Worship & Word Celebration - Part 4

To a nation that did not call on my name, I said, here am I, here am I. All day long I have held out my hands to an obstinate people who walk in ways not good, pursuing their own imaginations. See, it stands written before me, I will not keep silent, but will pay back in full. I will pay it back into their laps, both your sins and the sins of your fathers, says the Lord. Because they burned sacrifices on the mountains and defied me on the hills, I will measure into their laps the full payment for their former deeds. For thus says the Lord, as the wine is found in the cluster, and they say, do not destroy it for there is a blessing in it. So I will do for my servant's sake. I will not destroy them all. I will bring forth descendants from Jacob and from Judah, inheritors of my mountains. My chosen shall inherit it, and my servant shall settle there. Sharon shall become a pasture for flocks, and the valley of Acre a place for herds to lie down for my people who have sought me. But as for you who forsake the Lord and forget my holy mountain, who spread a table for fortune and fill bowls of mixed wine for destiny, I will destine you for the sword, and you will all bend down for the slaughter. For I called, but you did not answer. I spoke, but you did not listen. You did evil in my sight and chose what displeases me. Therefore, thus says the Lord, my servants shall eat, but you shall be hungry. My servants shall drink, but you shall be thirsty. My servants shall rejoice, but you shall be put to shame. My servants shall sing for gladness of heart, but you shall cry out for pain of heart and shall wail for anguish of spirit. You shall leave your name to my chosen to use as a curse, and the Lord God will put you to death, but to his servants he will give a different name. Then whoever invokes a blessing in the land shall bless by the God of faithfulness, and whoever takes an oath in the land shall swear by the God of faithfulness, because the former troubles are forgotten and are hidden from my sight. Behold, I will create new heavens and a new earth. The former things will not be remembered, nor will they come to mind. But be glad and rejoice forever in what I will create, for I will create Jerusalem to be a delight, and its people a joy. I will rejoice over Jerusalem and take delight in my people. The sound of weeping and crying will be heard in it no more. And no more shall there be in it an infant that lives but a few days, or an old person who doesn't live out a lifetime, for one who dies at a hundred years will be considered a youth, and one who falls short of a hundred will be considered a cursed. They shall build houses and inhabit them. They shall plant vineyards and eat their fruit. They shall not build and another inhabit. They shall not plant and another eat, for like the days of a tree shall the days of my people be. And my chosen shall long enjoy the work of their hands. They shall not labor in vain, or bear children for calamity, for they shall be offspring blessed by the Lord, and their descendants as well. Before they call, I will answer. While they are still speaking, I will hear. The wolf and the lamb will feed together, and the lion will eat straw like the ox, but dust will be the serpent's food. They will neither harm nor destroy on all my holy mountain, says the Lord. Before they call, I will answer. While they are still speaking. I think the creative readings this week have been wonderful, don't you? I didn't check, but I think they have their roots in faith, and we appreciate that very much indeed. This is the last of the four Bible studies in Isaiah. It's not the last worship and word because, of course, tomorrow morning there's another gathering, but it's the last of these studies in Isaiah for which I'm responsible, and I want to say how grateful I am for the, not only the privilege of being able to share these studies with you in these mornings, but for the tremendous sense of appetite that I perceive here amongst you, and it's been enriching and satisfying to be able to open these chapters to you, so thank you so much for coming with that hunger and with that receptivity. I don't know who chose these chapters. I haven't dared ask. I didn't, and we're going to turn this morning to chapter 65. It's probably the least known of the four chapters that we've looked at, chapter 40, chapter 49, and then chapter 53 yesterday, which is probably the best known of all the chapters of Isaiah, probably the best known of all prophetic statements in the Old Testament Scripture, but this is the chapter we've been assigned this morning, and as I've sought to dig into it and ask the Lord to give me understanding and to give it relevance, I discover that it's really a chapter about getting ready to go home, and therefore it's got a particular relevance to what we're doing this morning in preparation for the days that are going to follow and the weeks that follow. I need to give you the context of this chapter first before looking at its message. Things have clearly now moved into a different era in this part of Isaiah from the parts we've already been looking at. Most scholars see chapter 56 to chapter 66 as post-exilic. That is, they see it as relating to the time after the return from the period of exile, the 70 years that Judah was in captivity. There are no historical references given in these chapters, 55 on. There's no geographical information given either. There are no references to Babylon or to Persia, which there are in the chapters from 40 to 55. Now, we've mentioned the fact that from 40 to 55 the nations are in exile in Babylon. The Babylonian empire is coming to its close as Cyrus, king of Persia, rises in power and stature, and in this scene into the picture