Restoring True Worship – part 6
Isaiah 66:1-24 (18-24)
January 19, 2025
Tonight we bring our study of the book of Isaiah to a close.
You will remember that Isaiah’s name means “The LORD is Salvation”
The theme of his ministry
Is to point Israel away from their idols and false hopes of salvation
And to lead them to their Savior.
And yet at the same time we must note that
THE PURPOSE IN ALL OF THIS IS NOT
Simply so that Israel can enjoy salvation.
THE REASON God is saving them
THE REASON Isaiah wants them to look to God as their Savior
IS SO THAT GOD ALONE IS GLORIFIED AS SAVIOR.
This is the purpose is that
When every rival is eliminated and every rebel is destroyed
That all the earth will look to God as their only Savior
And will glorify Him accordingly.
THAT IS THE AIM.
And what a journey we have been on to get here.
The book of Isaiah began with a lack of worship.
Isaiah 1:1-4 “The vision of Isaiah the son of Amoz concerning Judah and Jerusalem, which he saw during the reigns of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah, kings of Judah. Listen, O heavens, and hear, O earth; For the LORD speaks, “Sons I have reared and brought up, But they have revolted against Me. “An ox knows its owner, And a donkey its master’s manger, But Israel does not know, My people do not understand.” Alas, sinful nation, People weighed down with iniquity, Offspring of evildoers, Sons who act corruptly! They have abandoned the LORD, They have despised the Holy One of Israel, They have turned away from Him.”
That was the dilemma of Isaiah’s ministry.
• God’s people not worshiping Him nor honoring Him as He deserves.
BUT TONIGHT WE COME TO THE END
And we see that though His people fail to worship Him properly today,
There is coming a day when they will.
(23) “And it shall be from new moon to new moon And from sabbath to sabbath, All mankind will come to bow down before Me,” says the LORD.”
It is a far cry from where we are today, but this is where we are headed.
Paul told us:
Philippians 2:9-11 “For this reason also, God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus EVERY KNEE WILL BOW, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”
And certainly when we take a look at the end, we see it playing out.
Revelation 11:15-18 “Then the seventh angel sounded; and there were loud voices in heaven, saying, “The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ; and He will reign forever and ever.” And the twenty-four elders, who sit on their thrones before God, fell on their faces and worshiped God, saying, “We give You thanks, O Lord God, the Almighty, who are and who were, because You have taken Your great power and have begun to reign. “And the nations were enraged, and Your wrath came, and the time came for the dead to be judged, and the time to reward Your bond-servants the prophets and the saints and those who fear Your name, the small and the great, and to destroy those who destroy the earth.”
It’s all coming back to Jesus.
God alone will be glorified in that day.
Isaiah and the other prophets could see that day from a distance.
Habakkuk 2:14 “For the earth will be filled With the knowledge of the glory of the LORD, As the waters cover the sea.”
Psalms 22:27 “All the ends of the earth will remember and turn to the LORD, And all the families of the nations will worship before You.”
Isaiah 11:9 “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.”
Zechariah 14:9 “And the LORD will be king over all the earth; in that day the LORD will be the only one, and His name the only one.”
And through eyes of faith, we see it too.
Revelation 21:22-27 “I saw no temple in it, for the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. And the city has no need of the sun or of the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God has illumined it, and its lamp is the Lamb. The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it. In the daytime (for there will be no night there) its gates will never be closed; and they will bring the glory and the honor of the nations into it; and nothing unclean, and no one who practices abomination and lying, shall ever come into it, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb’s book of life.”
One day all of creation will worship God as He deserves.
God is restoring true worship to Himself.
We have been examining that process here in the final chapter of Isaiah.
We saw what God will do.
#1 HYPOCRISY WILL BE REJECTED
Isaiah 66:1-6
God will not tolerate hypocrisy.
God will not tolerate phony religion.
He promised to reject it and punish those who participate in it.
And the nation of Israel has been “Exhibit A” for that punishment.
Not only did Jesus routinely condemn their religious labors,
But in A.D. 70 God burned down His own temple for the second time.
Their hypocritical worship and was rejected and destroyed.
Israel, as a nation, was broken off and rejected before God.
God tolerated their faulty worship as long as He was willing, but no more.
