Restoration of the Jews (Part B)

This is the incarnate Christ, that again the Jews at this time did not have the information we have. But when Christ came, there was no excuse. The things that Christ was doing, there was just no way to dismiss it without being guilty.

Why did they reject him? There was no backslapping going on. They didn't pat them on the back and say, boy, you guys are wonderful. I'm glad you're the leaders in Israel. It was none of that.

It was quite the opposite. Like you better fix this kind of in his sermons. This is Cross Reference Radio with our pastor and teacher Rick Gaston. Rick is the pastor of Calvary Chapel Mechanicsville. Pastor Rick is currently teaching through the book of Isaiah.

Please stay with us after today's message to hear more information about Cross Reference Radio, specifically how you can get a free copy of this teaching. Now here's Pastor Rick in Isaiah chapter 54 with today's edition of Cross Reference Radio. He's telling them to sing and cry aloud because the servant has come for sinners. And if you are in a place spiritually or literally and you're barren, God has not turned his back on you.

God's exhortation is to rejoice. And it comes from the revelation of his word and Sarah again and Abraham being an example. You who have not labored with child. I believe when Isaiah makes many of these prophecies, analogies, illustrations, etc., that he often has someone in mind. Perhaps at such a time he knew of a woman and it would not have been impossible, it was not far-fetched at all. Sarah, Rebecca, Rachel, Hannah, Elizabeth, all of these women at some point felt the social frown of being childless.

In that society, man, if you didn't have a child, some people are going to raise eyebrows on you. Sarah, Rachel, and Hannah were harassed because of it. Hannah, the mother of that great prophet Samuel. Peninnah, her wife-in-law, under that polygamous system, harassed her, provoked her.

Peninnah is remembered as an irritant. That's it. Hannah, the mother of Samuel, she was a prophetess, not a practicant, a lot like Isaiah and Jeremiah. But God used that woman in such a mighty way to raise, you know, okay, if I can't be a prophet, I can raise one. She did. And we have that beautiful prophecy of hers in 1 Samuel, chapter 2.

It is incredible. He takes the beggar off the dunghill. I mean, that's what happens when Christ takes a life and is born again. Anyway, there's something here for all who are wrongfully victimized, which is part of this message that God is giving through Isaiah. If you are victimized in an un-Christlike setting, no matter if you're around people who claim to be Christians or not, God is mindful of that. You still have something to sing about. Your sins have been dealt with.

You won't be here forever. There are many bullies in life. God is no bully, and never. He says, for more are the children of the desolate than the children of the married woman, says Yahweh. They will reap as one who has not sown. There will be blessings that they really had not much to do with. Christ was biologically childless.

We covered that in the last chapter. But spiritually, of course, he was not. The barren are given here an assurance of becoming spiritually prolific.

What does that mean? Well, the barren, or those childless, we'll use more modern form, they are less divided, less distracted with their personal interests. The blessedness of being childless exists. It's not a curse to have children, and it's not a curse to be without children. Although some will try to make it so, but here, clearly the Bible goes against that.

I'm going to build on that in a little bit. But you can have a spiritual orchard. You can be very fruitful. Such men as Daniel, John the Baptizer, Paul the Apostle. First Corinthians, Paul says in the seventh chapter, but I say to the unmarried and to the widows, it is good for them if they remain even as I am. Yeah, they might be fighting loneliness or, you know, the companion.

They may have, you know, other desires or societies pressing on them. Here comes the Apostle Paul, and he says, you know, it's good if you don't marry. Well, he develops that in the same chapter in verses 32 and 33, but I want you to be without care. He who is unmarried cares for the things of the Lord, how he may please the Lord. But he who is married cares about the things of the world, how he may please his wife. And so Paul is saying, look, everybody can't receive this, but let's be honest here. Those without families, children, and that, you know, marriage and things, they're less distracted when it comes to serving. Paul did not have to check with his wife, get home to the kids as a single apostle. And this is not a condemnation on either side, but what it is, what it is is saying don't go around saying I'm better than you because I have children. Or somehow you're not blessed as much as I am. Mother Hubbard could have a platoon of children.

That's fine. But the minute she starts boasting that she's better than those without as many children or any children, that would be a problem. You say, well, why are you even staying on this? Well, because I have come across some short-sighted people who were like, were judgmental of those without children, going so far to say it's a sin not to have kids. Well, then John the Baptist, what do you do with that? Jeremiah likely also didn't have any children.

