Isaiah Lesson 5

We're in chapter two, now chapter one, you guys can probably teach this for me now. Chapter one was a courtroom scene. And in that courtroom scene, the nation of Israel is brought before the Lord. You have Satan accusing, but you have the nation brought before the Lord.

Verse two expresses their rebelliousness. And in verse four, it talks about a sinful nation, people laden with iniquity. You have forsaken your God. It talks about them being struck down so much so that the sores can't be healed.

You know, they're totally, totally in sin. In verse 13, and then verse 15, he even gets to the point that says, even the offerings that you are providing to me are nothing but vanity. And there almost has to be the question, but you told us to do these offerings.

But the reality then is, yes, they're doing these offerings. They're doing what they're prescribed to do, ceremonially, repetitiously, ritualistically, but there's no heart. And so then he says, even when you pray, even when you spread your hands, I won't hear you.

And I think it was, Bob, last week I said, even if you pray, and I think he said right back at you, because if God speaks to them and they don't listen, well, why would they think God would turn to them?

And so the fullness of their rebellion, their fullness is laid bare in this courtroom scene. They're given the opportunity for forgiveness. Once again, Jerusalem is shown to be fallen, but there is a promise for future cleansing at the end of the chapter.

We move into chapter two, and it's going to shift into a future promise. So if I were to ask you for some descriptions about what the full restoration for Israel will look like, when will it happen and what will it look like, the full restoration for Israel?

The millennial kingdom.

Okay, Rich says the millennial kingdom. Jesus reigns and rules in Jerusalem. What else would you say will full restoration look like? Let's take a look. And by the way, as we do this, I want to set an important foundational understanding.

We've been, and we will be blessed this Sunday by Andrew Rapoport, who is quite well known. He's universally known as an apologetic expert. He's a completed Jew who has found truth in the scripture, and he has studied it, and he proclaims it.

He conducts seminars. So he's giving us a two-week overview on the difference between covenant theology and dispensationalism. And there were three levels that he expressed it in, and one of them was on the very far extreme, and he went over there, at the very extreme of the covenant theology, Israel is replaced by the church, okay?

And that anything you read in scripture is taken allegorically. There are meanings underneath the meanings, which pretty much allow you to make it say anything you want it to say. At the other end of the scriptures, everything is to be taken extremely literal.

I'm sorry?

That's her. That's me, I'm sorry.

Please do. Somewhere in the middle are those things that are, you take the Bible literally, unless it's obviously meant to be taken symbolically. An example, you have heard it said of the people, thou shalt not commit adultery.

But I tell you that if you look at a woman lustfully, you have committed adultery in your heart. Therefore, if your right eye causes you to sin, pluck it out and throw it away. And if your right hand causes you to sin, chop it off and throw it away.

It is better to be without your hand than to be. It's not literally telling you, if you look at a woman lustfully, chop your hand off. There is a message behind that. I bring that up to say that if the Bible is clearly, clearly literal, take it literally.

Where Jesus is is a door, he's not literal, a door.

And that's a good example too. I am not, he is not a door, he is the door. And so I bring that up because as we get into looking at the end times, we believe it's important to understand that Israel is Israel.

And God's promise to Israel has not been voided. There is not a new covenant that has replaced it. And he brought out that it's interesting because we tend to think covenant theology, ooh, that's bad.

Dispensational theology, oh, that's really good. But the reality is the difference from one dispensation to the next is the various covenants. So it's looking almost at the same thing from different perspectives.

But when we talk about the millennial kingdom, it's Israel being restored and it's Israel along with the rest of the believers, all of the nations through you, all nations will be blessed. There's one other thing that's important to note in the full restoration of Israel in the millennial kingdom is at that point in time, Satan's bound for 1 ,000 years.

And so truth can reign, truth can reign on the earth. As we get into this, into chapter two, the first five verses, we're gonna look at something called the latter days. We're gonna look at something called the mountain of the Lord.

We will see that all nations are going to come to it. The law will go out and true judgment will go out and the light of God will prevail. The big picture of where we're going. So let's open with a word of prayer.

Father, as we turn to your word, we are grateful for the gift of your word. We acknowledge as it is your inspired word. We thank you that the Holy Spirit opens our eyes to what are words on a page, to learning about you, to learning about ourselves, to growing into you.

