ISAIAH 65
OPENS WITH THE LORD ANSWERS THE PRAYER OF THE REMNANT
The immediate answer and the FUTURE ANSWER: The LORD will indeed bless His genuine servants.
Verses 1-7 tells us The LORD sees the shallow repentance of the remnant.
"I was sought by those who did not ask for Me; I was found by those who did not seek Me. I said, "Here I am, here I am," to a nation that was not called by My name. I have stretched out My hands all day long to a rebellious people, who walk in a way that is not good, according to their own thoughts; a people who provoke Me to anger continually to My face; who sacrifice in gardens, and burn incense on altars of brick; who sit among the graves, and spend the night in the tombs; who eat swine's flesh, and the broth of abominable things is in their vessels; 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 silence, but will repay; even repay into their bosom; your iniquities and the iniquities of your fathers together," says the LORD, "Who have burned incense on the mountains and blasphemed Me on the hills; therefore I will measure their former work into their bosom."
WE KNOW NOW...Isaiah 63:7 through 64:12 is the prayer of the remnant, voiced through the prophet Isaiah. It is one of the most beautiful and moving prayers in the Bible.
Yet it DOES NOT seem to be representative of the heart of the Jewish exiles in Babylon. Here, God speaks to that heart, a heart with a shallow repentance.
I was sought by those who did not ask for Me...
WHO IS JESUS TALKING ABOUT HERE?
The Jewish exiles in Babylon were examples of those who did ask for the LORD; but they would not find Him, because for the most part they sought Him insincerely. Yet, God would be found by those who did not seek Him - AND WE KNOW ISAIAH AND ALMIGHTY GOD IS SPEAKING TO THE GENTILE NATIONS WHO WILL WANT TO HEAR AND WHO WILL RECEIVE JESUS CHRIST AND HIS GRACE AND MERCY GIFT OF SALVATION THROUGH HIS WORD.
AND WE KNOW Paul quotes this passage in Romans 10:20-21, AS WELL, WHICH SAYS, "But Isaiah is very bold and says: "I was found by those who did not seek Me; I was made manifest to those who did not ask for Me."
But to THE NATION OF ISRAEL, THEN AND NOW, THE LORD SAYS..."All day long I have stretched out My hands to a disobedient and contrary people."
AND WE KNOW TO, THAT ISAIAH'S WORDS FROM THE LORD JESUS TO THE NATION OF ISRAEL IN EXILE WAS SO BOLD, THAT ISAIAH DIED A MARTYR, HE WAS CUT IN TWO BY HIS UNWORTHY COUNTRYMEN.
I have stretched out My hands all day long to a rebellious people...
AND THIS TELLS US....THAT IT wasn't that the LORD had ignored the Jewish exiles in Babylon, and other like them. He stretched out His hands all day long to them.
AND WE KNOW, THAT SOME DID RESPOND...LIKE Daniel, or like the one prophetically praying in Isaiah 63:7 through 64:12), but most were a rebellious people.
Who walk in a way that is not good, according to their own thoughts...
This defines what it is to be a rebellious people - simply, to walk in a way … according to their own thoughts. To trust in our own wisdom, our own judgment, our own thinking, is to be among the rebellious people.
This idea is repeated in several different places in Scripture.
JUDGES 17:6, 21:25...shows the characterized the wickedness of that age shows it: everyone did what was right in his own eyes.
PROVERBS 14:12, & 16:25 says...There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death.
TODAY THE WORLD TEACHES, AND SADLY BELIEVES THAT To live according to their own thoughts may sound like freedom, but really it is bondage.
ROMANS 12:2...PAUL tells us JESUS CHRIST SOLUTION...to living according to our own thoughts is, to be transformed by the renewing of your mind.
A people who provoke Me to anger continually to My face...
The walk of these people, according to their own thoughts, expresses itself in the most offensive and unholy ways before the LORD.
The people sacrifice in gardens to idols.
THEY DID OFFER THEIR CHILDREN, THEIR BLOOD, THEIR GOODS AND THEIR TIME AND WENT TO PAGAN GARDENS IN EXILE TO WORSHIP AND HONOR THESE PAGAN IDOLS.
They sit among the graves, breaking the commands against contact with the dead (Numbers 19:11).
AND THEN AND NOW, WE SEE LOST AND SAVED SPENDING TIME TO GO TO THE GRAVES OF THE DEAD, SITTING AROUND THE GRAVES, TALKING TO HEADSTONES, SEEKING TO TALK TO DEAD RELATIVES...
AND WHAT IS THE DANGER?
THE ONLY SPIRITS FOUND IN GRAVE YARDS ARE THE DEMONIC...DEMONICS CAN APPEAR AS A DEAD LOVED ONE, THEY LOVE TO TRICK AND DECEIVE AND HARM. THAT IS WHY THE BIBLE WARNS ABOUT COMMUNING WITH SPIRITS...OPENING YOUR MINDS TO SEEK THE DEAD AND THAT IS WHY JESUS SAID LET THE DEAD BURY THE DEAD.
ONCE A PERSON DIES, LOST OR SAVED, THEIR SPIRITS, WHAT MADE THEM WHAT THEY WERE IN LIFE TO ALL OF US IS GONE...THE SHELL, THE BODY GONES INTO THE GROUND, BUT THEIR SPIRITS ARE EITHER INSTANTLY IN HEAVEN OR INSTANTLY IN THE WAITING PRISON OF HELL.
They eat swine's flesh, and drink the broth of abominable things.
WHY WAS GOD SO AGAINST EATING SWINE IN THE OLD TESTAMENT?
