In Scott Brown's sermon on Isaiah 61, he explores the promises of the kingdom of God and how they are fulfilled in Jesus Christ. The sermon emphasizes the transformative power of the gospel, which brings beauty, joy, and righteousness to believers. Isaiah's use of vivid imagery and metaphors illustrates the stark contrast between the kingdom of God and the kingdom of darkness. Brown connects Isaiah's prophecy to the larger biblical narrative, highlighting the continuity of God's promises from Abraham to the coming of Jesus. The kingdom of God is characterized by justice, peace, and love, with believers called to forsake worldly idols and embrace the superior blessings of God's rule. The sermon urges listeners to reflect on how their lives reflect the glories of God's kingdom and to seek first His righteousness.

This morning I'd like to read from Isaiah chapter 61. So please turn there with me and follow along. We'll be reading the whole chapter, verses 1 through 11. Lord has anointed me to preach good tidings to the poor. He has sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn, to console those who mourn in Zion, to give them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness, that they may be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that he may be glorified.

And they shall rebuild the old ruins, they shall raise up the former desolations, and they shall repair the ruined cities, the desolations of many generations. Strangers shall stand and feed your flocks, and the sons of the foreigner shall be your plowmen and your vinedressers. But you shall be named the priests of the Lord. They shall call you the servants of our God. You shall eat the riches of the Gentiles, and in their glory you shall boast.

Instead of your shame you shall have double honor, and instead of confusion they shall rejoice in their portion. Therefore in their land they shall possess double, everlasting joy shall be theirs. For I the Lord love justice, I hate robbery for burnt offering. I will direct their work in truth and will make with them an everlasting covenant. Their descendants shall be known among the Gentiles and their offspring among the people.

All who see them shall acknowledge them that they are the posterity whom the Lord has blessed. I will greatly rejoice in the Lord, my soul shall be joyful in my God, for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation. He has covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decks himself with ornaments, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels. For as the earth brings forth its bud, as the garden causes the things that are in it to spring forth, so the Lord God will cause righteousness and praise to spring forth before all the nations. Please pray with me.

Allora God, we do thank you for your precious word. We thank you for your great promises, Lord. Lord, I do pray that you would work in us, your people, that you would cause us to turn to you this day. Lord, I do pray that you would work to bring praise and righteousness forth from us before the people. Lord, we pray that you would help us to see you high and lifted up, to see the greatness of your kingdom and to forsake the things of this world, the things of our flesh, to seek after your kingdom, the heavenly Jerusalem.

Lord, we pray that you would be with Mr. Brown, that you would help him, and that you would supply him by your spirit, that he might preach the words of life and give us ears to hear of God. Amen. It's both a joy and a sorrow to be able to come and conclude this prophecy that the Lord has been speaking to us for so many months now. And what we've seen is that the prophet Isaiah has been giving us hundreds of shadows of the kingdom of God and the kingdom of darkness.

And this is why we've structured these concluding sermons on Isaiah the first, on the charges against Judah, and then last week the gospel in Isaiah, and now finally these promises of the kingdom. And I just want to make a quick comment about these promises. They're such marvelous and beautiful Promises, but they also every single one of them has a corollary in the kingdom of darkness Because this kingdom destroys the kingdom of darkness and So whenever you read these positive promises, they all have sort of a negative corollary to them. And Dan tried to cover those as well as he could in his message on the charges against Judah. Now, what we've discovered is that Isaiah is very much like the Lord Jesus Christ.

He speaks in metaphors and in parables and in pictures. And he's illustrating the kingdom of God in beautiful, remarkable, and sometimes really hard to understand imagery. He uses the human body with a head being sick and the heart being faint. He uses agriculture and vineyards and fields and oxen and roots and and even a hut in a cucumber field and I don't know if you remember those stinky grapes that he talked about too he uses so many images from from agriculture he uses buildings, he uses bulging walls, you know, getting ready to fall down, bricks falling down, highways, stars, jackals, snakes, hyenas, wolves, lambs, fire, water, cities, Leviathan, treasure. And the entire prophecy ends with a very gripping and disturbing image of a worm that does not die.

And in many of these images, he's prophesying the coming kingdom of Jesus Christ. Some of them describe times past, in the days of the Exodus and even beyond. Some of them describe the recent threats of Assyria and the destruction of that kingdom upon Judah. Some of them describe the Babylonian captivity. Some of them describe the Lord Jesus Christ and his great kingdom.

