God’s Answer – part 2
Isaiah 65:1-25 (17-19)
December 22, 2024
“Joy to the world, the Lord is come, let earth receive her King. Let every heart, prepare Him room, and heaven and nature sing.”
“No more let sins and sorrows grow, nor thorns infest the ground. He comes to make His blessings flow, far as the curse is found.”
“He rules the world with truth and grace, and makes the nations prove, the glories of His righteousness, and wonders of His love.”
You know the song.
A Christmas song, but even more than that, it’s a second coming song.
And we’ve talked about this reality before.
Isaiah 9:6-7 “For a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us; And the government will rest on His shoulders; And His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace. There will be no end to the increase of His government or of peace, On the throne of David and over his kingdom, To establish it and to uphold it with justice and righteousness From then on and forevermore. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will accomplish this.”
That passage can fall into the same category
As the song Joy to the World.
Is it a passage about the first coming of Christ or the second coming?
And the answer is, “YES”.
You will remember, that we talked about how Isaiah saw prophecy
Similar to how we look at a mountain range.
It is easy to see the peeks of the mountains,
It is difficult to see how far apart they are.
• Isaiah could see the coming of the Christ child and the reign of the King,
• But from a distance it was very difficult to see the church age that filled the
Valley between the two.
And that is what the kids sang about this morning.
Isaiah saw bits and pieces:
1 Peter 1:10-12 “As to this salvation, the prophets who prophesied of the grace that would come to you made careful searches and inquiries, seeking to know what person or time the Spirit of Christ within them was indicating as He predicted the sufferings of Christ and the glories to follow. It was revealed to them that they were not serving themselves, but you, in these things which now have been announced to you through those who preached the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven—things into which angels long to look.”
They could see some things with great and inspiring detail,
But other things were not so clear to them.
And that is a good reminder as we come to our text this morning,
For you are going to see the same thing.
Isaiah is going to give you a message filled with hope and encouragement
And it will be sheer joy to contemplate its reality in your life.
And yet, like the passage from chapter 9,
It is easier to understand if you know that
Isaiah is again looking at that mountain range
And seeing more than one event.
PART OF WHAT ISAIAH SEES
Is a glimpse of the eternal state we call heaven.
For example:
(17-19) “For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth; And the former things will not be remembered or come to mind. “But be glad and rejoice forever in what I create; For behold, I create Jerusalem for rejoicing And her people for gladness. “I will also rejoice in Jerusalem and be glad in My people; And there will no longer be heard in her The voice of weeping and the sound of crying.”
The language there is clear, and more than that,
It is language that is seized by the apostles in the New Testament.
Isaiah speaks of God creating a “new heavens and a new earth”
That verse DOES NOT speak of God renovating or cleansing the old one,
But rather creating a totally new one.
And that promise is picked up by the apostles.
2 Peter 3:13 “But according to His promise we are looking for new heavens and a new earth, in which righteousness dwells.”
Peter knew about the promise Isaiah spoke of
And revealed that we are still looking for that.
IT HAS NOT YET HAPPENED.
John was actually shown what it would look like.
Revelation 21:1-4 “Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth passed away, and there is no longer any sea. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, made ready as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne, saying, “Behold, the tabernacle of God is among men, and He will dwell among them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself will be among them, and He will wipe away every tear from their eyes; and there will no longer be any death; there will no longer be any mourning, or crying, or pain; the first things have passed away.”
What Isaiah spoke of in verses 17-19 is clearly NOT the millennial reign of Christ.
• Clearly it is a new creation.
• Clearly it is a time when sorrow and death are gone.
But at the same time, the rest of this passage cannot be about that newly created eternal state.
WHY?