PAGAN PEOPLE, RULERS, THOSE WHO DID NOT KNOW ALMIGHTY GOD, WOULD EAT AND OFFER SWINE, WHICH MANY WORSHIPPED AS THE BEST GIFT TO FALSE AND DEMONIC GODS, AS WELL WE REMEMBER DANIEL, AS CAPTIVES IN BABYLON, WERE OFFERED TO EAT THESE SACRIFICED SWINE, AS WELL OTHER ANIMALS, AS WELL PARTAKE OF THE RAW FRESH BLOOD AND WINE MIXED DRINKS CONSUMED BY THEIR BABYLONIAN CAPTORS, FALSE PROPHETS AND FALSE GODS.
THAT IS WHY ALMIGHTY GOD CALLED SWINE UNCLEAN, AMEN.
Each of these sins were GROSSLY offensive to the LORD. It is tragic, but true, that walking according to our own thoughts, or the accepted norms, fads, and new age religiosities of then and now, will always lead us in to direct, blatant, opposition to the LORD.
Yet all the while, even in the midst of such extreme offense before God, they can say, "Keep to yourself, do not come near me, for I am holier than you!" No wonder God considers such people as smoke in My nostrils. Therefore, judgment is promised to them: I will not keep silence, but will repay … your iniquities and the iniquities of your fathers together.
How could anyone think "I am holier than you!" when the are steeped in the sins described in this passage? This is a dramatic display of the blindness pride brings. They could say, "I am holier than you!" and really mean it, because of their deep blindness.
AND WE SEE IT TODAY AS WELL...THOSE WHO CALL THEMSELVES CALLED OF GOD OR THE LORD JESUS...SAYING I BELIEVE, I COMMAND, I SAY, I WILL, I CAN....WHO DOES THAT REMIND US OF....REMEMBER SATAN HIMSELF SAID THE VERY SAME THINGS...I WILL ASCEND, I WILL BE HIGHER THAN GOD,...ETC.
Charles Spurgeon focused his attention of the most religious of the self-righteous: "Those who come with the language of repentance but without the spirit of it, are sometimes the most self-righteous of all, for they say 'I am all right because I am not self-righteous.' They make a self-righteousness out of the supposed absence of self-righteousness. 'Thank God,' say they, 'we are not as other men are, nor even as these self-righteous people.' Hypocrites all the way through. Man is so corrupt that he can be self-righteous over almost anything. "This weed of self-righteousness will grow on any dunghill. No heap of rubbish is too rotten for the accursed toadstool of proud self to grow upon."
Verses 8-16 tells us a PROMISE OF BLESSING for the TRUE SERVANTS of the LORD, and a PROMISE OF CHASTISEMENT for the FALSE OR SHALLOW servants of God.
"Thus says the LORD: "As the new wine is found in the cluster, and one says, 'Do not destroy it, for a blessing is in it,' so will I do for My servants' sake, that I may not destroy them all. I will bring forth descendants from Jacob, and from Judah an heir of My mountains; My elect shall inherit it, and My servants shall dwell there. Sharon shall be a fold of flocks, and the Valley of Achor a place for herds to lie down, for My people who have sought Me. But you are those who forsake the LORD, who forget My holy mountain, who prepare a table for Gad, and who furnish a drink offering for Meni. Therefore I will number you for the sword, and you shall all bow down to the slaughter; because, when I called, you did not answer; when I spoke, you did not hear, but did evil before My eyes, and chose that in which I do not delight." Therefore thus says the Lord GOD: "Behold, My servants shall eat, but you shall be hungry; behold, My servants shall drink, but you shall be thirsty; behold, My servants shall rejoice, but you shall be ashamed; behold, My servants shall sing for joy of heart, but you shall cry for sorrow of heart, and wail for grief of spirit. You shall leave your name as a curse to My chosen; for the Lord GOD will slay you, and call His servants by another name; so that he who blesses himself in the earth shall bless himself in the God of truth; and he who swears in the earth shall swear by the God of truth; because the former troubles are forgotten, and because they are hidden from My eyes."
"Do not destroy it, for a blessing is in it," so will I do for My servants' sake...
WHAT DOES THIS MEAN?
Despite the unholy rebellion and pride of some of the remnant, God still has His servants, and He will bless and restore them. They will be regathered into His land, for He says: "My elect shall inherit it, and My servants shall dwell there." He has a special place for My people who have sought Me.
The picture of Isaiah 65:8 is striking is it not?
The idea is that God finds a FEW "good grapes" among the corrupt cluster of His people. It is for the sake of these - for My servants' sake - that the Lord shows blessing and restores.
BULTEMA says it well of this scripture, "If the Church had clearly understood this simple example, then, it would not have dared to teach Israel's total rejection. Even as He would have saved Sodom for the sake of five righteous people, so He will spare Israel, His vine, for the sake of His servants, the cluster of good grapes."
But you are those who forsake the LORD...
Not all are numbered among the servants of the LORD. They are destined for judgment, because, when I called, you did not answer; when I spoke, you did not hear, but did evil before My eyes, and chose that in which I do not delight. On top of all their other sins is the sin of simply refusing to listen to God's correction.
It is one thing for us to fall into sin through weakness or ignorance; such sin is indeed sin, and God must deal with it as such. But refusing to respond to the conviction of the Holy Spirit is far worse. It is bad enough to be speeding down the highway; it is worse to ignore the flashing red lights in your rearview mirror.
AND WOLF, A CHRISTIAN HISTORIAN, says of the times, on Gad and Meni: "They were presenting offerings to the gods 'Fortune' and 'Destiny,' so their destiny would be the sword."
Behold, My servants shall eat, but you shall be hungry...
Because of this, the true servants of God among the remnant will be blessed, but the false servants will be cursed.
Why?
It is necessary, so that he who blesses himself in the earth shall bless himself in the God of truth. If God does not reward His true servants, and curse His false servants, then God is not shown to be the God of truth.
