The End and a New Beginning - Part 2

I'd like you to take your Bibles and turn with me to the book of

Isaiah in the Old Testament, chapter 66, the very last

chapter of Isaiah. If you're using the red Bibles

and the chairs around, you can see the page where you can find

that in those red Bibles and your bulletin, Isaiah chapter

Isaiah 66 · chapter mention

66. Let me give you a as you're

turning there, let me just give you a quick snapshot over the

next couple of weeks. Today we'll be finishing up our

study of the book of Isaiah. It's taken us about 18 months,

and we have finally arrived at the final chapter.

We'll look at that today. Next Sunday, we will have a

guest preacher here. Reverend Seth Adams, the Ruf

campus minister at North Dakota State, will be here and bringing

us God's Word. And then we will begin a new

summer series the Sunday after that.

We'll be going through the 10 commandments this summer, a

different commandment each Sunday, and we'll cover all 10

throughout the course of between now and the beginning of

September. Today we're looking at Isaiah

Isaiah 66 · chapter mention

chapter 66 as we come to the end of Isaiah's majestic book.

Listen as I read to you from Isaiah 66.

Thus says the Lord. Heaven is my throne, and the

earth is my footstool. What is the house that you would

build for me, and what is the place of my rest?

All these things my hand has made.

And so all these things came to be, declares the Lord.

But this is the one to whom I will look, he who is humble and

contrite and spirit, and trembles at my word.

He who slaughters an ox is like one who kills a man.

He who sacrifices a lamb like one who breaks a dog's neck.

He who presents a grain offering like one who offers pig's blood.

He who makes a memorial offering of frankincense like one who

blesses an idol. These have chosen their own ways

and their soul, the lights and their abominations.

I also will choose harsh treatment for them and bring

their fears upon them. Because when I called, no one

answered. When I spoke, they did not

listen, but they did what was evil in my eyes and chose that

and which I did not. Delight.

Hear the word of the Lord, you who tremble at His word, your

brothers who hate you, and cast you out for my name's sake, and

said, Let the Lord be glorified, that we may see your joy, but it

is they who shall be put to shame.

The sound of an uproar from the city, a sound from the temple,

the sound of the Lord rendering recompense to his enemies.

Before she was in labor she gave birth.

Before her pain came upon her, she delivered a son.

Who has heard such a thing? Who has seen such things?

Shall a land be born in one day? Shall a nation be brought forth

in one moment? For as soon as Zion was in

labor, she brought forth her children.

Shall I bring to the point of birth, and not cause to bring

forth, says the Lord. Shall I who cause to bring forth

shut the womb, says your God, rejoice with Jerusalem, and be

glad for her. All you who love her, rejoice

with her, and joy all you who mourn over her, that you may

nurse, and be satisfied from her consoling breast, that you may

drink deeply with delight from her glorious abundance.

For thus says the Lord, Behold, I will extend peace to her like

a river, and the glory of the nations like an overflowing

stream. And you shall nurse, you shall

be carried upon her hip and bounced upon her knees.

Is 1 whom his mother comforts. So I will comfort you.

You shall be comforted and comforted in Jerusalem.

You shall see, and your heart shall rejoice.

Your bones shall flourish like the grass, and the hand of the

Lord shall be known to his servants, and he shall show his

indignation against his enemies. For behold, the Lord will come

in fire, and his Chariots like the whirlwind, to render his

anger and fury and his rebuke with flames of fire.

For by fire will the Lord enter into judgment, and by his sword

with all flesh. And those slain by the Lord

shall be many, those who sanctify and purify themselves

to go into the gardens, following one in the midst

eating pigs flesh. And the abomination and mice

shall come to an end together, declares the Lord.

For I know their works and their thoughts, and the time is coming

to gather all nations and tongues, and they shall come and

see my glory. And I will set a sign among

them. And from them I will send

survivors to the nations, to Tarshish, Pool and Lud, who draw

the bow to Tubal and to Javan, to the coast lands far away that

have not heard my fame or seen my glory.