So this passage, we pray, Lord, for your anointing on this time. We pray in Jesus' name, amen. I'm going to pass readings around again. Hopefully it's gonna get picked up on the mic. I don't know if you guys noticed, but two weeks ago on the video, everybody could be heard.

Last week on the video, only the table could be heard. And I don't understand. I've spoken with Michael Stockland. He's gonna do everything he can to do it. But if you get a chance to speak, if you can speak up as much as you can, I will try to repeat the comments.

For those of you who are watching on the video, I'll tell you what the passage is. I won't repeat the passage. You can follow along with us in your scriptures. Sandy, you are gonna be my Isaiah person.

So you don't have to go looking for anything else. You're gonna be an Isaiah too. Nancy, I'm gonna ask if you would get your Bible open to Micah. Sandy, show her where that is, Micah 4 on my paper. She can find Micah, but show her where it is on the paper.

And Louise, you're gonna get, I'm down the page a little bit, Daniel 9. I'm gonna speak to some passages, read some. Daniel 9, Ezekiel 43, Dave, if you see that further down. And Ezra 6, Bob, if you would get that ready as we go down.

Sandy, give me the first five verses of Isaiah 2, please.

Yes.

Take out of Jacob that he may teach us concerning his ways and that we may walk in his paths. For the law will go forth from Zion in the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. And he will judge between the nations and will render decisions for many peoples.

And they will hammer their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not lift up sword against the nation. And never again will they learn war. Come, house of Jacob, and let us walk in the light of the word of the Lord.

Okay, we're gonna take this just a little bit at first because I need, this is now a context setting. Prophecies often have various peaks as to when they're going to be made full. And we believe in our church, in our understanding, that not all prophecy was completed by 70 AD.

I recognize that there are those who do. We believe that there are prophetic indications of things that are gonna come as far out as the 70th week of Daniel, the tribulation, beyond that, the millennial reign.

And I do recognize that there are different theologies on the millennial kingdom. There are those who say that it's gonna come after the tribulation, after the second coming of Christ. There are those who say that it will be ushered in as the church gradually sanctifies the earth and we become worthy of it.

And then Christ will come and then there'll be a millennial reign. And then there are those who believe that the millennial reign is just an allegory. It's not a literal thousand years. And I will say that our position here is that the millennial reign will occur after what's known as the 70th week of Daniel, the tribulation.

Christ returns on glory. He lands on Mount of Olives where he left from. And then he establishes his reign here for a literal thousand years. Okay, we're looking at this prophecy and just the very beginning of it.

Sandy, start verse two. I will rudely interrupt you.

Verse two?

Yes.

Now it will come, about that age.

There.

Now, actually verse one is also in there because he's talking the words of Isaiah concerning who? In verse one.

Judah and Jerusalem.

Judah and Jerusalem. And this is also an important thing to note because in chapter one, what does he refer to them as? Sodom and Gomorrah and Ahur. And the courtroom indictment against the wickedness of who they've become.

As we get into chapter two, there's a big old pointer out into the future and he says the words of Isaiah, the son of Amos, concerning Judah and Jerusalem. There is a sense of affection that God has towards his people and now he again is referring to them by the name which he has given them, by the calling which he has given them.

They are Judah, they are Jerusalem. It shall come to pass when? All right, so I'm going to ask you, what does that refer to and why do you think it refers to that? Okay, Rick's saying the days before the second coming of the Lord Jesus, Neba.

Okay, and Neba indicates the first coming of Jesus which I think you're talking about a rapture where Jesus descends from heaven, brings the saints back with him.

I was actually talking.

You're talking about the Messiah.

I was talking about when Christ first came.

And died on the cross. Okay, so you're talking about the Messiah's come and reign and dying until the second day. You guys are both correct, depending on what you're looking at in scripture. A lot of the writings and the epistles in the latter days, these things take place and so you are both correct.

The 69th week of Daniel ending at the cross. When Messiah's cut off and then we have this blank period of time. It's called the parentheses. It's called the church age. And then we have the 70th week of Daniel.

We have the tribulation, the great tribulation that occurs. We're gonna look at a couple of passage. Daniel nine is actually what I was talking about just now. It talks about the 70 weeks. It talks about the end of sin and the bringing in of everlasting righteousness all right, at the end of it.

