to Peter is that these foods, which

God at one point had said, these are clean and these are unclean. The purpose of that was to create separation between Jew and Gentile.

But that separation doesn't exist anymore because of Christ who reconciles

Jew and Gentile to himself. So don't try to separate yourself from Gentiles because of the foods that they eat.

All foods have been declared clean because there's no longer separation between Jew and Gentile here at this particular time, though, with regard to these

Jews, the Jews were not keeping themselves holy. They were not keeping themselves separate and unto the

Lord. They were intermingling with Gentiles, which which wasn't the crime in and of itself.

It was the problem, the fact that they were also adopting Gentile customs and worshiping Gentile gods.

They were doing pagan things. So that's the statement behind they they sit among graves, which was considered unclean to Jews.

They were not to do that. They eat swine's flesh and the broth of offensive meat is in their pot.

Those pots that were to be kept clean, that were only supposed to be there, that were supposed to be reserved for foods that God had called clean.

But this is symbolizing and it is showing that this rebellious people has gone after false gods.

They are no different than the Gentiles. Even the stuff that they eat is the stuff that Gentiles offer to their false gods.

In verse five, they say, keep to yourself, do not come near me, for I am holier than you.

Does that not describe exactly the Pharisees that Jesus was confronting in Mark seven? He was saying of those

Pharisees that they exalt their tradition over God's word. And they were telling the people that in order to truly be holy, you have to keep these traditions.

So it was as though to say for the Pharisees to say, I'm holier than God. Because I have these extra laws that I keep and even above and beyond what it is that God has said we are to do.

So I am holier than even the Lord himself. That was the blasphemy that they committed with all their extra traditions that they elevated over the commandments of God.

And the Lord says, these are smoke in my nostrils, a fire that burns all the day.

He will pour out his wrath and his judgment on this rebellious people. And we see this happen in all different kinds of religious traditions, too, in Roman Catholicism, all the extra rules, laws, traditions that they have poured out on top of God's commandments so that they have elevated the tradition over God's commands.

And you are only holy if you do all these things that the Roman Catholic Church tells you to do.

Greek or Eastern Orthodoxy, same thing. Mormonism, Jehovah's Witnesses. All of these extra commands that God has not given.

And you must do these things in order to truly be holy. God says of these false traditions, these false religions, these are smoke in my nostrils and a fire that burns all the day.

Verse six, behold, it is written before me, I will not keep silent, but I will repay.

I will even repay into their bosom. Their very hearts would be judged because of their rebellion against God.

Verse seven, both their own iniquities and the iniquities of their fathers together, says Yahweh, because they have burned incense on the mountains and reproached me on the hills.

They have gone out with the pagans. They have gone to high places where God had said he was not to be worshiped there.

Therefore, I will measure their former work into their bosom, says the

Lord. Now we have the next statement that comes from Yahweh in verses eight through, we go through about 12 here.

And this particular section is where God saves a remnant unto himself.

So let me start here in verse eight. Thus says Yahweh, as the new wine is found in the cluster.

And one says, do not make it a ruin for there is benefit in it. So I will act on behalf of my slaves in order not to make all of them a ruin.

Now notice the qualifier there. It's not just, I won't make them a ruin. I won't make all of them a ruin.

Some of them will come to ruin. Some of them will have judgment poured out on them. Exactly what

God had said in the previous section. These are smoke in my nostrils and a fire that burns all the day.

But I will not make all of them a ruin. Verse nine, I will bring forth a seed from Jacob and a possessor of my mountains from Judah.

Even my chosen ones shall possess it and my slaves will dwell there.

Now, oftentimes when God promises a seed, the context is probably in reference to Christ. But in particular here, it's talking about a remnant.

There will be a remnant that comes from this group. God will preserve for himself and his slaves will dwell on his chosen mountain.

Verse 10, Sharon will be a pasture land for flocks and the Valley of Acre, a resting place for herds for my people who seek me.

These are places that had previously been said were a desolation. We've also read in Isaiah about being a wilderness and a haunt for jackals.

But these places will soon again become pasture land for flocks. There will be flourishing there.

There will be goodness there. Bounty, the Valley of Acre, a resting place for my people who seek me.

But you who forsake Yahweh, who forget my holy mountain, who set a table for fortune and who fill cups with mixed wine for destiny.

OK, now the warning coming again for those who don't remember God and don't worship him in the way that he has said he is to be worshipped.