#2 ISRAEL WILL BE REBORN
Isaiah 66:7-13
God rejected Israel, but we know that His rejection is not permanent.
• Scripture speaks repeatedly of God’s promise to restore His people to Himself.
And the means through which God will do that is tribulation.
The event we specifically know as “The Great Tribulation”.
Isaiah 66 likened it to a woman in great labor.
• You don’t get deliverance without pain coming first, but when the pain does come you know that deliverance is right on its heals.
So it will be for Israel.
• It is the time of Jacob’s distress or Jacob’s trouble.
• It is Daniel’s 70th week.
• And God will use it to draw Israel back to Himself.
The purpose is that they might worship Him and enjoy Him forever.
It is all part of God’s process to restore true worship.
#3 IDOLATERS WILL BE REMOVED
Isaiah 66:15-17
We saw this one this morning.
After Israel repents and returns during the time of the tribulation
Then Christ will return to usher in His millennial reign.
And His return will mean death for those who worship idols.
• We saw God’s great fury.
• We saw God’s great anger.
• We read about the fire.
• We read about the whirlwind.
• We read about the sword.
We know that blood will flow through the streets in that day.
Christ will put an end to all idol worship in that day.
It is part of God’s plan to restore true worship.
And after all of those events have taken place…
WE FINALLY COME TO THE MOMENT
THIS EARTH HAS BEEN WAITING FOR.
Romans 8:18-23 “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. For we know that the whole creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth together until now. And not only this, but also we ourselves, having the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our body.”
• We wait for redemption.
• We wait for the curse to be removed.
• We wait for worship to be restored.
This is the day we inwardly groan for every time we face the trials and hardships of this sin cursed earth.
We join with creation in groaning for the day King Jesus returns
To rule on this earth and restore everything to the way it is intended to be.
And here Isaiah shows us that day.
#4 WORSHIP WILL BE RESTORED
Isaiah 66:18-24
A simple reading simply shows us that
ALL THE WORLD FINDS HER TRUE PURPOSE AND FOCUS.
TODAY we see a world that is only interested in love of the world and the passing pleasures of sin.
But once Christ judges that world,
We’ll get this world they way it was supposed to be.
AND TONIGHT, as we conclude our study of Isaiah
Let’s take a look at that coming day.
I want to break this final text down into 4 points.
4 things we’ll see when this world and true worship is restored.
1) CAPTIVATED SURVIVORS (18-19)
(18-19) “For I know their works and their thoughts; the time is coming to gather all nations and tongues. And they shall come and see My glory. “I will set a sign among them and will send survivors from them to the nations: Tarshish, Put, Lud, Meshech, Tubal and Javan, to the distant coastlands that have neither heard My fame nor seen My glory. And they will declare My glory among the nations.”
The opening line of verse 18 should probably be a part of verse 17.
Where God says that idolators “will come to an end together,” declares the LORD. For I know their works and their thoughts;”
That first line is clearly a reference to the judgment
That is coming on the idolators of this world.
THE FOCUS IN verse 18 is of a new time and a new era.
“The time is coming to gather all nations and tongues. And they shall come and see My glory.”
There will be a new captivating and chief attraction in the world.
And it will be the glory of God.
People today speak of “A Bucket List”
It is all the things they want to see and do before they die.
And certainly this world contains some marvelous elements that God has created.
• I wish everyone could stand at the base of one of those Giant Sequoias.
• I wish everyone could walk the rim of the Grand Canyon.
• I wish everyone would feel the spray of Victoria Falls.
But in this day there is no need for a bucket
Because the list only has 1 item.
“Go see the glory of the LORD!”
Everything else will pale in comparison.
(19) “I will set a sign among them and will send survivors from them to the nations: Tarshish, Put, Lud, Meshech, Tubal and Javan, to the distant coastlands that have neither heard My fame nor seen My glory. And they will declare My glory among the nations.”
You have here the survivors of the tribulation.
And they immediately become messengers of the King.
• Their mission is to go to the nations.
• Their mission is to travel the globe.
• And their purpose is to “declare My glory among the nations.”
So that all men will come.
Earlier in the chapter
We saw God’s displeasure because the world was worshiping idols.