He's another one. Proverbs 21, verse 4, this is when you look down. When you look down on those without children, you're picking a fight with God. Now, again, you may not have had this encounter.

You may have it later. And it's worth covering while we're on it because we really don't get it in too many other places in Scripture. Proverbs 21, verse 4, concerning those who look down on others, a haughty look, a proud heart, and the plowing of the wicked are sin. Proverbs 21, verse 4, nothing confusing about that. You want to pick a fight with God? Become arrogant. Heirs of superiority, it doesn't serve God well. Psalm 101, verse 5, and there's just some of them.

The one who has a haughty look and a proud heart, him I will not endure. God resists the proud. So when we think of pride, there's a positive type of pride when you're joyful about something. I'm joyful that my child got all A's. I'm proud of her, or him.

There's nothing wrong with that, but when you start saying, what did your kid get? A D? Well, of course D is for dumb, and so now you've got a big problem.

There's the arrogance, there's the haughtiness that's coming into the picture. You say, this is all basic, who doesn't know this? Well, evidently a lot of people, because we run across it. In some subtle way, we come across these things. And if God felt, I need to put this in print for all the ages, then we cannot dismiss it.

Thinking that, well, who would be that messed up? You know when it happens? When the pressure is on.

See, somebody can be just wonderful and nice and sweet when there's no pressure on them. But the minute it's their turn or their child's turn, now you're going to find out their true colors. If they're going to stick with the Lord and do the right thing, or they're going to cave in and turn on everybody for daring to notice the sin. Verse 2, Enlarge the place of your tent and let them stretch out the curtains of your dwellings. Do not spare.

Lengthen your cords and strengthen your stakes. Now remember, this is multiple applications to Judah, to the individual. God is saying, make room for growth from the blessings that are coming.

And I want you to make room for the growth before the blessings come by faith. Israel's descendants will increase and they will settle in foreign cities. There'll be too many of them. What would happen if all the Jews outside of Jerusalem went to live in Israel? It would be one crowded place.

It would be pretty tough. So you probably have more Jews living outside of Israel than you do in Israel. They have been very prolific and this is a testimony to God's blessing on them. No other people have been such a target of genocide as the Jews and yet they keep expanding.

Thank you, Lord. So verse 3, For you shall expand to the right and to the left and your descendants will inherit the nations and make the desolate cities inhabited. Well, this hasn't taken place yet. But before I comment on its Kingdom Age, the Kingdom Age expansion, William Carey was a missionary to India. And he really, you could say, the father of modern missionaries or mission work. Things have changed a little now.

They're not like it was in his day for a number of reasons. But this was at a time when it was good for the missionaries to stay where they had been sent and build churches and make converts. Now it is a better approach is to make converts of the indigenous people and let them build the churches and do the work.

But in those days, and this is not that far away, this late 1700s when William Carey went to India, he needed to stay there. Well, he used Isaiah 54 verses 3 and 4 as his text to tell the church, we need to expand. We need to make room. We need to go out and reach those who are without salvation. Verses 2 and 3 is what he used.

So that's the William Carey story behind that verse. But its application is to the Kingdom Age, global expansion, the collective work of Christ reigning in Jerusalem. Remember, the Lord will reign from Jerusalem. When he returns, there are going to be a lot of great tribulation survivors that will not be taken away in judgment. That will go on to live, who have never died, who have not really heard the gospel. And they're going to be very prolific.

They're going to have many children. Those children are not just going to learn about Christ through osmosis. They're going to have to be taught, just like people are today. Even with Christ living in Jerusalem, he is going to still delegate the gospel to the Jewish people and to us. Those who have come through this life. And so you'll have the entire righteous Jewish people. All the Jews will be righteous in the Kingdom Age. There will be no apostate Jews. They will be lovers of Jesus Christ as their Messiah. Remember, two-thirds of them will be wiped out. That one surviving third will all be converted to the Christ. And they will be alive during the millennial reign of Christ. Then you have the glorified saints from Adam to the last martyr that have died, that will be here, as we're told in Revelation 1-5 and other places, reigning with Christ, authorities within the Gentile communities. Civilization will be thriving in the great tribulation period. Those who are disrespectful are warned they will be punished when Christ will rule with an iron rod. Things are going to be a lot different.

The environment will drastically change. No one will have an excuse for rejecting Christ. Of course, at the end of the thousand-year period, Satan is about a thousand years, Satan is let loose, and he's going to make converts. And we'll come to that at the end of this when Christ will deal with them.