Because of what we read in verses (20-23), “No longer will there be in it an infant who lives but a few days, Or an old man who does not live out his days; For the youth will die at the age of one hundred And the one who does not reach the age of one hundred Will be thought accursed. “They will build houses and inhabit them; They will also plant vineyards and eat their fruit. “They will not build and another inhabit, They will not plant and another eat; For as the lifetime of a tree, so will be the days of My people, And My chosen ones will wear out the work of their hands. “They will not labor in vain, Or bear children for calamity; For they are the offspring of those blessed by the LORD, And their descendants with them.”
Isaiah does speak of longevity of life being restored, but he still speaks of death,
• And as John made clear, there is no death in that eternal state we call heaven.
He speaks of bearing children that won’t be for calamity,
• But clearly that cannot be about heaven for Jesus was clear about heaven.
Luke 20:34-36 “Jesus said to them, “The sons of this age marry and are given in marriage, but those who are considered worthy to attain to that age and the resurrection from the dead, neither marry nor are given in marriage; for they cannot even die anymore, because they are like angels, and are sons of God, being sons of the resurrection.”
There is no marriage in heaven, nor any death,
So clearly verses 20-23 cannot be speaking about heaven.
Verses 20-25 must be about the millennial reign.
It should be noted that I read and listened to several amillenialists on this passage
• (those who say there is no literal millennial reign of Christ, but we are in it now)
• And their interpretation is merely to spiritualize and allegorize the entire passage which we are not comfortable doing either.
It seems more fitting that in verses 20-25
Isaiah is talking about Christ’s earthly 1,000 year reign.
Certainly verses 24-25 make that clear.
“It will also come to pass that before they call, I will answer; and while they are still speaking, I will hear. “The wolf and the lamb will graze together, and the lion will eat straw like the ox; and dust will be the serpent’s food. They will do no evil or harm in all My holy mountain,” says the LORD.”
We’ve read that truth before haven’t we?
Remember Isaiah 11 when Isaiah spoke of Christ’s earthly reign?
Isaiah 11:6-9 “And the wolf will dwell with the lamb, And the leopard will lie down with the young goat, And the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; And a little boy will lead them. Also the cow and the bear will graze, Their young will lie down together, And the lion will eat straw like the ox. The nursing child will play by the hole of the cobra, And the weaned child will put his hand on the viper’s den. They will not hurt or destroy in all My holy mountain, For the earth will be full of the knowledge of the LORD As the waters cover the sea.”
Clearly Isaiah is seeing the same thing here,
And it is also something we have yet to see.
So, like the Isaiah 9 passage, we have again here Isaiah
Looking down the corridor of time and seeing two glorious events.
• He is seeing the 1,000 year millennial reign of Christ
• And he is seeing the new heavens and the new earth.
And, as we saw with the first and second coming in chapter 9,
WE ALSO SEE HERE THAT
Isaiah has difficulty distinguishing the two from one another.
Now, we can read the book of the Revelation and the timeline becomes unmistakably clear.
• Revelation 19 shows the return of Christ
• Revelation 20 shows the binding of Satan, the first resurrection, and the
1,000 year reign of Christ.
• Revelation 20 also reveals the second resurrection of the wicked, the
Unbinding of Satan, the revolt against Christ, and the annihilation of
The universe.
• Revelation 21-22 reveals the creation of a new heavens and a new earth
Where righteousness dwells.
ISAIAH SAW ALL OF THAT.
He had difficulty seeing the valleys in between the mountain peeks,
But he saw it all.
AND THIS MORNING HE REVEALS WHAT HE SAW TO YOU.
The more important question for us is: WHY?
• Certainly God could have made the revelation more clear to Isaiah so as to distinguish between the two.
• Certainly God could have shown Isaiah the same thing He showed John in the Revelation.
BUT GOD DID NOT.
God was content, at this time, to simply reveal to Isaiah
A coming glory even though the timing would remain a mystery.
So clearly, as we study Isaiah 65:17-25,
THE TIMELINE IS NOT THE POINT.
Clearly, as we study,
Distinguishing between the millennium and heaven is NOT THE POINT.