And so it is very clear that that Isaiah in many places is prophesying the gospel of the kingdom of God. And you can you can see how I've presented these in your outline. Now if you see the out you know if you've seen the outline the outline was not intended to strike fear in the congregation that I would try to cover all of these points. But if I did have five hours, I would be so delighted to cover every one of them and have us just consider each text But we were not able to do that today So what I've written these here really as representative samples of that kingdom I couldn't list them all I tried to get them all on one page. And so there they are in representative form.

But as we As we spend our time here this morning contemplating the Kingdom of God, we should look at it in a particular way. Many of the prayers and statements that have been made already have led us in this direction. We should see how we are or are not reflecting the glories of this kingdom in our hearts, in our families, and in our church. And even in our work life and in every part of our lives. You know, what kind of kingdom do we love?

What kind of kingdom are we building? Because the truth is, as we're born into this world, the kingdoms of the idols make their influence upon us. And we end up a people that have various idols all of us all of us are idolaters at some level on different levels particularly and as we as we survey the kingdom of the idols in our own hearts we should we should ask ourselves how has the kingdom of this world, the kingdom of darkness, taken us? And what should we do about it in our hearts, and in our homes, and in our church, and in our work, and in everything? And this is really the whole life of a Christian is to see the beauties of the kingdom of heaven and to love those things that are there, to set aside the kingdoms of the idols in our own hearts and find ourselves loving the kingdom of heaven.

Now in order to set the stage for these various glorious promises of the kingdom, I'd like to speak for a moment about the definition and the significance of this kingdom. And I want to begin by explaining that it's the Lord Jesus Christ who speaks the most about this kingdom. Jesus Christ is fulfilling these kingdom promises. And I've been reading various theologians on the matter of the kingdom of God this week. And they all say a very similar thing.

If it wasn't, and they say this, if it wasn't the most prominent thing that Jesus spoke of. It was absolutely perhaps the most prominent thing that he spoke about, the kingdom of God. And he was, the Lord Jesus Christ was bringing in a new order of things. And it's very important that we understand this in terms of what Isaiah is trying to communicate to us because he was bringing in a new order a new covenant he was setting aside Judah in prophetically in in Isaiah's day and the Lord Jesus Christ teaches about this very very explicitly in Matthew chapter 21 verse 43 where he is speaking about the fact that the kingdom is being taken away from one people and it has been given to another. And that's really the whole logic of Isaiah, that you have two kinds of people in the world.

And he says in Matthew chapter 21, verse 43, therefore I say to you, the kingdom of God will be taken from you and be given to a nation bearing the fruits of it. And whoever falls on this stone will be broken, but on whomever it falls it will grind him to powder." And so Jesus Christ was removing the kingdom from one people to another. And in the New Testament, the whole idea of the kingdom is very particularly communicated through lots of different words and images, but the kingdom of God is a sphere. It's a state of reality and it's spoken of in the New Testament as the kingdom is coming or the kingdom is at hand or the kingdom is being seen, it's appearing, that a person is being called into the kingdom, a person is entering into the kingdom of heaven but for some it is shut and and for others they are cast out and but but the kingdom is it is sought the kingdom is given the kingdom is received the kingdom is possessed These are various words in the New Testament that explain what this kingdom is and how it is acquired by mankind.

In Mark chapter 10, the Lord Jesus Christ in verse 15 speaks of receiving the kingdom of God. In other words, you can receive a kingdom into your whole being. A whole state of being takes possession of your being. That's the idea of the kingdom of heaven and In Luke chapter 17 verses 20 through 21 We learned that when when the Lord Jesus Christ was asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom would come he gave a very startling answer because They seemed to be waiting for for only a physical kingdom that would give them lots of toys and jewels and authority and things like that and And the Lord Jesus Christ answered and he says this, the kingdom of God does not come with observation, nor will they say, see here or see there, for indeed The Kingdom of God is within you. And so this Kingdom is a realm, a state of the authority of God that exists within the heart of a people.

But that's not the only place that exists. Because it's greater than that. And This is why the Lord Jesus Christ said, seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness. In other words, stop seeking your own kingdom. Stop seeking your own righteousness.

