all the flocks of Kadar shall be gathered together unto thee.
The rams of Nebioth shall minister unto thee.
They shall come up with acceptance on my altar,
and I will glorify the house of my glory.
Who are these that fly as a cloud,
and as a dust to their windows?
Surely the Isles shall wait for me,
and the ships of Tarshish first,
to bring thy sons from far,
their silver and their gold with them,
unto the name of the Lord thy God,
and to the Holy One of Israel,
because he hath glorified thee.
The sons of the strangers shall build up thy walls,
and their kings shall minister unto thee.
For in my wrath I smote thee,
but in my favor have I had mercy on thee.
Therefore thy gates shall be opened continually;
they shall not be shut day nor night,
that men may bring unto thee the forces of the Gentiles,
and that their kings may be brought.
For the nation and kingdom that will not serve thee
shall perish,
yea, those nations shall be utterly wasted.
The glory of Lebanon shall come unto thee,
the fir tree, the pine tree, and the box together,
to beautify the place of my sanctuary,
and I will make the place of my feet glorious.
The sons also of them that afflicted thee
shall come bending unto thee,
and all they that despise thee shall bow themselves down
at the soles of thy feet,
and they shall call thee the city of the Lord,
the Zion of the Holy One of Israel.
For as thou hast been forsaken and hated,
so that no man went through thee,
I will make thee an eternal excellency,
a joy of many generations.
I shall also suck the milk of the Gentiles,
and shall suck the breast of kings,
and thou shalt know that I the Lord of the sight
am thy savior and thy redeemer,
the mighty one of Jacob.
For brass I will bring gold,
and for iron I will bring silver,
and for wood brass, and for stones iron.
I will also make thy officers peace,
and thine exactors righteousness.
Violence shall no more be heard in thy land,
wasting nor destruction within thy borders.
Thou shalt call thy wall salvation,
and thy gates praise.
The sun shall be no more thy light by thee,
neither for brightness shall the moon give light unto thee,
but the Lord shall be unto thee an everlasting light,
and thy God thy glory.
Thy sun shall no more go down,
neither shall thy moon withdraw itself,
for the Lord shall be thy everlasting light,
and the days of thy mourning shall be ended.
Thy people also shall be all righteous.
They shall inherit the land forever.
The branch of my planting,
the work of my hands that I may be glorified.
A little one shall become a thousand,
and a small one a strong nation.
I the Lord hasten it in his time.
Let's pray.
Father God, we thank you dear Lord
for your everlasting promises dear Lord.
Thank you for this wonderful church you've given us.
We thank you for our pastor.
Please bless him as he preaches your word.
In Jesus name we pray, amen.
- Amen.
Okay, we are in Isaiah chapter 60 this evening,
and we are nearing the end of the book of Isaiah.
And so a lot of these chapters
towards the latter end of Isaiah
focus mainly on the subject of the millennial reign
and the new heaven and the new earth.
So tonight, we're gonna take a glimpse
into that millennial reign and the new earth.
And I'm sure as we're reading through chapter 60 tonight,
there's some things that popped out at you
that kind of reminisced or reminded you of that new earth.
And so this is something that's majorly focused
towards the latter end of the book of Isaiah here.
And of course, this is mainly geared towards Judah, right?
Judah and Israel.
We obviously know that collectively,
this is also addressing the nations
because nations will also participate
in that millennial reign. They'll also participate
in the new earth as well.
But the promises are immediately given to Judah.
And so this is very much important
for those of the nation of Judah,
specifically those who have been saved,
those who have believed on the Lord.
These promises are obviously given to them.
And that's important to note because of the fact that,
you know, you have a false doctrine out there
called dispensationalism.
And along with that, you have Zionism.
And the problem with dispensationalism
and Zionism, amongst many problems,
is the fact that they take these promises
of the Old Testament and just kind of apply it
to every single Israelite, every single person of Judah,
regardless if they believe on the Lord or not.
And obviously, that is a major misrepresentation
of the text because the promises that are given here
are given to those who have the God of the Bible
as their God, right?
Those who have believed on the Lord.
And what they'll do is they'll apply it
to the modern state of Israel,
which is a Christ-rejecting nation.
And they think that these promises apply to them,
meaning that when that millennial reign takes place,
they're going to be the ones inheriting that land.
They're going to be the ones who are ruling
and reigning with Christ, but that's not true at all.
And in fact, those who are going to be ruling
and reigning with Christ in that millennial reign
and will be in the new heaven and the new earth
are those who were saved from the Old Testament.
And a lot of times people disregard
the saints of the Old Testament.
They just kind of forget about them
and place the emphasis on the modern state of Israel,
not really take into account
that they were millions and millions of saved Israelites
and saved Judites from the Old Testament
that the promises apply to.
And so I love these portions of scripture
that prophetically refer to Israel inheriting the land
because to me, I know that it's referring to
that saved Israel of the Old Testament,
those who actually deserve the land, right?
Those of Judah who actually deserve the land as well.
So let's get into it here.
We're gonna look at the light of God's kingdom.
And of course, the kingdom that's being referred to here
can be referring to the millennial reign,
but it's also referring to the new heaven and new earth.
Now, let me just say this before we get into it is,
when we look at passages in the Old Testament
dealing with that very distant future,
you know, sometimes we can get confused.
It's like, is this talking about the millennial reign
or is it talking about the new earth?
And the answer is yes.
Because of the fact that sometimes in the Old Testament,
specifically as we go through the book of Isaiah,
they kind of overlap.
You know, you'll get Isaiah talking about the new earth
and then the very next verse,
he's talking about the millennial reign.
And then you think to yourself,
whoa, I thought this was about the new earth.
Well, it's about both.
And it's essentially not giving it to us
in chronological order.
It's just kind of giving these prophetic statements
regarding that future, those future events,
that future place.
And so it's referring to both
and the way we can tell or the way we can distinguish both
is based upon other portions of scripture,
specifically in the book of Revelation,
that make those things clear.
Look at verse number one.
It says, "Arise, shine, for thy light is come,
"and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee.
"For behold, the darkness shall cover the earth,
"and gross darkness the people,
"but the Lord shall arise upon thee,
"and his glory shall be seen upon thee,
"and the Gentiles shall come to thy light,
"and kings to the brightness of thy rising."
