Bible Study - Isaiah 66 - Part 3

[Music] [Music] welcome back to bible study to the study of isaiah and the final chapter the 12th verse and i'm going to read through to verse 19. it's good to see alan with the new tie on looks like an egyptian title i actually i i was fascinated last last week when we were looking at the barbecue and fascinated by thai it looked like uh two men were spearing each other is that you know looking distracted i can't remember what i was wearing last week sorry the the yeah there's this one it's got it don't don't we're not allowed to identify no i'm not i've no idea maybe it is egyptian anyway someone will be able to do a google images on that okay verse 12 thus for thus says the lord behold i will extend peace to her like a river and the glory of the gentiles like a flowing stream then you shall feed on her sides shall you be carried and be dandeled on her knees as one whom his mother comforts so i will comfort you and you shall be comforted in jerusalem when you see this your heart shall rejoice and your bones shall flourish like grass the hand of the lord shall be known to his servants and his indignation to his enemies for behold the lord will come with fire and with his chariots like a whirlwind to render his anger with fury and his rebuke with flames of fire for by fire and by his sword the lord will judge all flesh and the slain of the lord shall be many those who sanctify themselves and purify themselves to go to the gardens after an idol in the midst eating swine's flesh and the abomination and the mouse shall be consumed together says the lord for i know their works and their thoughts it shall be that i will gather all nations and tongues and they shall come and see my glory i will set a sign among them and those among them who escape i will send to the nations to tashish and pool and lud who draw the bow and tubal and javan so the coastlines are far off who have not heard my fame nor seen my glory and they shall declare my glory among the gentiles amen i think it's alan's prayer today i think all right shall we pray heavenly father we do glorify your name and as we look into the scriptures we see the vastness of you know your thoughts and your purposes and really we are as as you wrote in your word and we studied a couple of weeks back heaven is your throne and your the earth is your footstool and just an image that you've given us of your glory and your vastness so we come before you and the fact that you have saved us the fact that you love us may we just dwell in your presence and may we be comforted by your holy spirit and i pray lord for those who are watching this evening or watching later on catch up and whatever situation we're in i know lord that your ultimate desire is to bless us and to gather us to yourself so may we come willingly and will we come with a burning desire in our hearts to know god and to have fellowship with you and with each other amen amen thank you yes so it's a wonderful verse of the picture of blessing this verse 12 isn't it and we were just talking last week about the the peace yeah that's like a river when we when we talk about peace in our culture we tend to think of stillness whereas this picture piece is quite different it's a picture of of of movement you know a river babbling brook or whatever moving you know and as i said last time that it's it's a picture of the as it were the the river goes from one place to another place this doesn't seem to have a beginning and an end and it's a picture of god and so that our peace is centered upon god and if you actually look at the images of rivers in the bible for example in revelation where it talks about the the river of god flowing from the throne of god and and and it's talking about fruitfulness as well and so so the peace which of god is is something more dynamic and that's our understanding of uh the the shalom of god the peace of god it's not a a sort of stillness it's about well-being yeah yeah and and part of being well-being is is is life and living and vibrancy and that's what a river brings isn't it and that's what that's what a river and minerals and i i related at the end of last week how sometimes that i used to go on retreats and needs to be silent retreats and i used to find them very difficult because um you know just being stillness and turning in on oneself apparently to open oneself up to god you know it helps some people but i used to find it very difficult and i find the most thrilling retreats is where there's interaction and vibrancy no no no no i'm not talking about i'm talking about spiritual retreats but where we're worshiping god together we're where we're having conversations together and there's a dynamism there and that's that's just as much a peaceful expression of the presence of god as the quietness and the stillness and there's a picture here also of the wealth of the nations coming so it's a real it's sort of overwhelming blessing it's not just let's say the gentle deposits of one river um which is special enough uh providing all the fertility but there's this sort of this this wider picture of of blessing and one thing i will say is that isaiah in the last chapter of his book now he may not have been aware is the last chapter but either way i do see it as a kind of summary as a concluding set of remarks of everything that he said throughout his lifetime and what he does is he holds in balance and i think we need to hold the same imbalance god's peace god's comfort god's salvation shalom occupies the same space as god's judgment god's wrath punishment because he's the same god and sometimes we want to pick and choose and say i want to go and read everything there is about comfort and peace you mean occupies the same space in the scripture yeah in a scripture in ideas and thoughts concepts it's almost like the concept of peace has built in within it concept