But seek His because there's a realm so superior, a state of being that is so much more satisfying, so much more beautiful, so much more life-giving than any other kind of kingdom. Abandon the kingdom of the idols and come into the kingdom of heaven is the entire logic. The Lord Jesus Christ tied the kingdom of heaven to happiness, by the way. If you read the Beatitudes you'll see that. Gerhard Voss in his book, The Teaching of Jesus Concerning the Kingdom of God in the Church, he said this, Jesus could not conceive of any true happiness apart from the kingdom of God.

And so this kingdom refers to this vast array of superior blessings that come from the rule of Jesus Christ. And it comes when the gospel is spread and it's believed, and there's repentance and there's faith, and the sheer mercies of David are experienced in the life of a believer. And that's why at the very beginning of Jesus Christ's ministry, recorded in Matthew chapter 4 verse 23, the Lord Jesus Christ says that he is preaching this kingdom. And Jesus went all about Galilee teaching in their synagogues, preaching the gospel of the kingdom. And what was the outward manifestation of it?

And the healing of all kinds of sicknesses and all kinds of diseases among the people. And his fame went throughout all Syria. So they brought to him all who were sick and afflicted with various diseases and torments and those who were demon possessed, epileptics and paralytics, and he healed them. Because the kingdom of Jesus Christ is a healing kingdom, and people are made well as a result. And the Lord Jesus also made it very clear that this gospel of the kingdom would be preached in the world until the final judgment.

And this is why he declared in Matthew chapter 24 verse 14, this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations and then the end shall come. So the gospel of the kingdom as it is preached and then is embraced provides a spectacle to the nations and they'll see how different the people of the kingdom of God are and it will be preached until the end shall come." And also Luke in Luke chapter 16, verse 16, spoke of how this works that men, their hearts are moved And they can't do anything but move toward the kingdom. They actually press into the kingdom of God. The law and the prophets were until John, since that time, the kingdom of God has been preached and everyone is pressing into it. And it is easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for one tittle of the law to fail.

And so the Lord Jesus Christ was preaching the kingdom of God. And The ultimate purpose of the gospel of the kingdom of God is to bring sinners into that kingdom, to love Him, and to keep His commandments by the rule of the Lord Jesus Christ. But at the same time, human beings have this fatal flaw of the kingdoms of the idols that exist within them. And God saves sinners with their idols and he begins to purge them of their idols all their life long. Really fulfilling what the Apostle Paul preached in Colossians chapter 1 verse 13 to the Colossian Church.

He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of his love, in whom we have redemption through His blood the forgiveness of sins. And so it is this power of the gospel that is at the center of all of the work of the kingdom in the world. So that's the setting here regarding this instruction that Isaiah gives us about the kingdom, that he was speaking of the kingdom of Jesus Christ. Now I'd like to speak of the context of the Kingdom of God in Isaiah's storyline. You can see this second item in your outline.

Now I want to help us try to see that Isaiah doesn't just stand in the eighth century BC to speak. He stands really at a crossroads and Isaiah opens our eyes really to the whole storyline of the Bible. In Genesis 3 there's a prophecy that in spite of the fall God would preserve the seed of the woman which represents the kingdom of God and he would crush the head of the serpent and he would do this by the faith of Abraham and salvation by faith alone. By faith alone. And if those who are justified by faith live according to that faith, then they will have victory.

And that victory and the failure of these things is explained in various types as well through the Exodus through the land of Canaan through the city of Jerusalem through the priests all of these speak of both the the successes and the failures of those of those great patriarchs who had who were justified by faith alone God promised that all the families in the earth would be blessed through Abraham's seed. This was a promise and the expectation of that blessing was always on the hearts of God's people. But there's a problem and Isaiah reveals that problem in such a vivid way. Because when we get to the eighth century BC, it looks like all of this has completely fallen apart. The people of God are small.

They're like a hut in a cucumber field. The idolatry is everywhere. They draw near with their lips but their hearts are far from him. And they're actually, they're compared to Sodom and the children of Sodom and the leaders of Sodom. And they did not trust God.

They did not they did not cleave to this superior kingdom and and God in many ways through the prophet Isaiah is speaking to wean them from their fear of man and their lack of fear of God He says in chapter 8 verse 12, let him be your fear, let him be your dread. And chapter 59 verses 138 really summarizes the whole problem where he says, your iniquities have separated you from God. And so in the whole storyline of the Bible you have these great and marvelous promises to Abraham, but it looks like they're going to be destroyed and this hut in the cucumber field is going to be run over by Assyria and then later on Babylon. And so this prophecy comes at a time When it looks very hopeless for the people of God Was it the low watermark it was at least a low watermark a time when hope was being lost That that that all the families of the earth through the faith of Abraham would be blessed. It seemed to be being destroyed.

