Isaiah 66:10-24
So our New Testament reading will be from Isaiah, I’m sorry, from Revelation 21. This is a picture of the end times, the heavenly city. So Revelation 21, verse one, John says, I saw a new heaven and a new earth for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away and the sea was no more. I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, behold, the dwelling place of God is with man.
He will dwell with them and they will be his people. And God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes and death shall be no more. Neither shall there be mourning nor crying nor pain anymore for the former things have passed away. And he who is seated on the throne said, Behold, I am making all things new. Also he said, Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true. And he said to me, It is done.
I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end, to the thirsty I will give from the spring of the water of life without payment. The one who conquers will have this heritage. I will be his God and he will be my son. But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, as for murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death.
And now from Isaiah 66, we’ll pick up at verse If you peek back at verse 14, you see a little glimpse and maybe the last phrase of 14 of God’s justice and judgment coming. So Isaiah 66, 15, for behold, the Lord will come in fire and his chariots, like the whirlwind to render his anger in fury and his rebuke with flames of fire. For by fire will the Lord enter into judgment, and by his sword with all flesh, and those slain by the Lord shall be many.
Those who sanctify and purify themselves to go into the gardens, following one in the midst, eating pig’s flesh and the abomination and mice, shall come to an end altogether, declares the Lord. For I know their works, and their thoughts, and their time is coming to gather all nations and tongues. They shall come, and they shall see my glory, and I will set a sign among them, and from them I will send survivors to the nations, to Tarshish, Pool, and Lud, who draw the bow to Tubal and Javan, to the coastlands far away that have not heard my fame or seen my glory. they shall declare my glory among the nations. And they shall bring all your brothers from all the nations as an offering to the Lord on horses and in chariots and in litters and on mules and on dromedaries to my holy mountain, Jerusalem, says the Lord, just as the Israelites bring their grain offering in a clean vessel to the house of the Lord. Some of them also I will take for priest and for Levites, says the Lord. For as the new heavens and the new earth that I make shall remain before me, says the Lord, so shall your offspring and your name remain.
From new moon to new moon and from Sabbath to Sabbath, all flesh shall come to worship before me, declares the Lord. And they shall go out and they shall look on the dead bodies of the men who have rebelled against me. For their worms shall not die, their fire shall not be quenched. and they shall be an abhorrence to all flesh.
Amen, God’s great and gracious word. This is a passage that if you were maybe a modern author, you would not write as the ending to your book. It’s full of strange things, wonderful things, but strange things when you put them all together. So if you read verse 24, What a edifying verse.
And they shall go out and look on the dead bodies of the men they have rebelled against me for their worm shall not die. Their fire shall not be quenched. They shall be an abhorrence to all flesh. If you read that verse in the Jewish synagogue, they always go back and read verse 23. So they read verse 23, then they read verse 24. And they go back and read verse 23, because it ends on a happy note. From new moon to new moon, from Sabbath to Sabbath, all flesh shall come and worship before me, declares the Lord.
It’s in a sense as if they’re saying, God, you didn’t end this very well. Have you ever read a novel, and maybe you get to the end of it, and it’s not the ending you want, and you just kind of toss it aside? You’re angry, and so you don’t read that author anymore for a little while. Don’t do that with the Bible. God is smarter than you, wiser than you. Why does he end a passage or a whole book, a long one, with a terrible passage like this?
Well, think of Jerusalem, the city. Think of the city founded by David, the Jebusite city up on a hill, I think three hills in the mountains of Zion, but Zion, the grand one, a city with walls around it. But out in the valley, you went out different gates into different valleys and they were used for different purposes. Outside of one of the gates would have been the Valley of Hinnon, or I think in Jesus’ day called Gehenna, which was where they burned their trash.
Do y’all remember the days of burn barrels? Yeah, if you lived out in the county and you watched styrofoam burn, right? That was always the funnest to watch. But people used to burn their trash. Now, you know, you get frowned upon and have to buy some carbon offsets or something, probably. But people used to burn their trash. Now, outside the city of Jerusalem, that is where all the refuse went.
