In the sermon 'Arms of Love' by Scott Brown, the focus is on Isaiah 65:1-10, which discusses God's outreach to both rebellious and religious people. The sermon illustrates God's persistent love and mercy, highlighting how He calls out to those who do not seek Him and offers redemption to sinners. God presents Himself as a seeker, reaching out to the Gentiles who were not initially His people, and to the Jews, who were religious but often disobedient. The sermon emphasizes that God's love is demonstrated through His open arms, calling people to repentance and faith. It also explores how God preserves a faithful remnant, comparing them to new wine, and describes God's response to both prayer and rebellion. The message underscores the importance of recognizing God's call and responding to His invitation to join His people in the 'valley of hope'.

The sermon text is from Isaiah 65 verses 1 to 10. I was sought by those who did not ask for me. I was found by those who did not seek me. I said, Here I am, here I am, to a nation that was not called by my name. I have stretched out my hands all day long to a rebellious people, who walk In a way that is not good, according to their own thoughts.

A people who provoke me to anger continually to my face, Who sacrifice in gardens and burn incense on altars of brick, who sit among the graves and spend the night in the tombs, who eat swine's flesh, and the broth of abominable things is in their vessels, who say, Keep to yourself, do not come near me, for I am holier than you. These are smoke in my nostrils, a fire that burns all the day. Behold, it is written before me, I will not keep silence, but will repay, Even repay into their bosom, your iniquities and the iniquities of your fathers together, says the Lord, who have burned incense on the mountains and blasphemed me on the hills. Therefore, I will measure their former work into their bosom. Thus says the Lord, as the new wine is found in the cluster, and one says, Do not destroy it, for a blessing is in it, So will I do for my servants' sake, That I may not destroy them all.

I will bring forth descendants from Jacob And from Judah, an heir of my mountains. My elect shall inherit it, And my servants shall dwell there. Sharon shall be a fold of flocks and the valley of Achor a place for herds to lie down for my people who have sought me. Let's pray. Oh Lord, thank you for your mighty promises.

Thank you that you have chosen a people who were not yours. Lord, that you have called your elect to yourselves. Father, I thank you for the amazing work that you have done. Lord, that out of the stump the root of Jesse, Your elect is a flourishing tree today. Oh, what a mighty promise we have seen fulfilled, even in our lives.

Lord, I pray that you would have mercy on your people once again. Lord, that as Your Word comes, it would truly perform surgery in our hearts. Lord, it would remove the hardness of heart. Lord, it would soften the stiff necks. Lord, that we would be humbled, that you would be glorified, that even as Isaiah saw, that we would see a vision of you high and lifted up, and Lord, that we would, the word that comes forth be as a call in our lips.

Lord, that it would purify us, that it would cleanse us. In Jesus name, amen. There's much in this passage to celebrate, there's much to sober us at the very same time, which seems to be a consistent pattern of the Word of God. In this section, Isaiah illustrates how God saves sinners and how he does this through various very graphic images so that we can understand. In verse one, he presents, the Lord presents himself as a man and he's standing there with his, and he's saying, here am I, Here am I.

He's pleading. You know, God in this scene is a pleading man saying, pay attention to me. Look at me. And then in verse 2, he's pleading with his hands stretched out and he has his hands stretched out all day long. To whom?

To a rebellious people. That's who he has his hands stretched out to. A rebellious religious people. And then In verse 6, he takes action against those who ignore him. He says, I will not keep silence, I will repay, even repay into their bosom.

And then in the final scene of this text, There's a whole other image and it's the image of new wine and how God is going to preserve his new wine, his people. And how he will not destroy his new wine, but he will actually see that its blessing is known in the world. And so here we find the Lord standing before those who are just clueless. And he's saying, here am I. Here am I.

This is One of the great elements of the gospel of Jesus Christ, and that is that God reaches out to sinners and he's stretching out his hand. And it's really a fulfillment of what we learn in 1st John chapter 4 verse 19. We love him because he first loved us. The Lord Jesus Christ was raised up like a serpent in the wilderness. That whoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life.

For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son That whoever believes in him should not perish But have everlasting life God sends his son and in this passage You see this very graphic image of of God himself in his reaching out to sinners So that's one thing that we see here We also see an answer to the prayer in the previous passage as if you were here In in the last couple of weeks, you know that chapter 64 was actually a prayer of Isaiah. Now here in chapter 65, it's a it's God's answer to that prayer and in chapter 65 there's this anguished prayer of Isaiah. He's in pain, he's crying out to God. It's a very personal cry. And he says to the Lord in the prayer, Lord, Where is your zeal?

Where is your strength? The yearning of your heart and your mercies toward me. In other words, Isaiah is feeling so abandoned by God, and he's speaking very personally about it. And now the Lord, in the next chapter, in 65, responds to that prayer very personally, equally personally, with declarations that really should satisfy the longing that Isaiah communicated in that prayer. And he's illustrating how he is going to answer that prayer.