• God spoke with disdain about those who “eat swine’s flesh, detestable
things and mice”
• God spoke with disdain who “slay a man” or “break a dog’s neck” or “offer
swine’s blood” or “blesses an idol”
BUT NOT ON THIS DAY.
On this day true worship will be restored.
Men will no longer be captivated
By the carnal or sinful or sensual things of this life.
Men will be captivated by Christ.
Christ alone will be the chief attraction.
And He will be the attraction ALL OVER THE WORLD.
NO MORE REGIONAL RELIGIONS.
• No more Buddhists in China.
• No more Hindus in India.
• No more Muslims in Iraq.
The whole world will seek the glory of Christ.
Psalms 66:1-4 “Shout joyfully to God, all the earth; Sing the glory of His name; Make His praise glorious. Say to God, “How awesome are Your works! Because of the greatness of Your power Your enemies will give feigned obedience to You. “All the earth will worship You, And will sing praises to You; They will sing praises to Your name.”
Psalms 86:8-10 “There is no one like You among the gods, O Lord, Nor are there any works like Yours. All nations whom You have made shall come and worship before You, O Lord, And they shall glorify Your name. For You are great and do wondrous deeds; You alone are God.”
Revelation 7:9-10 “After these things I looked, and behold, a great multitude which no one could count, from every nation and all tribes and peoples and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, and palm branches were in their hands; and they cry out with a loud voice, saying, “Salvation to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb.”
That is the day that is coming.
The world will be filled with captivated survivors.
Christ alone is all they will want to see.
2) CARRIED SONS (20)
(20) “Then they shall bring all your brethren from all the nations as a grain offering to the LORD, on horses, in chariots, in litters, on mules and on camels, to My holy mountain Jerusalem,” says the LORD, “just as the sons of Israel bring their grain offering in a clean vessel to the house of the LORD.”
We’ve read this promise several times in several places.
Zechariah 8:20-23 “Thus says the LORD of hosts, ‘It will yet be that peoples will come, even the inhabitants of many cities. ‘The inhabitants of one will go to another, saying, “Let us go at once to entreat the favor of the LORD, and to seek the LORD of hosts; I will also go.” ‘So many peoples and mighty nations will come to seek the LORD of hosts in Jerusalem and to entreat the favor of the LORD.’ “Thus says the LORD of hosts, ‘In those days ten men from all the nations will grasp the garment of a Jew, saying, “Let us go with you, for we have heard that God is with you.”’”
That day is coming.
But it is more than just needing a tour guide.
Here we read about them bringing back the scattered people of Israel and Isaiah makes a comparison.
He says “They shall bring all your brethren from all the nations as a grain offering to the LORD” and “Just as the sons of Israel bring their grain offering in a clean vessel to the house of the LORD.”
That’s interesting.
Isaiah compares the nations bringing back the Jews to Jews bringing a grain offering to God.
What does that mean?
The grain offering is spelled out in detail in Leviticus 2 and you can read all about it.
It was certainly an offering of thanksgiving to God.
Certainly all offerings hold a place of worship before God.
But what is interesting about the grain offering is its title.
The Hebrew word is MIN-KHAW
And that doesn’t necessarily mean anything, until we see some of the other places the word is used.
For example:
Judges 3:15 “But when the sons of Israel cried to the LORD, the LORD raised up a deliverer for them, Ehud the son of Gera, the Benjamite, a left-handed man. And the sons of Israel sent tribute by him to Eglon the king of Moab.”
There you see the same word MIN-KHAW
But it is translated as “tribute”.
It was a tribute taken by Israel’s judge Ehud to Eglon king of Moab.
And perhaps that gives you a better understanding of the comparison Isaiah is making.
The nations will be bringing tribute to God.
And the best offering they can think to bring Him to demonstrate His glory and majesty is His own children.
So the children of Israel will be gathered up and brought back to God “on horses, in chariots, in litters, on mules and on camels” just so that they will have something with them that God desires.
Today the world persecutes Israel.
Today the world persecutes the church.
But one day that will stop.
One day the world will no longer hate God, they will seek to honor Him as God!