of judgment because i can't i can't see in from scripture i can't see where you can have one without the other yeah and this passage has both and in this you know and it's very reflective of the book of revelations the book of revelations contains both concepts as well it contains god's judgment but it also contains the new heavens and the new earth every tear will be wiped away these are words of comfort these are words of joy these are words of rejoicing and peace isaiah absolutely exactly the same you know so is it the case of ping-ponging is it the case of roller coaster well i think it is because because it has to be yeah and the question is are they ever simultaneous or is it just chronological you're going from one to the other i think it's got feelings i think it's got to be both i think that is you see at its heart the new testament gospel the good news is that i have god's comfort because i have god's judgment or god's comfort exists because god's judgment exists and because his judgment exists he dealt with that judgment and what it delivered for me is that purely because i believe and want to draw near to god he allows me to draw near to him and as a result of drawing near to god he gives us the peace that comes you know from within god i i would actually agree with you and say that but i would use the word justice justice judgment and judgment is involved in justice but but but to actually give the right understanding of peace there has to be a the prevalence of justice and where where society lives in peace where there is no chaos there there is the rule of law the root and the and justice and so what alan is saying is is so true the peace of god in a hebrew sense that the shalom of god is actually about where the justice of god prevails which produces peace and justice and prosperity and prosperity in a society now where there is no justice then societies begin to disintegrate and and i believe we're seeing it in our society now in many ways it's being covered up at this moment in time because we're borrowing so much and we're maintaining as it were the prosperity of the nation but by borrowing money from future generations all the time so we're maintaining our prosperity but the the the justice and the peace and the shalom of god produces um a creative society as a productive society i would say a prosperous society a a just society and freedom and freedom is this is part of justice as well and yeah we and so and so this is all part of this picture of the the piece like a river yeah it's something very dynamic rather than something very static it's good that you said that because the second part of this this picture of uh you know in verse 18 well actually the second half of 12 12 is that you it talks about a child being nursed and that's a very gentle thing yeah so you i take your points about the river but now we've we've gone into this yeah and what i'd like to do is uh refer to two corinthians yeah paul talks about comfort and and bring out some parallels there yeah but before i do that you see the thing about the river is that it's contained and it has banks and a river is different from a flood flood is chaos yeah yeah river is peace yeah because it has boundaries yes and those boundaries talk of justice yeah very good and that's the picture because you can't have peace like a river right without the banks of the river which give it direction and and what what what what is it and it's exactly the verse you said then you shall feed on her sides you shall be carried and downed underneath there besides is where if you are actually uh rowing particularly in a in a direction either direction obviously if you're going with the flow of the river it's better to be in the middle yeah but if you're not going with the flow it's better to be at the sides where the flow is slowed down by the riverbank and that's where depending on whether you're on the outside of the bend or the inside well you've done rowing as well yeah but yes you're quite right but it's where it's it's where the picture here is the child being dangled you know you you wouldn't put a child where the river's going flowing there but where it's still and it's but it's still flowing the child angle it's a picture of peace but it's not as it keeps saying it's not a it's not a tranq well it is a tranquil but it's not actually still yeah yeah the river is is a picture of life we've got to remember we we live in an age where power comes from uh electricity but in those days and for exploration from the river everything came from the river the power came from the river yeah yeah and you know the sustenance yeah everything everything everything came from the river uh yeah and so i read from sorry yeah please corinthians i'm going to read from two corinthians please do um which chapter uh two corinthians chapter one yeah starting in verse 3 blessed be the god and father of our lord jesus christ the father of mercies and god of all comfort so paul is very clear god is the god of all comfort if he's the god of all comfort then there's no other source of comfort except from god that's what all denotes here who comforts us in all our tribulation because tribulation is part of the gospel we need to expect that that we may be able to comfort those who are in any trouble because the comfort isn't for us to hang on to and say i've got shalom thank you we're meant to pass it on and comfort those who are in trouble but the whole idea of comfort is the river idea of flow it needs to flow through us because he comforts us that we may be able to comfort those who are in any trouble with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by god for as the sufferings of christ abound in us so our consolation also abounds through christ now if we are afflicted it is for your consolation and salvation which is effective for enduring the same sufferings which we