And that included the bodies of criminals who were executed. You catch a little bit of this in the life of Jesus. Ordinarily, Jesus would have been taken outside the camp, not only to be executed, which is what took place, but his body would have not been buried in the tomb of a rich man, Joseph of Arimathea. It would not have been prepared and wrapped in grave cloths. It would have been unceremoniously dumped. out in the fires, out in the trash heap, as it were.
And so the whole book of Isaiah ends this way as a reminder of God’s justice, as a reminder of his wrath and fury against sin. And notice the key in that verse 24, it’s the dead bodies of those who have rebelled against. Remember way back in the garden, When Satan entered, he slithered in. The serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field. Well before that moment, before he tempted even then Adam into sin, he had fallen in heaven. Remember the John Milton quote we give very often around here. Satan figured it was better to rule in hell than be a servant in heaven and in glory. And so he sought to destroy the glory of God in heaven, and he sought to destroy the glory of God on earth.
And all who are sons of the evil one have rebelled against God, and this is their justice. We’ve talked in the last couple weeks about the last day, the day of resurrection, and how at the last day, the bodies of both the righteous and unrighteous are raised. the righteous to be united with their soul, which has been enjoying the presence of God since their death. Their true death, their original death, was their first resurrection, soul to heaven. The day of Christ’s second coming, that would be their second resurrection, their body, and they get united and enjoy heaven forever. The first death for an unbeliever is their soul going to hell. The second death would be their body being united to their soul, raised up and sent off into the fires where worm does not die and where fire is not quenched.
And so he ends reminding his audience, I am God, I am Yahweh, I am just, I am judge and I will come. And we’re reminded of that in the first couple of verses, 15 and 16, tell us the Lord will come, that’s verse 15. And then in verse 16, and he will enter into judgment. So God is going to come and he is going to enter into judgment.
How’s it going to come? It’s going to be with fire. How’s it going to come? It’s going to be with whirlwind. How is it going to become? It’s going to be in a fury. It will be a, cosmic event, we say. It will be a lot of shaking and quaking and quite noisy.
Sometimes an airplane will fly low and create a lot of turbulence. I lived in Greensboro for four or five years and from time to time we’d have those big Air Force cargo jets fly over and they would do a touchdown and a takeoff. I think it was a C-5 maybe. And then Air Force One would also do the same. And they had this loud scream. Their jet engines would produce noise way after they had passed by, but they would shake.
And we think of those as cosmic events, or a bolt of lightning and the ensuing thunder can shake our houses and rattle our windows. Well, we can’t imagine what the coming of God will be like, but it’s described as a fire, a whirlwind, And it’s described as a coming of anger and fury. And he will come to enter into judgment with all flesh. He will come to enter into judgment with all those who have rebelled against him. And we’re told the slain of the Lord will be many.
Shouldn’t ask, but I bet you do remember several weeks back when the watchman is looking out down the path outside the city and said, who’s this coming? Who’s this covered in red? And it was Yahweh covered in the grape juice. He had been pressing out in his wrath and pressing out the grapes and was covered in the blood of his enemies. That is who is coming and that is who will enter into judgment with his people. Now, You wonder, who’s the audience here? Is it all mankind? Yes, that’s a good, safe answer. But verse 17 says it’s also the apostate of Israel.
It speaks very specifically to some of the ways of worship, those who sanctify and purify themselves. They go into the gardens, the places of worship, and they follow one, that would be a priest, into the midst. And what do they do? They do things God forbids. They eat pig’s flesh, an unclean animal, and they do abominations.
And they shall come to an end together, declares the Lord. Back in chapter 65, remember what God did to Israel, or for Israel? He called out to them and said, I’ll save you. He called out to Israel, I love you. He called out to Israel and said, I’ll redeem you. I’ll rescue you. But they would not repent.
And so it’s a reminder, isn’t it, that the days are short. We’ve got to seek the Lord while he may be found. Call on him while he is near. But also we need to witness. We need to evangelize. We need to tell others of the coming judgment. We live in a world that has decided it’s nice to be nice.