comes the servant of the Lord. The Spirit of God is on him when he first is identified in chapter 42, and his role is to bring about the redemption of Israel. Ultimately, of course, this is a portrait of Christ as we have seen. But then in chapter 56 the tide turns again, and it begins in verse 1 there. This is what the Lord says, "...maintain justice, do what is right, for my salvation is close at hand and my righteousness will soon be revealed." Almost certainly. He's saying, just hang in there, do what is right, live in obedience, and you're going to see something happen. God is going to intervene. You're going to see his salvation. He's going to bring you back and settle you again back in the land out of which he's taken you for this period of chastisement and discipline. And it's within that framework I want us to understand the message of this chapter. You see, when God called Abraham and set aside his family and from him the nation that would come, his descendants, there were three ingredients in the corn. You can read this in Genesis. They had to be the right people, the descendants of Abraham. They had to be in the right place, the land of Canaan. Abraham, of course, was not a native of Canaan. He came from Ur of the Chaldees, down in present-day Iraq. And they had to fulfill the right purposes. They were going to be a great nation, blessing would come from them, and all the peoples of the world would feel the ramifications. Now, it was keeping the right people in the right place for the right purpose that is actually the story of the Old Testament. If you get the right people in the wrong place, God's purposes are on hold. There's failure. If you get the right people in the right place, but forgetting the right purpose, heaven goes silent. There's failure. But get the right people into the right place with an understanding of the right purpose and all, God is let loose. And the message of this chapter is, God took you into Babylon. Cyrus is my servant, the king of Persia, who's going to rise over through Babylon, who's going to be much more benevolent in his attitude towards Israel, and in fact to all the nations that Babylon had occupied. He's going to let you back. Read Ezra, read Nehemiah, and you have the story. They came back in dribs and drabs, but that's how they came back, and some of the prophets, Haggai, Zechariah, and so on, Malachi. But he says, I'm going to get you back, the right people, back into the right purpose, sorry, the right place, in order to fulfill the right purpose. And I'm going to call this chapter, The Road to Revival. Because our concern is that you and I be the right people, redeemed by the Lord Jesus Christ and dwelt by his Holy Spirit. We're in the right place where he appoints us, with a purpose that's not our own, with an agenda that's not our own, with ambitions that are not our own, but saying, Father, what do you want to do? What is your purpose? This is The Road to Revival. Now, it's not all good reading in this chapter. We're going to discover the road to revival is painful, but it's a good road. The pain can be good pain. We're going to see that. The chastisement of God as a good father. And I believe the relevance of this chapter is that spring harvest was never designed to be an end in itself. It's never designed to provide six days of escapism, get away from the real world, lock ourselves behind these buttling walls. I haven't been out. I don't suppose most of us have been out. There's nothing to go out for. It's all here. Switch the television off. I don't know why there's one in the chalet, but don't need to come here for that. Then, for some of us, the danger is this can just be a memory. We count down the days until next year. Come back again for another six days of escapism. That would be to defeat the whole purpose of this gathering. God has brought us here in order that in these days He might speak to us, that He might equip us, that the value and the repercussions of these days will be felt not here, but next week, and the week after, and next month, and next year, and five years from now. And felt not just in the kind of feelings we may have, but felt in our homes, in our places of work, in the streets on which we live, in the churches to which we go, that us husbands, our wives, five years from now, know the difference this week has made. Our husbands know the difference this week has made. Our children know something happened. Not because we have a testimony that we just repeat, but they see it. I thought it was great last night. Some of us, some of you were at the interview with Roy, sorry, Fiona Castle, Steve Gokraja, and she talked about her life with Roy, and how she came to Christ that night, and suddenly it's as though she'd lived in a dark house full of cobwebs, and it had been spring-cleaned. Christ came into her life and said, I'll tell Roy nothing, and she came home and told him nothing for a month. At the end of the month, he said, I knew straight away. Just wanted to see if it lasted. Well, sometimes you wonder, is it going to last? Maybe you're not looking forward to going home tomorrow. Maybe you wish you could stay for another week. Maybe you've already checked if there's any vacancies. But God didn't bring you to stay. Now, the heading of my new international version of this chapter is Judgment and Salvation. That's not the inspired heading. That's the one that has been put in by the translators to help people like me who want to know what it's about. But if nothing else, that introduces the idea that this chapter is a chapter of tension. On the one hand, there's judgment. On the other hand, there's salvation. On the one hand, there are threats. We'll look at them. On the other hand, there are promises. We'll enjoy them. On the one