AND DID YOU KNOW...The God of truth is literally the God of (the) Amen … the God who says 'amen' to all his promises, affirming their reality and his trustworthiness to keep them.
The ultimate answer: The LORD WILL redeem and remake all of creation.
Verses 17-19 tells us the promise of a NEW heavens and a NEW earth.
"For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth; and the former shall not be remembered or come to mind. But be glad and rejoice forever in what I create; for behold, I create Jerusalem as a rejoicing, and her people a joy. I will rejoice in Jerusalem, and joy in My people; the voice of weeping shall no longer be heard in her, nor the voice of crying."
Behold, I create new heavens and a new earth...
RIGHT HERE IN ISAIAH....800+ YEARS BEFORE JOHN WAS GIVEN THE BOOK OF REVELATION BY JESUS CHRIST HIMSELF, THE TRIUNE GOD GAVE THE PROPHETIC PROMISE TO ISAIAH.
As the ultimate answer to the problem of man's sin, God will create a new heavens and a new earth.
AND SINCE WE HAVE STUDIED THE BOOK OF REVELATION, WE KNOW JESUS CHRIST SHOWED ISAIAH THE MILLENIUM, the glorious thousand-year reign of Jesus Christ, when this very earth and sky is done away with and God makes a new heavens and a new earth.
AND WE REMEMBER....Peter, in 2 PETER 3:13, used this promise to encourage believers to holy living: "Nevertheless we, according to His promise, look for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells."
AND IN REVELATION 21:1, John also sees this: "And I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away. Also there was no more sea."
From John's context we KNOW that this new heavens and a new earth comes AFTER the Great White Throne judgment of Revelation 20:11-15) and IT IS NOT CONNECTED with the millennial earth, but with the ETERNAL state.
If all we had to go by was Isaiah's statement, we MIGHT automatically connect this new heavens and a new earth with the millennial earth, because immediately after Isaiah 65:17-19, we clearly find the millennial earth described. But based on what we find in 2 Peter and Revelation, we KNOW ONCE AGAIN that Isaiah is in the prophetic habit of switching quickly from one time frame to another, speaking of the eternal state in Isaiah 65:17, and of the millennial earth in Isaiah 65:20-25.
And the former shall not be remembered or come to mind...
This is another indication that Isaiah 65:17 does NOT speak of the millennial earth.
Other passages of Scripture referring to the 1000 YEAR REIGN OF CHRIST ON THE EARTH, OR THE MILLENNIUM show that there will be definite remembrance of former times on the earth.
JUST AS THE WHOLE TEMPLE RITUAL existing in the millennial earth told to us in EZEKIEL 40-46...will be a remembrance of the former days of Levitical sacrifice.
The former nations of the world will remain (after judgment), and will serve the LORD and Israel also confirmed to us by KING DAVID in PSALM 72.
I create Jerusalem as a rejoicing...
There will be a Jerusalem in the eternal state, in the new heavens and a new earth. Revelation describes - in stunning imagery - the descent of the New Jerusalem from heaven to the new earth (Revelation 21:2-27). It is in this Jerusalem, the eternal New Jerusalem, that the voice of weeping shall no longer be heard in her, nor the voice of crying.
John clearly connects this promise to the New Jerusalem too, told to us in REVELATION 21:4...."And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying; and there shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away."
Verses 20-25 tells us the blessed state of the millennial earth.
"No more shall an infant from there live but a few days, nor an old man who has not fulfilled his days; for the child shall die one hundred years old, but the sinner being one hundred years old shall be accursed. They shall build houses and inhabit them; they shall plant vineyards and eat their fruit. They shall not build and another inhabit; they shall not plant and another eat; for as the days of a tree, so shall be the days of My people, and My elect shall long enjoy the work of their hands. They shall not labor in vain, nor bring forth children for trouble; for they shall be the descendants of the blessed of the LORD, and their offspring with them. "It shall come to pass that before they call, I will answer; and while they are still speaking, I will hear. The wolf and the lamb shall feed together, the lion shall eat straw like the ox, and dust shall be the serpent's food. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all My holy mountain," says the LORD."
No more shall an infant from there live but a few days … for the child shall die one hundred years old...
Quickly - as is the prophetic habit - Isaiah shifts gears, and now speaks not of the eternal state, but of the millennial earth. There will be death in the millennial earth, but in the transformed biology and ecology of the world under the reign of Jesus Christ, people will live INCREDIBLY longer, as they did in the days before the flood.
In the millennial earth, people will live so long that if someone dies being one hundred years old, people will consider that one accursed.
They shall build houses and inhabit them; they shall plant vineyards and eat their fruit...
The millennial reign of Jesus Christ will not only be a time of biological transformation, it will also be a time of social transformation, when perfect justice reigns over the earth.
NEVER AGAIN...will someone be robbed of the fruits of their labor. If you build a house, no one will steal it from you. You will inhabit that house. If you plant vineyards, no one will steal the fruit of it. You will eat their fruit. God gloriously promises, My elect shall long enjoy the work of their hands.
This may not sound like much, but for those who live in profoundly unjust times, this simple justice sounds like a miracle, AMEN!?
AND WE KNOW WHY...REVELATION 20:1-3 CONFIRMS THE WHY OF IT...
One significant reason there will be such justice on the millennial earth is because Satan will be bound for these 1,000 years, unable to work his destructive mischief on the earth.
They shall not labor in vain, nor bring forth children for trouble; for they shall be the descendants of the blessed of the LORD, and their offspring with them...
AND HERE IS ANOTHER ANSWER OF THE 1000 YEAR REIGN OF JESUS CHRIST OVER THE EARTH...
There will be babies born and children raised in the millennial earth, and this is another indication that we are not in the eternal state.
WHY?