Because Isaiah was crying out, oh Lord, The mountains shake and the burning up of the worthless things of the world, how will this take place? And God answers it and He explains how he reaches down into a hopeless world to save sinners. And in this passage he comes to two different kinds of people. He comes to people who have no regard of him. They've never thought of him.

They've grown up in a totally pagan world where God has been expunged from the record, and they don't know him at all, and God comes to those, and then he also comes to the Jews, the religious people of the world. He speaks to both of these groups in this passage of Scripture and they're they're living in disobedience to Him and yet and yet he opens up his arms to them. He opens his arms and he cries out that they would come to their senses and they would repent of their sins. And so that's the picture that we see here in this passage. And so We see what God will do in response to this prayer that Isaiah prayed in the previous chapter.

And what you find here is what you can count on from God. In answer to this prayer, oh Lord, What will you do? Have you forgotten about us? What will you do? And as you'll see in your outline in front of you, there are four things that God does that I want to identify, and there are sub-points under each one of those, of things that God does.

But I want to point out these four primary ones in verse one. First of all, God cries out to strangers to seek him. He's speaking of the Gentiles in verse one. And then secondly, God perseveres in calling to the heartless, rebellious, religious people, and those would be the Jews, and He does that in verses 2 through 5. And then thirdly, God declares that he will repay those who don't listen in verses 6 and 7, most likely speaking directly to the Jews who have a fake religion, and then finally number four, God will not destroy his remnant.

These are words of love. These are the arms of the love of God stretched out toward his people, that they would see the spectrum of his love and understand the requirements of it. So let's take this first category in verse one, where God calls out to strangers to seek him and these words are so riveting. I've thought of them so many times over the months. They're so remarkable.

I was sought by those who did not ask for me. I was found by those who did not seek me. I said, here I am, here I am, to a nation that was not called by my name." And so this opening picture in the chapter is of God calling out and he's saying, here I am, here I am. He's putting himself before the people. He wants to catch their attention.

He is the one who is catching their attention. He's the one that's moving toward them. And this is the beauty of the gospel of Jesus Christ. You're walking along a road. You're clueless.

And what happens? You hear a voice. You hear someone calling out to you. This is how everyone is saved. And it's the way of salvation.

And who is the one? Well, who in the story is those who did not ask, those who did not seek? This means that God is the seeker in salvation, and the Lord calls those who were not looking for him at all. This is the way that salvation has worked for the Gentiles. And we here in this room are Gentiles.

We're going along without God, without hope in the world. We know very little of God. That's probably most of us. And others of us were religious people. We grew up in the church and God stretched out his hands toward us and God does these things to those who are sinners and it speaks of how eager God is to save sinners even those who did not ask for Him.

You know, we in our humanists, we're not like that. If we think someone's ignoring us, we ignore them. That's how we are. In our corrupt nature, we treat one another like that as well, and we say, oh, he ignored me, rather than to seek them. What the Lord does though, he operates in a completely different way toward us.

He seeks us out even though we might be ignoring him. And it really does form a pattern for the relational fabric of a local church that we should be more like God and less like us. But God seeks and it's a description of the great lengths that God took to save a soul. You know when I was reading this I was thinking about these great lengths that God took to save my own soul when I was a young man. You know, there was a man who was a teacher with my father, and he brought our family into his house to open up the Bible, the Gospel of John.

And we would come there for one hour in the evenings, and this man would say, there he is, there he is. And then an evangelist at my high school asked if he could meet with me and we opened up the Word of God and he said there he is there he is and then There were some itinerant preachers who had happened that I was in the sound of their voice in a room in meetings or retreats. And they opened up the Bible and they said, here he is, there he is, right there. And then there was a pastor in a church, my father did the most wonderful thing he ever did I think for our family. He took us out of a liberal, unbelieving church to a church where the Bible was taught and God was honored.

It was the sweetest thing that ever happened to our family and that pastor stood in front of our family week by week and he said there he is, there he is, I said, here am I, Lord. I see you. Thank you for revealing yourself to me. And this is the picture that we see of God working in salvation to the Gentiles, because God is the seeker. He's the prime mover, as a man said in Bible study on Tuesday.

He seeks and saves the lost. He seeks the people who are stained and ruined and who are incredulous and who are dull and who don't see Him at all. But in His mercy, He puts someone in the world that says, Here I am, here I am. And then you see. And it's a picture of Salvation how God God first lay holds of you lays hold of you and then what happens?

You lay hold of God and you will not let go because you see the glory of his blessings and the goodness of his kingdom. You know I love that song that we sing you know I was lost in darkest night thought I knew the way but I was found I was found by you this is how salvation works there's There's so much to rejoice in today for those who have been found. You have been found. You are not alone in the world. You've been found.