hand, there is bad news. On the other hand, there's good news. On the one hand, there's going to be exclusion. On the other hand, there's going to be inclusion. These are the themes that come to this chapter. It begins with gloom. It ends with joy. And I see four movements in this chapter. And I want to present this chapter to you in this way. It begins in the first seven verses talking about resistance. A people to whom God has spoken but they never listened. And we'll talk about that for a few moments. But that resistance, there's a break that has to come. But then that leads to remolding from verses 8 to 12. That leads to renewing in verses 13 to 16. And that leads to reviving in verses 17 to 25. And we'll look at it that way. First of all, in these first seven verses, I've called this the resistance of the people of God because it begins by saying, I revealed myself to those who didn't ask for me. I was found by those who didn't seek me. To a nation that didn't call on my name, I said, here I am, here am I. All day long I held out my hands to an obstinate people who walk in ways not good, pursuing their own imaginations. A people who continually provoke me to my very face, etc. We've had it read and you can read it on. Now, the Apostle Paul in Romans 10 quotes these verses and he says these are bold words. He says, Isaiah in Romans 10 boldly says, and then he quotes some of those verses I've just read to you. And the bold thing that Isaiah is saying is this. You have had every advantage in the world. God has revealed himself. God has spoken. God has put himself in front of you. And he says, I was found by those who didn't seek me, saying I put myself right in front of you. And he walked by. All day long I've held out my hands. Now, this is bold because this is touching a live nerve in Israel. We're the people of God. God chose us. I mean, no matter what we do, there's a covenant. He doesn't break his covenants. And then Isaiah says, you're the covenant people, but you're in trouble, big trouble. God says, I revealed myself. I put myself in front of you. I said, here am I. I held out my hands. But you didn't want to know. You see, God is resistible. Revelation is resistible. That's why Spring Harvest this week can guarantee you nothing. You can attend every session. Be in all the seminars. Come to the worship and word. Be in the evening celebrations. You can go home with a head full of information, with notebooks full of notes, yet have learned nothing. You've gained information. But God did not send his son into the world to give us information. He sent his son into the world to give us life. You read Hebrews 4 and verse 2, and it says there about the Israelites before this period when they were in the wilderness years. He said they had good news preached to them, but the good news was of no value to them. They didn't combine what they heard with faith. He says they had good news. God had something good for them. But what was good was of no value. Oh yes, they knew it. They could recite it. They could tell the neighbors we're heading for Canaan. But it was of no value. They didn't mix it with faith. Now, information is important. The mind is important. That's why Spring Harvest, the backbone of Spring Harvest are the seminars when we sit and we study and we listen and we learn and we interact. Information is important, but in itself it doesn't do you any good. In itself. Please don't get the idea, as some people, it seems to me, seem to have, that Judgment Day is basically a theological examination. When you get to heaven, God will want to know how much you knew. Whether you believed it right. What did you believe about baptism? He's not going to ask you that question when you get to heaven, which is a pity if you got it right. Great shame, but it won't be on the agenda. What did you believe about the second coming? Did you work it out or were you taken by surprise? When you were around, there was some controversy over the Holy Spirit. Did you get that worked out? You did? Okay, go to the top of the class. Do you know what he'll say? I was thirsty. Did you give me to drink? I was hungry. Did you feed me? I was in prison. Did you visit me? I was a stranger. Did you take me in? Not because works is the means of our salvation, but works is the only legitimate evidence of our salvation. Because faithful that works is what? Dead. Now says God through his servants of these people, you're the most privileged people on earth. I revealed myself to you. I spoke to you. I put myself in front of you. But that makes Israel in a more dangerous position than anybody else on earth. Because you see, the more you hear, the more you receive from God, the more sin you can commit. Did you know that? I live and work at a place called Cape Henry Hall up in North Lancashire. Amongst other things, we run a Bible school for nine months of the year. We have up to 200 students who come and join us from all over the world. One of the things I have told them at the beginning of their time with us, you have two options during your time here in this Bible school. You have the option of becoming a better saint or the option of becoming a bigger sinner. Because you see, James 4 verse 17 says, anyone who knows what to do and doesn't do it, for him it is sin. And I say to our students, you're going to be here if you're here for 30 weeks. Just supposing five days a week you learn one thing. Two days a week you learn nothing. And on those five days you just learn one thing. You have five hours of teaching a day, but you learn only one thing out of those five hours. Every week you learn five things. At the end of your time here, 30 weeks, you will have learned 150 things. That means you go home with a repertoire of 150 new sins you never had before