BECAUSE IN THE ETERNAL STATE....we neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels of God in heaven told to us in MATTHEW 22:30.
In the millennial earth, those allowed to enter are blessed of the LORD, and they and their descendants will populate the earth.
It shall come to pass that before they call, I will answer; and while they are still speaking, I will hear...
The millennial reign of Jesus Christ will not only be a time of biological and social transformation. It will also be a time of profound spiritual transformation and intimacy. There will be an immediate and constant sense of the presence of God, and His knowledge will cover the earth as promised and prophesied by Isaiah in ISAIAH 11:9.
BUT YOU NOTICE....SOME WRONGLY TEACH AND SAY...THIS MEANS THAT ALL IN THE 1000 YEAR REIGN OF JESUS CHRIST WILL BE SAVED....THIS IS NOT TRUE....THOSE WHO ARE BORN INTO AND LIVE IN THE 1000 YEAR REIGN OF JESUS...STILL MUST CHOOSE JESUS TO BE THEIR LORD, SAVIOR, MASTER, AND FRIEND.
This does not mean that every on the millennial earth will be saved; only that the opportunity for such close relationship will be widely enjoyed. We know that not all will be saved during the millennial earth because other SCRIPTURE CONFIRMS THIS...
WHERE?
REVELATION 20:7-9.... At the conclusion of the time of the millennial earth, Satan is released from his confinement and finds MANY WILLING servants on the earth. "Whom he gathers for one last - and strikingly futile - rebellion against God."
ZECHARIAH 14:16-19 AND PSALM 2 also describe the firm rule of the Messiah during the millennial earth, dealing decisively with those who do not surrender to His reign, enforcing righteousness all over the earth.
Though NOT ALL will be saved on the millennial earth, we may suppose that the proportions will be reversed.
WHAT DOES THAT MEAN?
Today, we see but a REMNANT SAVED. THE WORLD POPULATION IS OVER 7 BILLION, AND IT IS ESTIMATED, AT BEST, THERE IS AT BEST ONLY 1 BILLION SAVED.
BUT THEN MATTHEW 22:14 TELL US, "it is but a remnant that are saved, because many are called but few are chosen.
AS WELL MATTHEW 7:13-14 which says, "And broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it."
In the millennial earth, THE FEW will be those who CHOOSE NOT TO ACCEPT AND KNOW the LORD and are not saved.
One of the reasons why most are saved and know the LORD on the millennial earth is because not all survivors of the Great Tribulation are allowed to populate the millennial earth.
After the Great Tribulation - which in judgment reduces the population of the earth by at least a third told to us in Revelation 9:15, 18 -
Jesus Christ will return to the earth, and in the judgment of the nations, determine who will be allowed to populate the millennial earth.
THIS IS ALSO CONFIRMED IN Matthew 25:32-34. The millennial earth will have a "screened" population, that in terms of righteousness, will not be perfect, but better than the present earth.
The wolf and the lamb shall feed together...
The millennial earth will also see a remarkable ecological transformation. No longer will predators stalk their victims. Instead, even the wolf and the lamb will get along, and the lion shall eat straw like the ox.
"They shall not hurt nor destroy in all My holy mountain," says the LORD...
This is the glorious result of the transformation that happens during the millennial earth. The world will be different biologically, spiritually, socially, and ecologically.
The Bible speaks powerfully to other aspects of the millennial earth.
TRAGICALLY....the Church through history has often IGNORED OR SIMPLY FAR WORSE DENIED...the promise of the millennial reign of Jesus Christ.
The early church until Augustine almost universally believed in an earthly, historical reign of Jesus, initiated by His return.
Tyconius (in the late 300's) was the first to influentially champion a spiritualized interpretation, saying that this Millennium is now (amillennialism).
His view was adopted by Augustine, the Roman Catholic Church and most Reformation theologians. Growing out of amillennialism is the doctrine of postmillennialsim is an outgrowth of amillennialism.
WHAT DOES THAT MEAN....
THEY WRONGLY SAID, TAUGHT, AND BELIEVED the millennium will happen in this age, WE, THE CHURCH, THE RELIGIOSITIES OF THIS WORLD WILL CAUSE IT AND BRING ABOUT A PERFECT MILLENIAL AGE AND THAT PERFECTION WILL CAUSE JESUS RETURN.....
But the clear teaching of the Bible isn't amillennialism or postmillennialism, but what is called premillennialism - the teaching that Jesus Christ will return to this earth BEFORE the millennial earth, and He WILL establish and govern it directly.
There are more than 400 verses in more than 20 different passages in the Old Testament which deal with this time when Jesus Christ rules and reigns personally over planet earth.
THE BIBLE TEACHES AND TELLS US...
King David will have a prominent place in the millennial earth (Isaiah 55:3-5, Jeremiah 30:4-11, Ezekiel 34:23-31, Ezekiel 37:21-28, Hosea 3:5).
There will be blessing and security for national Israel in the millennial earth (Amos 9:11-15).
The Millennium a time of purity and devotion to God (Zechariah 13:1-9).
Israel will be a nation of prominence in the millennial earth (Ezekiel 17:22-24).
There will be a rebuilt temple and restored temple service on the millennial earth (Ezekiel 40-48, Ezekiel 37:26-28, Amos 9:11, Ezekiel 20:39-44).
The New Testament specifically promises a literal reign of Jesus Christ (Luke 1:32-33).
In their resurrected state, the saints will be given responsibility in the Millennial Earth according to their faithful service...Luke 19:11-27, Revelation 20:4-6, Revelation 2:26-28; 3:12,22, 1 Corinthians 6:2-3.
SO RIGHT HERE, ONCE AGAIN IN ISAIAH, IN THE OLD TESTAMENT....WHAT JESUS TAUGHT AND PROMISED AND REVEALED WAS GIVEN TO THE PROPHET ISAIAH 700+ YEARS BEFORE JESUS CHRIST WAS BORN IN A HUMBLE MANGER IN BETHLEHEM.