And they shall declare my glory among the nations, and they

shall bring all your brothers from all the nations as an

offering to the Lord, on horses and in Chariots and in litters,

and on mules and dromedaries, to my holy mountain Jerusalem, says

the Lord, just as the Israelites bring their grain offering in a

clean vessel to the House of the Lord.

And some of them also I will take for priests and for

Levites, says the Lord. For as the new heavens and the

new earth that I make shall remain before me, says the Lord,

so shall your offspring and your name remain.

From new moon to new moon, and from Sabbath to Sabbath, all

flesh shall come to worship before me, declares the Lord.

And they shall go out and look on the dead bodies of the men

who have rebelled against me. For their worm shall not die,

their fire shall not be quenched, and they shall be in

abhorrence to all flesh. Let's pray together, Father, as

we come to these final words of the book of Isaiah, we pray that

your, your Holy Spirit would be at work in these moments, even

as we read your word and now as we reflect upon it, that you

would open her eyes and our hearts, our very souls, that we

might see and learn and be changed by your word because of

the work of the Spirit. Do that, for we ask it in Jesus

name, Amen. Well, many of us probably know

the story of Dietrich Bonhoeffer.

It was 1933 in Germany, just days after Hitler had been

appointed chancellor. Bonhoeffer was a young Lutheran

pastor and theologian. He was in his late 20s.

He gave a radio address warning the German people that they were

setting themselves up for disaster.

Craving a leader like Hitler would only lead to idolatry,

which would destroy the people. The broadcast got cut off before

he was finished. Shortly thereafter, the German

church compromised, bowed the knee to the Nazi state,

displayed swastikas alongside of crosses, reworked its

theological beliefs to go along with the new regime.

Church leaders decided that their survival and their

relevance was worth the accommodation.

Bonhoeffer helped found the Confessing Church in resistance.

He also wrote his book The Cost of Discipleship to address the

abandonment of biblical Christianity.

He critiqued the hypocritical worshippers, those who trembled

at the words of Hitler more than the words of the Lord.

Bonhoeffer was eventually arrested.

He was imprisoned and then executed by hanging in April of

1945 at the age of 39, just three weeks before the Germans

surrendered. Some of the recorded last words

of Bonhoeffer passed along by a fellow prisoner.

This is the end, but for me, the beginning of life.

Isaiah brings his massive and majestic and masterful book to a

close with chapter 66. It is the end.

But he also points us to a new beginning in this chapter.

He He points to the uncontainable and unstoppable

creator of the universe, whose throne is in heaven and whose

footstool is the earth, who graciously creates a place where

he dwells with his people and where they worship Him, the

House of the Lord. And we read here that in the

House of the Lord there are two kinds of worshippers.

There are those who tremble at the word of the Lord, those that

the Lord cares for and blesses, and there are those that are

practicing rituals just in their actions, not from their hearts.

Hypocritical worshippers, those who have no problem compromising

on God's Word so that they can follow their own ways and be at

at peace with the world. They tremble at the ways of the

world rather than the word of the Lord.

One last time, Isaiah spoke to God's people in the 8th century

BC who were about to go into exile.

And he spoke to God's people in exile in Babylon in the 6th

century, about to be released, to return to their home and

rebuild the House of the Lord. And he speaks to God's people

today. He speaks to us and He asks us

what kind of worshippers are we? Do we tremble at the word of the

Lord or at the words of our culture in the world?

Do we worship the Lord from our heart or do we hypocritically

just go through the motions but not from the heart?

So let's look at this final chapter of the book and let's

ask, what is the House of the Lord?

What is the House of the Lord? And then secondly, who are the

worshippers in the House of the Lord?

And then thirdly, how does the Lord respond to the worshippers?

And we'll finish by asking, So what?

What difference does this make for us today?

So first of all, what is the House of the Lord?