Right, old Jonathan? Edwards, was it, who preached the sinners in the hands of an angry God? Their foot shall slip in due time. The image of his message was the wicked are walking over hell on a bridge with rotted timbers. And their foot will slip in due time. We don’t very often think of the wrath of God to come. We don’t very often think of our salvation in terms of being saved from the wrath. We’ve treated evangelism like we’re a travel agency.
You don’t want to go to hell, do you? You want to go to heaven. So we act like we’re negotiating which destination your plane ticket we’re selling you is going. That’s kind of really how it is, isn’t it? It’s very crass. And over a generation or two, that’s how we begin to think. Salvation is a destination change. Salvation is a disposition change. God is no longer angry at you and with you because you are hidden in the precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ.
But we ought to remind ourselves, as that song does sometimes we sing, how sweet and awful is the place where Christ has entered in. We wonder why. Did we hear the call? Why did we hear the wedding invitation? Why are we a guest at the table when thousands make the wretched choice and rather starve than come? We should think that way, but also our hearts should be burdened for those who are lost.
In verse 18, Yahweh, God, changes his direction towards what you might call the great missionary effort and having your brain when you get to verse 18, 19 and 20, uh, having your mind, the new Testament and acts and Pentecost, uh, having your mind, the gospel, not, not remaining in Jerusalem, but, Jerusalem and persecution scattering believers all over the world. And then the sending out of the apostles. And you know from Acts and a couple of our studies and Paul’s letters, he makes his way around Asia and into Europe.
And he finds people who already believe already worshiping Christ. And he goes to encourage them. He rejoices with them. Maybe he corrects a few things. He establishes and strengthens them. And that’s what we see in verse 18 on. I know their works, I know their thoughts. The time is coming to gather all nations and tongues, and they shall come to see my glory. And I will set a sign among them. That’s Jesus.
And from them, I will send survivors to the nations that have not heard my fame, have not seen my glory, and they shall declare my glory among the nations. I wonder why sometimes we treat evangelism like we’re a travel agent. Maybe we’re trying to be cute. Maybe we’re trying to be simplistic and not overwhelm people. Those are maybe admirable things.
But how much do we know Christ? How much do we know who he is and what he has done for us? And isn’t that really the motivation? Isn’t that really the thing that would drive us out there, that would cause us to be like Paul, to spend and be spent? Most of us probably wouldn’t die for our bosses. I mean, maybe qualified here and there, depending on what we do and who our boss is. When you serve the Lord, that’s what you’ve gotta do, isn’t it? I mean, Paul was willing to go to the executioner. Peter, willing to go to the executioner.
And down through church history, we see people willing to die because they have seen God, they’ve seen his glory, they’ve seen Christ, and they want others to know that knowledge. When I was a kid in church, we had a motto, I don’t think we had a church bulletin. We were one of those overhead projector churches back when those were cool. I think it was out on the front church sign. It said to know him and to make him known, right? That is the simple rinse and repeat command, isn’t it? In some ways to the church, we need to know Christ and we need to make him known. And so the more armed with the knowledge of Christ, the more we felt Christ and experienced Christ, we can declare that glory among the nations.
What is the fuel for missions? Well, if you look at maybe the last, I don’t know, let’s just say 150 years, the fuel has been to maybe win as many souls as possible. Not that that’s a bad thing. But the fuel should not be a set of metrics. It should be that the glory of God would be seen among the people. We want to not fill charts like at the car dealership of how many units did we sell. but we want to show people, we want to tell people of the glory of God and declare it among the nations.
And what will be the result of the gospel going out? What’s the result of sending the Goodmans over to Uganda and the Kings to Spain? The result of our brother Ross going to Pakistan? What’s the result of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes? What’s the result of our own personal witness? What is the result of Maybe our church’s sermons on sermon audio, if anybody ever listens to them, who knows? What’s the purpose? It’s to declare the glory among the nations and to draw them in.