Now, I do believe these first three verses
is prophetically referring to the darkness
that will cover the earth in the end times.
If you study end times prophecy and Daniel 70th week,
you see a lot of darkness involved in that,
like literal darkness, right?
Not just God's judgment upon the earth,
but literal darkness that takes place
during the wrath of God
towards the latter end of those three and a half years.
And so, obviously, if you have darkness upon the land,
you have destruction and judgment
and wrath being poured upon the people on the earth,
along with the trumpets that are being sounded,
obviously people and earth and the creation and believers
are gonna be looking for that light, right?
Which is at the end of Daniel 17th week.
So when he says, "Behold, darkness shall cover the earth,
"grows darkness upon the people,
"the Lord shall arise upon thee
"and his glory shall be seen upon thee."
This is referring to that Revelation 19 event
where Jesus Christ descends with all believers
for the Battle of Armageddon, okay?
And people will mistake this
and say that that's the second coming,
but if we know how to count,
obviously that's the third coming, right?
The second coming would be the rapture
that takes place during the midpoint,
a little after the midpoint of Daniel 70th week.
Revelation 19 is when Jesus Christ comes on a white horse
with all of his saints and he comes to wage war
against the antichrist, against his army,
and whoop them and essentially establish
his millennial reign on this earth.
You say, where is he gonna establish it?
In the United States of America?
No, he's gonna establish it in Jerusalem.
And obviously, once he destroys the antichrist
and the false prophet, he takes both of them,
he casts them into the lake of fire,
he destroys the army with the sword of his mouth,
and he basically just takes over that temple, okay?
Which is probably one of the reasons
why the New Testament refers to it
as the temple of God,
not because it's sanctioned by God,
because God is essentially gonna take it
from the antichrist, okay?
And so he is that light that comes in a dark world,
and it's not only gonna be physically dark,
but if you just think about it,
from the time of Christ up until now,
the world has been very dark, spiritually speaking.
And of course, Christ comes and he shines the light.
But in verse one, he says, "Arise and shine."
Now, that's pretty interesting
because he's saying, look, arise and shine,
for thy light is come.
And what this is referring to is the fact that, you know,
God is the light of his people
and we simply reflect that light.
And so when God comes and to Israel, he comes to Judah,
now it's Israel's time, now it's Judah's time
to essentially reflect that light to a lost and dying world.
And you know, the same could be said about us
in the New Testament, we have the same command,
let your light so shine before men
that they may see your good works
and glorify your father, which is in heaven.
You know, your light has come, salvation has come to you.
The light of the glorious gospel of Christ has come to you.
You have the light of the word of God
that has shined in your hearts,
not just through the gospel,
but through just biblical truths.
Well, now you need to reflect that light
to a lost and dying world.
We wanna make sure that we don't become Christians
that we have all this light,
but we never turn it on, right?
We have all this light dwelling within us.
We have the light of the glorious gospel of Christ,
but then if our gospel be hid, it's hid to them that are lost.
We're not letting our light shine by preaching the gospel.
We're not letting our light shine
by being a good testimony to our neighbors,
to our coworkers, to other Christians, to the world.
We're not letting our light shine
by doing good works for God, right?
You know, it's a blessing to be a Christian.
It's a blessing to know the Bible.
It's a blessing to know doctrine.
It's a blessing to know the right gospel,
but hold on a second, to whosoever much is given,
of him shall be much required.
You know, God often blesses you
in order for you to be a blessing to someone else, okay?
If he's made you rich, it's because he wants you
to use those riches for the benefit of someone else,
not just for the benefit of someone else,
but you know, that's included.
If God has blessed you with talents and gifts,
he wants you to use that to be a blessing to other people,
not to become famous,
not to have all the acclamations of the world,
the applause of the world.
He wants you to use it for the glory of God, right?
That's a way for you to let your light so shine.
And so he says, "Arise and shine, for thy light is come,
and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee."
I'm gonna read to you from 2 Corinthians 4, verse three.
I quoted some of it already, but it says,
"If our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost,
and whom the God of this world
has blinded the minds of them which believe not,
lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ,
who is the image of God, should shine unto them."
Now, when it says that if our gospel is hid,
it's referring to the fact that we are essentially
hiding our light under a bushel,
meaning the light is shining.
You can't really stop the light from shining
unless you just hide yourself, right?
You're not actually going out there
and preaching the gospel.
You're not actually allowing the word of God
to live through you.
Well then, obviously, the gospel is hid
to those who are lost.
He goes on to say in verse five,
"For we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord,
and ourselves your servants for Jesus' sake.
For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness,
hath shined in our hearts to give the light
of the knowledge of the glory of God
in the face of Jesus Christ."
And I like this part in verse number seven.
It says, "But we have this treasure."
What treasure is he referring to?
The light, the gospel, the word of God, right?
We have this treasure in earthen vessels,
that the excellency of the power
may be of God and not of us.
In other words, we have something very valuable
within this earthen vessel known as our body.
And why does he say it in that form?
Why does he say it in that manner?
Well, because of the fact that, you know,
when the world looks at us,
we're not very impressive to the site, right?
The world looks at our church, not very impressive.
The world looks at our building, you know,
not that impressive.
The world looks at our brand of Christianity,
not that impressive, but that's okay though.
Why?
Because then the glory of Christ,
God gets all the glory from the results of the work
that's being put forth.
See the reason that this treasure is in this earthen vessel
is so that people may glorify God
when they see our good works.
When they see the people getting saved,
when they see people's lives being transformed,
when they see the baptisms,
when they see that people are repenting,
they're getting right with God,
they're being influenced by Christianity,
they look at you and they look at me and they're like,
okay, obviously it's not this guy.
Obviously it can't be from this church.
No way that God can, yeah, well keep saying it
'cause we wanna glorify God.
So I'd rather be in an earthen vessel.
I'd rather look like and be a part of a church
that doesn't look like much
so that God gets more glory in the long term
because of the fact that that's really
what's most important, okay?
So he says he places that treasure in an earthen vessel
that the excellency of the power may be of God
and not of us.
If we were silver vessels, golden vessels,
then we can glory in the work that's being accomplished.
Well, of course we're getting that many people saying,
look at us.