also suffer or if we are comforted it is for your consolation and salvation so he's talking about comfort as something that starts with god comes to us with a purpose and that purpose is for the comforting of others so that yeah it can it can manifest and be passed on and isaiah is fit isn't it with eyes absolutely and isaiah's verse 13 so i god i will comfort you and you shall be comforted in jerusalem in a way jerusalem is the spiritual home of comfort it's where god is going to gather the gentiles the nations it says here it says it in isaiah 66 it says it in the book of revelations it says it's in matthew 24 god will come call together and summon everybody from the far isles as it says from everywhere yeah in the coastlands he's going to gather everybody to dispense justice yeah okay yeah and it's all tied in with his delivery of shalom to the earth wonderful i i would add though that that our understanding of the word comfort is completely different we're reading from the new king james version of bible which to the many is based upon the king james version the bible and what we need to understand is the word comfort means something completely different in the english or the anglo-saxon or even norman french um which means completely different to what we understand it today and the illustration which i've used a couple of times on bible studies but uh it's worth repeating is that in the bayou tapestry there's a picture of uh of williams troops being defeated by harold's remember harold was at the top of the hill and they were going up the top of the hill and they were being defeated and there was bishop odo uh william's brother and now as a bishop he wasn't allowed to hold the sword and wasn't allowed to kill but he was allowed to hold the club right and and and what's the picture on the bail tapestry of bishop odo in a knight's armor with a club in his hand beating his own troops with a club to get him to go up the hill and that was called comfort and it says underneath his bishop odo comfort death his troops right and and and and again it comes back to this understanding of of the peace of god it's not let's just sit still that is an eastern religion which is crept in to christianity where we just allow the ebbs and flow of time to for all of us i mean the christian understanding of peace which comes from the jewish understanding which is more dynamic and life-giving yeah and that that passage in two corinthians my my version verse two corinthians one verse five for just as the sufferings of christ flow over into our lives yes um so also through christ our comfort overflows so there is this intertwining between comfort and suffering yeah exactly what partly what you were saying fascinating absolutely absolutely it's it's um okay that's a good that's a good thing from the buyer tapestry um and then your and then it there's another analogy it says so he's chunking in all of these different analogies and and that you will flourish like grass your bones will flourish like grass the hand of the lord shall be known to his servants and his indignation to his enemies and this is what we were saying before that there is this two-sided coin one side of the coin is the hand of the lord shall be known to his servants his comfort in in the sense that if ian just expounded his shalom but his indignation is the other side of the coin where he will gather and he says well behold the lord will come with fire and with his chariots like a whirlwind to render his anger with fury and his rebuke with flames of fire and it is only because the other side of the coin exists for god's judgment or justice to be dispensed that it is possible for this side of the coin to have his shalom yeah very good okay very good um where we're going to take him we've we've got i think we're we're basically to verse 17 are we not yeah yeah so we've we've dealt we've dealt with that the interplay and the both sides of the coin and we're going to now go to the different currency so those who consecrate and purify themselves um go into the gardens following the one in the midst of those so there's a there's a juxtaposition again just does it just as you think ah this is going in good direction he goes back to to what's happening no but i was completely thrown when i when i read the last verse of isaiah just before i started reading and i thought oh boy um no okay come on alan you can unravel it for us okay mankind for you know 6 000 years has been seeking self-salvation okay and it all start well you know right from the beginning is existed where as cain and abel and whereas abel's sacrifice was acceptable because it was made in faith and keynes wasn't because it was not made in faith it was self-seeking any kind of sacrifice where self is the motivating factor this is at the very very heart of isaiah's message because god's not interested in whether you sacrifice or not he's interested in what purpose your sacrifice fulfills and here he's saying those who sanctified themselves themselves and purified themselves to go to the gardens after an idol in the midst eating swine's flesh and the abomination and the mouse shall be consumed together says jehovah that so who's consumed together the one who purifies themselves purify themselves they're purifying themselves in the sense of they're putting on clean clothes and things in order to go and sacrifice to an idol or to sacrifice swine or to eat to to be to do things which god considers and has pronounced to be abominations that sacrificing in a self-serving manner rather than to honor god so the message for me here is similar you are going to sacrifice and it could be anything you know you could put money in the church collection but it depends on what's in your heart if you're self-seeking then god's not interested because he can see right into your heart as to why you're sacrificing why you're doing what