There's just a brief mention of that. Remember, Isaiah doesn't see all of this as well as we see it, but he's got the foundation for it. Verse 4, do not fear for you will not be ashamed, neither be disgraced, for you will not be put to shame, for you will forget the shame of your youth and will not remember the reproach of your widowhood anymore.

So, again, the baron that he was talking to, Isaiah applying it to the nation Israel, but it expands out to individuals also. Here he is saying to the nation, do not fear, you will not be put to shame. The Lord will always honor faith that is according to scripture, because such faith always honors him. If I am lifted up, I will draw amen to me. God knows that people shame people for the wrong reasons.

He knows that. The Jews were, he says, for I will forget the shame of your youth, that refers to their idolatry. But when he says, do not fear, at the beginning of verse 4, for you will not be ashamed, neither be disgraced, for you will not be put to shame, he's talking about restored Israel. People, as I mentioned, they will be ashamed for the wrong reasons. Some are trying to take shame out of sin. Nudist colonies are that.

Nudity is a part of the curse, the stigma that goes with it, the mindset on this public nudity, it is an issue. So there are many people that are trying to take shame out of sin on multiple levels. And so when he says here to the Jews, for you will forget the shame of your youth, yeah, because they're going to be restored and they won't be sinning. This is picked up in, when I mentioned it is because of their idolatry, Isaiah 45 verse 16, and just take that one, knowing, learning the Bible, right, going over what the Scripture teaches and why it backs up what it says and why it is self-correcting and self-instructing. Isaiah 45 verse 16, they shall be ashamed and also disgraced, all of them, they shall go into confusion together, who are makers of idols. So the shame Isaiah is talking about upon Judah is because of their idolatry. Jeremiah echoes what Isaiah is saying in the third chapter, and this is all the troubles that they faced, their idolatry. The prophets also linked idolatry to sexual infidelity, thus the book of Hosea. Ezekiel talks about it in the 16th chapter, Jeremiah in the 13th chapter.

Because wherever there's idolatry, there are going to be other sins out of control also. Psalm 25, this is a psalm of David that the older you get, maybe the more you appreciate it. David said, do not remember the sins of my youth, nor my transgressions. According to your mercy, remember me, for your goodness sake, O Yahweh. Is there anybody here that would like to say to God, I just want your justice? I would never say that to God. I want your mercy. I do not want justice.

That would be it. God is merciful, and we are ecstatic about that. He says, and will not remember the reproach of your widowhood anymore. He is saying here that you're going to be in a position where you have no protector and no provider. If you were a widow in that ancient culture, and you had no one to provide and protect, you were in a difficult spot. And God has a lot to say about taking care of widows when there was no system.

There was no welfare system or anything in place for the people. The human kindness was it. And so God is saying to Judah, which again encompasses all the tribes, you're going to be judged. But it's not going to be forever. When you are conquered by the Babylonians and put in exile, and then you have to come back, and then there are going to be other hard times because of your idolatry, ultimately, in the kingdom age, you will not suffer those conditions as a widow anymore. Verse 5, and then he says, For your Maker is your husband, Yahweh of hosts is his name, and your Redeemer is the Holy One of Israel. He is called the God of the whole earth. So Isaiah is probably sending zingers to idolaters, excluding all of the fake gods. And there are two separate conditions here, the maker and the husband.

More metaphor, more parallels, more superlatives. God is joined to me in a way that no man can separate me from God. He is the creator and he is the companion before sin entered the picture. That's what he was to Adam and Eve, the creator and the companion. But once sin came in, now he has to be the provider and the protector.

Things got nasty after that. He does not cower or humiliate me under the weight of his enormity. God is huge, he is all-knowing, he is all-powerful, but he doesn't try to make me cower in his presence. He invites me to come to him with joy, with singing in my heart. Luke chapter 15, here we have a picture illustrating the heart of God. It is in the father of the prodigal son. That son did not deserve anything, the way he treated his father.

Just give me my stuff and I'm out of here. And of course he goes and he wastes all of it because he thought his father was, you know, a fool. And he was not. And he wasted all of his money, he suffered and finally an epiphany, it struck him. You know, I would be better as a servant in my father's house than where I am out here in the world. And he goes back and of course we know the father sees him from a distance. He knows his child, he knows how he, that gate, how he walks his posture. He knows him and he runs to that child and he embraces him and the child is humbled at that point. Well, Luke 15, 31, before it all goes south, he said to his son, you're always with me and all I have is yours.

