The sermon 'Don't Shrug Your Shoulders at God' by Scott Brown explores the themes of judgment and comfort in Isaiah, emphasizing the dichotomy between God's wrath and mercy. It highlights the prophecy's role in calling the Church and individuals to self-examination and understanding the coming of the Messiah. The sermon underscores the importance of recognizing both judgment and comfort in the gospel message, illustrating how Isaiah's prophecy applies to historical events and the ultimate judgment and salvation through Jesus Christ. The sign of Jesus, God's wrath against sin, and the call to flee from impending judgment are central to the sermon, urging believers to embrace God's mercy and spread His glory among the nations.

I'll be starting in verse 14. When you see this, your heart shall rejoice, and your bones shall flourish like grass. The hand of the Lord shall be known to his servants and his indignation to his enemies. For behold, the Lord will come with fire and with his chariots like a whirlwind to render his anger with fury and his rebuke with flames of fire. For by fire and by his sword, the Lord will judge all flesh, and the slain of the Lord shall be many.

Those who sanctify themselves and purify themselves to go to the gardens after an idol in the midst, eating swine's flesh and the abomination and the mouse shall be consumed together says the Lord. For I know their works and their thoughts. It shall be that I will gather all nations in tongues and they shall come to see my glory. I will set a sign among them and those among them who escape I will send to the nations to Tarshish and Pole and Ludd who draw the bow and Tubal and Javan to the coastlands afar off who have not heard my fame nor seen my glory and they shall declare my glory among the Gentiles then they shall bring all your brethren for an offering to the Lord out of all nations on horses and in chariots and in litters on mules and on camels to my holy mountain Jerusalem says the Lord as the children of Israel bring an offering in a clean vessel into the house of the Lord And I will also take some of them for priests and Levites, says the Lord. For as the new heavens and the new earth which I will make shall remain before me, says the Lord, so shall your descendants and your name remain.

And it shall come to pass that from one new moon to another and from one Sabbath to another, all flesh shall come to worship before me, says the Lord. And they shall go forth and look upon the corpses of the men who have transgressed against me for their worm does not die and their fire is not quenched they shall be an abhorrence to all flesh let's pray father we thank you for your grace upon us. We are truly at your mercy, Lord. Even now, to hear your word and to understand it, we thank you that You work through your word and you refine us Lord. We pray for the teaching this morning.

We pray that each heart would be attentive. And Lord, may we heed the warnings here for those in this room who do not know you, that they would cry out to you and ask for mercy. And Lord, for those of us who know you, may we rejoice in the glory that you will reveal. And Lord, we thank you so much that you have saved us and called us to be your own we thank you for your mercy let us just delight in that truth today in Jesus name we pray well it was about two years and seven months ago that we began our journey through Isaiah. And this is the last section, the last exposition that we'll be doing in Isaiah.

And then after that, we're going to give three summaries. Dan will give one, Mike will give one, I will give one, and then I will begin to read do the exposition again in chapter one It's such a precious book. Don't you think we should do that? Well, we're not going to do that but It's been quite a quite a marvelous journey. And as we examine this final section, I'd like to remind us of a few things of what's happening in this book, just so that we can get a sense of it.

The wider context is that God is delivering a message to a nation first, to a church second, and to individuals that exist within that nation and that church. And there are three voices that you hear in this testimony. There's the voice of the prophet himself, Isaiah. There's the voice of God, and there are the voices of the people. In our section here that really began in chapter 65, you hear the voice of God.

God completes the prophecy with His own voice speaking to His people. The purpose of the prophecy is to call the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ to self-examination and to help them understand what it means to know God and to announce the coming of the Messiah. He really is the center of everything. And while there are various historical elements of this book that it is referring to from the Babylonian captivity, to the coming of Jesus Christ and the power of the resurrection to even 70 AD to the gathering of the Gentiles from all the earth and then finally to final glorification and final judgment Isaiah is speaking about all of these things. It's sometimes difficult to understand exactly which one he's speaking about, but if ever in doubt, recognize he is speaking of the coming of Jesus Christ and the formation of his church as he comes and he brings judgment upon Israel and turns to the Gentiles and But Isaiah's message is really very very simple even though the message is couched in hundreds of beautiful images There are really two messages here and the first message is really summarized in the first 39 chapters of the book.