You know, of course we're turning so many people to us,
just look at us.
Whereas because we're earthen, frail, fragile, right?
Not something of a valuable substance.
You know, God gets all the glory
if the results come forth.
And so let's continue to be that earthen vessel
that possesses the power of God,
which is the gospel of Christ
by getting other people saved, okay?
Look at verse number four.
So he tells them to arise and shine.
Verse four says, lift up thine eyes round about
and see all they gather themselves together.
They come to thee, thy son shall come from far
and thy daughter shall be nursed at thy side.
Now, the immediate interpretation
of these first four verses is obviously referring
to either the inauguration of the millennial reign
or just the new heaven and the new earth in general.
Because he's saying, you know, the light has come.
And obviously we see in Revelation 21 and 22
that God dwells with mankind, right?
God, the father, descends and he dwells with mankind
and he becomes the light of the world,
like in a literal sense,
to the point where the light of the moon
and the light of the sun is no longer necessary
because God is that light.
And so when he's telling Judah, hey, you know,
arise and shine for that glorious coming,
he's referring to the fact that God now dwells with man
in that future event.
Well, verse number four, he says,
lift up thine eyes round about
and see all they gathered themselves together,
referring to the daughters and the sons.
And I believe this is referring to just
the converts of Israel, okay?
And I don't mean the converts to Judaism.
I'm referring to the converts to Christianity, right?
You know, the descendants, the spiritual descendants
of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, you and me included,
we are those Gentiles, we are those sons,
we are those daughters who are essentially get to join
Israel and join Judah in that millennial reign
and in that new earth.
And in fact, earlier in the book of Isaiah,
Isaiah chapter 54, it says,
sing O barren, thou that didst not bear,
break forth into singing and cry out loud,
thou that didst not travail with child.
For more are the children of the desolate
than the children of the married wife, saith the Lord.
He goes on to say in verse number three,
for thou shall break forth on the right hand and on the left
and thy seed shall inherit the Gentiles
and make the desolate cities to be inhabited.
And obviously this is a promise to Judah saying,
hey, you know, you're gonna break forth on the right hand
and on the left because,
not because you're gonna have physical descendants,
but because of the mere volume of spiritual descendants.
Well, the only way they can happen
is if the gospel goes to the Gentiles,
'cause there's more Gentiles than there are Jews,
more Gentiles than there are Israelites.
And so in order for this promise to go into effect,
you know, Gentiles have to be reached.
And so the sons and the daughters who are nursed
at thy side in the millennial reign or the new earth
is referring to those Gentile converse.
And the point that I wanna make here
is the fact that, you know, Gentiles is not an afterthought
in the New Testament, right?
It's not like, oh man, you know, God only loved Israel.
He only loved Judah.
No, obviously unto them are committed the oracles of God
and he wanted them to be a light unto themselves.
No, a light unto the Gentiles.
He wanted to use them as that what?
Earthen vessel in order to win others to Christ,
to win the Gentiles to Christ.
Not to have a sense of entitlement and superiority
over the Gentiles, but to love the Gentiles,
to reach the Gentiles, to get the Gentiles safe,
to convert them to being sons and daughters
who will nurse at thy side in the long term.
And you know what, thank God, a lot of them did.
You know, there's a lot of, not pastors,
there's a lot of prophets, I guess you could call
some of them pastors, in the Old Testament
that went far and wide and preached the word of God.
You know, the Bible doesn't specifically say
what regions they went to, but the New Testament
specifically says in Romans chapter 10
that their sound went into all the world.
And you can say the Nolan world or the world
just entirely, it doesn't really matter.
Obviously it's referring to anything
that's outside of Israel.
Anything outside of Israel are Gentiles, right?
That's what Gentile means, it means other nations.
And so you have prophets of the Old Testament
who understood these scriptures.
They understood the prophecies of Isaiah.
They understood the prophecy, they understood the command
to be a light unto the Gentiles.
And they took a hold of that.
They went and they went out to Christ.
And obviously, the work on the Gentiles
was exceedingly much in the New Testament, right?
Because in the New Testament,
obviously you have the Apostle Paul starting churches
and that's when Christianity really began to spread.
But Gentiles are not an afterthought.
You know, there is saved Gentiles in the Old Testament.
And in fact, there are Gentiles
who are part of the lineage of Christ, okay?
Who got saved, Rahab being one of them.
You know, there's many of them who became,
they were greatly used of God in the Old Testament.
So they're not an afterthought.
God loved the Gentiles.
He still loves the Gentiles.
And so this was God's plan from the beginning.
Look at verse number five.
It says, "Then thou shalt see and flow together,
and thine heart shall fear and be enlarged,
because the abundance of the sea shall be converted unto thee.
The forces of the Gentiles shall come unto thee."
Now this seems a little cryptic.
You're like, what is this talking about?
Well, let me try to explain what I believe
this is referring to.
First of all, it says that thine heart shall fear
and be enlarged.
What is that talking about?
Well, fear obviously means to be afraid, right?
But it's also another way of saying to be amazed
or to be astonished, right?
If something surprises you,
you're just kind of like astonished.
You're astonished that you wonder, right?
With great amazement of something that's taking place.
So it's saying here that they shall fear
and that their heart shall be enlarged.
And this is the part I want you to notice here.
It says the abundance of the sea shall be converted unto thee.
The forces of the Gentiles shall come unto thee.
Now, I believe that this is probably referring
to the fact that in the new earth,
the Bible specifically says in Revelation 21,
that when the new earth takes place,
there shall be no more sea, okay?
You know, right now we have, I mean, what is this?
The earth is filled with 70% water, is that correct?
Eggheads out here, you know, okay, everyone look at it.
Yeah, 70% water, right?
Well, in the new earth, that's not gonna be a thing.
There might be pockets of water throughout the world,
but Revelation 21 specifically says
that the seas would no longer exist.
And why is that?
Well, the obvious reason would be that, you know,
we need more space to inhabit all believers from all time.
So if you have saved people from Adam
all the way up until the end of time,
you know, we need vacancies on this earth.
And so I don't believe that everyone who's ever existed
that has gotten saved can fit in the current land
that we have right now.
So it's for that reason that God is going to dry up
a lot of the seas to create more real estate, so to speak,
for believers to inhabit.