That phrase, the House of the Lord shows up as many as 250

times in the Bible depending on which translation you have and

the various phrasing of it. That's a lot of times that it

shows up in both the Old Testament and New Testament, and

it's used in both a literal sense but also a figurative

sense. Literally.

You can see here in verses one in the beginning of verse 2, it

has this literal sense. Thus says the Lord, heaven is my

throne and earth is my footstool.

What is the house that you would build for me, and what is the

place of my rest? All these things my hand has

made. And so all these things came to

be, declares the Lord. This is a picture of the God who

is transcendent, not able to be contained.

He is omnipresent. Heaven is his throne, and earth

is his footstool. And yet, in God's kind,

compassionate grace, he decided to create a place where he would

dwell with his people, a place where he could his people could

worship him and commune with him.

He created a House of the Lord after the people were rescued

from Egypt and before they settled in the Promised Land.

It was in the form of the Tabernacle, a mobile House of

the Lord, a temporary, a makeshift temple, if you will.

And then after the people settled in the promised land,

they were given instructions for building a more permanent House

of the Lord, the temple that Solomon built in Jerusalem.

And then when the House of the Lord was destroyed by the

Babylonians, that when Judah was taken into exile anew, although

less majestic, House of the Lord was built when the people

returned from exile in the 6th century.

This is this is the literal, physical sense of the phrase,

the House of the Lord. But there's also a phrased this

phrase is also used in the Bible and and more of a figurative

sense. It's used as a as a shadow of

something else. It it's used to point to

something bigger, something ultimate.

It's about an even greater and better place for God to dwell

with his people. You can see it's referenced in

verses 22 and 23. For as the new heavens and the

new earth that I make shall remain before me, says the Lord,

so shall your offspring and your name remain.

From new moon to new moon, from Sabbath to Sabbath, all flesh

shall come to worship before me, declares the Lord.

This sense of the new heavens and the new earth that we saw

unpacked for us last week in chapter 65, continuing on now in

chapter 66, this this figurative sense of the House of the Lord.

The House of the Lord ultimately will be the new heavens and the

new earth where He will dwell with His people.

We read this passage last week where it talks about this very

thing in Revelation chapter 21. There John says, I saw a new

Revelation 21 · chapter mention

heaven and a new earth, for the 1st heaven and the first earth

had passed away, and the sea was no more.

And I saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of

heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.

And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, Behold, the

dwelling place of God is with man.

He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God

himself will be as their God. He will wipe away every tear

from their eyes, and death shall be no more.

Neither shall there be mourning nor crying nor pain anymore, for

the former things have passed away.

The House of the Lord used figuratively to point to this

new heavens and new earth that are coming.

This too is a real place where God will live with His people

forever, dwell and commune in worshipping the Lord as His

people will do. So here in Isaiah chapter 65 and

Isaiah 65 · chapter mention

66 we have both uses of this phrase of the House of the Lord

speaking about God's people worshipping Him and the literal

House of the Lord that the Lord provided, and also pointing us

forward to that better, greater, and ultimate House of the Lord

coming for us. But what does Isaiah say here in

this chapter about the worshippers that are in the

House of the Lord? He points to two different kinds

of worshippers that are in the House of the Lord.

First of all, he talks about those who tremble at the word of

the Lord. You see that at the end of verse

2. But this is the one to whom I

will look, He who is humble and contrite in spirit and trembles

at my word. Humble, contrite ones who

tremble at His word. They tremble not because they're

afraid, like when we have a nightmare.

It's tremble in the sense of awe and wonder, of being in the

presence of the transcendent. The The accompanying words here

help us to understand what it means to tremble at the Lord's

word. It means being humble.

It means being contrite. It's a picture of 1 whose heart

is filled with desire to love and to worship the Lord, as he

calls us to do and notice in verses 18 through 21.

This group will include people from all nations, the nations

God will call brothers and sisters in Christ who come from

all nations and languages and ethnicities.

This is one of the worshippers who are in the House of the

Lord. But they aren't the only

worshippers that Isaiah mentions.