In Isaiah chapter 1 through 39, the whole message is captured in one word, woe. He speaks of the woes of all those who turn away from God. And he examines various elements of the judgment of God, both temporally and eternally. And the second keyword that explains the second element of the message of Isaiah is the word comfort. And you find this message in Isaiah chapter 40 to chapter 66 which opens with the command of the people of God to comfort one another.

Comfort, yes, comfort my people, says your God. And so these two messages, judgment is the theme in 1-39, while salvation and comfort is the theme in chapters 40-66. Punishment for sin is the theme of 1-39, and forgiveness of sin is the theme of chapter 40-66. Now, you who have been with us know that these aren't the exclusive messages during these sections, but these are the overarching and thematic messages of each one of these sections. And he's describing two kinds of people in the world and the basic outline of Isaiah explains that there really are only two kinds of people that are alive today in the world And so he paints many pictures to explain each condition to to show the reader what the world is really like.

And what God has done with Isaiah, he's shown us the identity of every person in the world. Now, the scope of Isaiah's prophecy is quite broad from the Babylonian captivity to final glory. The immediate context that we find ourselves in in chapters 65 and 66 needs to be recognized. First of all, these two chapters are one message of various contours, and their purpose is to answer Isaiah's prayer. In the previous chapter Isaiah is crying out to God and he's saying oh Lord what will you do?

What will you do with us? And God finally at the very end comes and he gives the answer to that prayer he tells Isaiah what he will do to rend the heavens because Isaiah is crying out to God that he would rend the heavens what does it look like to rend the heavens And so he's been explaining this from the very beginning of chapter 65. And so in our, now if you go through chapter 65 and 66, and I was tempted to walk us through chapters 65 and 66, but I've decided not to do it for time. But if you walk through these two chapters, what you will see is that He goes back and forth from one theme to another. He enters and recedes and goes back into another theme, but it's these same two themes that he's been working in the entire book.

Woe and comfort. He's explaining those pictures in his final statement in this chapter. And of course, if you were here last week, you walked with us through this marvelous section just before the section we're in now, Where the identity and the work of the church is explained and that the church is your mother and that every person in the church has been raised up for the purpose of feeding one another. That he's called us together like a mother. So even whether you're a biological mother here today or not or anything like that, or whether you're a man, here in that passage God says you're a mother if you're part of the people of God.

And you have the tender-hearted mercy and kindness of a mother, and you set yourself not to hating one another, not to unreasonably be judging one another, but to feed one another in the same way that a mother would feed her child on her suckling breasts. And so this is the picture that Isaiah has just been speaking of. Now he goes back into this message of judgment And he's saying in these chapters that there is the judgment of God against the wicked and there is the love of God toward those who tremble at his word. There are only two kinds of people. There are people who don't care much about his word.

They would just as soon shrug their shoulders at it. And their worship is just going through the motions. But yet there are others who are moved their hearts Tremble it makes a change in their being and and and so he continues to speak of these things and then And then as you see there's an outline in front of you of the verses that we're in in this very last section that the first part of this speaks of the anger and the fury of God and Then secondly the fame and the glory of God and how the love of God works to draw despicable pagan people from all over the world to worship him and he blesses them. And then finally there are these two pictures at the very end And you have a picture of descendants, descendants who will remain, who will flourish, who will be blessed for all eternity. And then you have the corpses, the corpses of those who've been slain, whose worm will not die.

It's a picture of hell. So there we have a basic explanation of this whole section. Now, you cannot understand God without understanding these two elements of woe and comfort you cannot understand the gospel unless you have embraced both of these elements of the gospel of Jesus Christ of both woe and of comfort and And so what we find here is Isaiah brings us again as he has so many times into some of the most striking moments that are declared in metaphors. And if you look at verse 14, you'll see how he presents the anger and the fury of God. And he says this, When you see this, Your heart shall rejoice and your bones shall flourish like grass.

The hand of the Lord shall be known to His servants." In other words, He's saying when you see the church like a mother, When you see the tenderness in the hearts of the people of Jesus Christ, your heart will rejoice. And you will also see something else. You will see His indignation to His enemies. That's the very last phrase in verse 14. The key phrase in understanding this final section is found in these very first words, when you see this.

When you see this contrast, When you understand the kindness and the gentleness and the beauty of the kingdom of heaven and the deprivation and the tragedy, the harm, the fury that is associated with all those who when they hear the word, they shrug their shoulders and their hearts are not moved and they don't tremble before the word of God. Now Isaiah cannot talk about mercy without also talking about judgment. And he cannot talk about judgment without talking about mercy at the same time. And this is why the pattern that we see in chapters 65 and 66 are consistent with everything we have read because Isaiah continually goes back and forth and back and forth to these two great elements of the reality of the world. And he's speaking of his hatred of sin and his wrath against it.