ISAIAH 65OPENS WITH THE LORD ANSWERS THE PRAYER OF THE REMNANTThe immediate answer and the FUTURE ANSWER: The LORD will indeed bless His genuine servants.Verses 1-7 tells us The LORD sees the shallow repentance of the remnant."I was sought by those who did not ask for Me; I was found by those who did not seek Me. I said, "Here I am, here I am," to a nation that was not called by My name. I have stretched out My hands all day long to a rebellious people, who walk in a way that is not good, according to their own thoughts; a people who provoke Me to anger continually to My face; who sacrifice in gardens, and burn incense on altars of brick; who sit among the graves, and spend the night in the tombs; who eat swine's flesh, and the broth of abominable things is in their vessels; 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 silence, but will repay; even repay into their bosom; your iniquities and the iniquities of your fathers together," says the LORD, "Who have burned incense on the mountains and blasphemed Me on the hills; therefore I will measure their former work into their bosom."WE KNOW NOW...Isaiah 63:7 through 64:12 is the prayer of the remnant, voiced through the prophet Isaiah. It is one of the most beautiful and moving prayers in the Bible.Yet it DOES NOT seem to be representative of the heart of the Jewish exiles in Babylon. Here, God speaks to that heart, a heart with a shallow repentance.I was sought by those who did not ask for Me...WHO IS JESUS TALKING ABOUT HERE?The Jewish exiles in Babylon were examples of those who did ask for the LORD; but they would not find Him, because for the most part they sought Him insincerely. Yet, God would be found by those who did not seek Him - AND WE KNOW ISAIAH AND ALMIGHTY GOD IS SPEAKING TO THE GENTILE NATIONS WHO WILL WANT TO HEAR AND WHO WILL RECEIVE JESUS CHRIST AND HIS GRACE AND MERCY GIFT OF SALVATION THROUGH HIS WORD.AND WE KNOW Paul quotes this passage in Romans 10:20-21, AS WELL, WHICH SAYS, "But Isaiah is very bold and says: "I was found by those who did not seek Me; I was made manifest to those who did not ask for Me."But to THE NATION OF ISRAEL, THEN AND NOW, THE LORD SAYS..."All day long I have stretched out My hands to a disobedient and contrary people."AND WE KNOW TO, THAT ISAIAH'S WORDS FROM THE LORD JESUS TO THE NATION OF ISRAEL IN EXILE WAS SO BOLD, THAT ISAIAH DIED A MARTYR, HE WAS CUT IN TWO BY HIS UNWORTHY COUNTRYMEN.I have stretched out My hands all day long to a rebellious people...AND THIS TELLS US....THAT IT wasn't that the LORD had ignored the Jewish exiles in Babylon, and other like them. He stretched out His hands all day long to them.AND WE KNOW, THAT SOME DID RESPOND...LIKE Daniel, or like the one prophetically praying in Isaiah 63:7 through 64:12), but most were a rebellious people.Who walk in a way that is not good, according to their own thoughts...This defines what it is to be a rebellious people - simply, to walk in a way … according to their own thoughts. To trust in our own wisdom, our own judgment, our own thinking, is to be among the rebellious people.This idea is repeated in several different places in Scripture.JUDGES 17:6, 21:25...shows the characterized the wickedness of that age shows it: everyone did what was right in his own eyes.PROVERBS 14:12, & 16:25 says...There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death.TODAY THE WORLD TEACHES, AND SADLY BELIEVES THAT To live according to their own thoughts may sound like freedom, but really it is bondage.ROMANS 12:2...PAUL tells us JESUS CHRIST SOLUTION...to living according to our own thoughts is, to be transformed by the renewing of your mind.A people who provoke Me to anger continually to My face...The walk of these people, according to their own thoughts, expresses itself in the most offensive and unholy ways before the LORD.The people sacrifice in gardens to idols.THEY DID OFFER THEIR CHILDREN, THEIR BLOOD, THEIR GOODS AND THEIR TIME AND WENT TO PAGAN GARDENS IN EXILE TO WORSHIP AND HONOR THESE PAGAN IDOLS.They sit among the graves, breaking the commands against contact with the dead (Numbers 19:11).AND THEN AND NOW, WE SEE LOST AND SAVED SPENDING TIME TO GO TO THE GRAVES OF THE DEAD, SITTING AROUND THE GRAVES, TALKING TO HEADSTONES, SEEKING TO TALK TO DEAD RELATIVES...AND WHAT IS THE DANGER?THE ONLY SPIRITS FOUND IN GRAVE YARDS ARE THE DEMONIC...DEMONICS CAN APPEAR AS A DEAD LOVED ONE, THEY LOVE TO TRICK AND DECEIVE AND HARM. THAT IS WHY THE BIBLE WARNS ABOUT COMMUNING WITH SPIRITS...OPENING YOUR MINDS TO SEEK THE DEAD AND THAT IS WHY JESUS SAID LET THE DEAD BURY THE DEAD.ONCE A PERSON DIES, LOST OR SAVED, THEIR SPIRITS, WHAT MADE THEM WHAT THEY WERE IN LIFE TO ALL OF US IS GONE...THE SHELL, THE BODY GONES INTO THE GROUND, BUT THEIR SPIRITS ARE EITHER INSTANTLY IN HEAVEN OR INSTANTLY IN THE WAITING PRISON OF HELL.They eat swine's flesh, and drink the broth of abominable things.WHY WAS GOD SO AGAINST EATING SWINE IN THE OLD TESTAMENT?PAGAN PEOPLE, RULERS, THOSE WHO DID NOT KNOW ALMIGHTY GOD, WOULD EAT AND OFFER SWINE, WHICH MANY WORSHIPPED AS THE BEST GIFT TO FALSE AND DEMONIC GODS, AS WELL WE REMEMBER DANIEL, AS CAPTIVES IN BABYLON, WERE OFFERED TO EAT THESE SACRIFICED SWINE, AS WELL OTHER ANIMALS, AS WELL PARTAKE OF THE RAW FRESH BLOOD AND WINE MIXED DRINKS CONSUMED BY THEIR BABYLONIAN CAPTORS, FALSE PROPHETS AND FALSE GODS.THAT IS WHY ALMIGHTY GOD CALLED SWINE UNCLEAN, AMEN.Each of these sins were GROSSLY offensive to the LORD. It is tragic, but true, that walking according to our own thoughts, or the accepted norms, fads, and new age religiosities of then and now, will always lead us in to direct, blatant, opposition to the LORD.Yet all the while, even in the midst of such extreme offense before God, they can say, "Keep to yourself, do not come near me, for I am holier than you!" No wonder God considers such