To the, actually the other son. The point that I'm trying to illustrate, not so clumsily, is that we have a picture here of the father and his heart. Of not looking to humiliate his children, but standing his ground of course.

But trying to let them understand that they are loved. Well, I have found God has always been that way with me. Even at my worst, he has always, I've always sensed his love and his open arms. I've never felt, now there are times I've felt that there was an iron wall up and my prayers aren't getting heard. That God has decided, this is how it's going to be. And there's no prayer that you can say that's going to change this situation.

We come across a few of those in life. But that doesn't mean he's angry or cold or unapproachable. It's like he said to Moses, don't bring this up again. Now, about other business, Moses, and that's pretty much what happened. Well, the Lord of hosts is his name, Isaiah 54, 5, and your redeemer is the Holy One of Israel.

Well, this is the incarnate Christ. That again, the Jews at this time did not have the information we have. But when Christ came, there was no excuse. The things that Christ was doing, it was just no way to dismiss it without being guilty.

Why did they reject him? There was no backslapping going on. He didn't pat them on the back and say, boy, you guys are wonderful. I'm glad you're the leaders in Israel. It was none of that.

It was quite the opposite. It's like, you better fix this, kind of, in his sermons. Imagine if somebody came along, fitting the criteria of Messiah, born in Bethlehem. Christ is the firstborn of Mary, and she had subsequent children, and that is scriptural. This Christ, God in the flesh, God the Son, is who this is talking about. The redeemer is the Holy One of Israel. So if you have someone fit to meet the criteria of Messiah, born in Bethlehem, the Lion of David, there's other prophecies surrounding him. And then he goes and he empties out the hospitals, if I could say it that way.

Heals everybody. Who in their right mind would say he's not the one? He's just an average guy. He's a counterfeit. He's preaching God's Word. He's telling you to your face that he is fulfilling prophecy and he's backing it up. Who in their right mind would then say he's an imposter, let's kill him?

That's exactly what they did, and they're not innocent for that. In case you have struggled with, you know, well, how are they supposed to know? How could they not know is the question? Well, Luke chapter 24, verse 21. This is on the road to Emmaus, and they're educating this person that has inserted himself in the conversation, which is the risen Christ, and they don't know that at this point, and they make this statement. We were hoping that it was he who was to redeem Israel. Well, he is the one, and not only Israel, the Gentiles too.

It's short-sighted there, which just proves. Christians don't have to have all their theology together to be loved and saved. Anyway, Titus chapter 2, who gave himself for us, talking about Christ, that he might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for himself his own special people, zealous for good works.

You can't do that unless you're God. Peter could not redeem everyone from lawless deeds and purify them for himself. Only God could do that, and this is another proof of the deity of Christ, which is everything. If you do not believe that Christ is equal with the Father, then you are against Christ, because that is his revelation to man, and that's what the Mormons and the Jehovah Witnesses, why they are so lost. They refuse to accept who Christ says he is. Imagine you come along telling somebody who you are, and people just, you know, no, we're going to change that. We're going to say, this is who you are.

Whether it's true or not, this is how it's going to be. Well, how about the Holy One? Luke chapter 1. And the angel answered her and said, The Holy Spirit will come upon you, speaking to Mary, and the power of the highest will overshadow you. Therefore, also, that Holy One who is to be born will be called the Son of God.

Well, when the Jews spoke of someone being the Son of God, with the definite article, the Son of God, that was either blasphemy or fulfillment of prophecy. This is a big deal. Mary had a hard time, man, when people must have thought of her, what they did think of her.

Thank God Elizabeth was there for her. Thanks for tuning in to Cross-Reference Radio today. Cross-Reference Radio is a ministry of Pastor Rick Gaston of Calvary Chapel, Mechanicsville in Virginia. If you'd like to learn more about this ministry, we invite you to visit our website, crossreferenceradio.com.

You'll find a number of teachings from Pastor Rick available there. We also encourage you to subscribe to our podcast. When you subscribe, you'll be notified of new editions of Cross-Reference Radio. Just search for Cross-Reference Radio on your favorite podcast app. You can also follow the links at crossreferenceradio.com. We're glad we were able to spend time with you today. Tune in next time to continue learning from the book of Isaiah with Pastor Rick, right here on Cross-Reference Radio.