You see captivated survivors
You see carried sons
3) CONTINUAL SABBATHS (21-23)
(21-23) “I will also take some of them for priests and for Levites,” says the LORD. “For just as the new heavens and the new earth Which I make will endure before Me,” declares the LORD, “So your offspring and your name will endure. “And it shall be from new moon to new moon And from sabbath to sabbath, All mankind will come to bow down before Me,” says the LORD.”
The first thing we notice comes in verse 21 with a reinstatement of some of the returned Israelites as “priests and for Levites”
It is interesting and often times a point of controversy when it is discussed.
It represents perhaps the most confusing segment of Scripture in the entire Bible.
I’m referring to Ezekiel 40-48
We certainly don’t have time to work through all of that.
I can give you a quick outline if you want it.
Ezekiel 40:1-43:12
Ezekiel measures the city and deals with the people.
It’s all about getting the people ready for the return of God to dwell among them.
Ezekiel 43:13-44:31
Ezekiel measures the altar and deals with the priests.
It’s all about revealing the type of priest that will be acceptable to serve God when He returns.
Ezekiel 45
Ezekiel measures the land and deals with the princes
It’s all about how the leaders of the land must prioritize the spiritual walk of the people.
And everything in the end of Ezekiel seems to be making sense until you come to chapter 46.
And in chapter 46 we read about: THE SIN OFFERING
And everyone loses their mind because obviously the blood of lambs and goats cannot take away sin.
Obviously Christ alone and His sacrifice is exalted.
And so people don’t know what to do with the reordination of priests or Levites or the offering of sin offerings or guilt offerings or burnt offerings or peace offerings.
But it’s not that hard to understand.
We also perform sacrifices today that we partake of.
We call it the Lord’s Supper.
Now, we are well aware that the grape juice and the cracker have no atoning power at all.
They are symbols to help us remember the sacrifice of Christ.
In the millennium they will apparently offering sacrifices for the same reason.
Not as an atoning work, but to remember the great sacrifice of Christ.
And that is what Isaiah references here.
And this time Israel will never fail and they will never defect.
God says, (22) “For just as the new heavens and the new earth Which I make will endure before Me,” declares the LORD, “So your offspring and your name will endure.”
Israel repeated defected and fell away.
But never again.
They will come back and they will stay.
Their worship will be true not hypocritical.
God will accept them and it will last.
That day of true worship is coming.
And here is what it will look like.
(23) “And it shall be from new moon to new moon And from sabbath to sabbath, All mankind will come to bow down before Me,” says the LORD.”
Think about the world as it is today.
If you were Jewish you were told to rest on the Sabbath, but the other six days you could labor and in effect live your life.
Jews would bring a burnt offering on the “new moon” as a tribute to God.
And that is sort of the model even today.
Man takes six days for himself and the other is called “The Lord’s Day”
But let’s be honest, even that is a bit of a stretch.
We might more accurately call it the Lord’s half-day.
Or really the Lord’s hour and a half.
But maybe that is even too much.
Maybe it should be called the sporadic and random Lord’s hour.
The point is that in our day today men are busy serving themselves and doing the things that they want.
For most in the world worship to God is a nuisance and we even see churches seeking to schedule around their activities.
If people are too busy for Sunday night then we’ll just cancel it.
You get the point, the major focus of our world today is not worship.
Worship is something that gets tacked on if we’re not too busy.
But that sort of false worship will one day be eradicated.
There is coming a day of true worship and the time commitment will be reversed.
Man will not just worship on the new moon they will worship “from new moon to new moon”.
Man will not just worship on the Sabbath, they will worship “from sabbath to sabbath”.
God gets it all!
Revelation 4:8 “And the four living creatures, each one of them having six wings, are full of eyes around and within; and day and night they do not cease to say, “HOLY, HOLY, HOLY is THE LORD GOD, THE ALMIGHTY, WHO WAS AND WHO IS AND WHO IS TO COME.”
There you have it!
It is the continual worship of God.
What else could be more important?
What else could be more interesting?
This will be the goal.
“All mankind will come to bow down before Me,” says the LORD.”
And you remember that the word “bow down” is the Hebrew word SHA-KHAW which is the word Abraham used.
Genesis 22:5 “Abraham said to his young men, “Stay here with the donkey, and I and the lad will go over there; and we will worship and return to you.”