And it specifically says in Isaiah
that the abundance of the sea shall be converted unto thee.
And I think this is referring to the fact that
once the seas are dried, the land, you know,
it will essentially present itself somehow.
God's going to raise up the land
that's under the ocean right now
in order for the forces of the Gentiles to come unto them.
So you think of Israel being there.
Well, if you dry up the ocean, now you have land
where Gentiles can essentially make their pilgrimage
to Jerusalem, to the tabernacle that descends.
You know, it's there not just to create vacancies
in real estate for believers to dwell in,
but it's also there to create bridges, right?
So the Gentiles can make their pilgrimage to Jerusalem.
And obviously, if you see the seas being dried
and the land raising up, what would that cause you to do?
To be in fear and to have your hearts being enlarged,
to be amazed, right?
Of that great wonder of all these Gentiles coming to Israel
to hear the word of God from Jesus Christ Himself
and God the Father.
And so this is a great event here
that it's prophetically referring to,
and that is the abundance of the seas
being converted unto them.
Now obviously, another interpretation could be
that when it talks about the abundance of the seas,
it's just referring to the Gentiles.
Because there are instances where Gentiles
or a large mass of people can be referred to
as a flood, as the sea, right?
But I do believe that it's likely referring
to the seas being dried up and therefore,
the Gentiles are able to make their pilgrimage
to Jerusalem because we are talking about the new earth.
Look at verse number six.
It says, "The multitude of camels shall cover thee.
"The dromedaries of Midian and Ephah.
"All they from Sheba shall come.
"They shall bring golden incense
"and they shall show forth the praises of the Lord.
"All the flocks of Kedar shall be gathered together
"unto thee.
"The rams of Nabioth shall minister unto thee.
"They shall come up with acceptance on mine altar
"and I will glorify the house of my glory.
"Who are these that fly as a cloud
"and as the doves to their windows?"
Now, you know, you look at this like,
what in the world are we talking about?
You're drama dairies and camels, what's going on here?
Well, you know, what this is obviously referring to here,
I don't believe that this is addressing that,
you know, these animals are literally gonna be going
to the new heaven and earth, that could be the case.
But I think, you know, I don't think it's a coincidence
that it's addressing or it's talking about unclean animals.
Okay, well, what the Old Testament
would previously consider to be unclean, right?
A camel was an animal that the Old Testament,
under the Levitical law, that window of time
was considered to be unclean.
And often, I mean, you see throughout the Old Testament
in the Book of Leviticus,
the importance of not eating that type of animal,
you know, not plowing with a certain type of animal,
not eating a certain kind of animal.
And it was figuratively supposed to represent
unclean people, right?
You know, the camel would represent a Gentile
who believed in a false God, so to speak, right?
Who had a false religion.
Well, here it's saying that the camels
that was previously considered to be unclean
is now gonna come to the house of God, right?
And it specifically says in verse seven
that they shall come up with acceptance on my altar.
In other words, God's saying,
now you can bring the camels to the altar.
Now you can bring the dromedaries.
Now you can bring these flocks.
You can bring these types of animals
that were previously, you know,
I told you not to touch.
You know, well, God hath cleansed
that cow not thou cometh, okay?
And let me just say this is that, you know,
obviously if we're in the Old Testament,
we need to abide by those Old Testament dietary laws.
You know, because if we didn't,
that would be considered sin, okay?
Meaning that we can't eat the camels.
We couldn't eat the pig.
Oh man, you know, we couldn't eat bacon
and pork and all that.
And it would be considered sinful during that window of time.
But here's the thing, folks,
is that once Jesus Christ died on the cross,
those laws were repealed.
Don't believe the Judaizers of this world.
They try to tell you where in the Bible
does it say that these laws were,
and they try to kind of blend in the laws, don't they?
Oh, so you're saying that we can murder.
No, I don't know, what?
Eating pork and murder are not the same thing, okay?
You know, and here's the thing is that
either these Judaizers are just, you know, stupid
or just extremely wicked or just both.
Because, you know, when they say these things,
it's just kind of like, well, I mean,
haven't you ever read the book of Hebrews?
You know, it's just like,
where in the Bible does it say that it's repealed?
Well, how about Hebrews chapter nine, verse number 10?
That the ordinances of that old covenant,
and it specifically says, it kind of lists it for you,
it gives you each one.
It says the meats, drinks, diverse washings,
carnal ordinances in case you just missed any of them, okay?
Says that it was imposed upon them, permanently?
No, until, right?
Denoting the fact that there's a window of time
where basically it would not be imposed anymore,
enacted anymore, until the time of Reformation
is not referring to Luther.
What does Reformation means when something gets better?
Now, when did things get better according to the Bible?
Once Christ died, which is why the Bible refers
to the new covenant as a better covenant,
established upon better promises.
So therefore, if we were to just read the Bible
like a five-year-old would,
we would say that, oh, this is no longer imposed
because of the fact that the Reformation has already passed.
Oh, you gotta obey, you gotta observe the Sabbath.
You gotta make sure that you can't eat shrimp,
you can't eat pork.
That's what the Levitical law teaches.
You know, if you say you can eat those things,
then you gotta say that sodomy is okay as well.
We can't observe those laws, and murder's fine,
and lying's fine.
Well, there's a difference between moral laws,
purity laws, and dietary laws.
Don't get mixed up just because they're called laws, okay?
And here is a simple way that I explain to people
how we know that the moral laws are still enacted
and these others are not.
Here's a very simple way to do it.
Because Romans chapter two talks about the law of God
that is written in our hearts, right?
Now let me ask you a question.
Do we inherently know in our heart,
is it written in our hearts?
Man, I just gotta keep the Sabbath, man.
I don't know what it is.
I just know I'm not doing it right
by not keeping the Sabbath.
Do we just inherently know like,
oh man, I don't know why,
but I just feel like I'm sinning every time I eat pork.
I just feel like, no, of course not.
The law that's written in our hearts
is referring to God's moral law, right?
And it wasn't just written in our hearts
in the New Testament.
The moral law has been there since before
even the Levitical law was instituted.
It transcends the Levitical law.
Came before the Levitical law,
exists even after the Levitical law.
The Levitical law was a special window of time
that God set forth to the nation of Israel
to set apart a holy people unto himself
and to figuratively represent special events
and people that were gonna come in the New Testament.