people as smoke in My nostrils. Therefore, judgment is promised to them: I will not keep silence, but will repay … your iniquities and the iniquities of your fathers together.How could anyone think "I am holier than you!" when the are steeped in the sins described in this passage? This is a dramatic display of the blindness pride brings. They could say, "I am holier than you!" and really mean it, because of their deep blindness.AND WE SEE IT TODAY AS WELL...THOSE WHO CALL THEMSELVES CALLED OF GOD OR THE LORD JESUS...SAYING I BELIEVE, I COMMAND, I SAY, I WILL, I CAN....WHO DOES THAT REMIND US OF....REMEMBER SATAN HIMSELF SAID THE VERY SAME THINGS...I WILL ASCEND, I WILL BE HIGHER THAN GOD,...ETC.Charles Spurgeon focused his attention of the most religious of the self-righteous: "Those who come with the language of repentance but without the spirit of it, are sometimes the most self-righteous of all, for they say 'I am all right because I am not self-righteous.' They make a self-righteousness out of the supposed absence of self-righteousness. 'Thank God,' say they, 'we are not as other men are, nor even as these self-righteous people.' Hypocrites all the way through. Man is so corrupt that he can be self-righteous over almost anything. "This weed of self-righteousness will grow on any dunghill. No heap of rubbish is too rotten for the accursed toadstool of proud self to grow upon."Verses 8-16 tells us a PROMISE OF BLESSING for the TRUE SERVANTS of the LORD, and a PROMISE OF CHASTISEMENT for the FALSE OR SHALLOW servants of God."Thus says the LORD: "As the new wine is found in the cluster, and one says, 'Do not destroy it, for a blessing is in it,' so will I do for My servants' sake, that I may not destroy them all. I will bring forth descendants from Jacob, and from Judah an heir of My mountains; My elect shall inherit it, and My servants shall dwell there. Sharon shall be a fold of flocks, and the Valley of Achor a place for herds to lie down, for My people who have sought Me. But you are those who forsake the LORD, who forget My holy mountain, who prepare a table for Gad, and who furnish a drink offering for Meni. Therefore I will number you for the sword, and you shall all bow down to the slaughter; because, when I called, you did not answer; when I spoke, you did not hear, but did evil before My eyes, and chose that in which I do not delight." Therefore thus says the Lord GOD: "Behold, My servants shall eat, but you shall be hungry; behold, My servants shall drink, but you shall be thirsty; behold, My servants shall rejoice, but you shall be ashamed; behold, My servants shall sing for joy of heart, but you shall cry for sorrow of heart, and wail for grief of spirit. You shall leave your name as a curse to My chosen; for the Lord GOD will slay you, and call His servants by another name; so that he who blesses himself in the earth shall bless himself in the God of truth; and he who swears in the earth shall swear by the God of truth; because the former troubles are forgotten, and because they are hidden from My eyes.""Do not destroy it, for a blessing is in it," so will I do for My servants' sake...WHAT DOES THIS MEAN?Despite the unholy rebellion and pride of some of the remnant, God still has His servants, and He will bless and restore them. They will be regathered into His land, for He says: "My elect shall inherit it, and My servants shall dwell there." He has a special place for My people who have sought Me.The picture of Isaiah 65:8 is striking is it not?The idea is that God finds a FEW "good grapes" among the corrupt cluster of His people. It is for the sake of these - for My servants' sake - that the Lord shows blessing and restores.BULTEMA says it well of this scripture, "If the Church had clearly understood this simple example, then, it would not have dared to teach Israel's total rejection. Even as He would have saved Sodom for the sake of five righteous people, so He will spare Israel, His vine, for the sake of His servants, the cluster of good grapes."But you are those who forsake the LORD...Not all are numbered among the servants of the LORD. They are destined for judgment, because, when I called, you did not answer; when I spoke, you did not hear, but did evil before My eyes, and chose that in which I do not delight. On top of all their other sins is the sin of simply refusing to listen to God's correction.It is one thing for us to fall into sin through weakness or ignorance; such sin is indeed sin, and God must deal with it as such. But refusing to respond to the conviction of the Holy Spirit is far worse. It is bad enough to be speeding down the highway; it is worse to ignore the flashing red lights in your rearview mirror.AND WOLF, A CHRISTIAN HISTORIAN, says of the times, on Gad and Meni: "They were presenting offerings to the gods 'Fortune' and 'Destiny,' so their destiny would be the sword."Behold, My servants shall eat, but you shall be hungry...Because of this, the true servants of God among the remnant will be blessed, but the false servants will be cursed.Why?It is necessary, so that he who blesses himself in the earth shall bless himself in the God of truth. If God does not reward His true servants, and curse His false servants, then God is not shown to be the God of truth.AND DID YOU KNOW...The God of truth is literally the God of (the) Amen … the God who says 'amen' to all his promises, affirming their reality and his trustworthiness to keep them.The ultimate answer: The LORD WILL redeem and remake all of creation.Verses 17-19 tells us the promise of a NEW heavens and a NEW earth."For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth; and the former shall not be remembered or come to mind. But be glad and rejoice forever in what I create; for behold, I create Jerusalem as a rejoicing, and her people a joy. I will rejoice in Jerusalem, and joy