You know, he earlier in chapter 65 verse 11, He made this contrast so vividly and really so beautifully. He says, Behold, my servants shall eat, but you shall be hungry. Behold, my servants shall drink, but you shall be thirsty. Behold, my servants will rejoice, but you shall be ashamed. Behold my servants shall sing for joy of heart, but you shall cry for sorrow of heart, and wail for grief of spirit." So this is the reality of the kingdom of God.

And there is this fury, this wrath that we read of in this first section in verses 14 through 18. Look at verse 15 with me. For behold, the Lord will come with fire and with his chariots like a whirlwind, to render his anger with fury and his rebuke with flames of fire. Here fire is used of the judgment of God. Chariots speak of war and strength.

And remember, it was fire that separated Adam and Eve from the tree of life. It was fire that God used to kill Nadab and Abihu. It was fire that devoured the sons of Korah in Numbers chapter 16. And there's a whirlwind to render his anger with fury. There is rebuke using flames of fire.

There's a fire and a sword and many will be slain and there this is the doctrine of the judgment and the wrath of God. This is God's nature. He's righteous. He's holy and and he will bring to judgment everything that contradicts his character of holiness and love. And his holiness is to destroy all things that are destructive to his love.

We should never spurn the message of the judgment of God. We should never weary of the message of the judgment of God. We should never weary of the message of the judgment of God, either. And we should recognize that all great revivals have included the preaching of the wrath of God. We must preach the wrath of God in our generation.

We live in a time now where you hardly ever hear messages about the wrath and the judgment of God because it's so offensive to people and this is one reason why I believe we don't have revival. We've not really declared the righteousness and the holiness and the purity of God and therefore people don't see themselves as sinners they don't see themselves as in great need of the mercy of the Lord Jesus Christ and his Sacrificial atonement that he that he accomplished on the cross for sinners If you do not see the wrath of God as great, you will never see the mercy of God toward you as great as it really is. We saw, we have seen the wrath of God communicated in every great revival in history that we can identify. In the days of the great reformation in Europe with John Calvin and with with those great reformers you see it. You see it in the days of the Great Awakening in America with Jonathan Edwards and with George Whitefield.

You see it in the great English revival in the 1840s with many of the great luminaries of that great revival that took place. The wrath of God must be preached. You know, when we were in the midst of prayer week and praying through the families of the church, I remember a moment where I was so struck. Someone in my house prayed for every single child in this one family. Of course that happened almost every day, but there was just this moment where every child's name was being brought before the throne of grace and her prayer was for these children's salvation that they would be saved from the wrath to come and I was so struck by that I was I was struck with fear and terror in many ways because of what it means for a child not to come to Jesus Christ.

That their hearts are not softened before God. That they have no love for God. That it is not in them. They're not moved by God, and they are not being cared for and comforted and taught and helped by God. They don't have it.

And It made me think of all the children in our church who have not named the name of Jesus Christ. It's not yet evident that Jesus Christ has changed their heart because there is nothing more important than salvation that is in Jesus Christ and to be rescued from the wrath to come. And even as we pray today in the final families that are listed in our prayer guide, let's pray earnestly. Let's pray for every child that they would taste the kindness of the Lord, that they would know the joy of the Lord in their heart, that they would see how good He is, that their hearts would thrill at His name, that they would love His words. Please pray.

Let's pray earnestly that they would be delivered from the wrath to come. This is a real wrath. It is going to happen to all those who do not bow their knee to Jesus Christ. And how will they know? They'll know when their hearts tremble before the Lord and they love Him and they want to serve Him.

That's how they'll know. And if their hearts don't tremble and they don't care and they shrug, they must know who they are. And this is the matter that's before us in this very first section. We must be aware of the importance of the doctrine of the wrath of God and not weary of hearing it. Without hearing it, there is no hope for the true gospel being preached.

And hey, the wrath of God is communicated from the very beginning of the Bible to the very end. Adam was driven out of the garden. There's pain and childbirth. There are thorns and thistles. There's universal death.

Cain became a vagabond. There's the flood that wiped out the world. There was the Tower of Babel that God destroyed. There was Sodom that was incinerated by fire. There is Egypt.