you came. I said you can go home as a better saint or you can go home as a bigger sinner, but one thing I can promise you, you will not go home the same. And we see students become saints, we see students become bigger sinners. We see it happen. Both counts. Let me tell you, you go home from Spring Harvest this week with capacity for more sin than you ever had before. You thought you had enough before. Well, your repertoire has grown. If God has spoken to you, if God has called you, and you sat back and you see God has revealed his word, he's spoken to Israel, held out his hands to them, they've not responded. Now, don't blame God. God is resistible. He can reveal himself and you not look. He can speak and you not listen. He can hold out his hands and you don't reach back. That's what he's saying here. Now, I'm going to say something which I believe is important. Don't get this wrong, but understand this. Man can resist God, but God will not resist man. Let me take you back into chapter 64 for a moment because 64, 65, 66 are really one section. And he says in 64 verse 4, Since ancient times no one has heard, no one has perceived, no eye has seen any God besides you who acts on behalf of those who wait for him. He says for those who wait for him, they discover God is available. In verse 5, You come to the help of those who gladly do right, who remember your ways. Those who remember you, that isn't just a mental exercise, but those who trust you, who depend on you, who take you into account, who 24 hours a day in all their ways acknowledge God, they remember him. He says to those, you gladly come to help. Now, don't get this wrong. I don't want to get into this controversy. It is a controversy, but there are those who say that God is irresistible. I honestly don't find that in Scripture. Otherwise, the world wouldn't be in the mess it's in if God was irresistible. And that God somehow takes delight in resisting folks who come if they don't happen to be the right people. God never resists when a man, a woman, a boy, a girl comes. And you see, God is looking for a disposition, an attitude of heart, the man, the woman who seeks after God. It doesn't matter how much you know. It doesn't matter what your stature is. It doesn't matter how much other people recognize you or don't recognize you. He looks at the heart. And that's why, as you're going to see, out of this nation of people for whom he generalizes in his opening verses, there's a remnant, there's a few whose hearts are right. Remember what God said to Samuel when Samuel was sent by God after Saul. The king Saul had disobeyed and lost the throne. God said to Samuel, I want you to find a man after my own heart. Now that's the criteria for being a king, he said. Don't look for a man whose head and shoulders are above everybody else. We got one of those last time. He was a dud. Look beyond his face. Look beyond his appearance. Look beyond his stature. Look for his heart. And he came down to Bethlehem to the house of Jesse. Jesse had seven sons and he brought six of them out. He left the one behind who was the least likely and the six that came, the first three, it says, were strong and real he-men. Used to comb their chest every morning. And Samuel was impressed and said, this is a good man. Surely this is the man. And God said, no. Move on. No. Then God said this. God sees not as man sees. Man looks on the outward appearance. God looks on the heart. And Samuel said, is there another son in this home? And they said, well, it's embarrassing that you ask the question. There is one. He's young, but he's weird. I mean, he just plays his harp all day. He's probably got hair down his back. I mean, he's just remote, detached, drums his harp, writes songs all day. In fact, he came in last night and said, I've just written my 119th. Would you like to listen to it? There are 176 verses. And Samuel said, go and get him. And they brought him in. The young, disheveled, looked like a sheep, smelled like a sheep, worked with a sheep, talked like a sheep. Hallelujah. God said, that's the man. Why? I'll tell you what his brothers didn't know. Out on the hillside, looking after his sheep alone, a lion came one day. Lions like to eat sheep. And David said, if God has called me to be a shepherd, he's called me to be a good shepherd. God, I could get the sheep and run home with them and leave the one that the lion's got, except that I know that if the lion gets one sheep today, he'll come back for another tomorrow. It's like a fox. Gets one of your chickens, he'll be back for another. So he said, I said, God, I'm going to grab the lion and you're going to give me the strength. We know that because he told that testimony to Saul when he was faced with Goliath. He said, once there was a lion, once there was a bear. There was no audience. You see, a few only are godly when there's an audience. I'm sorry, but God will pass you by. It's the man, the woman alone. The one others overlook, pass by. He's looking for the heart. That's why God sees the heart of man is often so different to what externally appears. I mean, do you remember Saul of Tarsus? The church knocked at its knees every time they mentioned his name in Jerusalem. He was the arch enemy. He was young, but he was a leader. He was a motivator. He got people together. He was out to imprison them and to kill them. And one day on his way to Damascus where Christians had fled and he'd gone there to ram them up and bring them back and throw them into prison and kill them if necessary. God spoke to him in a light charm. He fell off his donkey. He heard a voice. Now, you read that story, you say, that isn't fair. If God would do that to my mother-in-law, she'd become a Christian, you might think. I mean, it's not fair. Knocks him off a