And they looked around and all they could see was threats and destruction and sin and duplicity and all kinds of hypocrisy. But what Isaiah does is he makes it very clear that God has not and will not ever abandon his people and that he will preserve his remnant and he will send a Savior who will secure those sure mercies of David and he'll pour out his Spirit and he will make a new creation in the heart of every person and then finally in the entire physical universe he'll do the same and he'll establish a kingdom like no other kingdom. He is the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. And while Israel found themselves at such a discouraging time as a result of their sin. Isaiah stands at the crossroads of history to say there's hope, but there's really only one hope in Jesus Christ, the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords.

And so he will come and he will pour out his spirit and the blind will see and the hear and the deaf will hear and this this is the gospel of the kingdom of God it's a realm it's a it's a rulership And this is why Jesus Christ said, the time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, or John the Baptist said, repent and believe in the gospel. And the Lord Jesus Christ repeated that same phrase in Matthew chapter 10. And so there are many parables of the kingdom that exist in the New Testament. We studied those last, when we were in Matthew.

Remember how we were always saying this is that? This is what Isaiah prophesied. And now we're saying that is this. So we continue on. Now I don't want to belabor this matter of the preaching of the kingdom of God, But the Apostle Paul uses this very same language in many places that I just would trust that you would see them at some point in your studies of the Scriptures.

But I want to spend the bulk of our time speaking of some of these elements of God's kingdom that are declared in the prophecy and as I said before there isn't really any way we can develop all of these I'm just going to develop as many as I can I'm going to watch the clock and then and then I'm going to bring us to some kind of closure but I really I really loathe to not be able to speak of every one of them because they are so beautiful and one of the things of one of the matters of their beauty and they are beautiful in and of themselves and we should contemplate their beauty but we should always recognize the corollary to the beauty that they that they always push away the kingdom of darkness. They always contradict it, and they call us out of our darkness. So whenever we read these, we should always, at the same time, I think, think of the corollary as well, and ask how it might be fulfilled. Well, let's begin. First of all, I want us to see that this is a kingdom where you will see the beauty of your king.

In Isaiah 33 verse 17, beginning in verse 16, we read, He will dwell on high, His place of defense will be the fortress of rocks, Bread will be given him, His water will be sure, Your eyes will see the King in His beauty. They will see the land that is very far off. And then in chapter 32 verses 1 through 5 we see the same image of a beautiful King. Behold a king will reign in righteousness and princes will rule in justice. A man will be as a hiding place from the wind and a cover from the tempest as rivers of water in a dry place as the shadow of a great rock in a dry and weary land." And he's speaking of the beauty of that king and how the beauty of that king is actually manifested in his disciples.

But Here we see that there is a king who is a beautiful king. The context of the passage in chapter 32 is really explaining the difference between those who go down to Egypt for advice and those who do not and and how God blesses them and he speaks of the righteousness and the justice and the and the protection and the abundance and the the whole transformation of the senses the generosity that that began that wells up in a person's heart. It actually makes a person devise generosity because of the beauty of that king. He's speaking of how everything changes with Jesus Christ. You go to him for advice, not down to Egypt again.

And he's really speaking in many ways of what is the heart of any true and healthy church and how a culture of beauty is fostered in a church. It's only fostered when the church desires to see the King in his beauty, when God and His glory is the center of the entire church. It's really the only hope of a church that God's glory alone is the hope of those people. And and as it turns out it really is the sweetest thing you can ever have lingering in your mind. It's the most healing thing for your emotions.

It's the most straightening influence on your thoughts. And it's the most blessed thing for the soul of a church or a family or for anyone. And this is the beauty of the king. In John chapter 12, you see the longings for that king. Where in John 12-13 you saw how they saw it and they took branches of palm trees and went out to meet him and they cried out Hosanna blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord the king of Israel And then Jesus went and found a donkey and he sat on it as it is written, fear not daughter of Zion, behold your king is coming, sitting on a donkey's colt.

And then It's reported there in that passage that the disciples didn't really understand those things at first. But when he was glorified, they remembered them, and it became clearer to them at that time. So this is a kingdom where you see the beauty of your king. And how are we reflecting the glories of our king in our homes and in our church. What kingdoms of the idols have we maintained that need to be pushed out by that kingdom of this beautiful king?