There is Saul. There is David. There is Sennacherib, king of Assyria. There's Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon. The entire Bible testifies to the wrath and the fury of God against sin and sinners.

And he has given all of those manifestations of his wrath in order to teach us that it is true, the wrath of God is coming. John the Baptist said to the people that he was speaking to, who told you to flee from the wrath to come?" The wrath is coming. The wrath is real and nothing can hold it back. The cross of the Lord Jesus Christ is the central demonstration of the wrath of God, where God poured out His wrath upon His Son. He poured His wrath out upon his son so that those who would repent of their sins and turn to him and believe that Jesus Christ is King of kings and Lord of lords and that they would love him and worship him, that Those people would not receive the wrath to come because the wrath was poured out on Jesus Christ.

In Isaiah chapter 53, this beautiful picture is put before our eyes where God takes the wrath that you deserve and He takes it off of you and He lays His wrath upon the shoulders of His Son. Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and be saved. Flee from the wrath to come. You know when someone says to you, who told you to flee from the wrath to come? You're in a moment right now.

Someone is telling you to flee from the wrath to come. And you, if you've been in this church, you have been called to flee from the wrath to come many, many times as we've walked through the words of scripture which cause us to do this, to flee from that wrath to come. Because there is anger and there is fury. Read Proverbs chapter 1 verses 26 through 32 and you'll see why it is that such wrath and fury comes upon those who hate him. He says, Because you hated knowledge and did not choose the fear of the Lord, They would have none of my counsel and despise my every rebuke.

Therefore, they shall eat the fruit of their own way and be filled to the full with their own fancies. For the turning away of the simple will slay them and the complacency of fools will destroy them. But whoever listens to me will dwell safely and will be secure without fear of evil." On the contrary, in verse 26, Solomon says that if you do not fear the Lord and turn to him, turn to his wisdom, I will laugh at your calamity. I will mock when your terror comes." The mocking voice of God is not something that you want to hear. And he speaks of who it is that will be treated this way in verse 17.

Those who sanctify themselves and purify themselves to go to the gardens after an idol in the midst, eating swine's flesh and the abomination of the mouse shall be consumed together, says the Lord. There are reasons identified for God's fury here. There are things that people do to draw the fury of God. Now, I believe these are both literal, but they're also figurative. They are figurative of the various manifestations of idolatry.

But there are two reasons identified for this fury. First there were idolatrous gatherings, verse 17. Those who sanctify themselves and purify themselves, They go to the gardens after an idol in the midst. They're indulging in pagan practices. They're polluting themselves.

And my understanding of this passage is that when they leave the worship of God, they go and do whatever pleases them, whatever they want, and they're sanctifying themselves. It does please them and they regard themselves as good and acceptable and holy in what they're doing. But it's not good and acceptable or holy at all. It's having a religious life on the side, but a big life on the other side. The second thing is that they're doing things that God has explicitly prohibited.

Eating swine's flesh and the abomination and the mouse. These three things that are mentioned. The swine's flesh, the abomination and the mouse. Leviticus chapter 11 verse 12 speaks of these abominable foods that God commanded his people not to eat. These are the food laws that are in the Old Testament and read Leviticus chapter 11 29 to 31 and you'll get a get a sense of it.

The food laws were not declarations that certain kinds of foods were bad for you. They were tests of obedience when they were not in temple worship. The commands were given to make distinctions between what is holy and unholy. God gave those commands in order to test people as to whether they would be faithful and he said do not eat those things in order to test them so that they could see whether their hearts were rebellious or not. That's why the food laws were given.

And they, I, my understanding of this section is that they were doing these things outside of worship. They were worshipping all the time. And the problem is that they see a difference between the sacred and the secular they made a disastrous distinction They feel that they can engage on with second sacred activities and then have a secular life That's disconnected from the spiritual And they're very enthusiastic about their sacrifices. They enjoy them. They're satisfied by them.

They're sanctified by them They feel that it's good for them. They like it. It's nourishing. They love it. Their affections are for it It's what they want.

It's what they think about And often it's what they think about on the Sabbath because they really like those things more. They think of their life outside and how good it will be once you get outside and It's a mark that should terrify you. Martin Luther said, all those who please themselves are rat eaters allegorically. All those who please themselves are rat eaters allegorically. That's the whole matter here.