donkey, voice from heaven. I mean, I'd do business with God if that happened to me. Why did God intervene in that way? I'll tell you why. Paul tells us in Philippians chapter 3, he talks there about, he says, I'm not going to boast, but I'll tell you what I could boast about if I was going to. He says, it's a humble way of doing it, you see. And he said, amongst other things, as for zeal for God, I persecuted the church. Now, the Christians in Jerusalem didn't know it was zeal for God. They thought it was hatred of the Christians. But you see, Saul was a Jew, committed to Jew, trained under Gamaliel. And sitting there, he said, if Judaism is right, logically everything else is wrong. If everything else is wrong, it needs to be halted. And this new movement, the followers of the way, the followers of Jesus Christ, are threatening Judaism. Therefore, out of zeal for God, I'll do all I can to stop it. Now, the Christians looked on the outward appearance. God looked on the heart and said, there's a man who loves me. He doesn't know me yet. He's confused. But I know his heart. And that's why when he fell to the ground, he said, who are you, Lord? Jesus said, ask and it will be given you. Seek and you'll find. Knock, the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives. Everyone who seeks finds. Everyone who knocks, to him the door will be opened. Therefore, those verses tell me this. The only ones who never receive are the ones who never ask. The only ones who never find are the ones who never seek. The only ones to whom the doors stay closed are the ones who never knock. Because, you see, it's the disposition of your heart. Nobody can say, I want to find God, but can't. Otherwise, Jesus is a liar. No one can say, I want to know Christ in all his fullness, but finds somehow. They never get through. If you seek, you find. If you happen to seek in the wrong direction, don't worry, he'll bring you in the right direction. If you happen to knock on the wrong door, don't worry, he'll open the right door. Saul of Tarsus knocked on the wrong door, went in the wrong direction, asked for the wrong thing, but God gave him the right thing and opened the right door. So did the wise men, the Magi, astrologers from the East, knocking on the wrong door, asking for the wrong thing, but God knew their hearts and brought them to Christ. Now, don't get into astrology, it's evil. But it brought them to Christ. God knew their hearts. And Paul says, these are bold words, because he's saying, as he says in that passage, did God reject his people? Don't turn to it, but it's in Romans 10, 11, I'm quoting from it. Did God reject his people? He says no, but they rejected him. It's not that God broke his covenant, they did. Although, of course, God's covenant came to its fulfillment because he said there's a remnant, 7,000 who have not bowed their knee to Baal. But he began to look elsewhere, because that chapter's all about the transgression of Israel has become the salvation of the Gentiles. And these first seven verses, and I'm sorry I've taken too long over them, but I think it's important for what follows as well, that he says these people have been resistant, but God doesn't just leave them there to stew in their own juice, because the second section, verse 8 down to verse 12, he talks about the remolding of the people of God. Let me read part of this, verse 8. This is what the Lord says. As when juice is still found in a cluster of grapes, and men say, don't destroy it, there is yet some good in it, so will I do in behalf of my servants. I will not destroy them. I'll bring forth descendants from Jacob and from Judah, those who will possess my mountain. My chosen people will inherit them, and there will my servants live. You see, as he surveyed the nation of Judah in these earlier verses, by and large they are apostate. That means they've turned back on God. But he says, when there's a bit of juice left in a cluster of grapes, men say, don't destroy, but squeeze out the juice. He says, there's still some juice left in Judah. Sometimes we are tempted to get discouraged. We look around. The country appears to be godless. Maybe from a church, it's very discouraging. It's going to be a culture shock on Sunday. You've been in spring harvest this week. You're going home on Sunday, and it's going to be different. Too right, says somebody on the front row. Loud enough for me to hear. Well, of course, spring harvest is unique, and please don't ever judge your church by it. We can't all have Graham Kendrick, and there aren't many of him to go around. But the point is, you might go back to a church where you hear from the pulpit hollow, empty phrases, no substance, no meaning, nothing of Christ, nothing of reality. And we're tempted to despair sometimes. We've been hearing that 6% of the nation now are evangelical Christians. That's wonderful compared to what it was. Of course, don't forget, there are 94% who are not. Don't forget that. But I tell you, there is juice still in the grapes. Not only in the nation itself does he say there's still juice in the grapes, but he says in verse 9, I will bring forth descendants from Jacob. You see, from this juice that's left, there's wine, if you like, that's left. I'm going to reproduce, and I'm going to bring back from this small group in which I find a sense of hunger after God. He says, I'm going to find those that I'm going to bless and use, and from them, descendants, they're going to pass it on and be reproduced in others. But how's he going to do it? Down in verse 10, he says, Sharon will become a pasture for flocks, and the Valley of Achor a resting place for herds for my people who seek me. Now, that's interesting. I'm not going to talk about Sharon. You know about the Rose of Sharon. Who's