So We should always ask ourselves what kind of kingdom are we building? And is it that beautiful kingdom of the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, the Lord Jesus Christ? And then it's a kingdom where the dross is removed. Chapter 1 verse 25, I will turn my hand against you and thoroughly purge away your dross and take away all your alloy. And here he's speaking about the life-giving work of the purging power of the gospel of the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and all its various expressions and helps in the church.

Because all of us have been defiled by sin, we do need that multitude of mercies, multitudes upon multitudes. And in the kingdom of Jesus Christ, impurities are exposed and they are purged. And so there's this impurity that always exists in in any true church of Jesus Christ but The Lord Jesus Christ promises that in His kingdom, when its realm, when its state of being takes root in your soul, then something so helpful has started, a purging of sin. And this is why in the Bible, you know, it's in all the one and other passages you find insight to this. One of them is confess your sins to one another.

Because sin, the only reason that that command is there is because sin shows up in a true church. And so confession and repentance are really always the heart of the whole matter. But in a true church, dross is removed. And then those are watered by the waters of life. And there's hope for that dry and parched ground in the Church of Jesus Christ.

In chapter 4, verse 4, there's this phrase that really connects with this. When the Lord has washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion and purged the blood of Jerusalem from her midst by the spirit of judgment and by the spirit of burning. So there's this purging that takes place and it happens through various disciplines. And there's a need for soap, there's a need for washing. In fact, the word that he uses here, washed in this chapter, actually is a word for soap and cleaning and why why why was there a need for cleaning well Isaiah had already said why and the reason is that they had become filled with Eastern ways They had saturated their minds with the ways of this world rather than the ways of God and they had become children of the world as a result.

But we should always ask you where are the Eastern ways you know among us in all of these realms in our in our families in our hearts and in our homes are are we reflecting the glory of this marvelous kingdom where there's the purging of a sin-filled life. But Isaiah also speaks of sound judgment being restored. It's a kingdom where people's thoughts are set aright and they start thinking rightly. That's what judgment is all about. When you encounter the word judgment, it has various expressions.

But at the bottom of it is this resetting of your mind so that you think right about things. So that like In the meditations of your heart, in your mind, you think right about what you see. That's one of the most difficult things for all of us. And then also that your words would be manifestations of his justice, not your own justice. And one of the most difficult matters in this society, and I would just expect it has been true in every society, that justice gets perverted.

Isaiah actually speaks about the, or actually Moses speaks about the perverting of justice. But the reason justice is perverted is because we're perverted. And we have to learn how to think rightly. We have to learn to think in terms of what is truly justice. Years ago when we went through the book of Deuteronomy, we discovered that our justice isn't very much like God's justice.

That we created justice systems that really were contrary to Him. And we were offended by some of His ways of justice. And we realized that the problem wasn't with God. Because every word of God is true, purified seven times, and it's perfect. And we recognize that there's a difference between our sense of justice.

And so he says, I will restore your judges as at the first and your counselors as at the beginning. Afterward you shall be called the city of righteousness, the faithful city. Zion shall be redeemed with justice and her penitence with righteousness. But the problem was, as was communicated in chapter 5 or 7, he looked for justice, but he found oppression. And he said in chapter 10, verse 1, woe to those who decree unrighteous decrees.

This is always such a battle. It begins in our minds as our whole sense of justice has been warped. But it's such a blessing to have a testimony from heaven so that we might know the justice of God and not our own so that the kingdoms of the idols in our own hearts can be displaced and so we should always be asking you know how how are we reflecting the glories of this kingdom of justice in all the areas that God has given us. But not only is it a place where sound judgment is restored, it's a place where people flow to the Lord and they're taught. I have such a delight in so many of these passages that are here on this page, but this one presents such a marvelous picture of the Church of Jesus Christ in chapter 2 verses 2 through 4.

It's the whole picture of the mountain of the Lord. The timing of this is stated in the latter days, in the furthest most distant parts of the days, in the coming of Jesus Christ and his great kingdom. Those are the days that he's speaking of. And he says, it shall come to pass in the latter days that the mountain of the Lord's house shall be established on the top of the mountains and shall be exalted above the hills and All nations shall flow to it and what happens people are calling you are they're saying let's go up to the mountain of the Lord and let's be taught. He will teach us his ways.