And he says they shall be consumed together. Second Thessalonians chapter 1 verses 8 and 9 speak of this so clearly that the Lord will come and bring his indignation against it. And then in verse 18, they will come and see God's glory. For I know their works and their thoughts. It shall be that I will gather all nations and tongues and they shall come and see my glory." Now I take this to mean that both those who are religious but yet their hearts are not moved and those whose hearts are moved are going to come and see his glory.

It could be he's just speaking of the previous ones who will receive his fury, but I think it's more likely he's speaking of both. And he opens this up by saying, for I know your works. Nothing is hidden from his eyes. The Lord, The Lord Jesus Christ speaks of this way in Revelation chapter 2. He says, I know your works, your labor, and your patience, and that you cannot bear those who are evil.

In Revelation 3, 8, I know your works. See, I have set before you an open door." And this is just a reminder to all those who think that God can't see, who think that God is shrugging his shoulders and is turning a blind eye to unbelief. He's not turning a blind eye. He sees. He knows your every works.

He understands every motivation. And He will show His glory. He will gather all the nations and the tongues and they will come and see His glory. And all people will be gathered to this one point in history at the end of the age. And so here in this First subdivision of this last section of Isaiah, God is delivering a message to a nation.

He's delivering a message to a church. He's delivering a message to individuals and He is asking them to See the woe. See the woe. Don't ignore it. And recognize why the woe will come.

It will come for one reason. Because in your heart, there is no love for God enough to make you tremble at His Word. And then the next snapshot, the next picture of vision that God brings before us is a picture of fame and glory, where God is spreading His fame and His glory throughout the earth in verses 19-21. It's a picture of his favor. Again, do you see how Isaiah has now shifted?

He goes from fury and fire and chariots and whirlwinds and he pulls back and he now he speaks of this blessed fame and glory that are finally known in people's hearts. They weren't known before, but now they are known. He says in verse 19, I will I will set a sign among you among them And those among them who escape I will send to the nations to tarshish and pull and lewd Who draw the bow and two ball and jayvon to the coast lands are far off Who have not heard of my fame? Nor seen my glory and they shall declare my glory among the Gentiles." So he begins with this sign. He says, I will set a sign among them.

What is the sign? I want to suggest that the sign is Jesus Christ. That He is the sign of His glory. And God will set a sign at the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. And I think that's why we read in Acts chapter 2 verse 22, and it shall come to pass that whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.

Men of Israel, this is Peter speaking to the crowd, Hear these words, Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested by God to you by miracles, wonders, and signs which God did through him in your midst as you yourselves also know, him being delivered by the determined purpose and foreknowledge of God, that you have taken by lawless hands, have crucified and put to death, whom God raised up, having loosed the pains of death, because it was not possible that he should be held by it." God will send a sign and signs. His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, will bring many signs of His glory. What did Jesus Christ do? He spoke, he healed, he had compassion, he saved. This is the Lord Jesus Christ.

He turns water into wine. He turns a raging sea into calm. He heals the sick, He raises the dead, He casts out demons. Jesus Christ came with signs, signs and wonders so that we would know. And here He says that He will put a sign.

And who are these people who will see the sign? Now look at this. This is so remarkable and it's so beautiful. He puts the sign in front of certain people. It's like a sign right in front of them, the sign of Jesus Christ in all of His beauty.

He sets it before those who have not heard My fame nor seen My glory. Those who have not trembled, those who have not known, they have not seen it, they have not known it. God goes to people who have not known it or seen it. They have defiled their lives. This is who God goes to.

He goes to those who have rejected His law and He comes to them and He gives them a sign. And that sign shows them the way in which they should go, which is why Jesus Christ said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father but by me. He is the sign that leads the way on the path of life. And he puts a sign in front of those who don't know of his fame or have seen his glory.

Isaiah chapter 2 verses 2 through 4 speaks of this, And it shall come to pass in the latter days that the mountain of the Lord's house shall be established at the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills, and all nations shall flow to it. And the people will say to one another, Let's go, let's go up to the house of the Lord. And what's there? Joy, love, the goodness of God, his fame, his glory, that's what's there. And he's calling the nations.

He says, I will send to the nations to Tarshish and Poole and Lude. Now I take these geographical locations to mean that God is going to send his people all over the world, far off places will be reached, and missionaries will go into the whole world and they will tell of the fame and of the glory of Jesus Christ. And as a result of these missionaries going to these real places, people will turn. I was reading a book in our family this week about an English aristocrat who was converted during the English awakening in the 1730s and 40s. The book is a Selena Countess of Huntington.