God could have made that clear to Isaiah, but did not.
THE POINT
Is that God’s people understand the glorious future that awaits them
So long as they are in the presence of God.
SO LET ME NOW REMIND YOU OF WHAT IS GOING ON HERE.
I know it’s been two weeks, but what a blessing Disciple Still was.
So two weeks ago on Sunday morning
We finally saw the coming repentance of Israel.
• Remember, after realizing their lost condition in chapter 63,
• They finally started to seek again the presence of God.
Isaiah 64:1 “Oh, that You would rend the heavens and come down, That the mountains might quake at Your presence”
• They finally confessed the futility of their religious works.
Isaiah 64:6 “For all of us have become like one who is unclean, And all our righteous deeds are like a filthy garment; And all of us wither like a leaf, And our iniquities, like the wind, take us away.”
• They finally owned up to their failure to seek God.
Isaiah 64:7 “There is no one who calls on Your name, Who arouses himself to take hold of You; For You have hidden Your face from us And have delivered us into the power of our iniquities.”
• They finally submitted themselves to God’s sovereign authority.
Isaiah 64:8 “But now, O LORD, You are our Father, We are the clay, and You our potter; And all of us are the work of Your hand.”
• And they asked God to show them mercy.
Isaiah 64:9 “Do not be angry beyond measure, O LORD, Nor remember iniquity forever; Behold, look now, all of us are Your people.”
Isaiah 64:12 “Will You restrain Yourself at these things, O LORD? Will You keep silent and afflict us beyond measure?”
It was a glorious moment where Israel 1owned their sin, 2cried for mercy
3And begged for the presence of God to return to their lives.
The chapter ended with a question
And at least on Israel’s part, a bit of anxiety, regarding if God would save.
But God’s answer came bursting forth in chapter 65.
We started looking at it two Sunday nights ago:
#1 THE PROOF OF SALVATION
Isaiah 65:1-7
AND GOD’S ANSWER IS SO ENCOURAGING!
We want to know if God will save sinners who do not deserve it?
Look at God’s answer:
(1-2) “I permitted Myself to be sought by those who did not ask for Me; I permitted Myself to be found by those who did not seek Me. I said, ‘Here am I, here am I,’ To a nation which did not call on My name. “I have spread out My hands all day long to a rebellious people, Who walk in the way which is not good, following their own thoughts,”
God’s answer is that this is exactly who I am!
I am the God who saves sinners.
• I save those who did not ask for Me.
• I hold up My hands and cry out all day long to people rebelling against Me.
And if you go on reading verses 3-7 you find out that God is calling
Even people who offend Him and anger Him and who deserve judgment.
And that is a testimony we have seen true in our lives,
That even in our stubborn rebellion,
God has proven to be a God of tremendous patience and mercy.
So yes, God saves sinners.
HISTORY IS PROOF OF SALVATION
#2 THE PROMISE OF SALVATION
Isaiah 65:8-10
We see it specifically in verse 9 that God has promised that
He is going to save a remnant of Jacob and Judah.
While we understand
• The rejection of Jesus by Israel.
• That today, by in large, they are lost.
• That no one goes to heaven apart from faith in Christ.
We do know that God has promised to save Israel.
• One day He will bring them back.
• One day He will lead them to repentance.
• One day they will look on Christ, whom they have pierced, and believe in Him.
IT IS NOT that we hold out hope
That eventually Israel will do the right thing.
Indeed, if left up to them, they never would.
But we know that God has promised the coming salvation of Israel,
And so we know it will occur.
Romans 11:25-29 “For I do not want you, brethren, to be uninformed of this mystery—so that you will not be wise in your own estimation—that a partial hardening has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in; and so all Israel will be saved; just as it is written, “THE DELIVERER WILL COME FROM ZION, HE WILL REMOVE UNGODLINESS FROM JACOB.” “THIS IS MY COVENANT WITH THEM, WHEN I TAKE AWAY THEIR SINS.” From the standpoint of the gospel they are enemies for your sake, but from the standpoint of God’s choice they are beloved for the sake of the fathers; for the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable.”