It's a picture of a people who love to be taught the ways of the kingdom of God. And so much so that it becomes a kingdom, and I would suggest that it is a kingdom of priests that Peter spoke about in his letter, where the law goes forth and many are rebuked. This is one of the great manifestations of this kingdom of Jesus. It's a place where the law goes forth in the world. For out of Zion shall go forth the law and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.

He shall judge between the nations and rebuke many people." And this makes it very clear that the law of God does have a place in the New Covenant era. And the Lord Jesus Christ made this very very clear in the Sermon on the Mount, not one jot or tittle shall pass from the law until all is fulfilled. And Jesus Christ in the Sermon on the Mount explained how you should interpret the law by giving examples of how he interpreted the law himself. To proclaim the truth that the law is good if one uses it lawfully, as the apostle Paul said to young Timothy, who was a pastor in the church of Ephesus. But it's a place where this new kingdom that is governed by the law of God, it establishes a testimony in the world, and that testimony actually stands as a rebuke.

And when people see the things of the kingdom of God in the Church of Jesus Christ, they compare it with their own lives. And there's actually a rebuke. And hopefully that rebuke would cause repentance and the abandonment of their own personal kingdom of their idols, and to turn to King Jesus and to Him alone, and to begin to love His kingdom, to pursue it, and to experience the miracle where the kingdom of God is at hand. And it's a corollary miracle where you begin to seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, not your own. And the blessings that come from it, all these things shall be added unto you.

And It's a place where there's peace among men. There are several places where this emerges in the prophecy. Interestingly enough, Isaiah uses imagery of war and animals to communicate it. In chapter 2 verses 4 and 5 he says, they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks. Nations shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore.

And so there are these dramatic life-altering changes that take place when people embrace the gospel of Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ made it very clear that he came to bring in the kingdom of heaven. And this is part of the kingdom of heaven. And in this imperfect world we see progress of peace, particularly in the Church of Jesus Christ, but it goes beyond that as well. In chapter 11 verse 6, Verse through 10, this very similar language is used.

The wolf shall also dwell with the lamb. The leopard shall lie down with the young goat. The calf and the young lion and the fatling together. A little child shall lead them. The cow and the bear shall graze.

Their young ones shall lie down together, and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. The nursing child shall play at the cobra's hole, and the weaned child shall put his hand in the viper's den. They shall not hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain." That's code for his kingdom in his church here on earth and in heaven. For the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. And in that day there shall be a root of Jesse who shall stand as a banner to the people for the Gentiles shall seek him and his resting place will be glorious." And in chapter 62 you see the same thing in verses 1 through 12 where the wolf and the lamb shall feed together.

Very, very similar imagery. And you know my understanding of this is it probably has two elements to it. And the first is that God is He is bringing a diverse people into his church. They're the Gentiles. They come from every tongue and tribe and nation They couldn't be more different than you can imagine and they're brought into his kingdom and they are made to love one another and With all of their background and all of these things the the wolves and the lambs can lie down together, and a child can actually play by a cobra's hole.

And we saw that in Isaiah, most of the time, the animals are people. They are. The jackals, the hyenas, the snakes. He's talking about people. And they exist among the ruins in chapter 34 and 35.

And there they are, the jackals and the ostriches and the hyenas and the arrow snakes and there they are in these bombed out cities destroyed by sin and what happens? Springs come up in the desert and it flows around the ruins and these despicable animals and They now they and now they're living in a garden, they're being nourished, they've been saved. It's a promise. It's this promise of the kingdom where the despised jackals and all manner of Gentiles of the world, They come together and they exist in a kingdom and they demonstrate how powerful the gospel can be under the rulership of the Prince of Peace who causes peace to spread And there's peace between the predator and the prey. And these are both domestic animals and wild animals that exist in these passages.

They are clean and unclean animals. And It may be also that somehow the changes of the kingdom are so great that somehow the animals are changed. I'm not sure how that works, perhaps without question, in the eternal kingdom when Jesus Christ makes all things absolutely new. He's making things new now. There's a progression that's going on now Where the Gentiles are being brought in and they're being brought into the church of Jesus Christ but the indisputable mark of a true church is that there is a messiah who brings peace.

He is the center of their unity. And these effects of his peace, of his gospel, They reverse the brutality of the death that the fall has unleashed. And again, just as a side note, there are many manifestations of this reversal of the fall that you see in Isaiah. This is one of them here, where the Gentiles come in. The Lord Jesus Christ in his kingdom said, blessed are the peacemakers.