And this is the power of the gospel. The apostle Paul is quoting this passage in Romans chapter 10, verse 20. And it speaks there in that section of how faith comes by hearing the Word of God. Faith does not come by works. It comes by hearing and then coming.

And it really raises up the question, you know, did you repent and believe or did you believe and repent? Was your repentance the cause of your believing or did God come to you and awaken you and then you repented because of belief that was awakened in your heart by the God who sought you out you are not seeking him but he came to you and you were found the Apostle Paul says so then faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. But I say have they not heard? Yes indeed. Their sound has gone out to all the earth and their words to the end of the world." He's quoting Psalm 19 there when he says that.

He's speaking of the power of creation that declares the glory of God, that God declares his glory in so many ways, including in nature. And the Apostle Paul in Romans 1 says that, therefore, we're without excuse because of his invisible power has been made known through what has been made. His power exerted and described in the heavens is there. But then he says in Romans chapter 10, he says, but I say did Israel not know? First Moses says, I will provoke you to jealousy by those who are not a nation.

I will move you to anger by a foolish nation. But Isaiah is very bold and says, I was found by those who did not seek me. I was made manifest to those who did not ask for me. But to Israel, he says, all day long I have stretched out my hands to a disobedient and contrary people." So we know for sure that Isaiah is speaking about this time when Jesus Christ would come into the world and the Lord Jesus would speak to the Jews and then he would set the Jews aside and he would speak to the Gentiles and there would be an end gathering like to what the world has not seen since before that and it's a picture of being without hope and without God in the world a jackal a hyena a despicable animal in the world. And God says, here I am.

And then you see, and you're found. What a blessing it is to be found by God. And then we see that God preserves, persevered in calling to the heartless and the rebellious religious people. The Jews, God's loving kindness is demonstrated not only in his love for those who are clueless, but also who had a clue, who had the promises. And he says, I have stretched out my hands all day long to a rebellious people who walk in a way that is not good according to their own thoughts.

And so these words are directed to the Jews and God is saying that he has reached out to them every day. God is not hiding his face from the Jews. We have to ask what kind of hand is being stretched out because hands and arms in Isaiah are used in different ways. There are places where hands and arms are used for the demonstration of his wrath and there are places also where his hands and arms are demonstrations of his loving kindness and his mercy and so what is this kind you know in Isaiah chapter 9 verse 7 I think the context is clear where the Lord where the Lord said where God Isaiah says of God his hand is stretched out still his hand was stretched out in order to punish so that the Jews would turn it was it was a hand of judgment for the purpose of rescue, but they did not turn. It's clear that God was striking them with various judgments.

He was chastising them with hardships so that they would turn. This is the love of God. When we were in that section, we examined how God loves his people in the way that he chastises them. But is that what's referred to here? Because the stretching out of hands is also used for prayer.

In chapter 1 verse 15 it's used of spreading out your hands in prayer and God hiding his face when you're stretching your hands out in prayer. In 1 Kings 8 22 Solomon stands before the altar of the Lord in the presence of the assembly and he spreads out his hands toward heaven. So which is it? Is this a hand of chastisement or is it a hand of calling and acceptance? I mean, every commentator that I read on this question believed that Isaiah was speaking of arms of tender mercy in this context.

The context has to be paid attention to. And so I take this to be an expression of prayer almost almost as if begging and here he says he's he has been doing it all day long. He sends prophets he's done it all day long It's an image of long suffering in his hands are stretched out. And you know there are so many ways that God stretches out his hands toward a religious people. He does gather them together to hear his word, that's one way.

He also gives them a conscience. He gives them various prophets and preachers. He gives them the heavens that declare the glory of God. God gives so many ways to religious people to remind them. He plants in his world an image to remind people of him everywhere.

And that's why you have a window and a door and water and bread. It's why you have the heavens. It's why you have grass. It's why you have gardens. They're all meant to remind you of something greater.

God is stretching out his hands all the time. You can't look anywhere in this world without seeing some manifestation of God stretching out His hands toward you. He's always doing it. Now there are various marks of the people to whom God is stretching out his hands. I want us to recognize who he is stretching his hands out to.

Now I'm going to give you eight marks of the people to whom God is stretching out his hands. The first mark is in verse two. They are a rebellious people. God is holding out his hands to a people who are stubborn and rigid, they're never satisfied, They're stiff-necked, they're self-driven, completely opposite to a tender heart toward God. We've read that it's a broken spirit and a contrite heart that God desires, but God, he reaches out his hands to a rebellious people.

You know, John says in John chapter 1 verse 11, he came into his own, but his own did not receive him because they were rebellious. This is the Jews. And then secondly, they walk in a way that is not good. This is the second mark of those whom God is stretching out his arms. They walk in a way that is not good.