the Rose of Sharon? It's in Song of Solomon. We understand it's a beautiful picture of Christ. Sharon was the most fertile plain in Judah. But he says the Valley of Achor, when I read that, I thought, hey, that's significant. Because the Valley of Achor got its name in Joshua chapter 7. Don't turn to it. I'll tell you what happened. When God told Joshua to lead the nation against Jericho, march around it once a day for six days, seven times on the seventh day, and then shout for all you're worth, blow your trumpets, and I'll give you the city. The walls will come down. March in, captivate it, take it as your foothold now in the nation of Canaan. They were going to occupy your bridgehead. But he said, when you get there, take what you like, that you find, except for the silver and the gold and the bronze and the iron. That is sacred. It belongs to God. It's to go into the Lord's treasury. Those are the rules for the engagement in Judah. And they followed it through, except for one man called Achan. Achan running around the city as they overran it, saw a little bit of silver glitching in the sunlight over here, a little bit of gold over here, a little bit of bronze back here, and thought to myself, nobody knows how much is here. We don't have an inventor. I'll take a little, take it back to my tent, and bury it under my tent, which he did back in Gilgal. Well, they camped, and nobody knew, nobody except God. Next city to occupy was the city of Ai. Just a small one. They went against Ai, and they were thrashed, humiliated, beaten, driven back, lost soldiers. Joshua fell on his face before God in Joshua 7 and says, God, why would we go against Jericho, that great city? And God gives us victory. God gives little Ai, and they beat us. Why? And God said, there's sin in the camp. God said, get the nation together. Divide them up tribe by tribe. And God said, this is the tribe. Get this tribe, divide it up clan by clan. God said, this is the clan. Now get this clan, break it up family by family. God said, this is the family. Get this family, line them up. And God said, this is the man, Achan. And Joshua said, what have you done? He said, I buried treasure that I knew I wasn't to take. God brought severe judgment on Achan, and he was stoned to death. And when they stoned him to death, it says in chapter 7, I'll just read this. It says, Joshua together with all Israel took Achan son of Zerah, the silver, the robe, the gold wedge, his sons and daughters, his cattle, donkey and sheep, his tent and all that he had till the valley of Achor. And Joshua said, why have you brought this trouble on us? The Lord will bring trouble on you today. Then all Israel stoned him. And after they'd stoned the rest, they burned them. Over Achan they heaped up a large pile of rocks, which remains to this day. Then the Lord turned from his fierce anger. Therefore, that place has been called the Valley of Achor ever since. What's the Valley of Achor? It's the place of chastisement. Years later, Hosea, in his prophecy, chapter 2 and verse 15, talks about the discipline of God. And he says, he says, I will make the Valley of Achor a door of hope. I like that expression. He says, the fact that God loves you enough to squeeze the juice out, and that means putting the grapes into the press. Is hope. Do you know anything of the discipline of God? We want a lovely father who gives us chocolate all the time, don't we? It's the kind of father we like. It's not a good father. We need the father who will be kind enough to spank our bottoms sometimes. It says in Hebrews, chapter 12. Let me just read this. Don't turn to it. I will have gone by the time you get there. But it says, Have you forgotten that word of encouragement that addresses you as sons? My son, don't make light the Lord's discipline. Don't lose heart when he rebukes you. The Lord disciplines those he loves. He punishes everyone he accepts as a son. Endure hardship as discipline. God is treating you as sons. He says, God loves you so much. He loves you exactly as you are. But as has been said before, although he loves you as you are, he loves you so much, he doesn't let you stay as you are. He molds you. Disciplines you. You see, there's juice in the grapes. But how do you get the juice out? It's under pressure. We hear a lot about wholeness today. I personally believe we don't hear enough about brokenness. Because the way to wholeness is brokenness. Read Jeremiah 18 and Jeremiah 19. The potter with his clay. As he's molding it, it goes wrong. So he remolds it. But in chapter 19, a less known story but equally important. This time, the pot has become hard. You can't mold it now, so he smashes it. Builds it again. We have a God who loves us so much that he'll discipline us and chastise us. Maybe some of us have felt that. Maybe we feel that. Maybe our circumstances are the discipline of God. But it's a God of love. Discipline is always remedial. It's never to leave us stinging, sore. It's always to get us back on track. In fact, the whole exile was the discipline of God. I'll tell you one thing the exile did. It cured Israel of its idolatry. You never find Asherah poles and the gods of Baal after the return from exile. God cleaned that out when he disciplined them in Babylon. And the Valley of Achor is a door of hope because there's juice in the grapes. There's God, I'm not finished with you yet. I'm going to bring out the juice, maybe in your life. Not just corporately, now personally. Yeah, there's a lot of mess. A lot of things have gone wrong. But there's still some juice in the grape. And God says, I'm going to bring that. And I'm going to reproduce it. Bring descendants from it. Bring godliness into your life. But then from verse 13 to 16, that's the remaking, remolding of the people of