And when people are converted, the most prominent feature is that they learn how to love one another. And, you know, it was interesting in our men's meeting, you know, Friday night, there were quite a number of men who confessed our lack of love, their lack of love and our lack of love as a church toward one another. And we saw that even this morning here in the prayers. But the key feature of a church of Jesus Christ is love. The Bible says that every single law of God is summed up under one four-letter word, love.

Every law of God is a law of love. And when the kingdom of Jesus Christ is embraced, there's a new way that we relate with one another. We unlearn our own ways. You know, I think it's obvious, you know, people get married and they have to spend their lives unlearning the ways of their love or lack of it. And it's like that in a church where people are married to Jesus Christ.

And they have to unlearn so many things about their attitudes toward people and their knee-jerk reactions and the use of their tongue. Interestingly enough, when the coal came to Isaiah to cleanse him, Where did it come first? To his lips. Where so much of the defiling things happen in the church. But in this kingdom you have those who have received mercy and they give mercy and they're and they're not they're not like they're not like the wolves who devour the lambs anymore they're not like the cobras who are lurking in the hole to wait for the baby to come to kill it.

They're not like that at all and to swallow it up and to devour one another and by biting and poisoning one another because their relationships are governed by God and this is why there's so many things in the Bible, particularly in the New Testament, about how to love one another, to forbear with one another, to pass over one another's sins, to think the best of one another, to rejoice with those who rejoice and weep with those who weep, to speak the truth in love, to rebuke one another. There are many manifestations of this love. There are many tools that God has given in order to make love be fulfilled in the church. In Matthew chapter 18, which is the location of what's the most famous and often exclusively cited text on church discipline, Jesus explains what the kingdom of heaven is like in this whole picture of discipline in the church. The Lord Jesus Christ says or the Matthew 18 verse 21 says, then Peter came to him and said, how Lord, how often shall I for shall my brother sin against me and I forgive him?

Up to seven times and Jesus said to him, I do not say to you up to seven times, but up to seventy times seven. In other words, far, far more than you can ever imagine in your own thinking. Way beyond your own self capacity. But then Jesus Christ said this. Right after he said this, he spoke of his kingdom.

And he said, the kingdom of heaven is, and he said it like this, therefore the kingdom of heaven is like a certain king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants And when he had begun to settle accounts, one was brought to him who owed him ten thousand talents. But as he was not able to pay, his master commanded that he be sold with his wife and children and all that he had and that payment be made. The servant therefore fell down before him, saying, Master, have patience with me, and I will pay you all. Then the master of that servant was moved with compassion, released him, and forgave him the debt. But that servant went out and found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred denarii, and he laid his hands on him and took him by the throat, saying, pay me what you owe.

He was forgiven a debt of probably in today's values could be in the hundreds of millions or billions of dollars and He takes his brother to task for a hundred dinari So his fellow servant fell down at his feet and begged him saying, have patience with me. I'm sorry, I skipped. So, when his fellow servants saw what had been done, they were very grieved and came and told their master all that had been done. Then his master, after he had called him, said to him, You wicked servant, I forgave you all that debt because you begged me. Should you not have had compassion on your fellow servant, just as I had pity on you?

And his master was angry and delivered him to the torturers, until he should pay all that was due him. So my heavenly Father also will do to you, if each of you from his heart does not forgive his brother for his transgressions." Because the kingdom of God is a kingdom of love where where the wolves don't kill the lambs and The and the cobras don't bite the babies The Apostle Paul spoke of it to the Corinthian Church, you know the Corinthian Church a place a pagan place and that needed much correction and reformation on so many different fronts. One of them was love. Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal. And although I have the gift of prophecy and understand all the mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have faith, all faith, so that I could remove mountains but have not love, I am nothing.

And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profits me nothing. Love suffers long and is kind. Love does not envy. Love does not parade itself. Is not puffed up.

Does not behave rudely. Does not seek its own. Is not provoked. Thinks no evil. Provoked thinks no evil does not rejoice in iniquity but rejoices in the truth bears all things believes all things hopes all things endures all things love never fails And the Apostle Paul also addressed the Roman church because they had the same problem, because it's a problem.