They call evil good and good evil, and they actually enjoy the things that are not good. And God stretches out his hands to those and he calls to them that they would come to him. And then the third is that they do what they do according to their own thoughts, verse 2. The ESV translates this according to their own devices. But the whole idea is that they're just very self-driven.

They're making up their own life, their own way. They don't look to God. They don't rejoice in His ways. They don't rejoice in his righteousness. They want to make up a whole other brand of righteousness.

They want to make a God in their own image. And I, you know, these are these sort of lifestyle enhancements that they make. Notice they didn't become irreligious. They actually became more religious and they invented more ways of their own to worship God. You know, John Knox says all inventions in the worship of God are idolatry.

And that's the whole essence of this phrase, according to their own thoughts, making up a religion of your own, your own way, rather than coming to God and humbling yourself before God. And then the fourth thing that they do, the fourth thing that characterizes these people that God is stretching out his hands to is that they provoke him to anger. Verse 3, a people who provoke me to anger continually to my face. Now the Bible actually makes it very clear what angers God. We won't be able to cover it completely, but I'll just give you some representative places where God declares explicitly that there are certain things that anger him.

In Proverbs chapter 6 verse 16 through 19 we learn that there are six things that the Lord hates. These six things the Lord hates, yes, seven, are an abomination to him. A proud look, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked plans, feet that are swift in running to evil, a false witness who speaks lies, and one who sows discord among brethren." God hates all those things. And it wouldn't be wrong to ask us if we've engaged in any of these things. Remember, he's speaking to a religious people, people who go to church, people who are engaged in their worship.

So-called. And then we also know that suppressing the truth and unrighteousness draws the wrath of God. The Apostle Paul in Romans Chapter 1 verse 18 says, for the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth and unrighteousness. Because What may be known of God is manifest in them for God has shown it to them For since the creation of the world his invisible attributes are clearly seen Having being understood by the things that are made even his eternal power and Godhead so that they are without excuse. Because although they knew God, they did not glorify him as God, nor were they thankful.

But became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Professing to be wise, they became fools and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible man and birds and four-footed animals and creeping things. Therefore, God also gave them up to uncleanness, in the lusts of their hearts, to dishonor their bodies among themselves, who exchanged the truth of God for the lie, and worshipped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. For this reason God gave them up to vile passions, for even their women exchanged the natural use for what is against nature. Likewise also the men leaving the natural use of the woman burned in their lust for one another, men with men, committing what is shameful and receiving in themselves the penalty of their error which is due.

And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a debased mind to do those things which are not fitting. God hates and will exert his wrath against those who suppress the truth and unrighteousness. In Proverbs 11, 1 and Proverbs 20, verse 10, dishonest scales are hated by the Lord. Well, there are many things that are hated by the Lord. The glory of the Christian life is that God gives His Holy Spirit to convict us of our sin, and He's given us a conscience and He's given us His Word in order to shape our conscience.

And we should recognize whether any of these kinds of things are among us that God hates, because he says, this is a people who provoke me to anger continually to my face. And then, and then fifthly, sacrificing in gardens. God is holding out his hands to those who sacrifice in gardens and he says, who sacrifice in gardens and burn incense on the altars of brick. Now this is something that seems to be done outside of the worship of God and definitely outside of what was commanded in the worship of God. And I take this section from verses three verse three to verse five is he's talking about things that people do on the outside of the worship of God they're doing this in these other places they establish these other places of worship outside the temple of God.

This is the way I'm interpreting it at this point. It's the way I'm understanding it. And I understand this as that they were still going to the established places of worship of which they were injecting inventions, But it was worse than that. They were going out and they were doing things, they were worshipping in other places. They loved to do certain things, alternative things.

And these gardens and groves were spread throughout all the promised land. On hillsides and valleys, in cities, maybe in homes. But this is a public turning away from God in these places. And they're calling it worship. Well, it is worship.

It's worship being their true God. In Jeremiah 7 verse 9 speaks of it. He says, will you steal and murder and commit adultery and swear falsely and burn incense To bail and walk after the other gods Whom you do not know and then come and stand before me in this house, which is called by my name And be Which is called by my name has become a den of thieves in your eyes. Behold, I have seen it, says the Lord. So I think that this verse is a picture of people who are going into the worship of God, but then they go out and they worship their true God in other places.

And this is the person who comes to church and they really, they do love their worldly practices. They love their worldly and obscene and defiling imagery. They love it. So they go to it. They go to the high places.

They go to their own little gardens, maybe they do it privately, maybe they do it with other people. They watch things that they should not watch. They think thoughts that they should not think because they're contrary to God. And It's interesting, you know, you have these are creating a garden. You know, God threw them out of his garden in the Garden of Eden, and they created their own garden of their own passion of their own invention they wanted to create a garden that fit them but was contrary to God the sixth thing that these people are doing These people remember whom God is holding out his hands.