you're doing yeah absolutely um so coming back to it you i've i've got my my version you know they'll meet their end together um we're saying that all those who are sort of consuming the abomination the abominable things they're eating flying swine's flesh yeah and those who all those things that sacrifice yeah the rats the swine's flesh was disease-ridden so then they will meet their end yeah and this is part of the uh judgment side of the coin so they'll be comfort and salvation and shalom and peace like a river for those who as we sort of said a week or two weeks ago those who are trembling at god's word the genuine believers the genuine the ones who are seeking uh and who are contrite in spirit like jesus said in the tower god forgive me a sinner and those who use religion for self-satisfaction satisfaction in the sense that even if they've done something wrong they use sacrifice to make themselves feel better because i saw you know the early part of the passage i saw it very much about sacrifice but this seemed to be just people living in a godless way you know completely irrespective of god's standards god's laws they're eating flesh and pigs they're just indulging them that's what the together to me that's what the together means okay there are those who genuinely couldn't care less about god yeah and will eat swine whichever that is a picture of yeah but there are also those who sacrifice in a self-serving way and go into the purify themselves and now i've got what you're saying sacrifice to idols so those who sacrifice yeah i i what i had interpreted was i was trying to uh bring together what it seems to be a good thing to consecrate and purify yourselves but you were actually saying that that again was purposeful what you were saying last couple weeks ago yeah which which is which is which is a an illustration of what alan was saying yeah that many people you know we we talk about the completely got it yeah the worship of baal and things like that what we've got to remember is they made me deceived yeah but their objective was to be blessed by god and so for example you know they would purify themselves they would go through a ritual got it and then they'd go in the gardens you know they remember the asherah poles the poles were in the gardens and they would worship there now this is important to hold together because there is a sense in which we were alluding to this when we said oh we're up and down it's like a hell of a skeleton you know we're getting but in many ways so i remember a sermon being preached and i knew there was an anecdote coming because that was just the way you're you're thinking because someone's been preaching something you know and and the theme of the sermon and it's stuck in my mind he said this the wrath of god is the hope for mankind and it shows how long ago it would be humankind today but it was mankind in those days and and what he was actually saying is that we tend to look upon the judgment of god as something very negative as something to be avoided but what we've got to understand is that the wrath of god is the means by which we see the peace like a river yeah you know and and the wrath of god is the means by which injustice will be abolished in the world the wrath of god is the is the means by which evil will be destroyed it says in chapter 24 i think you know when your judgments come on the earth yeah people learn righteousness yeah yes wonderful by the way that you know these two and a half years of bible studies have all been for my benefits you know i i set the whole thing up so i could sit down and at the feet of ian and alan and sort myself out you know and hear these wonderful interpretations and frankly we were saying the other day about the very there's yet more light to be shed and i i do find it literally every week there is something new and special um and it's a great privilege to be doing it now with verse 18 verse 18 for i know their works and their thoughts it shall be that i will gather all nations and tongues and they shall come and see my glory i will set a sign among them and those among them who escape i will send to the nation's tarshish to pull and blood to draw the bow and tubal and jovan to the coastlines of far off who have not heard my fame nor seen my glory and they shall declare my glory among the gentiles just tarshish yeah spain yeah europe um paul and lud africa jaffa is um greece tubal sorry is uh the the jewish description of greece so we have east west south yes and and um javan is uh is the biblical name for greece uh and so we have this picture that the word of god will go forth now and the isles are far off is britain of course amen british islands the region's beyond yeah originally will be soon yeah but but what i find to be interesting is that you've got to hold these verses together in 17 we're actually he's actually describing a group of people who were worshipers of idol idolatry right and then he just said for i know their works and their thoughts and it shall be i shall gather all nations and tongues and they shall come and see my glory what is the picture of here is that as i saying these people may have predominance at this moment in time but they won't win i mean there's the old story of the two bible students who were discussing revelation and they couldn't work out all the theories of of revelation and the gardener comes and says i know it i know i can explain the revelation in two words he says what's up says jesus wins all right yeah and and and we're going to talk about the two witnesses yeah anyway but but the point just you and me left brother and i'm not so sure about you exactly but but the point is this is that the there's a description of the idolatry going on in the land but he's saying that god will be victorious and and you could actually read verse 18 that even these idolatrous will gather around the throne