Jesus Christ is the fulfillment of those Old Testament laws
of meat, drinks, divers, washings, and carnal ordinances.
And yes, that includes the Sabbath as well, okay?
And you have these Judaizers, they're just like,
oh man, the mark of the beast is a Sunday.
How is the mark of the beast a day?
Oh, you know, it's just wrong to not keep the Sabbath.
And you hit 'em with Colossians 2.16,
which no one can explain, by the way.
The only explanation that I've ever heard,
and it holds zero water whatsoever,
it's extremely ridiculous and stupid,
is they'll say, well, Colossians 2.16 is saying,
don't let them judge you for observing the Sabbath.
Oh, yeah, that's right.
Colossians were just observing the Sabbath.
These Greeks, these Gentile believers,
just so happen to just be observing the Sabbath
and observing dietary laws,
even though they were literally just one to Christ,
from pagan religions,
but you're trying to convince me
that they're observing the Sabbath?
Get real.
Colossians 2.16 not only tells us
that they don't let anybody judge you in meats, drinks,
and respect of a holy day of the new moons and the Sabbath,
but verse 17 is very important too.
It says, which are a shadow of things to come,
but the body is of Christ.
What does that tell us?
It tells us that the Sabbath, the new moons,
the meats and drinks were a representation,
a symbol, a shadow of something,
not necessarily the real thing, right?
I'm hitting the corner, you see my shadow,
you're not like, oh,
there's Pastor Bruce Meier right there.
That's him.
Who use black?
That shows you that something's coming around the corner.
The real deal's coming around the corner.
Sacrifices were a shadow of things to come.
That's literally what Hebrews 10 tells us.
The Sabbath represents Jesus Christ
because of the fact that we rest
in the finished work of Christ,
just as the Israelites literally rested on the Sabbath
in like manner we rest in Christ for our salvation.
And obviously there's other spiritual applications
to even the dietary laws, right?
A lot of applications.
One of the main ones was that, you know,
God was teaching separation from that which is unclean.
Now folks, you know, you don't have to go very far
in the New Testament to see that it's okay
to eat what was previously considered to be unclean.
How about 1 Timothy chapter four,
telling us that false prophets
will tell you to abstain from meats,
which God hath created to be received with thanksgiving
of them which believe and know the truth.
Yeah, but that's not referring to like unclean animals.
For every creature of God is good
and nothing to be refused if it be received
with thanksgiving and prayer.
Creature means, you know, you want to eat a dog,
that's on you.
I'm not interested.
Some of you Asians might be.
But yay, that's your prerogative.
That's your thing, you know.
Yeah, it would include the rat too.
You know, it includes any kind of,
it says every creature of God is good.
Not that I'm interested in having those things.
I'm just telling you what the Bible says, okay?
The point that I'm making here is that, you know,
it's wrong to teach that it's sinful to eat certain meats
that were considered uncleaning in the Old Testament,
but are now have God's stamp of approval
to eat in the New Testament, okay?
And here's further proof, okay?
Straight from the Lord himself in Acts chapter 10.
God comes to Peter, he says, "Rise, kill, eat."
Very simple instructions.
Pretty simple, it's like get up, kill that thing, eat it.
And of course, Peter is just stubborn.
You know, he was a little Judaizer himself.
In fact, Judaizer stems from the Apostle Paul's rebuke of Peter, by the way, in Galatians
2.14.
When he says, you know, when he talks about him compelling others to live as do the Jews.
To live as do the Jews is in the original Greek.
You know, I know we don't, you know, we're not trying to get into the Greek here, but
just humor, let me humor you for a little bit.
It's Judaizer, that's what it means.
And in fact, in the Spanish Bible, it just says, "Judaisar."
It just uses that word there, "Judaisar," you know, that's what it says.
But he was guilty of that.
And so God comes to him, and he's like, "Rice killing me?"
And he's like, "Not so, Lord."
What do you mean, "Not so?"
"Brother."
It's like, you know, the Lord is going to, you know, Jesus Christ is going to go get,
be crucified, be scourged by it.
And he's like, "Not so, Lord."
And he's like, "Who do you think you are, Peter?"
And he's just always putting your foot in your mouth.
And he's like, "Not so, Lord, for nother common or unclean hath entered into my mouth."
And of course, the Lord ends up rebuking him.
And he says, "Well, God cleanse that, call not thou common."
Now, what was the main reason for that vision that he gave Peter?
Obviously, it, you know, initially we think, oh, now you can eat these foods, which, amen,
you can, because it was a sheet knit at the four corners that would just clean, not would
just unclean animals, but with clean animals, you're just saying eat both.
But the purpose of that is to teach the apostle Peter that the Gentiles are up for grabs too.
Stop trying to preach the gospel to the quote unquote clean animals known as the Jews and
start going for what you would consider to be unclean animals like Cornelius, who actually
wanted to be saved.
Yeah.
That's just the spiritual.
It's only spiritual application, though.
Yeah.
It doesn't mean you should actually literally pork or whatever.
Get real.
We have Colossians 2 16.
We have Acts chapter 10.
We have First Timothy chapter four.
We have Hebrews chapter nine and verse number 10 that says that they're no longer imposed.
Plain and simple.
Okay.
And you know, the this argument that seeks to also invoke the moral laws is a strawman
Argument because of the fact that the moral laws have always existed even even in Genesis the moral laws existed because God is
Eternally moral it's not like he just came up with these you know he's just like you know homosexuality is bad
You know murder is just man bad as soon as he sends Moses to the mountains
Just like that's when he just came to his senses was just like you know what I think I'm gonna outlaw this stuff
This stuff is really bad. No, it's always been bad. It's always been sinful. It's always been an abomination
It's always been criminal in God's eyes. Here's the difference my friend. I know I'm chasing a rabbit here, but we're talking about animals
So we're gonna skin that thing kill it make rabbits do forgot what I was saying. What was I saying?