They sit among the graves and they spend the night in the tombs. So this is a picture of what was happening at that time. They were they had erected altars next to tombs and caves. They did this most likely to receive secret instruction, consultation from the dead. It's most likely referring to necromancy and fortune telling.

These things were done outside the temple. They were done Who though of those who sit among the graves and spend the night in the tombs and they were creating an alternative Lifestyle they were looking for direction from a place not of God You know it happens off so often we we want direction from everybody else, but God We go to a book we go to a counselor we crave after someone to just give us the silver bullet because we're not satisfied with God And so we want to go get it from the dead or from someone who's going to tell us some good news. This is what the fertility cults were all about. People gathered at the high places for success, for fertility, for increase, for abundance. And they also engaged in alternative, sexually defiling lifestyles.

What does it look like today? I think it looks like a people who, they search for their secrets for success in all the wrong places, and they chase after guidance from their movies and their self-help books. And they fill their lives up with so many things that don't really direct them to God. They just fill their minds with creative thoughts that are actually very popular and you can make your way in the world through them. We've all been affected by it in different ways.

I think that's what it meant to spend the night in the tombs, you know, the living person going to the dead for illumination. Go get something better, greater than God. You know, this has been happening recently in churches in our own country. You know when Star Wars came out what happened, you had this flurry of churches who were doing Star Wars services and their pastors were dressing up in Star Wars characters. No, I'm not kidding.

So a news magazine called me last week to ask me if I had a comment about that, about what one should think about creating a worship service and creating the narratives around the Star Wars narrative. Well this is what this is. It's going to places where God isn't and saying that God is there and he's not there at all. Pastors are giving sermons about the biblical principles they can learn for their life out of Star Wars. I guess my my admonition would be go to the Bible.

Bring to the church what God has said was a blessing to the church. Bring the church prayer. Bring the church singing. Bring the church the word of God. Bring the church the Lord's Supper.

Bring the church hospitality and fellowship. Bring the church relationship. Bring to the church something that we know without question is a beautiful thing. But yet people want an alternative to God. And God is reaching out his hands toward those who are in that condition who are going in the wrong places.

He's doing that today, even this morning. I think you're here in order to just hear that so that you would ask the Lord if this is characteristic of your life, that you really do like other things better than the Lord, that you enjoy those things more than the Lord. You know, one of the great signs of the condition of a soul is a person who sits in the meetings of the church on the Sabbath and they just can't wait to go do something else. It's just more fun. It would be so much more interesting to go get on that internet site or go to that other place.

It's just so much more fun. And it betrays a replacement, a replacement theology, replacing the truth of God for a lie. And then the seventh thing is they eat unlawful foods. Verse 4, who eats swine's flesh and broth of abominable things in their vessels. Now, he's referring to the food laws that are declared in Leviticus and in Deuteronomy, and They were eating something that God had prohibited.

God had prohibited certain foods during this era in the history of redemption. And of course in the New Covenant these things have changed. The Lord Jesus Christ has come and he has fulfilled these ceremonial laws. So we don't observe the food laws. We learn from the Apostle Peter that there really wasn't anything wrong with the food at all.

But we do learn from Leviticus and Deuteronomy that the reason for the food laws was to declare a people who are holy, a people who are different. They eat different things. They're different in every way, even the way they eat. And God gave food laws in order to distinguish these people not to necessarily make them healthier. And so they were eating these things that were prohibited, but that wasn't the worst part of it.

It was far worse that they were declaring themselves not to be a holy people. They were called by God to be a holy people and live so differently that they wouldn't eat what everybody else ate. They would actually go to somebody's house. It would be offered to them, and they'd say, I can't eat that. I'm different.

I serve God. I follow God. And so they were supposed to be eating differently. You can look at Leviticus 11 and Deuteronomy 14 to find the basis of this. But the reason for the food laws wasn't for health, it was for holiness.

To establish a distinct people. But they wanted to eat what they wanted, they wanted their eating practices to be normal. They were afraid to be different. They were afraid to have the Lord's ways because of what it would do to them socially. It would distinguish them.

It would make them different. It would expose them for who they really were. And the question is, you know, in what ways do we imbibe in things that God has prohibited in order to be accepted? What do we continue to do because we want to please others while displeasing the Lord. You know, the modern application for eating swine's flesh, I want to suggest, is the fear of man.

When men set aside the Word of God for the sake of the traditions that are in their culture. And we do things with our time and our lives that are really contrary to God. But we do it because we don't want to be rejected of men. When men are afraid to be holy because of what it might do to their reputations. I was talking about this with some pastors earlier in the week.

We were talking about the whole matter of modesty. And one of the things that we discussed was how it is that whenever a woman dresses immodestly because she does not want to stick out or look different, it's the fear of man. It's the same as eating swine's flesh. You just want to eat whatever, you just don't want to make waves. You don't want to be looked, you don't want to look different.