He also mentions those who worship hypocritically.

Look at verse three. He who slaughters an ox is like

one who kills a man, He who sacrifices a lamb like one who

breaks a dog's neck. He who presents a grain offering

like one who offers pig's blood. He who makes a memorial offering

of frankincense like one who blesses an idol.

These have chosen their own ways, and their soul delights in

their abominations. These are people in the House of

the Lord who are worshipping hypocritically.

They make sacrifices, they give grain offerings, they make

memorial offerings, but they aren't doing it genuinely,

sincerely from their hearts. They're just going through the,

the, the, the motions of the rituals.

They choose their own ways, He says.

Their souls, their hearts, they delight in abominations against

the word of the Lord. They are hypocritical

worshippers. They're doing the things of

worship, but they're doing it by their own ways, for their own

pleasure, for their own gain. They're not humbly trembling at

the word of the Lord. They're compromising the Lord's

word in order to make themselves comfortable and content.

So how does the Lord respond to these two kinds of worshippers

in the House of the Lord? Well, to those who tremble at

the word of the Lord, you can see what He says to them in

verse 5. Hear the word of the Lord, you

who tremble at His word, your brothers who hate you and cast

you out for my name's sake, have said, Let the Lord be glorified,

that we may see your joy. But it is they who shall be put

to shame. The sound of an uproar from the

city, a sound from the temple, the sound of the Lord rendering

recompense to his enemies. The Lord tells those who tremble

at his word not to worry if they are hated.

They're mocked, persecuted. Why not?

Well, that's what He says in verse 6.

The Lord Himself is going to bring judgement and consequences

on those who hate them. And then notice how the Lord

encourages those who tremble at His word in verses 7 through 9.

It's this language about giving birth before having pain.

What's that all about? This is a picture of the curse

of Genesis 3 being removed, of being reversed.

No longer pain in childbirth. The curse and the effects of the

fall will be removed. For those who tremble at the

word of the Lord, pointing His people to that day when this

will be the new reality for them in the new heavens and the new

earth, there will be rejoicing over God's people.

Those who tremble at the Word, verse 11, God's people will be

satisfied and content as they drink deeply with delight from

the glorious abundance of the Lord.

He says, verse 12, The Lord will extend peace to his people,

peace like a river. The Lord's people will be the

glory of the nations like overflowing streams.

The Lord will care for His people as a mother loves and

cares for and provides for her nursing child.

Verse 13. As a mother comforts her child,

so too the Lord will comfort His people, such that in verse 14

the Lord's people will have their hearts that rejoice and

bones that flourish. The Lord's people will know the

hand of the Lord. This is how the Lord responds to

those who worship Him humbly and contritely, who tremble at His

word. But what about the hypocritical

worshippers? How does the Lord respond to

them? Some hard words, verse 4.

Speaking about the hypocritical worshippers, He says I also will

choose harsh treatment for them and bring their fears upon them.

Because when I called, no one answered, and when I spoke, they

did not listen, but they did what was evil in my eyes and

chose that in which I did not delight.

Those who worship however they want without humility, without

trembling at the word of the Lord.

For those who don't listen and respond to the call of the Lord.

To those who don't listen to the word of the Lord.

For those who do evil in the sight of the Lord.

For those who choose to do what is not a delight to the Lord, He

says those he will choose harsh treatment.

He will bring their own worst fears upon them.

He goes on and explains a little bit more in verses 15 through

17. In a fire, in a whirlwind, the

Lord will come in judgment on these hypocritical worshippers.

They He will render his anger and fury.

He says He will rebuke with flames of fire those who

practice Pagan rituals, who get themselves ready and all dolled

up to participate in Pagan rituals alongside of worshipping

the Lord. Those who practice these

abominations, he says they will come to an end.

They will experience eternal judgment such that we see their

gruesome in in verse 24. This is almost certainly an

allusion to what was called the Valley of Hinnom in Isaiah's

day. It was an area outside of the

city of Jerusalem where the refuse and the and the waste of

the city was dumped and then lit on fire.