in My people; the voice of weeping shall no longer be heard in her, nor the voice of crying."Behold, I create new heavens and a new earth...RIGHT HERE IN ISAIAH....800+ YEARS BEFORE JOHN WAS GIVEN THE BOOK OF REVELATION BY JESUS CHRIST HIMSELF, THE TRIUNE GOD GAVE THE PROPHETIC PROMISE TO ISAIAH.As the ultimate answer to the problem of man's sin, God will create a new heavens and a new earth.AND SINCE WE HAVE STUDIED THE BOOK OF REVELATION, WE KNOW JESUS CHRIST SHOWED ISAIAH THE MILLENIUM, the glorious thousand-year reign of Jesus Christ, when this very earth and sky is done away with and God makes a new heavens and a new earth.AND WE REMEMBER....Peter, in 2 PETER 3:13, used this promise to encourage believers to holy living: "Nevertheless we, according to His promise, look for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells."AND IN REVELATION 21:1, John also sees this: "And I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away. Also there was no more sea."From John's context we KNOW that this new heavens and a new earth comes AFTER the Great White Throne judgment of Revelation 20:11-15) and IT IS NOT CONNECTED with the millennial earth, but with the ETERNAL state.If all we had to go by was Isaiah's statement, we MIGHT automatically connect this new heavens and a new earth with the millennial earth, because immediately after Isaiah 65:17-19, we clearly find the millennial earth described. But based on what we find in 2 Peter and Revelation, we KNOW ONCE AGAIN that Isaiah is in the prophetic habit of switching quickly from one time frame to another, speaking of the eternal state in Isaiah 65:17, and of the millennial earth in Isaiah 65:20-25.And the former shall not be remembered or come to mind...This is another indication that Isaiah 65:17 does NOT speak of the millennial earth.Other passages of Scripture referring to the 1000 YEAR REIGN OF CHRIST ON THE EARTH, OR THE MILLENNIUM show that there will be definite remembrance of former times on the earth.JUST AS THE WHOLE TEMPLE RITUAL existing in the millennial earth told to us in EZEKIEL 40-46...will be a remembrance of the former days of Levitical sacrifice.The former nations of the world will remain (after judgment), and will serve the LORD and Israel also confirmed to us by KING DAVID in PSALM 72.I create Jerusalem as a rejoicing...There will be a Jerusalem in the eternal state, in the new heavens and a new earth. Revelation describes - in stunning imagery - the descent of the New Jerusalem from heaven to the new earth (Revelation 21:2-27). It is in this Jerusalem, the eternal New Jerusalem, that the voice of weeping shall no longer be heard in her, nor the voice of crying.John clearly connects this promise to the New Jerusalem too, told to us in REVELATION 21:4...."And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying; and there shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away."Verses 20-25 tells us the blessed state of the millennial earth."No more shall an infant from there live but a few days, nor an old man who has not fulfilled his days; for the child shall die one hundred years old, but the sinner being one hundred years old shall be accursed. They shall build houses and inhabit them; they shall plant vineyards and eat their fruit. They shall not build and another inhabit; they shall not plant and another eat; for as the days of a tree, so shall be the days of My people, and My elect shall long enjoy the work of their hands. They shall not labor in vain, nor bring forth children for trouble; for they shall be the descendants of the blessed of the LORD, and their offspring with them. "It shall come to pass that before they call, I will answer; and while they are still speaking, I will hear. The wolf and the lamb shall feed together, the lion shall eat straw like the ox, and dust shall be the serpent's food. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all My holy mountain," says the LORD."No more shall an infant from there live but a few days … for the child shall die one hundred years old...Quickly - as is the prophetic habit - Isaiah shifts gears, and now speaks not of the eternal state, but of the millennial earth. There will be death in the millennial earth, but in the transformed biology and ecology of the world under the reign of Jesus Christ, people will live INCREDIBLY longer, as they did in the days before the flood.In the millennial earth, people will live so long that if someone dies being one hundred years old, people will consider that one accursed.They shall build houses and inhabit them; they shall plant vineyards and eat their fruit...The millennial reign of Jesus Christ will not only be a time of biological transformation, it will also be a time of social transformation, when perfect justice reigns over the earth.NEVER AGAIN...will someone be robbed of the fruits of their labor. If you build a house, no one will steal it from you. You will inhabit that house. If you plant vineyards, no one will steal the fruit of it. You will eat their fruit. God gloriously promises, My elect shall long enjoy the work of their hands.This may not sound like much, but for those who live in profoundly unjust times, this simple justice sounds like a miracle, AMEN!?AND WE KNOW WHY...REVELATION 20:1-3 CONFIRMS THE WHY OF IT...One significant reason there will be such justice on the millennial earth is because Satan will be bound for these 1,000 years, unable to work his destructive mischief on the earth.They shall not labor in vain, nor bring forth children for trouble; for they shall be the descendants of the blessed of the LORD, and their offspring with them...AND HERE IS ANOTHER ANSWER OF THE 1000 YEAR REIGN OF JESUS CHRIST OVER THE EARTH...There will be babies born and children raised in the millennial earth, and this is another indication that we are not in the eternal