of god and worship him you that's right and there's more than a whiff of revelation the book of revelation right here and also the last chapter of um of of matthew because god is now extending he's talked about jerusalem he's talked about giving birth he's talked about judgment now he's talking about gathering the nations and there are two purposes and they're two sides of a coin again for gathering the nations the ultimate purpose is for their salvation but that can only be achieved through their judgment and the judgment will fall on his son jesus christ if they will accept and believe on his son but if they won't then there will be real judgment and this is a picture of end times for me yeah and it's saying okay the conclusion to 66 chapters of isaiah is there's going to come a time just as it says in the last book of the bible there's going to come a time we don't know when there'll be a second coming there'll be an in-gathering of the nations and they're going to have to face the music that's what it says in revelations that's what it says here we have a job and that job is in matthew go and make disciples of all nations we need to go out there okay and the victorian era was an example to us of how britain sent out missionaries it's not happening anymore yeah at least to the same extent anything like in fact there are others coming into britain they are going to preach the word on our streets on the street corners and getting arrested and all sorts of things happening yeah because this country won't tolerate the preaching of the gospel in town squares and street corners anymore that's right but this picture and we you know there is a fulfillment of this yeah there has to be and there is yeah because this is the you know the the great missionary endeavor was sort of go ye into all the world and preach the gospel this is gathering those nations backers again and because they've now had a chance to hear the gospel see in terms of god's timing jesus said at the end of matthew go out make disciples and then at his second coming he's going to gather the nations or what have you done with the word that you heard what have you done with the word i sent out through my disciples the apostles came to you they preached the good news and there are thousands if not millions of chinese people who've turned to god through jesus eskimos aboriginals africans south all over the world they've heard the gospel and many many many millions of people have turned to christ as a result and on the last day he says gonna gather them back and then he's gonna say right what have you done with my word that you heard and this is this is the picture that isaiah is painting here and they will proclaim my glory among the nations absolutely yeah you see coastlines of pharaoh who have not heard my fame nor seen my glory and they shall declare my glory among the nations that's what verse 19 is saying in fulfillment of matthew 28. okay should we break with tradition and read on yes we can i shall read yeah please do so we're going to read to the end of the chapter okay the end of isaiah messiah then they shall bring all your brethren for an offering to the lord out of all nations on horses and in chariots and in litters on mules and on camels to my holy mountain jerusalem says the lord as the children of israel bring an offering in a clean vessel into the house of the lord and i will also take some of them for priests and levites says the lord for as the new heavens and the new earth which i will make shall remain before me says the lord so shall your descendants and your name remain and it shall come to pass that from one new moon to another and from one sabbath to another all flesh shall come to worship before me says the lord and they shall go forth and look upon the corpses of men who have transgressed against me for the worm does not die and their fire is not quenched and they shall be abhor abhorrence to all flesh so sort of expanding on what you were saying is giving giving a little bit more and he's sort of reaching up to the crescendo and then he just reminds us of the alternative well yes but verse 24 to me is again the other side of the coin because you can't have verses 18 to 23 without having verse 24 because god's solution to for those men and women who will not turn to god they've had free will they've had the gospel preached to them they have equal access to god's word especially now we leave live in the age of the internet anyone can just type in the bible yeah and up will come the scriptures that's right anyone can just type in revelation tv and overcome these bible studies there is now we are literally living in an age where man has run out of any kind of excuse that says i did not know or i did not hear or i didn't hear of your fame and as i say no those who haven't heard my fame they will yeah they'll be told about it and i think we're living in an age where the culmination of god's fame being presented to all flesh and it is entirely up to man's free will that those who choose to not turn to god as a result of hearing of god's fame is the word isaiah used the consequences uh in verse 24 which is the last verse of the last book chapter of desire yeah but in the run-up to that is a picture of those who decide that they do want to turn to christ and because we have to say as well there's that there's a lot of flack out there there there's a lot of um decoys in on the internet and confusion so so although you're absolutely right you can search and get straight on to the bible gateway or in a bible hub and you read the scriptures which is wonderful there's also an incredible amount of misinformation you know and distortion but i think essentially what you're saying is absolutely true it's not you don't need the victorian you don't need livingston to you know walk the zanzibar you know you the scriptures are there now across all