Someone jogged my memory Moses. Yeah, okay. All right, huh moral laws have always existed. Mm-hmm
It'll come to me
Yeah, the rabbits gone
It was a fat one - you know more laws dietary laws gone rabbits gone
Anyways, the point that I'm making here is the fact that the dietary laws are no longer Institute. Okay
Obviously that was for a limited time only and it's not something that we observe today in the New Testament and look in
People also mix up mix this up because they'll often point to Jesus Christ and the disciples observing Old Testament laws and Jesus Christ did
Observe Old Testament laws, but that's just ignorance of the timeline of when the Gospels are written, right?
Because obviously we have Matthew, Mark, Luke and John
physically chronologically in our Bibles in the New Testament in order to find them but the events of
Matthew, Mark, Luke and John are actually still considered Old Testament. So that's why they're observing the Sabbath
That's why they're observing the dietary laws because they're still under that Old Covenant Old Testament
which by the way is also flies in the face of
Consensational salvation because they'll say well in the Old Testament Old Covenant, you know when the thief on the cross died
You know, it was a different salvation. It's a different message of salvation, you know, it was by the sacrifices
It was by the keeping of the Moses law. It was by doing all these things
Well, that's funny because John 316 is in the Old Testament John 336 Old Testament
The entire book of John up until the death of Christ is in the Old Testament. And what is John 316?
Believe only right? So I wish I could remember what I was gonna say. I was trying to jog my memory right now
I cannot anyways, let's move on here
So verse 6 7 and 8 are just simply referring to the fact that now these animals that were once considered unclean
Well, they're gonna be coming to Israel
They're gonna be coming to the temple of the Lord to worship God there and God is the one who sanctions for them to come
They are now cleansed. Okay, and obviously in Acts chapter 10 when he says well God had cleansed that call not thou common
He's not referring to the fact that all Gentiles are saved or something cleanse means like, you know, they're up for grabs
Go get them go preach the gospel to them. They're not unclean to you
Don't be someone who is just they'll be prejudice against the Gentiles. You should seek to reach them
You're not an unclean person if you seek to reach the Gentiles, which by the way Jews think that we're we're unclean
You know, and obviously they they forgot the memo here and they don't believe that but it's in the Bible
And so make sure
You reject and are aware of Judaizers and you got to be careful with these Judaizers
I'm telling they're out there and they come under the guise of being a Christian. They're all over social media, too
They'll talk about Jesus Christ and the Bible and they're against the Roman Catholic Church and all this stuff
But when you actually see what they believe is like, oh man, this person and in fact a Judaizer
Interviewed me. I don't know about a month ago or something, but I didn't know he was and he's like
Oh, man, I really like your stuff that you're putting out. Let me interview you
I said sure and then he said this in an interview goes now you would actually call me a Judaizer those, huh?
I said, what do you look like? I don't know. He never showed his face. He doesn't show his face
He's like, you know, you just I don't know what he does. He just doesn't show us
It's just only his voice, but he's constantly pushing, you know
Observing the Sabbath and the dietary laws and the keeping of the law in order to be saved
Even though the Bible clearly says therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law, right?
So they're doing they're guilty of doing what the Pharisees did in Acts chapter 15 telling people to obey the laws of Moses
You know to be circumcised after the manner of Moses in order to be saved. It's a false gospel
Alright, look at verse number nine
He says surely the Isles shall wait for me and the ships of Tarshish first to bring thy sons
From far their silver and their gold with them unto the name of the Lord thy God and the Holy One of Israel because he
Hath glorified thee and the sons of strangers shall build up the walls thy walls and their king shall minister unto thee
For in my wrath I smote thee but in my favor have I had mercy on thee
Now go to Revelation 21 if you would Revelation 21 because what we see here in these two verses is that the nations will bring their
Glory into the land of Israel. Okay. That's what it's basically saying here
Is that those from various parts of the world will bring their silver and their gold and
They're gonna glorify God
It says the sons of the stranger shall build up the walls or king shall minister unto thee and so forth
So it's referring to those nations bringing up bringing their glory into the New Jerusalem
Look at Revelation 21 verse 24
It says in the nations of them which are saved shall walk in the light of it and the kings of the earth
Do bring their glory and honor into it and the gates of it shall not be shut out at all by day
For there shall be no night there and they shall bring the glory and honor of the nations into it
So obviously what Isaiah 60 is referring to is the fact that you know kings and those who have done
Gloriously who are saved they're gonna bring that glory into the New Jerusalem
They're gonna glorify God by their exploits by what they've done. That's what that's talking about
They're go back to Isaiah if you wouldn't Isaiah chapter 60 Isaiah chapter 60
My mind keeps like trying to go back and figure out what I was like lose. I'm like
If I could just remember what it was
So sad it'll hit me like at midnight tonight
Look at verse 11 therefore thy gate shall be open continually as we saw in Revelation 21
They shall not be shut day nor night that men may bring unto thee the forces of the Gentiles and that their kings
May be brought for the nation and kingdom that will not serve these shall perish
Yea those nations shall be utterly wasted
So the way we can interpret verse 12 is you know
The Bible tells us that the wicked shall be turned into hell and all nations that forget God
So, you know if you have entire nations that are just collectively rejecting Jesus Christ, you know as being God as being the Savior
Well, the Bible says that they're gonna perish and utterly be wasted right? But you know, there's also another portion of scripture
I believe it's towards the latter end of the book of Zechariah
that refers to the fact that you know during the millennial reign if
If those who are inhabiting the world at that time because obviously during the millennial reign there's gonna be unsafe people
It's not just saving individuals. We're gonna be there. We're saved
We're gonna be in our regenerated bodies at that time
But the world is also gonna be filled with unregenerated people. Okay, meaning they're you know, they're not saved
But they get to live a really long time and so they're obeying the laws of the land
They're living in a world where Jesus Christ is ruling and reigning from well
The Bible also seems to indicate that if they don't make that pilgrimage to Jerusalem to worship God
Then God's not gonna allow rain to descend upon that area for their crops
So there's a essentially referring to you know, there's some like punishment
There's some consequences to not making that pilgrimage and worshiping God. God's not gonna bless that nation
He says in verse 13 the glory of Lebanon shall come into thee the fir tree the pine tree and the box together
To beautify the place of my sanctuary and I will make the place of my feet glorious now verse 13
I often use this passage of Scripture as a
Justification for Christmas trees because it says these you know
He's bringing the pine tree the fir tree into the house of God in order to beautify the sanctuary, right?
so, you know all of these
Judaizers who don't know what they're talking. They're constantly just like oh
Christmas is pagan and Christmas trees are pagan. So are you saying that God is pagan because he's putting first
He's putting you know fir trees pine trees
He's putting all kinds of trees in the sanctuary of God and he sees it as a decorative purpose, right?