And God says in verse 20, there’ll be sort of a mass revival, a mass coming of people into the city of God. They’ll be coming on horses. coming on chariots, coming in those litters, you know, like probably the queen of Sheba rode into Israel when Solomon was king, they’ll be making their way, their pilgrim way to Jerusalem. And just as the Israelites, it says, brought their grain offerings on clean vessels. It speaks of Gentiles coming as clean vessels to the living God. There’s all kinds of things in this passage coming to fruition. There’s creation being restored. but there’s also humanity being restored and all the nations of the earth that should have been witnessed to by Adam and Eve and their offspring are now coming to faith in Christ and coming to the heavenly city. And so God is bringing his people to himself.
And then he speaks of the new heavens. He speaks of the new earth and how it will be lasting and enduring. What happened to the first heaven, the first earth, the one we presently live in? Well, it’s become bent and broken and bruised and cursed by sin.
And while it is a wonderful place, it has many beauties and many wonderful things. God’s creation is providence over it, but also the just amazing things we see, the cycles of life, cycles of season, all the rest. It’s going to be way better when God makes it all new, Sabbath to Sabbath, new moon to new moon.
And it’ll be a place of unbroken worship, unbroken praise, and unbroken life before the Lord. And so while endless worship takes place in heaven with all those who call on the name of Jesus, what happens outside of heaven? There’s endless pain, there’s endless sorrow, there’s endless fire and endless rot. The worm is not, does not die and the fire shall not be quenched. That’s a interesting sort of set of thing, two things that are going on at the same time. Which, which event do you want to be at? Maybe location is pretty important here. Which event would you like to be?
Think of the rich man and Lazarus. Remember the rich man, he ate sumptuous foods at his table. I mean, he was getting fat and staying happy. And who was outside his door? Lazarus. And Lazarus was a old man, a poor man, and even the dogs would come and lick his wounds. And where does Lazarus go at his death? He goes to Abraham’s bosom, where he is embraced by Abraham. He is calmed and quieted and helped and healed in heaven. But what about the rich man? He’s down in Hades. He’s down in the place of unquenchable fire. And what does he do? He calls up to Moses, calls up to Abraham, calls up to Lazarus and says, go tell my brothers, go tell them of their end if they don’t repent. And what is the answer? The answer is they had Moses. and they didn’t listen. Uh, and so why would they, why would they listen even now?
And so as we end this, this book, uh, think of the never ending torment and the everlasting bliss, and perhaps think of a list of people you’re praying for. And maybe this is a good boost to that prayer list. I should pray for their, their souls even more. should pray for their souls even more, but maybe speak to them sooner. Don’t, don’t wait. But what does it challenge us to do? Be a, be a witness for God, be a witness for Christ. Those are great and glorious things. But one last thing we ought to, we ought to do. We ought to think a bit of heaven.
These things that we enjoy, this life that we live is a passing life. We’re pretty enamored with what we got. We dig deep foundations. We drive our tent pegs deep into the earth. You know, we build with gold and silver and fine things, but all of it one day will burn up. And so maybe it’s a good time to Think of heaven and our heavenly home, our heavenly treasures, our heavenly city. How many one more things do you get as a preacher? I think it’s a couple. The last one more thing, and that’s Jesus.
How do we escape the wrath and curse of God due to us for sin? It’s by faith in Jesus Christ. It’s by repentance unto life. It’s by endeavoring a new obedience. And it’s living by the word and the spirit, engaging ourselves in worship and prayer and fellowship, but also in suffering and keeping an eye to the sky for the coming of the Lord Jesus. So there is Isaiah. It has been a mouthful.
Let’s give thanks to God. Lord, we pray your blessings on the word that we study in our own time, but also in church. We thank you for being so clear about who you are, what you’ve done, what you’ve offered, what man has rejected, and how you’re patient, kind, and merciful. And we pray, Lord, we think so seriously about your justice, your judgment, and your gospel, not only in our lives, but in the lives of others. We pray in Christ’s mighty name, amen.