I don't believe it's logical or even realistic to say that during the seven years of the tribulation that sin has ended or that righteousness has come in. So there appears to be another reality beyond those.

The elimination of sin on earth and the establishment of righteousness occurs when? When does the elimination of sin and the establishment of righteousness occur? When Jesus comes to rule and reign. Now, oh, by the way, there's a reality to that because what happens at the end of a thousand years?

Yeah, he's released and there are people that he's able to deceive again. And this is an oh, by the way, who gets to enter into the millennial kingdom? Okay, we meaning, I'm sorry?

The believers in Jesus Christ.

The believers in Jesus Christ get to go into the millennial kingdom. How can those people be deceived at the end of a thousand years? And the answer is they can't. You are sealed.

Go ahead, Neva.

Neva's absolutely right. During the millennial reign, there will be procreation. There will be children's children's children.

I'm sorry?

Who perhaps are not born again. There still is the opportunity for their heart to turn to God in the perfect of all situations when he's ruling and some of the things we're gonna read here, but there are still gonna be those who don't because at the end of it, but during that thousand year reign, without Satan on earth, there is established perfect righteousness.

Who's got mic up for three? Nancy, if you could read that.

And he will judge between and render decisions for the distant nations. Then they will hammer their swords into plowshares.

Is that Micah four?

Yeah.

Okay, go ahead. Yeah, go ahead, I'm sorry.

And their spears into pruning books. Nation will not lift up sword against nation and never again will they train. You have it written on your paper, Micah. Four, one, three.

Yes, that's what she read.

One, two, three.

I'm sorry, it's Micah four.

Yes, you said Micah. Four, three.

I apologize. Micah four. You did what I said, but not what I meant. You don't read my mind, Nancy. Micah four, verses one to three.

Thank you.

In the last days, that the mountain of the house of the Lord will be established as the chief of the mountains. It will be raised above the hill and the people will stream to it. And many nations will come and say, come and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord and to the house of God of Jacob, that he may teach us about his ways and that we may walk in his path.

For from Zion will go forth the law, even the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. He will judge between many peoples and render decisions for mighty distant nations. Then they will hammer their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning books.

Nation will not lift up sword against nation and never again will they train for war.

Much of what's in there is in this prophecy in Isaiah. If I tie these verses, what Nancy just read, Daniel nine to 70 weeks, Revelation 20, talking about what is going to occur in the first four verses of Revelation 20, what occurs after Jesus returns to the Mount of Olives and it's the millennial reign, it is this that we're seeing in Isaiah chapter two.

Isaiah chapter two is a prophetic proclamation of what will be occurring during the millennial reign. We shouldn't necessarily look for its complete fulfillment right now, but it will come to be. Now, continuing in verse two, Sandy, start again and I'll tell you when to stop.

Okay, all right, so now we're talking about, in the end days, in the millennial reign, Jesus is reigning. He's talking about the mountain of the house of the Lord will be what?

I'm sorry?

It will be raised above the hills. As we are studying in the book of Isaiah, the nation is, well, it's already been partially captured. Jerusalem falls last after the siege. And at that point in time, what happens to the temple when Jerusalem falls, what happens to the temple?

It's destroyed. Under the reign, under the time, the ministry of Ezra, 70 years later, what happens to the temple? They start to, and then eventually they rebuild it. But there's something missing on that temple.

I'm gonna pass up on Daniel nine. Daniel nine is talking about God will turn his wrath away from Jerusalem. Again, Daniel is written while they're in captivity and while the nation is under judgment. And God is saying, my wrath will turn away from you.

In Ezekiel 40, the prophet is given a vision from a mountain looking down on the city that will be rebuilt. And the specks from chapter 40, in 41, 42, 43, on how that city is to be rebuilt. And if you go into the book of Nehemiah, how very carefully they build the walls according to the specks.

Who's got Ezekiel 43, one to five for me?

I do.

Yeah.

Then he led me to the gate, the gate facing east. And the sound of his coming, the vision I saw was just like the vision that I had seen when he came to destroy the city. And just like the vision that I had seen by the Chabar Canal, and I fell on my face.