In order to make it more beautiful now
I think that's a great verse to prove that but I believe the main interpretation of verse 13
Is that these trees are actually referring to people know the glory of Lebanon when it talks about the fir tree the pine tree
it's referring to
People or nations because often in the Bible, you know
There's instances where people are referred to or compared to as trees, right?
You know, the Bible talks about Christians being as a palm tree
The Bible talks about you know
They you're planted by the rivers of water bringing forth your fruit in your season
Whose leaf also shun out wither and whatsoever you do shall prosper
The Bible talks about the trees of life in Revelation chapter 22 that bear all manner of fruit in those twelve seasons, right?
And so, you know the Christian life can be compared to that tree
And I believe when he's referring to the fir tree the pine trees referring to just the glory of different nations of these trees
Coming to the house of God to beautify the sanctuary
And let me just say this here's a here's an immediate application to this
Let's beautify the house of God by bringing all kinds of trees in here
What I mean by that all kinds of ethnic groups black yellow
pink purple
Red brown we got we got too many Browns actually
Actually, let's take that Brown down a little bit. You know, I mean, I'm just kidding. What does it say?
It says it's gonna beautify the house of God because it's God's will that all nations be saved
Right. It's all it's God's will that every nation and tongue glorify God
I mean think about Revelation chapter 7 when the rapture takes place you have everyone from every nation and tongue
There before the lamb, you know that pleases God. He wants Chinese people in heaven. He wants Indians in heaven
Yes, he wants, you know
Iraqis in heaven Russians in heaven Mexicans in heaven. He wants them all why because at the end of the day they are his creation
He's not willing that any should perish, but they're all should come to repentance, you know when we get to have it's not all gonna
Be you know, just white people some of you like I don't know that sounds like heaven, you know, I'm pretty good me
You know according to God he wants to beautify the place of his sanctuary with all manner of trees all manner of people
He wants the people in the United States of America to be safe
But he also wants other nations to be safe and that's why he says going there for a teach all nations
You know he wants us to reach all people to preach the gospel to every creature
It's not referring to your dog. It's not referring to your animals creatures. Just a created person
He wants all manner of ethnicities to be saved and so we need to make sure that we don't become prejudiced against a particular
you know race or whatever an ethnic group just because of their food or just because of you know
How bad of a reputation their nation has we obviously view people as souls, right?
And those people are people for who Christ died, you know, his blood was shed to you know to be able to redeem
the
Brazilian to redeem the Central American to redeem the African to redeem
The the Japanese person the Chinese person the Indian birth to redeem all nations. Okay
You say what about nations that just completely rejectable to hell with them that you know, let it be anathema
Okay, but telling a country to be anathema because they reject Christ isn't racism
It's basically us standing up for Christ and say well if you don't want our Christ our God
Then to hell with you because the wicked shall be turning to hell all nations to forget God
You know God is extending his hand to all nations. He wants them to be saved
But if a nation collectively says we don't want Christ then to hell with you
Okay, because you are essentially spitting, you know in the face of God by rejecting
That free gift that he gave through his son Jesus Christ. And so, you know God has no issue with sending
Mexicans to hell he has no issue with sending Indians to hell
He has no issue with sending black people to hell
He will send every single ethnic group to hell on a handbasket if they reject Jesus Christ
Not because of their skin color
But because of what they believe or choose not to believe plain and simple and so they can scream racism all they can say
It's a white man's religion all they want but you know what?
No, one's listening to that in hell though. All he hears in hell just burning for all of eternity
You know you can promote you can promote BLM there if you want
You can promote your your political ideologies there all you want
But at the end of the day all God can hear is weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth and guess what?
We can't see what color it is. Look at verse 14
He says the sons also of them that afflicted thee shall come bending unto thee and all that they that
Despise thee shall bow themselves down at the soles of thy feet and they shall call thee the city of the Lord the Zion
of the Holy One of Israel
now he's basically he's addressing Judy say those who despise thee and obviously we can point to
You know the Babylonians you can point to for Israel. You can put to the Assyrians
You know, but there's also people in Israel. They hated Israel. There's people of Judah. They hated Judah
There's people of Judah that persecuted the prophets and the Bible saying here that those that afflicted them are gonna
Come bending their knees unto them as well and we can see a fulfillment of that in Revelation chapter 3
We're not gonna go there
But that's what it's referring to look at verse 15 whereas thou has been forsaken and hated so that no man went through thee
I will make thee an eternal excellency a joy of many of many generations
Now why is he saying that he's gonna make them a joy of many generations?
I'll tell you why cuz they're not a joy right now, right pretty simple interpretation there
It's like when the Bible says in Hebrew chapter 8 I will be to them a God and they shall be to me a people
Does that tell us it's telling us that there he's currently not their God and they're currently not his people, right?
If he's saying I will be to them a God you can reverse that and say oh that means that he's currently not their God
If he was their God that verse would make zero sense
Yeah, but it also says that he's gonna make a new covenant with the house of Israel in the house of Judah
Yeah, it's called the new covenant
You're thought about that. It's not like some separate covenant from the new covenant. I don't know what what's wrong with these people
You know, it's just like yeah, he's gonna make this covenant
Yeah, it's called the better testament because they violated the old contract
There's a new contract and the stipulation is that they need to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
So because here's the thing folks that new covenant
He says if they adhere to it what's gonna happen?