It's referred to as Gehenna in the New Testament.

Jesus used it as a picture of eternal judgement for the

wicked. And on that happy note, we come

to the end of Isaiah. But, you know, in some ways I

think it's fitting that Isaiah would finish his book with these

last two sentences one last time.

There's a warning to put your faith in the Lord, to turn away

from rebellion and wickedness and to embrace the Lord as

Savior and Redeemer. To turn away from sin and to

turn to the Lord in faith and love and obedience.

Do we see how patient and gracious our God is as the call

for faith and repentance goes out for all?

One last time we're given that warning.

Well, what do we do with all of this?

4 questions for us to reflect on today.

The first is this What kind of worshipper are you?

What kind of worshipper are you? It's the obvious question coming

out of this text. Are are we those who worship the

Lord from the heart, humbly, contritely, trembling at the

word of the Lord, being in awe of His transcendence, being in

awe of His glory and majesty? Or do we worship the Lord just

by going through the motions, doing it the way that we want,

not seeking to hear and listen to the word of the Lord,

trembling more at the word of our culture and the world, then

trembling at the word of the Lord?

What kind of worshipper are you? Now it's certainly the case that

none of us worships the Lord perfectly as He deserves or as

He calls us to to. We all deal with levels of

distraction. We have hearts that are cold and

apathetic at times. We we go through the motions

sometimes, sometimes not even desiring or wanting to worship

the Lord privately or corporately on this side of the

second coming. We will always struggle with

those things, but the point is there needs to be struggle.

When our hearts are cold and apathetic, when we don't want to

tremble at the word of the Lord, we need to ask for His help.

We should ask the Holy Spirit to renew a desire and to warm our

affections. We need to remind ourselves of

what actually happened at the cross, to remember the extent of

our sin and to see the extent of God's love for us in sending His

own Son to be crucified on the cross.

Fight and lean against the coldness of our hearts by the

work of the Holy Spirit. Be moved to worship the Lord

from our heart. What kind of worshippers are we?

Secondly, what does it mean to tremble at the word of the Lord?

What does that mean? As we talked about earlier, it's

not like being afraid because we have a nightmare trembling

before the Lord is apprehending His transcendence.

It's thinking of His, his infiniteness in the midst of our

finiteness. It's it's thinking about the

Lord's otherness, his His Majesty, His greatness.

It's reflecting on all that. It means that He is the Creator

and we are His creatures. It's meditating on the holiness

of the Lord in the midst of our lack of holiness.

It's being overwhelmed by the extent of the Lord's love and

His faithfulness and His goodness and His grace and His

love to us. It's one of the reasons why the

doors that you come and into and go out of of our sanctuary are

so large. As you open that door, as you go

through those doorways, you're supposed to remember the

transcendence of our God, to tremble at His Word, to be

reminded of His Majesty. Then as we have a sense of the

transcendence and the majesty and the holiness of our God, we

are to be moved to greater humility and contrition, faith

and repentance. Being moved to worship the Lord

from our heart and all of the ways that He calls us to do

that. Hearing His Word, listening to

His Word, doing what it says, not doing what it says not to

do. This is what it means to tremble

at the word of the Lord. It is to believe the Lord's

word. It is to respect it and to

meditate upon it and to be changed by it.

That's what it means to tremble at the Word of the Lord.

Thirdly, how are you serving as God's messenger?

If you look back in verses 18 and 19, there's this interesting

phrase that the Lord uses. He says, so he's talking about

the calling, that he's going to be calling the nations to

himself. And he says, for I know their

works and their thoughts, and the time is coming to gather all

nations and tongues, and they shall come and shall see my

glory. And I will set a sign among

them, and from them I will send survivors to the nations, to

Tarshish, Pool and Lud who draw the bow to Tubal and to Javon,

to the coast lands far away that have not heard my fame or seen

my glory. And they shall declare my glory

among the nations. The Lord is, is telling us that

he is going to call the nations to himself.