And she became a Christian under the preaching of Wesley and Newton and George Whitefield. And there's an entry in this book that really struck me. It was an entry out of the Journal of John Wesley. He says, I arose in the morning and at 7 a.m. I preached to a crowd of 6, 000 people.

And at 5 o'clock in the evening I preached to a crowd that was in excess of 20, 000 people. And he said, he said he preached on these two texts, look to me and be saved. And the other text for the morning was, ho everyone who thirsts, come to the waters. He who has no money, come, buy, eat. And everyone who thirsts, let him come to me and drink, for out of his innermost being will flow rivers of living water." This is a manifestation of the revival that he's talking about here.

Have you prayed that God would cause that revival to take place right here among us? Do you think it could happen? That there would be so much hunger in the land that the churches couldn't even contain the people because they had to be preached to in fields because the churches were too small even the largest ones couldn't hold them Wouldn't it be a blessing that there would be so much hunger that the fame and the glory of Jesus Christ would be so preached by a people and be so felt by her mothers who are in the church and communicated all over the world that the churches couldn't contain them. That's the picture that we see here. And you know that that can happen to every unbelieving person in our church whose heart is not moved toward the Lord.

The Lord can do it. Let's cry out to God that He would make such a movement as this, that His fame and His glory would be broadcast throughout the whole earth. And in verse 20, you see what this looks like. There are these new Brethren from the Gentiles are brought in verses 20 and 21 Then they shall bring all your brethren for an offering to the Lord out of all nations on Horses and in chariots in litters on mules and on camels to my holy mountain Jerusalem here you have this in gathering and it's every kind of person you can imagine. From the sick person on the litter, to the person on horses, to the warrior on the chariot, to the farmer on the mule and the international trader on the camel.

All these people are coming together. All different stations in life. The rich, the poor, the young and the old. And they're coming from all the nations. This is what is happening in the world now because Jesus Christ came in the flesh.

And what did they do? They come to my holy mountain, Jerusalem, says the Lord, as the children of Israel bring an offering in a clean vessel into the house of the Lord. And here you have these people who have been justified by faith alone, and their hearts have been moved by Jesus Christ, and they love his kingdom, and they're coming, and they're coming to the mountain of the Lord they gather in the mountain of the Lord the people of God gather there in Jerusalem or Zion or whatever whatever term you want to use that signifies the church of the Lord Jesus Christ they bring their brethren isn't that interesting the Gentiles are now brethren The wall of separation between Jew and Gentile has been broken down. Ephesians chapter 2 verse 14 explains this so clearly. And Nothing will stop them.

They will take whatever horse or chariot or litter or mule or camel they have. Distances, barriers will not keep them back. They will come to the mountain of the Lord. And in verse 21, we learn that some of them will become priests. And I will also take some of them for priests and Levites says the Lord.

Most likely this has to do with those who have been brought out are true converts and they are the priests of the New Testament. As 1 Peter 2 verses 5 through 9 speaks of, that we're a kingdom of priests from the nations, that we are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, his own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light, who once were not a people but now are the people of God, who had not obtained mercy but now have obtained mercy." God is delivering this message to the nation, to the church, and to the individuals to help them to see this woe and this comfort that is guaranteed in the world. And yet how beautiful it is when his fame and his glory is proclaimed. And people who never saw his fame and never saw his glory, They'll come. It's such a beautiful picture.

And then the next scene is a scene of descendants on the one hand and corpses on the other hand. Again, give thanks to God for His lavish and beautiful and clear representations of His glory and how he has shown us in so many ways what his glory looks like. And now he presents his glory in two images, descendants and corpses. Two striking and very different images that stand right alongside one another and he holds them in front of us to really declare this message of the gospel that the power of the gospel is that it will bring woe to some and it will bring comfort and glory to others. It will make some descendants and it will make others corpses where their worm does not die.

So He begins with the descendants first in verse 22, for as the new heavens and the new earth which I will make shall remain before me, says the Lord, so shall your descendants and your name remain. So there are at least two things to identify here. He's making all things new. This is the restoration of the Church, of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the fact that it is eternal in its nature. It will last forever.

That the gates of hell will not prevail against the Church of Jesus Christ. That He is making all things new. The new creation begins with the new birth. And It's demonstrated in the embracing of the new covenant. And then it consummates at the end of the world, finally in the new heavens and in the new earth.