God promised salvation
#3 THE PURPOSE OF SALVATION
Isaiah 65:11-16
At this point God’s answer almost seemed negative.
For after revealing those He has promised to save,
God begins to discuss the judgment of those who will not be saved.
• Those who forsake the Lord.
• Those who refuse to seek God.
• Those who never repent of their sin.
• Those who do not trust Christ.
WILL NEVER BE SAVED.
Verse 12 says they will be destined for the sword.
(13) “Therefore, thus says the Lord GOD, “Behold, My servants will eat, but you will be hungry. Behold, My servants will drink, but you will be thirsty. Behold, My servants will rejoice, but you will be put to shame.”
So while God has promised that a remnant will be saved in Israel,
It is clear that His salvation is not without prerequisite.
• They will not just be saved because…
• God will not turn a blind eye to their sin or rebellion…
God will save those who repent and return to Him.
Those who do not will be judged.
WHY?
Because God’s salvation is for a purpose…it is for His glory.
And God will not have people in heaven
Who give glory for their salvation to some other deity.
(16) “Because he who is blessed in the earth Will be blessed by the God of truth; And he who swears in the earth Will swear by the God of truth; Because the former troubles are forgotten, And because they are hidden from My sight!”
In God’s glorious kingdom all blessing and worship and swearing
Will be for the true God.
And therefore only those who seek Him will enter.
SO THUS FAR WE HAVE SEEN
Israel wants to know if they can be saved
And God’s answer is:
• Yes, saving sinners is what I do.
• In fact I have promised to save!
• And salvation will be only for those who seek Me and turn from other gods!
We saw the proof of salvation, the promise of salvation, and the purpose of salvation.
Here we see God’s answer concludes with one final point.
And it is where we come this morning.
#4 THE PLACE OF SALVATION
Isaiah 65:17-25
And as we discussed in the introduction
Here we are seeing a prophetic blending of two realities.
• We are seeing both the 1,000 year millennial reign of Christ
• And we are seeing the coming new heaven and earth.
But here the distinction between the two is not important,
For they are both future reality for the people of God.
THE POINT IS NOT TO SHOW YOU THE TIMELINE.
The point is to show you the glory and joy of dwelling with God.
WHICH ALL THOSE WHO LONG FOR GOD WILL ENJOY.
And that is really the point you must understand here.
For those who spend their lives rejecting God and denying Him,
• They will receive exactly what they have asked for, an eternity separated from Him.
For those who seek the presence of God in their lives,
• They will receive more of Him than they ever could have imagined.
Indeed, as Paul wrote when he quoted Isaiah 64:4
1 Corinthians 2:9 “but just as it is written, “THINGS WHICH EYE HAS NOT SEEN AND EAR HAS NOT HEARD, AND which HAVE NOT ENTERED THE HEART OF MAN, ALL THAT GOD HAS PREPARED FOR THOSE WHO LOVE HIM.”
And this is simply the point I want to give you this morning,
That true glory and joy and peace and hope and blessing and gratification
Is found in seeking the presence of God in your life.
• Religious involvement will not substitute…
• Moral living will not substitute…
• Earthly success will not substitute…
• Worldly pleasures are no substitute…
There is no substitute for the glorious presence of Christ in your life.
Seeking anything else but Him is a recipe for disaster.
Seeking Him above everything else
Is the only true promise of glory and joy!
AND HERE Isaiah will tell you about the glory and joy that awaits.
THIS IS WHERE WE ARE HEADED CHURCH!
• Look past your fears
• Look past your anxieties
• Look past your aches and pains
• Look past your frustrations with this wicked world
• Look past even the promise of physical death
THIS IS WHAT AWAITS THOSE WHO SEEK CHRIST.