I teased out a moment ago that verse 10 also has a reference to Gentiles. Well, these are Gentile places,

Sharon and the Valley of Acre. And yet even in those places that had been inhabited by Gentiles, they will come and know the

Lord and God's blessing will be upon them. But those who forsake Yahweh, even if they dwell in the land that God had given to the descendants of Abraham, verse 12,

I will destine you for the sword and all of you will bow down to the slaughter because I called, but you did not answer.

I spoke, but you did not hear. And you did what was evil in my eyes and chose that in which

I was not pleased. Now let me remind you that everything that we have prophesied here, all of this was declared and written a hundred years before Judah was exiled into Babylonian captivity.

Remember, all of this is coming from the pen of Isaiah. Isaiah, the prophet to whom

God had showed these things. This was before Judah's wickedness had reached such heights that God brought these enemies against them so that Jerusalem would be sacked, the temple destroyed, and Judah would be exiled into the hands of the

Babylonians. This is all being said before that even happens. And yet we have promises here in Isaiah about how they will be delivered from that and they will be restored to their land.

So there are people who rebelled against God. They had worshiped false gods, ignoring the warning that came from the prophet.

And so then what was said by the prophet would be fulfilled. They would be conquered by their enemies.

But while they're in that captivity, they have that opportunity to repent and that God will restore them back to their land.

There will be others who will continue to not repent and God's destruction will be upon them, whereas he will preserve his remnant.

The rest, though, that did not hear the Lord, that would not turn from their sin, they continued in their rebellion.

God says, I will destine you for the sword. That will be your destiny. And all of you bow down to the slaughter because I called, but you did not answer.

And I spoke, but you did not hear. There was a man on social media not long ago.

His name was Richard, and he made this particular statement. And he said, the future of the LGBTQ plus affirming church is exceptionally bright.

The non -inclusive church, not so much. So he's saying that God will bless a church that affirms and approves of all of these sexual perversions that God has promised that he will judge.

Yes, their future is exceptionally bright in the sense that they will burn with intense heat in the judgment of God because they had heard the call of God.

They know what the scriptures plainly teach that God will judge with fire.

These people who do these abominable acts, but they ignored the warnings and continued in their sin.

And then the judgment of God came and swept them away. Now, my friends, there are any number of examples that I could use to show you what

God has promised that he will judge. Colossians 3, 5, consider yourselves as dead to sin, put to death what is earthly in you, sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry.

On account of these things, the wrath of God is coming upon the sons of disobedience.

In them you once walked when you were living in them, but now you must put them all away. Wrath, anger, malice, slander, and obscene talk from your mouth.

Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with all of its evil practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after its creator.

So there are things that God has promised that he is going to judge, sins, that if we persist in those things in rebellion against God, we love the sin instead of the

Savior, then we will come to destruction. We ignored that call of God that had gone out to turn from that sin to the

Lord Jesus Christ. We persisted in the sin to our own destruction. I called,

God will say on that day, but you did not answer. I spoke, but you did not hear.

And you did what was evil in my eyes and chose that in which I was not pleased.

The scripture has warned us of this, of the judgment of God that is coming. Do not take that lightly.

Be convicted of your sin. Feel it in your bosom. Just as God had said earlier, feel that conviction right down into your heart, that you may know that there is salvation and forgiveness of sins in Christ alone, that you may turn from evil and learn to do good, which was the call of Isaiah in the very first chapter.

In Isaiah chapter one, cease to do evil, verse 16, learn to do good, verse 17.

And this is the same call that goes out to every single one of us, that we would learn of the righteousness of Jesus Christ, which we are clothed in when we come to faith in him.

Now, that's as far as we're getting today in our study of Isaiah chapter 65. And we'll pick up our study in this chapter as we get closer to the end of our study of Isaiah.

We'll be back into this next week. In the meantime, hear the call of God, turn from sin to the

Lord Jesus Christ and live. Heavenly father, we thank you for what we have read here today.

Good reminders that we always need, how weak we are in our flesh, the tendency that we have to want to run back to the passions of our own flesh.

Like a dog returns to its vomit, like a sow that returns to wallow in the mire.

So we are so weak to do sometimes that we need to be reminded of the call of God to be holy as God is holy.

Forgive us our sins and may we follow Christ in these days. Living unto the

Lord in what we say and do today. It's in Jesus name that we pray. Amen.

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