And it will remain and they will remain. Romans chapter seven verse six speaks of the newness of the Spirit, but now we have been delivered from the law having died to what we were held by so that we should serve in the newness of the Spirit and not in the oldness of the letter. Hebrews 8.13 speaks also of this new and of this old covenant. And the writer of Hebrews says, A new covenant he has made the first obsolete. Now what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away.

He is making all things new through a new covenant that is in Jesus Christ and in Jesus Christ alone. But notice it's not only newness. It's not only a fact that takes place in the human personality, that people are being made new, that the power of sin and death is being reversed and they're actually being made new. In the Apostle Paul's language, the bride starts out with lots of spots and wrinkles, but at the end she doesn't have them because of the ministry of the washing of the water of the Word by Jesus Christ. Because in the kingdom of God you're being made new and He's reversing the curse.

He's reversing all the things that harmed you in your days when you hated Him, when you turned away from Him. All those days when you did not tremble at His Word, He's restoring. He's restoring the things that the locust has eaten. And He's caring for you. He's bringing you back, one step at a time.

This is progressive sanctification. This is the whole doctrine of holiness. But we could fix our mind on the words new, a new creation, But don't forget to look at the word remain. This is the permanence of that newness and its expression in the new heavens and in the new earth. Because this is a newness that will never go away.

It will continually be blooming in its newness. You know, one of the things that I remember very vividly when I first became a Christian, As a very young man, I wondered, is this just another thing? Is this just another fad in your life, Scott? Is it? But here we learn that the work of Jesus Christ is not a fad.

It'll never pass away. It remains. You never will lose it. He will never leave you or forsake you. He will not let anything, anyone snatch you out of His hand.

It will remain. You will remain. He will take you to the end. And He will take you to heaven. And He will glorify Himself.

As He continues to bless you for all eternity, it will remain. And notice that there are descendants here. Descendants. Descendants is a word that indicates an ongoing line. And that's what he's speaking of here.

That in Jesus Christ your line will never end. You know, you might not have any children. You might have been barren or had multiple miscarriages and never had children of your own. That doesn't mean that you're barren. Because barrenness is something completely different in the kingdom of God.

Here in the kingdom of heaven, A Christian is not barren. Their descendants will remain. Their spiritual descendants. And then you see there's perpetual worship in verse 23. And it shall come to pass that from one new moon to another and from one Sabbath to another, all flesh shall come to worship before me, says the Lord.

And here the Lord is explaining the difference between the old covenant worship and the new. In the old covenant there were sacrifices that were offered at different times. There was a calendar, you went, you left, you went, you left, you went, you left. There was a new moon, and the next month there was another new moon, the next month there was another new moon. You entered and you exited these times of worship.

In the days of the new covenant, it's not that way at all. It's perpetual. It never ends. Worship goes on. You worship Him in Spirit and Truth.

You know, when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, you're worshiping Him at all times. In the New Covenant, worship will be uninterrupted and perpetual, not isolated to certain days. And in heaven, There will be a difference, particularly in the way that you will see the Sabbath. Here on earth, the Lord has tried to teach us how we should delight ourselves all day long. But that delight is really only a picture of heavenly delight.

It's training. It's to remind us of how pleasant and precious heaven will be, that it will be full of delights. He gives us this river of delights here, but there are only shadows of the great delight that's in heaven because in the new heavens and the new earth the delight never ends. It's never interrupted by the fears and the troubles and the disturbances that take place in this life now. This perpetual worship.

You know, I was reading early this morning Psalm 122. I was glad when they said unto me, let us go into the house of the Lord. Our feet have been standing within your gates, O Jerusalem. Jerusalem is a city that is compact together where the tribes go, the tribes of the Lord, to the testimony of Israel to give thanks in the name of the Lord. Here's this picture of the people of God going to celebrate the Sabbath and they jam themselves up in this little city called Jerusalem.

Small city by the way. It's you know a hundred and forty acres or fifty acres something like that. It's not very big. And everybody went there to worship. And they jammed themselves in there to give thanks together, to praise God.

And that's what we're doing here today. We're jammed in this little building, and we're going to spend, you know, hours together doing this very thing. The tribes have come. The tribes from the ends of the earth have come. The tribes from India, the tribes from South America, The tribes from Europe, the tribes from all over the world, the tribes from Asia, they're all here in this room now.

And they've come. And then Isaiah turns from this marvelous picture of everyone together, every tongue and tribe and nation together worshiping in one place, as it is here today, which is a picture of heaven. He turns from that to a terrifying scene And he concludes, the Lord concludes this prophecy with a terrifying scene. Verse 24, there's a cemetery, it's beside this city. And they shall go forth and look upon the corpses of the men who have transgressed against me.