God. In verses 13 to 16, the renewal of the people of God because then he says here, Therefore, this is what the sovereign Lord says, My servants will eat, but you will go hungry. My servants will drink, but you will go thirsty. My servants will rejoice, but you will be put to shame. My servants will sing out of the joy of their hearts, but you will cry out from anguish of heart. Now, who are the servants and who's the you? Well, you find the servants in verse 9. I'll bring forth descendants from Jacob and from Judah, those who will possess my mountains, my chosen people will inherit them, and there will my servants live. This is the descendants that come from the juice that's still left, that's going to be squeezed out. He says these are my servants, and contrasting them with the rest of the people, he says there are two categories of people. There are those who will eat, and there are those who will remain hungry. There are those who will drink, and there are those who will remain thirsty. There are those who will rejoice, and those who will be in shame. There are those who will sing with joy, and those who will cry in anguish. There are those who will be the source of blessing, and those who will be under a curse. Which of these two describes you this morning? Are you hungry? Thirsty? With a sense of shame? You've never come to the cross, and known the cleansing, and complete forgiveness, and the covering of the righteousness of Jesus, and then the impartation of the Holy Spirit to reproduce the life of Jesus in you. And you're hungry still, thirsty still. You're in shame, in anguish. Or are you someone this morning, you say, well, I eat, and I drink, and I rejoice, and I sing with joy. You see, so often we choose our own way, and we think it's best we stick God on it. That's why we come to Spring Harvest. This is our God bit of the year. The rest of my life, live as best I can. But every time we try to live by our own resources, we discover that vivid image, I think will remain with many of us for long after this week, that image of hitting your head on the beam. We heard last night. The non-negotiable beam of God's righteousness. And you'll bang into it again and again. It'll hurt. It'll leave you hungry. But if you are hungry this morning, and you say, that's my condition, Jesus said, I am the bread of life. If you're thirsty, he said, if any man's thirsty, come to me and drink. If you feel shame, if you confess your sin, he's faithful and just and will forgive and cleanse us. If you feel anguish, rejoice in the Lord always, said Paul. I said again, rejoice, the possibility of joy. As a Christian, we can come back to Christ to be renewed. Renewal is not getting a touch at the end of a meeting that lasts for an hour or so. It's getting Christ into every part of your life. I think perhaps we talk too much about an anointing, something rather than someone. It's the reality of God himself, 24 hours a day. Not just a touch, but a life as he lives in us and through us. And if you've felt that God has given you a hard time, you've felt his chastisement, he's told you things that have to change, you've felt you've been in the valley of Achor, it's never to bring you to frustration, it's always to bring you to fulfillment. As you turn back to him. And we haven't time to say more about that because we've got about two minutes for the last one. Verse 17 down to verse 25. If we talked about the resistance of the people of God and the remolding of the people of God, and then the renewal of the people of God, come thirsty and drink. There's the revival of the people of God. Verse 17 on, look at this, a whole new picture now. Behold, I'll create new heavens and a new earth. The former things will not be remembered, nor will they come to mind. But be glad and rejoice forever in what I will create. For I'll create Jerusalem to be a delight, and its people a joy. I'll rejoice over Jerusalem, take delight in my people. The sound of weeping and of crying will be heard in it no more. Never again will there be an infant who lives but a few days, or an old man who doesn't live out his years, etc. Now this is poetry. It isn't prose. It's a picture. It's not the new heavens and the new earth of Revelation 21, where there God says, I'll create a new heaven and a new earth. But there, in that new heaven, there'll be no death. The old order has passed away. But in the new heavens and the new earth here, you die, but you live out your years first. Like Jacob, you die full of years, as he said when he came to die in Genesis. And he's speaking, I suggest to you, commentators disagree, and when experts differ, fools can have an opinion. And this is my opinion. This is Israel going home, going back to Jerusalem, going back to Judah. But they're going back to everything new. They're coming out of exile, going back to their home. They're going back to discover it's new. There are new heavens and a new earth. Now, God has said a few things in these passages about new heavens in this latter part of Isaiah. Sorry, about the heavens. He says in chapter 55 and verse 3, he says there about the heavens, that I will clothe, where is it? It's not 55, I've put the wrong reference in my notes. I'll tell you what it says somewhere. It says, I will clothe the heavens with blackness. He says, I'll clothe the sky with darkness. But he says, what you see of heaven is dark, it's black. In chapter 64, just before this in verse 1, they say, oh, that you'd rend the heavens and come down. Open the heavens, God, tear them apart and come down, because you're distant. Now says God, I'm going to give you a new heaven, not one with closed doors, not one where there seems to be no communication. I'm going to rend the heavens, tear them open, and give you a new heaven, a