As the glory of the Lord entered the temple by the gate facing east, the spirit lifted me up and brought me into the inner court. And behold, the glory of the Lord filled the temple.

As the temple is originally constructed, when was the tabernacle first constructed? Not the temple. When was the tabernacle first constructed? In the wilderness, Moses. And as the tabernacle is completed and the priests are getting ready to enter, what happens at that moment?

Glory of the God filled the temple. We call it the Shekinah glory. And then forwarding beyond, David wanted to build the temple, but he was not allowed to. His son Solomon would build it. And in 1 Kings 8, the temple is now completed.

And as the temple is completed and the Ark of the Covenant is placed inside the Holy of Holies, what happens in the temple? The Shekinah glory comes back. And that's where God's glory resides. Until 586 BC, and the temple is destroyed.

And then under the ministry, at the time of Ezra, the temple is rebuilt. Just for time, I'm going to highlight what happens there. The temple is rebuilt and the sacrifices are resumed and the ministry of the priests are resumed.

There is never an indication that the Shekinah glory comes back. But the Shekinah glory has not yet come back. If we read here in Isaiah 2, the temple is going to be fully established. It is going to be in its entire original expression.

And if we read in Ezekiel, he is given a vision of this temple and how it's going to be rebuilt. And it says the glory of the Lord returns. This has not yet happened. This prophetic utterance that the mountain will be established, the house of the Lord will be established, it will be established and complete, the glory of the Lord will there, is going to occur in the millennial kingdom.

And it's a future promise that Israel can have. Today, they don't have that. And even in the time of Ezra, they didn't have that. They had the temple and they had the sacrifices. And God said that he would restore their hearts to them.

But this one last provision, the glory of God residing in the temple is yet to come.

Yeah.

I'm going to have to research that one, Neva. You're talking about before exile. No, no, no, you're talking about before exile. And Rich, you have a comment? I will have to research that one. I will research that.

And we will have a chance to talk about that next week. I don't have the answer to that question. Sandy, continue on in verse two and starting into verse three. I'm sorry, go ahead, Nancy. No, Sandy's my Isaiah person.

Okay.

He'll come back to you. Sandy, if you could take us the rest of verse two and starting into verse three.

Go, come, let us go to the house of the God of Jacob, that they may teach us concerning his ways and that they may walk in his paths.

That's good right there. At the end of the time, yes, Nancy, she remembered.

I remember the temple and every other building fails because God is going to live in the people.

I would agree with that. And if you think that the structure of brick and mortar is the answer, it's not, it's God, it's God's presence. I would agree with that.

From scripture, we go through these processes to Jesus to live in me, having to go to a building that I can be at home and Christ lives in me. And I can talk to him and cry to him and plead with him. I have to go to the temple to do it.

I can sit in my chair and look at a wall and know the Lord's there.

I would agree with what you're saying in our current age, the age of the church age, yeah, where we have the Holy Spirit that dwells within us. We go to Hebrews, we have a great high priest who sits making intercession before us at the throne of God.

I would absolutely, totally agree with that. There is a time when he's going to return and he's going to establish his reign on earth. And so that's going to look a little different than it does now. We will have, we will actually have direct interaction with the God of all creation.

Not honoring God.

Before the return, before the millennial kingdom, things are going to go real bad. Here's an interesting, here's an interesting thought. I don't believe we've seen the introduction of the tribulation period yet.

And even if we have, we haven't seen a rise of the Antichrist yet. When you get through, I think it's the, is it the vials, the trumpets and then the bowls? I think that's the sequence. When you get to the end, it gets real bad.

It gets real bad. If it's bad now, it seals trumpets and the vials, bowls. If you get down to the end, if you think it's bad now, it's going to be, I want to take what you're saying, because it's important and to take a look at what's going on in the world today.

And as we continue on in this passage, there are some amazing things to be hopeful for. Sandy, give me verses, you already read that, two through three. A. It says that all nations are going to flow to Jerusalem.

Many people are going to say, let's go to the mountain of the Lord, his temple, his very, very presence. Let's go to the house of the God of Jacob.

Why?

In the passage, why do they want to go there? What is, what are they going to, what are they going to find when they go there? That's true. In the passage, what does it say there? Going to teach us his ways and we will, and we will obey and we will walk in his paths.