We’re going to go bow down to the LORD.
We’re going to bow our wills to God.
And that is what will happen 24/7/365 in the end.
There will be no end to the worship that will occur.
Captivated Survivors
Carried Sons
Continual Sabbaths
4) CORPORATE SANCTITY (24)
(24) “Then they will go forth and look On the corpses of the men Who have transgressed against Me. For their worm will not die And their fire will not be quenched; And they will be an abhorrence to all mankind.”
Well that is certainly an interesting verse.
Men will come to worship Christ and then “go forth and look on the corpses of the men who have transgressed against Me.”
I doubt you saw that one coming.
But first think back to all those Imprecatory prayers that are offered throughout the Scriptures.
Psalms 10:15 “Break the arm of the wicked and the evildoer, Seek out his wickedness until You find none.”
Psalms 58:10 “The righteous will rejoice when he sees the vengeance; He will wash his feet in the blood of the wicked.”
Psalms 59:12-13 “On account of the sin of their mouth and the words of their lips, Let them even be caught in their pride, And on account of curses and lies which they utter. Destroy them in wrath, destroy them that they may be no more; That men may know that God rules in Jacob To the ends of the earth. Selah.”
You remember them.
Or even the ones we read in the New Testament:
Revelation 6:9-10 “When the Lamb broke the fifth seal, I saw underneath the altar the souls of those who had been slain because of the word of God, and because of the testimony which they had maintained; and they cried out with a loud voice, saying, “How long, O Lord, holy and true, will You refrain from judging and avenging our blood on those who dwell on the earth?”
Or:
Revelation 19:1-4 “After these things I heard something like a loud voice of a great multitude in heaven, saying, “Hallelujah! Salvation and glory and power belong to our God; BECAUSE HIS JUDGMENTS ARE TRUE AND RIGHTEOUS; for He has judged the great harlot who was corrupting the earth with her immorality, and HE HAS AVENGED THE BLOOD OF HIS BOND-SERVANTS ON HER.” And a second time they said, “Hallelujah! HER SMOKE RISES UP FOREVER AND EVER.” And the twenty-four elders and the four living creatures fell down and worshiped God who sits on the throne saying, “Amen. Hallelujah!”
Throughout the ages the true worshipers have grieved in their soul over hypocrisy and idolatry.
They have longed for the day when God rids this world of those false systems of worship.
And on this day it has happened and they rejoice.
And just to make sure we understand the severity of what they see.
You recognize that Isaiah says “their worm will not die and their fire will not be quenched”.
Jesus quoted that:
Mark 9:47-48 “If your eye causes you to stumble, throw it out; it is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye, than, having two eyes, to be cast into hell, where THEIR WORM DOES NOT DIE, AND THE FIRE IS NOT QUENCHED.”
The word for “hell” Jesus used there is GEHENNA
Listen to:
Jeremiah 19:6 “therefore, behold, days are coming,” declares the LORD, “when this place will no longer be called Topheth or the valley of Ben-hinnom, but rather the valley of Slaughter.”
The “valley of Ben-hinnom” (the place Jesus called Gehenna) was the city dump.
It is filled with refuse and fire and maggots.
Jeremiah saw it as the place where the slain would be thrown.
Jesus used it as a comparison to hell.
And Isaiah here speaks of it as the place where survivors will go as idolators and hypocrites are judged.
What does this mean?
We are speaking of a new land and a new day where no longer is hypocrisy and idolatry smiled upon.
The people of that kingdom will remember idolators like Jews remember Nazi prison guards.
It will be atrocious
It will be abominable
The whole world will agree with their judgments.
In that day, your mind will be liberated from the carnal desires of the flesh.
You will no longer be torn to love the things which God hates.
You will see Christ.
You will be like Christ.
You will think like Christ.
And you will totally agree with the judgments that fall upon the wicked in that day.
That day will be a day of worship, not regret or remorse over the fate of the wicked.
This is where we are headed!
A day where God is the chief attraction!
A day where tribute to God is the chief ambition!
A day where worship is the chief activity!
A day where rebellion is the chief abhorrence!
Worship will be restored!
John 4:23-24 “But an hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for such people the Father seeks to be His worshipers. “God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.”