the airwaves it's an amazing era we're living in the the interesting way of looking at verse 24 you can look at it two ways you can actually say that we have a situation of eternal suffering and eternal fire or as i prefer to look at it of eternal destruction the worm destroys and it doesn't die because it's constantly so they're going to be just the bodies of those who are rejected god will be gone basically um and the fire will just burn them out of existence and i i don't necessarily see it as eternal damnation or eternal [Music] what i would actually say is this we need to present a positive gospel yeah you never frighten people into into the kingdom of god you never frighten people by the prospect of eternal damnation into the kingdom of god and what we're actually saying here what we've got to picture here is death the bible called second death actually uh in revelation we've got a picture of death and basically no no remember no more but what we've got to actually see is we've got to see it in hand in hand with the verses that go before where there's a great crowd being gathered together around the throne of god and where there is a new earth and new heavens incidentally says heavens yeah you know not prayer plural not not not singular heavens where it's created so there is a glorious future which is held out and god would not have that any should perish yeah he wouldn't have it any should perish but come he would he would though he would not have any to perish but he would put all together on that great throne and to enjoy the life which again is about peace like a river which is about order without justice god wants to live as or live in a just world where there are no children sleeping on the streets of india at this period of time while we sleep in comfortable beds where there is where there is where there is complete justice uh and liberty so you're talking about a sort of socialist utopia well i i'm i'm talking about what it says in the bible i'm talking about i mean it did motivate the the socialist movement absolutely and you know you you know this is about god yeah you know we kind of create a socialist utopia here on earth that's been the mistake for generations because we're not dealing with the sinfulness of man that's right right but but what i'm saying is that the bible says in the end in the end we're going to go back to this idyllic existence which started in the beginning before the fall and you know and and that's the picture what we've got to say and so i i would want to persuade men with this positive understanding and this is a description here not of eternal damnation you don't receive christ and you will suffer this i would say look look at it other ways receive christ and enter into this glorious new life and this new earth and new heaven regenerate where justice and peace will pervade he's wonderful it's wonderful the the thing about the judgment is that it's commensurate to the rebellion and if the rebellion goes on as as it does in that that parable of the rich man um that uh where he said oh let um you know is that lazarus or whatever must bring you know to touch he he clearly hadn't repented um uh guring you know clearly haven't repented for the nuremberg trials he you know slipped the cyanide pill instead um that there is this tragedy you know and is the tragedy of of humanity with the heavens declaring the glory of god and the law of the lord being perfect and everything being laid out so there's no excuse that there are still rebellion in the heart of man and there is rejection of god and there in revelation 20 it says that after the righteous rule a millennial rule of christ after a thousand years the the the devil is is released from the abyss to deceive the nations because there's still that that rebellion that is there even after the whole of the history of god's grace and mercy being demonstrated on earth and the righteous rule of christ there's still rebellion so so i i would agree that you don't drive people into the kingdom through fear but you know the lord i think was quite clear about those there are there is this category of those who reject god where where do they go when eternity has been sown into their hearts when their god breathed when humanity were not animals that were just thrown onto a you know into gehenna you know or let's say the hinnom valley you know along with all of the the rubbish we are human beings and uh with with um god's imprimatur on us that's right so i think judgment is every bit as real as salvation is i think so absolutely i think so but but i totally agree that there was this you've mentioned dante's inferno you know a few weeks ago and of course there is this sort of caricaturing of it that sees it just as sort of dragons and fire out of the mouth um but certainly the lord jesus spoke more than anyone else about hell and it wasn't in the context of it just being you know hitler being snuffed out alongside you know the the swindler down the road there there was there was a um uh judgment commensurate with the crime but interesting enough that if you read revelation chapter 20 yeah it talks about right let me read it please do the words this is about the satanic rebellion crushed we're talking about uh satan having this after his release after he's released now when a thousand years had expired satan would will be released from his prison and will go out and deceive the nations which are in the four corners of the earth gog and magog to gather to them together to battle whose number is the sand of the sea they went up from the breadth of the earth and surrounded the camp of the saints and the beloved city and the fire came down from god from heaven and devoured them and the devil who deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone where the beast and the false prophet are and they were tormented day and night now it actually