For their worm does not die, and their fire is not quenched. They shall be an abhorrence to all flesh." And so, there are these two scenes, which was introduced in verse 14. You will look and here is what you will see. You will see the people of God being cared for and then you will see a cemetery. That's the end of the world.

That's what you'll see. But it's not just the end of the world, because you see it today. You see it everywhere. You can see the dead in the cemetery everywhere. They're the walking dead now.

And you can see it in their eyes. And you can see it in their eyes. And you can see it in their lives. You can see it in their emotions and their words. You can see it in their fears.

You can see it in their hopelessness. You can see it in their desperation to try to get happy some way with something in this world. And none of it works and it never will. But you see this picture now, this is hell. These corpses are in hell.

He's taken us to the final judgment of God at the end of the age. The Lord Jesus Christ quotes this verse in Matthew 18. He also quotes it in Mark chapter 9. He says, But whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to stumble, it would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck, and he were thrown into the sea. If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off.

It is better for you to enter into life maimed than having two hands to go to hell into the fire that shall never be quenched where their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched. And if your foot causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life lame than having two feet to be cast into hell, into the fire that shall never be quenched where their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched and if your eye causes you to sin pluck it out it is better for you to enter the kingdom of heaven with one eye rather than having two eyes to be cast into hell fire where their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched for everyone will be seasoned with fire and every sacrificed will be seasoned with salt salt is good but if the salt loses its flavor, how will you season it? Have salt in yourselves and have peace with one another. The Lord God is standing before us with these words speaking to us directly to call us to recognize the terrors of hell and to turn if your eye causes you to sin, if your hand causes you to sin, If your feet, if there's anything, turn.

Turn from sin. Flee from the judgment that is to come. Who told you? Who told you to flee from the wrath to come? Who did it?

Did anyone ever tell you to flee from the wrath to come. Who did it? Did anyone ever tell you to flee from the wrath to come? If you know that you're headed for wrath, flee. Flee from the wrath to come.

The wrath is real. The fire is real. And it is coming. And the Lord Jesus Christ has promised it by quoting this verse over and over again in this great chapter in Mark. The Lord Jesus Christ spoke more about hell than any other biblical personality and so we should not be afraid to speak of it.

And as we as we engage in our evangelistic works in the world, we should always remember these two things, woe and comfort. And you cannot preach a gospel that is one-sided. You must bring both. And it is one of the great elements of every revival that has ever taken place, that the true gospel was preached and as a result people truly turned away from darkness and they entered the kingdom of heaven and their hearts were thrilled and they loved God and their lives were changed. But let's never forget this one thing.

Forget this one thing. When your soul does not tremble before his word, it will tremble one day in terror before the wrath of God. And when your soul is inclined to the pleasures of this world it's inclining toward the bottomless pit and You'll fall there unless you repent of your sins and flee from the wrath to come. And by the way, the worm is already there. The worm is already doing its work in the heart.

And what is it that could kill that worm? The blood of Jesus Christ alone. Kill the worm. Let it not consume you for all eternity. Because if it does not die on the suffering and the shed blood of Jesus Christ, it will eat you alive for all eternity.

You know, the Lord is very kind to give us fair warning. And you think about all the words that we've read over two years and eight months. We've tried to focus on as many words as we could in this prophecy. And they've all basically said the same thing, that Jesus Christ is a good shepherd and the devil will destroy you, flee from the wrath to come. That the only thing this world can give you is woe and Jesus Christ will give you comfort and he desires you to be joined into a people who are called by his name and what do they do they go around to one another and they say comfort be comforted in Jesus Christ let him and him alone be your comfort And so here Isaiah under the providence of God ends with a very really a very terrifying note to drive us to remember how good God is and how hateful and how destructive is the devil but he will be destroyed.

Would you pray with me? Oh Lord, I pray that you would help us to grasp these things, these remarkable disclosures of your character and of the trajectory of history and where it's all going. I Thank you for giving us beforehand knowledge of how you've wired the world and who we really are. And you have divided the world into two kinds of people. Oh Lord, I pray that those who have the comfort of Jesus Christ would flourish in the world and that you would use us to give our whole hearts to the bringing in of the Gentiles, to proclaiming the true gospel, that our energies would be undivided for this purpose.

Amen.