And so women, particularly in our society, have to face the fear of man, particularly in their apparel. Men don't have to face that. Men face it in different ways. They face the fear of man in a multitude of ways. But women in particular have this difficulty in that if they really do listen and obey to what God has explicitly said about apparel, and they find themselves being afraid of man, then they should turn to the Lord.

They should recognize that God's hands are stretched out. He's saying, trust me, fear me. Don't fear man. Don't eat the swine's flesh. Don't think you have to find acceptability in this world, you don't have to eat like the world, you don't have to walk like the world, you don't have to think, talk, dress, or do anything like the world.

And then the eighth thing that these people are that God is holding out his hands, they're self-righteous. Verse 5. Who say, keep to yourself, do not come near to me, for I am holier than you. These are smoke in my nostrils, a fire that burns all the day." So this is people who think they're above other people. You have sort of the first class and the second class Christians, you know, boastfully considering themselves as living a higher life.

There's this holier than thou attitude. You see this in Luke chapter 18, where two men went into the temple to pray and one was a Pharisee and the other was a tax collector and the Pharisee stood up and he said thank you Lord that I'm not like that man that tax collector that filthy man I fast twice a week I give tithes of all I possess but that tax collector well what was he doing? He didn't even, he couldn't even raise his eyes to heaven. He was so ashamed of his sins. And Jesus says, I tell you that this man who is ashamed of himself went down to his house justified rather than the other for whoever exalts himself will be humbled and he who humbles himself Will be exalted And then the Lord Jesus Christ did a very stunning thing at that very moment.

He brought little children to him and he says, these are great in my eyes. Don't exalt yourself. There are different marks of being holier than thou. I'll just give four. There are many.

Cleaning the outside of the cup, which Jesus speaks of in Matthew chapter 23. You know, the Pharisees wouldn't even touch a common person. They washed themselves when they were out in public because they were cleaning the outside of the cup. Self exaltation when you see yourself as better. Rejecting and persecuting others by binding heavy burdens on them and ignoring your own responsibilities.

Jesus speaks of that in Matthew 23, exalting your own inventions, saying that your way is better than any other way and anybody who doesn't do it like you do or you know you're holier than they are. Well there are very many ways. You know, the Lord Jesus Christ spoke so directly in fulfillment of this passage in Isaiah 65. I'd like you to open your Bibles to Matthew chapter 23. In verses 1 through 39 is an illustration of how Jesus Christ reached out and how the Pharisees were acting holier than others.

And he itemizes their sin. He's reaching out his hands to them. He's crying out to them, he's telling them the truth about their lives. He gives many reasons for their corruption. And then at the very end of the passage, he says in verse 34, he says, therefore I send you prophets and wise men and scribes, some of them you will kill and crucify, and some of them you will scourge in the synagogues and persecute from city to city.

In other words, once Jesus Christ leaves the earth, he's not done reaching out his hands. He's going to continue to send prophets. He's going to continue to hold out his hands to the religious people who are fake, who know they're fake, and they need to turn to God. And then he says at the very end in verse 37, Oh Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her, How often I wanted to gather your children together as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing." Jesus Christ reached out his hands to the religious people of his day, oh Jerusalem, Jerusalem, how often I wanted to gather your children together. He had his hands out, but he did not gather because they remained insensible to him in all of their religiosity.

They were hard-hearted religious people who went through all the motions and did all the stuff. And then he says to them, See, your house has left you desolate. For I say to you, you shall see no more of me until you say, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord." Well, that's a picture of salvation. It's a picture of a religious person coming who finally says, blessed, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Lord thank you for standing in front of me and saying here I am, thank you for holding out your arms for so long, you were so patient with me.

And there will be some religious hardened people who will say blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. And that's the great hope. But on the other hand, he declares that these are smoke in his nostrils that burns all the day. And then we learn in verses 6 and 7 that God will repay those who won't listen. He's reaching out, He's reaching out, but verse 6, behold, it is written before me, I will not keep silence but will repay, even repay into their bosom.

And then he says, your iniquities and the iniquities of your fathers together says the Lord, who have burned incense on the mountains and blasphemed me on the hills, therefore I will measure their former work into their bosom." And so here God declares that he will repay, but there's a measurement that he makes in his repayment. He measures according to their former work and he will repay accordingly and he's he says that he will repay in a particular way and this this is something that we should all recognize And God is so kind to declare this beforehand, so that you would turn, if you are living in a religious fake world. He says that he will repay into your bosom. Into your bosom. The bosom, what is that?

Well it's the place of the heart and the lungs, it's the place of vulnerability, It's the place of your life-sustaining organs. Every deer hunter knows that. And the Lord is making it very clear that he will strike at the most vulnerable places, the places of the sustaining of life, that he will strike in the bosom of those who remain hard when he has his hands out to them and cries out to them. Now, when does this happen? I want to suggest that it happened in a typological and historical form in the Babylonian captivity.