It's a problem in the Ephesian church and the Colossian church and the Corinthian church and in other churches as well that are actually addressed. And it wouldn't, it shouldn't surprise us that we would have struggles with this in our own church. And so he said to the Romans, he said, Let love be without hypocrisy, abhor what is evil, cling to what is good, be kindly affectionate to one another in brotherly love, in honor, giving preference to one another, not lagging in diligence, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord, rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation, continuing steadfastly in prayer, distributing to the needs of the saints, given to hospitality." It was interesting. In our meeting one man said, I hadn't been practicing hospitality. It's lack of love.

That's what he said. Bless those who persecute you. Bless and do not curse. Rejoice with those who rejoice and weep with those who weep. Be of the same mind toward one another.

Do not set your mind on high things but associate with the humble. Do not be wise in your own opinion. Repay no one evil for evil. Have regard for good things in the sight of all men. If it is possible, as much as depends on you, live peaceably with all men.

Beloved, do not avenge yourselves, but rather give place to wrath. For it is written, Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord. Therefore if your enemy is hungry, feed him. If he is thirsty, give him a drink, for in so doing you will heap coals of fire on his head. Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good." love is the central mark of the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ.

And it's always something that is one over time, because it's one over time in our hearts. And God gives us various difficulties and relationships that help us to learn how to love more. Some people become very offended because someone has treated them wrong. They've just actually had an opportunity to love more than they ever loved before. Someone has offended you, slandered you, hurt you, misrepresented you.

It gives you an opportunity to turn to Jesus Christ and to find all of your hope in Him and in Him alone. You know, there are so many of these manifestations of the kingdom of heaven and there are there are so many listed here right before us there enough to to sink our ships here today and in terms of time but what what what is very clear is that this is such a marvelous kingdom. It's a kingdom where people are connected to life and they're growing. Where there's shade and refuge and shelter. Where gloom is departed.

Where there's light. Where his government will never end. Where you have the spirit of understanding, not your own, where people sing of the strength of the Lord with peace in their hearts, where there is no more weeping, where your ears hear, where you will despise your idols, where the Holy Spirit transforms your wilderness, where the damned and the despised among the ruins can be transformed. It's a place of comfort. It's a place where the weak are sustained by an inexhaustible sustainer, where the waters flow, where there's a road in the wilderness for who?

For those ostriches and jackals and snakes and those despised animals in the world. And this is the kingdom of Jesus Christ. And it's such a marvelous kingdom. Isaiah is very complex and it's very simple at the same time. The prophet declares really the simplest truth that the littlest child can understand.

He uses such complex and remarkable beautiful language and I'll just have to say it again, I've loved preaching this book particularly to the children because of all the animals and trees and rivers and things in it, just like Jesus is Isaiah. But the prophet declares the simplest truth that the judgment of God is against the wicked and the love of God is toward those who tremble before him. This is the whole message of Isaiah. And the first section of Isaiah is characterized by the word woe, verses chapter 1 through 39, and the key word in chapters 40 through 66 is comfort because this is the kingdom of heaven. There is a world of woe to those who don't love his kingdom.

It's so helpful for us to be very well aware of the beauty of his kingdom. And you who are raising children, let me just make this suggestion. Let your children see the beauty of this kingdom. Let them see how good Jesus Christ is. Let them see the superiority of His ways.

Let them see you love His ways, not just read them to them like a stone wall, but to cry out to them for the most beautiful things that exist in the world. God has given you a family to create a little kingdom. It's a kingdom of heaven. And God has given us together in this church to do the very same thing so that the kingdom of Jesus Christ would replace all of the kingdoms of our little petty idols that we love so much. He is so good.

And finally if you're looking at the outline there's a question, How do you enter the kingdom of God? You enter the kingdom of heaven first by being drawn there. Your heart is moved toward Him. You see things that you never saw. You see beauty like you never saw, and you're drawn to Him, and you see the greatness of His kingdom.

There are actually three Greek words that explain the mechanism that God activates in the soul to enter the kingdom of heaven. It's that mechanism of repentance. God causes repentance to take place. And there are three Greek words that describe this way that you enter into the kingdom of heaven. The first one is a Greek word, metamelani, and it has to do with sorrow over a past life of sin.

It's spoken of in Matthew chapter 21 verses 29 through 32. It's sorrow for sin. It's that son who regretted the way that he went and he turned around. He said he wouldn't do it, but then he did. He regretted it.

He had sorrow for his poor choice. So it begins with regret. And then there's metanoeo, which occurs in Matthew 12, 41. It has to do with the reversal of an attitude or a thought