It is my prayer that you will rest in this.
And the simple point we begin with is that
It is a PLACE OF SALVATION.
While today we enjoy salvation as a spiritual reality,
One day we will enjoy it also as a literal and physical reality as well.
Today, salvation is summed up in our lives as
• Rejoicing in suffering
• Hope in tragedy
• Peace during life’s storms
• Love that never fails
• Grace that is sufficient for all trials.
We are saved, and we enjoy salvation,
But it is joy in the midst of suffering.
BUT THERE IS COMING A DAY
When our circumstances will not contradict our salvation.
For salvation will one day be a place.
Jesus said it:
John 14:1-2 “Do not let your heart be troubled; believe in God, believe also in Me. “In My Father’s house are many dwelling places; if it were not so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you.”
Paul said:
Romans 8:18-21 “For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us. For the anxious longing of the creation waits eagerly for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself also will be set free from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God.”
There is coming a day when the curse of this creation will be reversed.
There is coming a day when this fallen world will be redeemed.
• You think the Grand Canyon is amazing now…wait until you see it without the curse!
• You think a sunset is beautiful now…wait until you see one that isn’t corrupted by the fall!
There is coming a true and literal and physical salvation.
AND EVEN BEYOND THAT.
After the great white throne judgment in which the Bible says earth and heaven will flee away from…
God will create a new heaven and a new earth.
• A better one
• A more glorious one
• One with no night, no sea, no sin, no separation, no sickness, no death, no
weeping.
• One in which God Himself will dwell.
• There will be the tree of life in it.
• There will be the river of the water of life in it.
It is more than you can comprehend, it is more than you can imagine.
It is so glorious that even this fallen human body cannot comprehend it.
For Paul says:
1 Corinthians 15:50 “Now I say this, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable.”
For that place we will need a new and glorified body.
Today they tell us of a color wheel,
• But what if in heaven there are colors beyond what you have ever seen, these physical eyes just aren’t capable of seeing them?
Today we know of 5 senses that this body can recognize,
• But what if there is 1 million and this body is just limited?
You get what we are talking about.
THERE IS PLACE AWAITING ALL THOSE WHO SEEK GOD.
• A place beyond the pain.
• A place beyond the suffering.
• A place beyond what is fallen.
• A place better and more glorious than anything your physical brain has ever
even considered.
And Isaiah wants to encourage you regarding that place.
It is my hope that as we examine it,
Your hope will fade from an attachment to this fallen world
And your heart will gravitate toward that beautiful place.
For it will be created for you and you have been recreated for it.
It is the place of salvation.
Let us begin looking at it this morning.
Isaiah speaks of 5 realities about this place.
1) A PLACE OF MUTUAL REJOICING, NOT GRIEF (17-19)
“For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth; And the former things will not be remembered or come to mind. “But be glad and rejoice forever in what I create; For behold, I create Jerusalem for rejoicing And her people for gladness. “I will also rejoice in Jerusalem and be glad in My people; And there will no longer be heard in her The voice of weeping and the sound of crying.”
We read of this “new heavens and a new earth”
• Which Peter and John both spoke of as a place “where righteousness dwells.”
And then we read:
“And the former things will not be remembered or come to mind.”
Two Sunday nights ago when we barely looked at this passage
I quoted Joni Eareckson Tada who spoke about heaven and said, “And we won’t forget, we just won’t have the need to remember.”
And certainly I think there is some truth to that.
It speaks of the overwhelming – mind captivating – glory of that place.
But that is not all that Isaiah is referring to here.
We have to keep the idea in context.
Look back up at verse 16,
• Where God is speaking about the salvation that is available to His people who seek Him.
• That verse closes with this statement: (16) “Because the former troubles are forgotten, And because they are hidden from My sight!”
In that verse we understand what is being forgotten.