It happened again in 70 AD, and it will happen again at the final judgment. These judgments that are spoken of in Isaiah I think foretell of the greater judgment where God will strike in the bosom and it will all be over and he will cast those religious nice people into everlasting darkness. That's why I said at the beginning, you know, there's so much to celebrate and there's so much to be sobered by in this passage of Scripture. And then fourthly, God will not destroy His remnant. God will not destroy His remnant, verses 8 through 10.

And here in these verses, God describes how He will preserve His people. And I love the language. I'm so captured and amazed by it. I wish we had lots of time to dissect each one of these, but they're very beautiful. There are four ways that he describes, four images that he uses.

First of all, he protects the new wine. Second, he does not destroy. Thirdly, his descendants are brought forth. And fourthly, flocks will lie down. These are the images of how he's going to preserve his people.

That's why I titled the sermon The Arms of Love. Every single line in this sermon describes the arms of love, the love of God, how he stands at the corner of the streets and says, here I am, how he stands with his arms open. And he says, come to me, how I long to gather you, even though you're hard hearted, please come to me. Well, Let's take these one by one. God protects the new wine.

Now, what is new wine? Now, the terminology that he uses is the terminology of a cluster of grapes. And these grapes are found in a cluster, and when they're cut down, the good grapes are removed from the rotten grapes. We remember months ago, we were in that passage where Isaiah talks about the stinky grapes. His vineyard has produced stinky grapes.

Well, that's what you find in the cluster, but that's not the only thing that you find in the cluster. You find some who are sweet. And this wine, this new wine, is made from the drippings of the juice, either before it's pressed as it oozes or as it's pressed, I'm not sure, but the juice is pressed and collected and it's called new wine. And so you have this picture of this cluster of grapes and he's going to preserve some and he's going to destroy some. And this is the way the church is.

He puts the wheat and the tares together in the church. You don't always know who's who. But The Lord Jesus said, let the tares grow together with the wheat. God puts up with spiritually dead people among his own, and he preserves his own through it all. And he has believers and unbelievers mixing together.

They often live the same, they often talk the same, they often hold the same doctrinal positions, but they're not the same. Some are sweet and some stink. But he says that they will not all be destroyed. It says, and one says, do not destroy, for a blessing is in it. So I will do for my servants sake that I might not destroy them all." This phrase, do not destroy, should grip your heart because it's another picture of the arms of the love of God reaching out to his people that he would not destroy all of them.

You know, if you've read the Psalms, you've encountered this phrase, do not destroy. You know, amictam of David written to the tune of do not destroy. In the Psalms, there are four Psalms that have this in its introduction, that these Psalms that were written to a tune do not destroy. I wish we could have that tune. Well, today we might not like it that much.

But it would be really nice to have the tune of that song, Do Not Destroy. Well there are four Psalms that are written to this tune, the 57th, the 58th, the 59th, and the 75th Psalm. Now in the 57th Psalm it's a picture of David fleeing from Saul in the cave, the cave of Adulah most likely, or possibly the incident in the cave of En Gedi in 1 Samuel 24 verse 3. We don't know exactly which one it was, But God would not let David be destroyed, even though he had a bloodthirsty enemy. No matter what bloodthirsty enemies there are of the people of God, God is gonna preserve his people.

He's so kind. Do not destroy. He has said, do not destroy for a blessing is in it. God sees his people that he will not destroy as having a blessing in it. You know, the Apostle Peter said that you were created for a blessing.

God has drawn us together as a church for a blessing. This is what the true church should always be declaring, the blessings of the kingdom of heaven. In that context, he says don't speak wrongly to one another because you were created for a blessing. Speak blessing to one another. But here that's not what he's speaking of.

Here, do not destroy. He's talking about that he's not going to destroy his true people. Well he will not destroy them all. In other words, he's not going to destroy all the grapes. He is going to destroy some of the grapes, but not all of the grapes, because he's been holding out his hands and he's been pleading with them and some of them have come.

And he stood on the corner of the streets and said, here I am, here I am. And some of them said, I see you and were found. So he doesn't destroy all. You know, if you don't think you're a Christian today, God is stretching out his hands. He sees your idolatry.

He sees your divided heart. He sees that you have pleasure and things that don't satisfy, he sees that. And his hands are open wide, he's stretching them out to you, he's calling you, he's drawing you with cords of love, it's his kindness that is designed to lead you to repentance. But there will be a day when it will all be over and then the cluster will be divided. Turn before that day.

Please turn before that day. Turn to Jesus Christ. Hear His voice. Say, I see you. I love you I want to follow you let me throw away my idols now so that I might be saved.