doesn't sound present yeah oh oh it doesn't actually burning sulfur wouldn't they have been consumed yeah but it's actually what happened to the those who deceived who worked with satan they were devoured they'd gone it actually only says that the beast the false prophet and satan were cl were actually thrown into the lake of fire and tormented forever it actually only says those three beings yeah are tormented forever it doesn't say that everybody well it is worth reading you know studying words of jesus as well yeah i i know i know that i i know that and and and i take it seriously you know this understanding of of hell but i'm trying to work out what it is i don't think we know for sure we can only go on the scriptures i'm sure someone is writing to me in terms of justice you talk often about justice and it's right there's no justice if hitler is just snuffed out and stalin is just snuffed out at the end then they will be laughing at all of their mockery through their life and the the mockery of their people and slaughter of tens of millions what you've got will be proved right but what you've got to understand is when they're snuffed out they know the truth then and they know instantaneously the what they know the truth and they know what they have lost they know what they lost and they they you know in an instant they will know yeah uh you know the complete depth of this i think there will be there will be yeah foolishness nearly swore then i thought your your lips were no i'm sorry but it was it was terrible evil and it does make us angry it does it makes it makes me makes me angry and i i i'm thinking of relatives of mine who who are a dear people and that's just sentimental though isn't it no it's not sentimental it's real it's it's real sentimental and how do you how do you rationalize that dear relatives who lived a good life is the same as hitler the only way you can rationalize it in saying is be you a kind person a new no christ and if you're being hitler and you're so evil the only way you can rationalize it and actually saying is that as jesus said they're lost they're like sheep without a shepherd you know and they're they're completely lost and and it's not about the life you've lived it's about your relationship or the lack of relationship you have with the lord and i think i think it's a really important point this and it's interesting we got right to the uh the end of isaiah and we're still tustling yeah because um you know either either we are just basically uh flesh and blood and it all just goes like that or as the scriptures is very clear there's something distinctive about man made in his image about about him setting eternity there has to be there has to be eternity there has to be endurance otherwise what's the purpose that paul said if there is no resurrection then what's the purpose yeah we should be pitied among all men yeah and i do find uh i didn't actually say that he said if if we're not resurrected from the dead then we're out president yeah it's actually talking about the resurrection to the sec to a new life not the second death yeah no no no we have a picture in in revelation of the resurrection and those of us who are resurrected were resurrected to the new life in the new jerusalem but those who who are condemned to the second death are condemned to death so when paul was talking about that if we if there is no resurrection of the dead he's actually saying that if we do not believe in the resurrection if there's no resurrection then we are to be pitied pity so it's nothing to do with with eternal suffering great hope being as it is okay the point i was trying to make is that isaiah this passage from verse 18 to 24 is actually uh quite evangelistic yeah all right and the interesting thing for me from uh reading revelation 20 is that both satan and god have an interest in gathering the nations but for opposite purposes god's purpose in gathering the nations is to demonstrate his glory and satan's purpose in gathering the nations is to destroy god's chosen so that's quite clear from revelation 20 that as satan wants so one way or another we know from scripture there will be a gathering of the nations but there'll be one faction that come following satan because he's the deceiver and there's another faction that's coming because of the word of god that's gone out to the four corners of the earth and what isaiah says is he encapsulates why the temple exists having dealt with false worship in the temple he now talks about the true purpose of jerusalem and israel a true purpose is to go out and gather the nations and bring them as if they were an offering to god on a clean plate so the language he uses is then they the true believers the true temple worshipers the true israel shall bring all your brethren so these are the gentiles who are outside the temple for an offering to the lord out of all nations on horses and chariots etc as the children of israel bring an offering in a clean vessel into the house of the lord wonderful well on that wonderful note um i'm going to say that we're going to still study isaiah next week because i'm encouraging you both that we'll we'll pick out um highlights from this epic box set that we've been part of and um and we'll just highlight and summarize from this wonderful prophecy of isaiah and the plan is that we yes we'll box it all into dvds so that you can have them on your shelf at home i think it would be about 200 um dvds but no it's great to see you next week we will finalize isaiah thank you you

Channel: Revelation TV

Views: 2,416

Keywords: Bible, Study, Studying, teaching, preaching, learning, isaiah, 66, Part, Parallels, Book, Revelation, Gather, Heavens, Earth, Judgement, Reality, Salvation, God, Eternal, UK, London, Britain, Christian Channel, Revelation TV

Id: ldW-vBTNTJU

Length: 55min 0sec (3300 seconds)

Published: Tue Apr 09 2019