The amazing reality that at that point in time, the world is going to accept and desire and turn. If you read in Isaiah 14, it says, strangers are going to say, let's go, let's be attached to the house of Jacob.

And if you read Zechariah 14, anybody that's left from those nations at that point in time are going to come, are going to come and worship. Okay, so there are different terms. There's the millennial reign and you have premillennial, postmillennial, amillennial, and then there's the rapture, which is located in time somewhere around the tribulation, perhaps.

By the way, Andrew Rappaport said that he is pro-millennial. He's in favor of it. Well, and then there's pan-tribulation. It's all going to pan out in the end. There are theologies that say that before the beginning of the 70th week of Daniel, the church will be removed from the earth in the rapture.

Then there are those who put it somewhere in the middle and there are two variations of that mid-trib and pre-wrath rapture. The final seven, the vials, are pretty intense and there's the feeling that that's the great, there's the tribulation, there's the great tribulation and that the church won't have to go through the great tribulation.

Perhaps it'll go through the cleansing of the earth, but we will be gone for this final cleansing. Then you have the second coming of Christ at the end of the tribulation. I intentionally, when I'm in a teaching or preaching mode, do not declare which one I am.

I can talk to you about the scriptures, but I do believe in a literal rapture. I will say that. I do believe in a literal seven-year tribulation period, the 70th week of Daniel, and I do believe in the literal return of Christ after that 70 years and a literal thousand-year reign.

I do believe in that, but the thousand-year reign does not incur until after the rapture, wherever the rapture is, because eventually it's God's return. The picture is going to be the desire for all people to come to Jerusalem.

Dave, I'm going to ask you if you get Zechariah 8 .23. Why are people going to go to Jerusalem? Why are they going to be drawn? Why are they going to be attracted to Jerusalem? What is there? The temple.

What else is there? Good answer.

I'm sorry?

The king of kings. What else is there? Well, it'll be the capital. It's God's reign here on earth. What else is there? The Holy Spirit is there. Keep going. What else is there?

The temple.

The temple. Can you imagine having the ability to go somewhere where you know truth is proclaimed? Where you know that the absolute truth is proclaimed. Could you imagine going somewhere where the real law is established and enforced?

I mean, that gives me chills to think that that's going to happen. And for the nations, even not just the Jews, the attraction of real truth, the attraction of the real law, the attraction of this is going to have them want to come so much so that Dave's going to read 8 .23 in Zechariah.

Thus saith the Lord, these 10 men shall take hold of the temple.

People are going to want to go, and they will recognize. By the way, if you want one verse to go to that says the church has replaced Israel, and it hasn't, 10 people from the nations are going to take one Jew and say, they take us to your home.

Okay, there's one good verse you can say. The Jews have not been replaced by the church because it's theirs. The temple is theirs, and all nations are going to desire it. Sandy, give me, continue in verse three, if you would.

It is going to be the center of everything. Out of Jerusalem is going to come the law. Out of Jerusalem is going to come the very word of the Lord to be presented. One of the things, I'm not going to go into too deep right now, and it comes down to the reality that at the end of the thousand years, Satan is released, and he will deceive those.

And yeah, so I don't believe, and we can talk about this. It's beyond the scope of today. That just because you're living in the millennial kingdom does not mean you're a believer. I think that that's pretty obvious.

Just because you're living in there, you may have been born, and you may not be a believer. And I think that the logical statement then is that not everybody in the millennial kingdom has the Holy Spirit.

And the Holy Spirit interprets and teaches us and guides us. But I will say that during the millennial reign, in the entire world, the word of God goes forth from the giver of the word of God, who's going to be reigning.

Going to be reigning. Yes, that's that thousand years where he has been bound, where he has been bound. And then at the end of it, they come out. And then at the end of it, they come out. Which means that there are disputes.

They were given the covenant. Some of them told their ancestors. So then some will be that remnant in the millennium.

Yeah.

Louisa, you bring up a great point. The responsibility of parents, grandparents, to let the light of truth shine into their families.

It also proves how sinful, how sin, sinful sin is. Because they're living in a perfect environment.

For a thousand years,.

Yet they're still willing to sin. Because like Jeremiah 17, nine says, that the heart of man is desperate and wicked. You know, the sin nature is still there in spite of living in the perfect environment for a thousand years.