• It is God saying that because He has hidden and forgotten our sin there is no longer the need to bring the troubles of this life upon it.
Listen to John in the Revelation:
Revelation 21:4 “and He will wipe away every tear from their eyes; and there will no longer be any death; there will no longer be any mourning, or crying, or pain; the first things have passed away.”
John talks about “death” and “mourning” and “crying” and “pain” being gone.
He says “the first things have passed away”
What are death and mourning and crying and pain?
• They are consequences of the curse.
• They are consequences of sin.
Those negative realities
• Are what God has brought to this fallen creation as punishment for sin.
• They are even what God has used to sanctify us and cleanse us from sin.
And John says that in heaven those first things or former things
Are passed away, or forgotten.
That is what Isaiah said in verse 16.
God will no longer need to bring about punishments
And consequences for sin because sin won’t be there.
And that is what is being spoken about here in verse 17.
It is the same point reiterated.
“And the former things will not be remembered or come to mind.”
• Those things that grieved or even angered God.
• Those things that brought about punishment and curses and death.
• Those things are gone and God won’t even bring them back to mind.
He is not going to grant His redeemed access into heaven
But spend the whole time thinking about how bad they used to be.
ON THE CONTRARY,
• They are forgiven!
• They are washed clean in the blood of Christ!
• Love keeps no record of wrongs!
He will not hold our past failures over our heads for all eternity,
All of the past failure and struggle and discipline
“will not be remembered or come to mind”
(18) “But be glad and rejoice forever in what I create; For behold, I create Jerusalem for rejoicing And her people for gladness.”
This will NOT be a place of REGRET…
This will NOT be a place of REMORSE…
It is NOT like in a relationship
• Where one party messes up,
• The other person “forgives them” and allows them return,
• But holds their past failures over their head forever.
• Where the relationship continues but it continues with a healthy dose of regret and remorse.
NO, NOT IN HEAVEN.
In heaven there will be only rejoicing in what God has created anew.
There will be only happiness in heaven, without grief,
Without remorse, without sadness or sorrow.
This place that God will create won’t have a single sigh.
AND IT’S NOT JUST US.
(19) “I will also rejoice in Jerusalem and be glad in My people; And there will no longer be heard in her The voice of weeping and the sound of crying.”
One thing we understand about this life is that
Humanity is not the only party that is grieved.
We only make it six chapters into the Bible when we read:
Genesis 6:6 “The LORD was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart.”
Even those whom He saved:
Psalms 78:40 “How often they rebelled against Him in the wilderness And grieved Him in the desert!”
We are told:
Ephesians 4:30 “Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.”
And on that day…WE WON’T!
Can you imagine such a fellowship with God in which you never grieve Him at all?
A relationship in which He is never forced to bring grief into your life to lead you to repent?
What a day of joy that will be!
What a day of gladness we will have!
And this day is awaiting those who long for God.
• This is not a day for those who are religious…
• This is not a day for those who clung to some Pharisaical moral code…
• This is not a day for those who were really good at bringing sacrifices…
• It is certainly not a day for those who rejected God altogether…
This day, this place,
Is for those who cried out for the presence of God in their lives.
It is for those who wanted Him!
It is for those who sought Him!
• It is for those who wanted Him more than this world.
• It is for those who wanted Him more than their sin.
• It is for those who sold everything to obtain that treasure in the field.
• It is for those who sold everything to obtain that pearl of great value.
It is for those who suffered the loss of all things and consider them rubbish so that they can gain Christ.
It is for those who left their sin behind and called on the name of Jesus.
It is for those who “hunger and thirsted for righteousness.”
THEY WILL BE SATISFIED!
For there is coming a place for them
That is a place of mutual rejoicing and not grief.
A place where they will rejoice in the presence of God
And God will rejoice in their presence with Him.
CHURCH, THAT PLACE IS REAL!
That place is coming for all those who seek Him!
We’re out of time, we’ll talk about this more next time.