God has always divided his people into two categories, and that's what you see here. You know, Abraham gives us a picture of this. He was pleading with God to relent in the destruction of Sodom. Can you believe that? God is pleading, Abraham is pleading with God that he wouldn't destroy Sodom.

Can you believe that? You would not have done that at all. You would have brought fire down upon that place. And Abraham says, will you destroy the righteous with the wicked in Genesis 18 23? Will you destroy the righteous with the wicked?

And God's answer was no. And Abraham negotiated with God if there were just 50 righteous and he kept going down and finally God declared his love and that he did preserve those who loved him and he did destroy those who hated him. We need the heart of Abraham to cry out that way. And then in verse 9, there will be descendants that are brought forth. I will bring forth descendants from Jacob and from Judah and heir of my mountains.

My elect shall inherit it, and my servants shall dwell there." God brings descendants out of those elect ones that He calls, that He opens their eyes, and they have descendants and they multiply. And, you know, our gathering here today is a manifestation of that. It's an evidence, it's a proof of the truth of this statement right here, that God's descendants are all over the world. We, you know, we here in this church have come from all over the world. It's amazing to me when I think of the long distances God has brought people to come here.

Foreign countries far, far away on the other side of the planet. Descendants. And then flocks will lie down, verse 10. Sharon shall be a fold of flocks in the valley of Acor, a place for herds to lie down. For my people who have sought me.

Now this is a picture of restoration and they will lie down. They will be at rest. They'll be protected. They'll be free from worry. You know, as a person who has cows, I'm always amazed at how Isaiah uses this imagery of flocks and cows and herds and pastures and things like that.

But here he says that God's people are a flock in a fold. They are a people. And what does it look like? Well, this seems to be an image of peace. They're being fed, they love one another, they have a good shepherd.

Jesus Christ is the sheepfold. He is the one that holds them all together. He and He alone holds them together. It's not their personal opinions about this or that. It's something greater.

It's Jesus Christ who is the sheepfold. And He is the one that gives them their unity, not their various opinions about things. And they lie down. I'm surmising because they have had enough to eat, because they're satisfied by their shepherd. And then he says that he calls it the Valley of Acor, the Valley of Acor, a place for herds to lie down, for my people who have sought me.

So he's been stretching out his hands, some of his people have sought him, and he says it's like the valley of Acre. Now in Hosea chapter 2 we learn that the valley of Acre is as a door of hope. He says the valley of Acre is as a door of hope. She shall sing there as in the days of her youth. And it shall be in that day, says the Lord, that you will call me my husband and no longer be called and no longer call me my master." Now, this is a picture of God bringing His people into this place of hope, the valley of hope.

That's the valley of Acre. You know, when you come into the Church of Jesus Christ, you come into the valley of hope. Please do your part to make it that way. Hope in what? Hope in Jesus Christ.

Hope in all of His commandments and all of His ways. To be a people like that who are sitting in the valley of hope, lying down. You know, I'm pretty sure my cows lie down because they're full. And they just are letting it all ruminate. And then they get up and eat some more.

Then they lie down again. And they ruminate some more. Oh, they're happy cows. Are you a happy church? Do you see yourself even now today in the valley of Acre in the place of hope?

This is a picture of the Church of Jesus Christ. He says, for my people who have sought me. Now, this is one of the tenderest thoughts in the Bible here. It breathes of the ownership of God and His carry. He says, for my people, my people, they're mine.

My people who have sought me. Are you? Are you one of His people who are seeking him with all of your heart, my people. He comes to seek and save the lost. You know, I was thinking, you know, how much more should we seek and save the lost as well?

How much more should we be like that man standing at the corner and saying, there he is, there he is. How much more should we be like the Lord and with our arms wide open saying, come, come to him, come to him, all you who are weary and heavy-laden from all of your idolatries, find rest for your souls. They shall be my people and I will be their God. They shall be mine, says the prophet. They shall be my jewels.

They are my inheritance. Solomon says, I am my beloveds and he is mine. David said, the Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want. So here it is.

The Lord presents Himself to sinners. He presents Himself to the ungodly, the clueless of this world, and He stands there and He says, here I am, come to me. He stands there to the religious, dead-hearted person who's angry, who's bittered his brothers, who is holier than his brothers. And he says, you can lay that down and come into my valley of hope. Be my people.

Act like my people. Call on the Lord while he may be found. If you seek me, you will find me. Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you." And don't forget the words of the psalmist. I sought the Lord and he heard me and delivered me from all of my fears.

This is the love of God. These are the arms of love. This is the voice of love crying out in the streets to come into the valley of hope, the church of the Lord Jesus Christ. Let's pray. Lord, you've given to us comforts and cautions and you have also threatened so that we would turn to you.

And I pray, O Lord, that you would give us such an experience like the valley of Acre. We, a little flock lying down, having been fed, eating at your table, loving one another, putting away the things that you hate and following you, not our own inventions. Amen.