Yeah, because what's missing at this point in time is the influence of Satan in creation. But the flesh is going to still be the flesh. Sandy, give me verse four, please.

And he will judge between the nations and they will hammer their shears and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not lift up sword against nation and never again will they learn war.

Bob, I don't think you've read yet. I want you to get Joel three verses nine through 11 and then have 17 ready. The first time I read this passage, I didn't read it carefully enough. If you read the Micah passage that Nancy read and you read the Joel passage, you got to read it very carefully because there's an interesting switch going on there.

But there still will be reasons why people feel they have to go to war, except that God will rule in righteousness, the judgment, he'll settle all disputes. There won't be a need for war. Even though people may still have greed, people still may have these things of the flesh.

You're going to have God who's going to be taking care of all of it and keeping everything right. We are told that at that point in time, take your swords, beat them into plowshares because you're not going to need swords anymore.

Give me Joel, if you got that, Bob. Yeah, Joel 3 in Isaiah 11.

Beat your

The number 17. There's something going on in that passage. Did you catch the difference in what he read as to what it says here in Isaiah? Go ahead, beat your plowshares into swords. Go ahead and do it.

Go ahead and assemble your mighty men. Go ahead and think you're going to come to war. It's not going to overcome God. What's what's going on in Joel? And you get 70. They will know. They will know that I am God.

It's almost like a taunt. If you think you're going to be that big and that powerful and that mighty, if you think you're Go ahead and beat them into swords. See what good it does you. But here in Isaiah, it says, there won't be any need for that.

The swords will be beaten into plowshares. The spears will be turned into pruning books. God's going to settle all disputes. There is this amazing future where not only is truth coming out, not only is everybody attracted to it, not only does the temple with the glory, not only is all that returned, but this time on earth is going to be one where nobody's even going to need to learn of war anymore.

And the final thoughts in verse five, please.

Come, house of Jacob, and let us war.

Carol, I'm going to ask you to get in 1 John 1, verses five through seven. Come, O Jacob, let us walk where? What is the light of the Lord? And why is that so amazing? I've shared this with people before.

I don't know how many here. I know Sandy's heard it probably seven or eight times. It's his holiness, but it is that which illuminates and exposes everything. Nothing can be hidden to the light of the Lord.

Back in the 1970s, the Navy converted all of their warships down in the bottom of the ships where all the heavy machinery was. They converted from fluorescent light to incandescent light. They retrofitted the whole Navy.

A fluorescent light, if you've ever seen a fluorescent light that's going bad, you can almost feel the strobe effect. Well, that's always there. It's always there in a fluorescent light. It's alternating back and forth at a frequency based on the frequency of the current.

It's always there. And they found out that if a piece of machinery was turning at some multiple of the frequency of that alternating light, it looked like it was standing still. And people were hurt. Touching what they thought was a standing still when it was actually spinning.

That fluorescent light is not pure. That fluorescent light has darkness in it that hides. So the Navy replaced it with incandescent light, which is just a filament that doesn't have that darkness to it.

The world has light that is not without shadow. The world tries to express, tries to expose, but there is shadow and there is deceit. Except that God's light has no shadow. It is going to expose everything.

Carol, give me what you've got. This is the light. We have a choice to make. What light are we going to choose to walk in? And I'm telling you that the scripture makes it very clear there is one true light that we get to walk in, and that's the light of God.

When we look to the millennial reign throughout the world, it's the light of God. And it's the power of God. It's the love of God. It's the word of God. It's the truth of God that's going to be this thing.

Israel has just come out of a courtroom in chapter one. They've been called Sodom and Gomorrah. They've been called a whore. They've been said, told, your vain worshiping and sacrifices, I don't want them anymore.

Even if you pray, I'm not going to listen. They have been judged and they have found wanting. And then he comes out and he says, I got good news for you though. I've got a time out in the future. I will hold on to you.

You are my people. I will restore the temple. I will return the glory. The nations are even going to be drawn to me. And you're going to be the guide to bring the nations. 10 of them are going to grab ahold of your karma and bring you.

And you'll have a chance to walk in the true light, the hope that they have for the future. We go on from here in the rest of the book.

Go to the book.