He will be to them a God and they shall be to my people
Well, guess what when you believe on Jesus Christ, he becomes your God
He becomes your father and you become his people. It's not hard to understand
There's no like third covenant or something like that point that I'm making here is the fact that you know
in verse 15
He's making them a joy of many generations because they're currently not a joy
verse 16 says thou shall also suck the milk of the Gentiles and shall suck the breasts of kings and
Thou shall know that I the Lord and the Savior and thy Savior and thy Redeemer the mighty one of Jacob
No, it's because Israel's great brother. Judah's great. No, it's actually because God is great
One thing we people fail to understand especially Zionist is that you know
God blesses Israel in the Bible and he blesses Judah in the Bible because God is good
Not because they deserve it and let me say this in the New Testament
You know what God blesses us not because necessarily there's anything inherently good with us. It's because God is good
We can put in all this effort to obey the Lord
But let's just be honest. We all fall short of the glory of God. We all miss the mark
So anything good that happens in our lives is like glory to God because it's because of God's grace
Because of God's mercy. No, I think it's cuz like, you know, I'm just built different. I'm just I'm just I'm him
No, it's because he's him. He says thou shalt know that I the Lord am thy Savior and thy
Redeemer he's saying when I do good things in your life and I bless you and you receive abundance and God
Blesses them with all types of blessings
Overflowing it should cause you to realize man. God is the one who did this
God is the one who deserves the credit. God is the one who deserves the glory
He is my Savior and my Redeemer the mighty one of Jacob. Look at verse 17. We're almost done here
He says for brass I will bring gold and for iron I will bring silver and for wood brass and for stones iron
I will also make thy officers peace and thy exacters righteousness
So I believe what verse 17 is referring to here is he's comparing these elements to people when he says brass
I will bring gold I think he's referring to the fact that you know those who were of a lesser
quality of leaders because towards the latter end it says thy officers and then thy exacters
You know instead of giving them brass people who are just of an inferior quality. He's gonna replace them with gold
You know someone who is of iron. He will bring he will make them of silver
He's basically referring to the fact that he's gonna transfigure
The quality of leadership and you know we can say that that is gonna be a thing in the millennial reign
You know, that's when politics really matter is in that millennial reign, right because we shall rule with the rod of iron
It will be perfect judgment and justice during that millennial reign, you know right now the world is filled with brass
It's filled with iron. It's filled with wood just these inferior leaders
That can only do so much
But there will come a time where the leadership will transition in that millennial reign and it'll be leadership of gold
Leadership of silver leadership of brass, right? And that's what he says
I will make thy officers peace and then exactors righteousness exactors is someone who extorts people
That's why I know it's referring to politicians verse 18 says violence shall no more be heard in thy land wasting
No dish nor destruction within thy borders, but thou shalt call thy walls salvation and thy gates praise
So he's obviously referring to the fact that violence shall be removed from the land
Now this could be referring to the millennial reign. I'm not a hundred percent sure for sure
We can say that it happens in the new earth
But it's possible that violence might exist in the millennial reign just not at the volume that we have it today
Because of the fact that in the millennial reign, it's zero tolerance. It's not a slap on the wrist, right and
Justice shall be executed
Immediately once laws are broken. That's what it means to rule with the rod of iron
It means no exceptions and you know when you enforce laws immediately
When you enforce and enact punishments immediately people fear
Before you know they fear and they don't want to commit that crime that maybe they were tempted to do so in times past
Because justice is being executed immediately and so obviously that will lower the crime rate right there
but for sure violence will just no longer be a thing in the new earth because of the fact that sin will be completely removed out
of the picture at that point look at verse 19 it says the Sun shall be no more excuse me the Sun
Shall be no more thy light by day neither for brightness shall the moon give light unto thee
But the Lord shall be unto thee in everlasting light and thy God thy glory the Sun shall no more go down
neither shall the moon withdraw itself for the Lord shall be thine everlasting light and the days of thy morning shall be
ended now this is of course referring to that new earth and
I do believe that the Sun and the moon will as it says in verse 20 will remain in the in the new earth
Excuse me because of the fact that the Bible says in Genesis
I believe it's chapter 7 that you know
The seasons will not cease from then on out and I believe the seasons will continue to exist
Throughout history and throughout eternity the difference is is that in the New Jerusalem
There's not gonna be a need for a moon or Sun because God is there so not only is he
Spiritually glorious, you know, it seems to indicate and imply that he's also
Physically glorious as well. In other words his light will shine will outshine the Sun
It's like there's no need for the light
It's basically, you know, the Sun can be compared to a flashlight being lit outside when the Sun is shining, right?
You know
The Sun can be compared the literal Sun can be compared to the glory of God and then the flashlight is like the Sun
In the New Heaven New Earth, it's like there's no need for it
You can have a moon you can have a Sun, but the God is the glory of it. And so he will shine perpetually
There pretty interesting look at verse 21 thy people also shall be all righteous
Referring to the fact that they're currently not righteous
they shall inherit the land forever the branch of my planting the work of my hands that I have that I may be glorified a
Little one shall become a thousand and the small one a strong nation. I the Lord will hasten it in
His time and essentially this is referring to the fact that Israel will be a righteous nation again
One day, you know, they were righteous nation in times past, but of course, they've gone apostate
They've gone reprobate and you know, obviously the current state of nation of Israel right now
It's not a righteous nation by any stretch of the imagination. And so this promise is telling them
Hey one day you will be righteous again
And it's not because you know, they're gonna see him in the sky and say oh ve and believe on him in Revelation 19
Referring to the fact that you know, the current nation of Israel that's in heaven whose died has been dead for thousands of years
You know, they are righteous and they're gonna come into the land during that millennial reign
They're gonna inherit those promises, you know, and therefore all Israel shall be saved
Okay
Why because iniquity shall be removed from Jacob and who's the iniquity is referring to the people that are being extracted from that physical nation
In order to have only safe people in the nation of Israel and so great stuff there
Let's pray father. We thank you so much for Isaiah 16 the promise of the new earth and I know that
That's way into the future. This is the distant future
it's so long from now Lord, but it's written here for us for our admonition and
Obviously, it's intended. I believe it's intended to help us to be more heavenly minded more eternally minded
so that we are
Aware of our actions today of our service today. It's there to motivate us to stay in the fight to keep serving you
Recognizing that our labor is not in vain and it's also there to just kind of remind us that you know
We shouldn't dig down our stakes too deep into this world. We are pilgrims and sojourners in this world. We're strangers
we're just passing through and
So we need to make sure that we don't set our affections on the things of these of this earth
that we look towards righteous things towards the righteous one and win souls to Christ and live righteously and glorify you and let our light
So shine Lord, and so we just constantly need that reminder Lord because we can soon forget
And I pray that you bless this as we go on our way. Give us a great weekend Lord. We love you
We thank you pray this things in Jesus name. Amen