state.WHY?BECAUSE IN THE ETERNAL STATE....we neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels of God in heaven told to us in MATTHEW 22:30.In the millennial earth, those allowed to enter are blessed of the LORD, and they and their descendants will populate the earth.It shall come to pass that before they call, I will answer; and while they are still speaking, I will hear...The millennial reign of Jesus Christ will not only be a time of biological and social transformation. It will also be a time of profound spiritual transformation and intimacy. There will be an immediate and constant sense of the presence of God, and His knowledge will cover the earth as promised and prophesied by Isaiah in ISAIAH 11:9.BUT YOU NOTICE....SOME WRONGLY TEACH AND SAY...THIS MEANS THAT ALL IN THE 1000 YEAR REIGN OF JESUS CHRIST WILL BE SAVED....THIS IS NOT TRUE....THOSE WHO ARE BORN INTO AND LIVE IN THE 1000 YEAR REIGN OF JESUS...STILL MUST CHOOSE JESUS TO BE THEIR LORD, SAVIOR, MASTER, AND FRIEND.This does not mean that every on the millennial earth will be saved; only that the opportunity for such close relationship will be widely enjoyed. We know that not all will be saved during the millennial earth because other SCRIPTURE CONFIRMS THIS...WHERE?REVELATION 20:7-9.... At the conclusion of the time of the millennial earth, Satan is released from his confinement and finds MANY WILLING servants on the earth. "Whom he gathers for one last - and strikingly futile - rebellion against God."ZECHARIAH 14:16-19 AND PSALM 2 also describe the firm rule of the Messiah during the millennial earth, dealing decisively with those who do not surrender to His reign, enforcing righteousness all over the earth.Though NOT ALL will be saved on the millennial earth, we may suppose that the proportions will be reversed.WHAT DOES THAT MEAN?Today, we see but a REMNANT SAVED. THE WORLD POPULATION IS OVER 7 BILLION, AND IT IS ESTIMATED, AT BEST, THERE IS AT BEST ONLY 1 BILLION SAVED.BUT THEN MATTHEW 22:14 TELL US, "it is but a remnant that are saved, because many are called but few are chosen.AS WELL MATTHEW 7:13-14 which says, "And broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it."In the millennial earth, THE FEW will be those who CHOOSE NOT TO ACCEPT AND KNOW the LORD and are not saved.One of the reasons why most are saved and know the LORD on the millennial earth is because not all survivors of the Great Tribulation are allowed to populate the millennial earth.After the Great Tribulation - which in judgment reduces the population of the earth by at least a third told to us in Revelation 9:15, 18 -Jesus Christ will return to the earth, and in the judgment of the nations, determine who will be allowed to populate the millennial earth.THIS IS ALSO CONFIRMED IN Matthew 25:32-34. The millennial earth will have a "screened" population, that in terms of righteousness, will not be perfect, but better than the present earth.The wolf and the lamb shall feed together...The millennial earth will also see a remarkable ecological transformation. No longer will predators stalk their victims. Instead, even the wolf and the lamb will get along, and the lion shall eat straw like the ox."They shall not hurt nor destroy in all My holy mountain," says the LORD...This is the glorious result of the transformation that happens during the millennial earth. The world will be different biologically, spiritually, socially, and ecologically.The Bible speaks powerfully to other aspects of the millennial earth.TRAGICALLY....the Church through history has often IGNORED OR SIMPLY FAR WORSE DENIED...the promise of the millennial reign of Jesus Christ.The early church until Augustine almost universally believed in an earthly, historical reign of Jesus, initiated by His return.Tyconius (in the late 300's) was the first to influentially champion a spiritualized interpretation, saying that this Millennium is now (amillennialism).His view was adopted by Augustine, the Roman Catholic Church and most Reformation theologians. Growing out of amillennialism is the doctrine of postmillennialsim is an outgrowth of amillennialism.WHAT DOES THAT MEAN....THEY WRONGLY SAID, TAUGHT, AND BELIEVED the millennium will happen in this age, WE, THE CHURCH, THE RELIGIOSITIES OF THIS WORLD WILL CAUSE IT AND BRING ABOUT A PERFECT MILLENIAL AGE AND THAT PERFECTION WILL CAUSE JESUS RETURN.....But the clear teaching of the Bible isn't amillennialism or postmillennialism, but what is called premillennialism - the teaching that Jesus Christ will return to this earth BEFORE the millennial earth, and He WILL establish and govern it directly.There are more than 400 verses in more than 20 different passages in the Old Testament which deal with this time when Jesus Christ rules and reigns personally over planet earth.THE BIBLE TEACHES AND TELLS US...King David will have a prominent place in the millennial earth (Isaiah 55:3-5, Jeremiah 30:4-11, Ezekiel 34:23-31, Ezekiel 37:21-28, Hosea 3:5).There will be blessing and security for national Israel in the millennial earth (Amos 9:11-15).The Millennium a time of purity and devotion to God (Zechariah 13:1-9).Israel will be a nation of prominence in the millennial earth (Ezekiel 17:22-24).There will be a rebuilt temple and restored temple service on the millennial earth (Ezekiel 40-48, Ezekiel 37:26-28, Amos 9:11, Ezekiel 20:39-44).The New Testament specifically promises a literal reign of Jesus Christ (Luke 1:32-33).In their resurrected state, the saints will be given responsibility in the Millennial Earth according to their faithful service...Luke 19:11-27, Revelation 20:4-6, Revelation 2:26-28; 3:12,22, 1 Corinthians 6:2-3.SO RIGHT HERE, ONCE AGAIN IN ISAIAH, IN THE OLD TESTAMENT....WHAT JESUS TAUGHT AND PROMISED AND REVEALED WAS GIVEN TO THE PROPHET ISAIAH 700+ YEARS BEFORE JESUS CHRIST WAS BORN IN A HUMBLE MANGER IN BETHLEHEM.