And the way that he's going to do it, He says he will give them

a sign. This is almost certainly

foreshadowing the cross. And then notice what he says.

He he will send survivors to these nations.

These survivors will go to the nations and and tell the nations

of the fame of the glory of the Lord God Almighty, that these

survivors that are sent to the nations will declare the glory

of the Lord among the nations such that they will believe and

come to the House of the Lord. So who are these survivors?

They are the ones who survive because they don't face the

judgement and wrath of God for being hypocritical worshippers.

They are the ones who tremble before the word of the Lord, who

worship the Lord from their hearts.

They are God's people. They are you, they are me.

We are the ones who are called to go to the nations and declare

the glory of the Lord. We are the ones who are called

to tell the nations about the sign that the Lord has provided

in the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ.

We are the ones called to proclaim the good news of the

gospel and to tell the nations about the Lord Jesus.

Now, as we say regularly, that doesn't mean that we're all

called to go overseas to a different country, but it does

perhaps for some. Maybe the Lord's calling you to

That doesn't even mean we have to leave our communities in

southeastern Minnesota. The nations are here among us,

but it does mean that we should be praying for and then looking

for opportunities of proclaiming the gospel.

You can do that in your homes. You can do that in your

neighborhoods. You can do that in your

vocations. You can do that while you're on

vacation. Start with praying for the Lord

to give you opportunities to declare the glory and the fame

of the Lord God Almighty to the nations.

Pray and ask for the Holy Spirit to open your eyes to see those

opportunities when they come as the Lord would provide you with

an opportunity of talking to somebody about Jesus and

proclaiming the glory of God. Give, ask the Holy Spirit to

open your eyes to see when those opportunities arise and then

move into taking the opportunity, simply telling

whoever it is about the hope that you have, the hope of

eternal life, the hope of being able to glorify and enjoy the

Lord forever because of Jesus. How are you serving as the

Lord's messenger to the nation's?

Lastly, have you meditated on the peace and the glory and the

comfort and the joy that is yours?

We just finished a Sunday school class on the idea of biblical

meditation. This this idea that we take time

to deeply think and and consider and reflect on a portion of the

Word of God. Not just for the purpose of

gaining more knowledge and understanding, although that is

important as well, but for the purpose of our hearts being

warmed, of our affections being warmed, of our hearts being

changed, our lives being changed such that we live more and more

like God desires us to live more and more like what the Word says

we are to live. That's what that's what biblical

meditation is. As we looked at verses 7 through

14, we saw all the ways that the Lord addresses his people.

We saw him speak of how He gives his peace.

He gives His glory, He gives His comfort, He gives His joy, He

gives them to His people, He gives them to us, and He works

them into our hearts and our lives to the work of the Holy

Spirit, because these are ours. Peace, comfort, joy, glory.

We are at peace with God. He makes us the glory of the

nations. He says we have comfort from our

Father. We have joy that is unspeakable

that the world can never give us.

Those are ours. Do you ever spend time

meditating on those truths? Because if if we would spend

time deeply thinking about these glorious truths that are ours,

given to us in the Word of God, then in moments of darkness and

discouragement and doubts and fears and temptation, the Lord

can use these wonderful truths from his words to encourage us

and to strengthen our faith and to grow our resolve.

The Holy Spirit can bring to mind our peace, the glory that

is ours, our comfort and joy, and it can bring us out of the

depths. It can remove our doubts.

It can soothe our fears. It can enable us to overcome

temptation. The Lord is telling us these

truths that are ours as a gift to us, to unleash the power of

the gift that He has given us. We need to deeply meditate on

these truths from the Word because as we read in Hebrews

Hebrews 4 · chapter mention

chapter 4, the Word of God is living and active.

It is sharper than any 2 edged sword, piercing to the division

of soul and of spirits, of joints and marrow.

Do we meditate? Do we think deeply about the

peace and the glory and the comfort and the joy that are

ours? Let's pray together.