heaven where the God who speaks, the God who works, the God who acts. I love Rahab's expression when she spoke to those two spies, I mentioned this to you the other day, when they came to Jericho. She said to those spies, the Lord your God is God in heaven above and on the earth below. You've got a God in heaven, but not just in heaven. Some of us as Christians have a God in heaven. We've dotted every I about him, crossed every T about him. We stand back and say, yeah, isn't he great up there? But he said, Rahab said, you've not just a God in heaven, you've a God on earth. I'm going to give new heavens and a new earth. You're going to see God on earth at work. But this newness is precipitated by getting rid of the old. Back in verse 16, chapter 65, this is still, end of verse 16, he talks there about your past troubles, the last clause of that verse. Your past troubles will be forgotten and hidden from my eyes. I'm going to clean up the old and wipe the slate clean and then renew you and give you a new heaven that this time is a heaven that's open, a heaven you don't batter against, but it's open and God speaks and God works. And down in verse 22, and I'm having to jump a lot here. No longer will they build houses and others live in them or plant and others eat. For as the days of a tree, so will the days of my people. My chosen ones will long enjoy the works of their hands. They'll not toil in vain or bear children doomed to misfortune. There'll be a people blessed by the Lord, they and their descendants with them. Before they call, I'll answer. While they're still speaking, I'll hear. The wolf, the lamb will feed together. The lion will eat straw like the ox. Dust will be the serpent's food, but they'll neither harm nor destroy. On all my holy mountain, says the Lord. Again, it's poetry, but he says, this is what it's going to be like. When you've got a heaven that's open and God is going to speak to you before you even call on him. And he says to these people, there's a road back to Judah. There's a road to revival. But some of you are going to miss it. But there's a remnant. And that remnant, the 7,000 who in this instance, or at least when Paul speaks of it, who have not bowed the knee to Baal, they're going to come back. Those who rebel will end with nothing, with empty hands. But those who repent will come back with all that God is. And it's going to be a new heaven, a new earth, new environment, new power, new resources. They're going to be the right people, back in the right place, enjoying the right purpose. And all heaven will be let loose. And God will work. This is the road to revival. I suggest that's what the chapter is all about, the resistance of the people of God. But you can resist God, but there's juice, a little bit of juice left in the grapes. We'll squeeze it out in the Valley of Achor, the discipline of God. And as we squeeze out the juice, and it begins to produce its descendants, and we remold the people of God, it'll lead to the renewing of the people of God. They're not hunger. They'll come and be satisfied. Lead to reviving of the people of God. There'll be a new heaven. Would you like a new heaven? A heaven that answers your prayers? A heaven where God doesn't need to be battered into submission somehow. If you can just speak long enough, and loud enough, and hard enough, maybe He'll do something. That before you even speak, He answers. This is the heaven that God wants for every Christian. A heaven that's open, where the hotline never closes down. He speaks. You speak. You enjoy His presence. But not only that. He's a God on earth. At work in you. But you've got to come to the cross for cleansing. You've got to come to the empty tomb for the risen Christ, who has put all things under His feet, and begin to enjoy His victory. You've got to come to Pentecost and enjoy the fullness of the Holy Spirit, who alone can produce in you and me the life of Jesus, and do the work of Jesus. Have a good journey home tomorrow. But go home to a new earth with a new heaven. You're going home with God as your Lord, King, Life, Power. Let's pray together. Father, we thank You so much this morning. This isn't pie in the sky. This is not some carrot dangled in front of the donkey's nose that's inaccessible. This is life. This is bread for eating. This is the water that quenches our thirst. This is the joy that replaces our mourning. This is the new heaven and the new earth. This is the God who's not only in heaven, but He's on earth. And we see Him and experience Him and enjoy Him. And I pray, Lord Jesus, for everyone in this building this morning, as we prepare in the next 24 hours to go back to the environment from which we've come, we pray we go back with a sense of anticipation, with a spring in our step, with a sense of confidence, no matter what we're going back to, that everything we face is less than God. And God is in us, and God is at work. And thank You for the victory we can experience as You revive us and through us, You bring descendants, others that will point to Christ. Make this real for us, we ask. We pray it in Jesus' name. Amen. In a moment, faith is going to come, and with Chris lead us in our final moment of worship and to dismiss us. Before she comes, however, we'd just like to say two things. Number one, could you please remember to fill out your forms for London Christian Radio and deposit them in the buckets as you leave. And secondly, I'm sure that you will want to express your thanks both to God in terms of the gift that He has given Charles and also the effort and investment Charles has given us this week in bringing the riches of Isaiah to us. Would you like to thank God and Charles? Praise the Lord. Let's just pray for him as well because after... Let's just pray for him.