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Long Haul Resolve (Part C)

Cross Reference Radio / Pastor Rick Gaston
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January 2, 2025 6:00 am

Long Haul Resolve (Part C)

Cross Reference Radio / Pastor Rick Gaston

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January 2, 2025 6:00 am

Isaiah offers a prayer for Jerusalem; it is a deep felt prayer by the prophet. Jerusalem will be the City of Peace. It will happen and all the nations will glorify it.

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Their theology will be right on, but right now Paul says this about their theology. Their minds were blinded for until this day the same veil remains unlifted in the reading of the Old Testament because the veil is taken away in Christ. But even to this day when Moses is read, the veil lies on their heart. Nevertheless, when one turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away.

Why? 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. And now here's Pastor Rick in Isaiah chapter 62 with this edition of Cross-Reference Radio. The king and the priest, or you have the civil and the spiritual authority delegated to God's people in Israel, the Jewish people in this case, because the church and those who have come back with Christ will have other duties, and they won't be centered in Jerusalem. The need will be taken care of there by God and the Jewish people.

Again, the earth will be saturated, well, not overcrowded, but desert areas will be livable. It's just going to be a different place with a lot of people and a great need for this delegated authority, thus being kings and priests with the Lord. So in this two-fold capacity, Israel will have authority, again, delegated to them by the Christ that the present generations tend to reject, and they have this double function over religion and civil life.

And you need government in both areas. Verse 4, you shall no longer be termed forsaken, nor shall your land anymore be termed desolate, but you shall be called hessaba, and your land buleh, for Yahweh delights in you, and your land shall be married. Well, reconciled to Christ, the world, and endeared to the world.

How radical that alone is going to be, because this isn't the case today. The Jews have been victims of everybody almost, except for the born again. Well, you know, even some of them have been pretty confused about the whole thing to some degree, but they'll no longer be estranged from God, nor at odds with the nations. Historically, she was forsaken because of her own doing.

She shot herself in the foot, you could say. Zion said, Yahweh has forsaken me, and my Lord has forgotten me. Isaiah 49, 14, and then Isaiah 60, 15, God comes back to that, whereas you have been forsaken and hated, not by God, the hatred part, although their ways were, some of them, the apostate ways, so that no one went through you, I will make you in eternal excellence a joy for many nations.

And so that is still unfulfilled. He says here in verse four, you shall be called Hephzibah and your land, Beulah. When I ministered in New York, there was a Hephzibah house, and that was a house for women who had been abused, and they were hiding, safety, and anyway, this comes to mind. So two names, two natures, Hephzibah and Beulah, symbolic. The first one, my delight, Hephzibah, and that's Jerusalem, one of the names that God dotes upon Jerusalem.

King Hezekiah's wife, incidentally, was named that too. Beulah means married, and that is referring to the promised land, and so you put the two together, and you have the delightful wife, the happy marriage, and this imagery, this marriage imagery, of course, foreshadows the New Testament metaphor. It's continued there, the church as the bride.

Paul said, I wanted to present you as a chaste bride. We have it in Revelation, and we have it in Ephesians. Our New Testament metaphor, based on an Old Testament metaphor of God's relationship with Israel, well, the church has really become the remnant of the righteous. We're not ethnically Jewish, but spiritually, we are still connected to Abraham, the same God that Abraham worshiped, the same God we worship, and so we are the righteous remnant, and we factor into this imagery, and there is, again, no uncertainty in the things that Isaiah is saying in his own heart. He's saying it as though it's already happened, and this was characteristic of many of the prophets. Well, moving forward to verse 5, for as a young man marries a virgin, so shall your sons marry you, and as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, so shall your God rejoice over you. So again, it's metaphor, and that verse 5 is future.

They will marry in the sense that they will possess the land, the city and the land legally, and they will be in love with God, the Christ, unlike today. They certainly are not in love with the Messiah, the true Messiah. They can't identify him. They don't even have the records, even if he showed up, and he said, I'm your Messiah. I'm from the tribe of David.

You couldn't prove it. The window has closed. It was open when Christ was here, and he used it. Verse 6, I have set watchmen on your walls, O Jerusalem. They shall never hold their peace day or night. You who make mention of the Lord do not keep silent. Well, that would be us, and I think this is present tense. In the days of Isaiah, in our day too, the watchmen are the prophets who ought to serve, and they ought to serve tirelessly, as verse 1 pointed out.

It does include male and female alike. In Revelation 19-10, when I mentioned to you that prophecy belongs to speaking God's word, belonging to Christ, Revelation 19-10, the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy, the whole story of Christ. When we tell it, we are prophesying in that sense. You don't have to be reserved about that.

You're not saying, you know, in five minutes gasoline is going to go down two cents. I mean, that's predictive prophecy, and if you mess that up one time, you're fired. So you understand prophecy in the context of scripture, and not just one element of it.

Well, the watchmen are the first to see what's coming, whether it's good or bad. When Christ returns, the whole world will see him return in his glory. And anyway, this is an ever-present encouragement, verse 6 and verse 1. Go together verse 7 now, which is also included with verse 1 and 6. And give him no rest till he establishes, until he makes Jerusalem a praise in the earth. Well, who's give him no rest? It's God. Don't let up. Keep it before him.

I love the language that he chooses. It's very, you know, we can get this. And God is like, yeah, I want you to challenge me in prayer like this, maybe.

It's not a hostile arrangement, not at all. But it does require energy. The objective is resolve. If you're going to achieve your objectives, you're going to have, as an objective, within the objective, the need to be determined.

Because what is the alternative? What if he would have said, for Zion's sake, I'm not saying anything. He doesn't say that. He'd say, I will not hold my peace.

In other words, I wouldn't say a lot. You're going to do it through his people. So Isaiah tells the prophets that they must be vigilant. They must be diligent.

They must work hard. And if the prophets fail, then everybody fails. But they're not going to fail, because they're God sent.

And just because they're modern doesn't mean they failed. I don't remember the prophet's name, and maybe I shouldn't look for it in Jeremiah, but I think it's Uriah. Anyway, he preached just what Jeremiah was preaching, and they killed him.

He ran to Egypt, they hunted him down, and they killed him. But they didn't get to kill Jeremiah. Some of the prophets die.

Some of them are rescued. But they're good with it, because they're servants of the Lord, and it's actually an upgrade when you leave this world and you enter into your next citizenship in heaven. Anyway, if you've ever been encouraged to continue to pray, to continue to serve, well, here's precedence in your own Bible, an encouragement to not let up. Verse 8, the Lord has sworn by his right hand and by the arm of his strength, surely I will no longer give you grain as food for your enemies, and the sons of the foreigner shall not drink your new wine for which you have labored. I don't know why the Bible doesn't talk about milkshakes, all this fuss about wine, why not just a vanilla shake? And I don't mean the kind you get, you have to go north about 100 and 200 miles to find a good milkshake. I know that might offend some of you, but you're not a connoisseur. So, yeah, this stuff they serve here at McDonald's and stuff like that, it's not milkshakes. Anyway, back to this, a Carvel milkshake. Oh, man.

Well, we know what I want for Christmas. Anyway, verse 6, the ultimate, the outcome, never again will Israel be pillaged or plundered like Gideon, Gideon hiding in the wine press threshing wheat. Well, I thought the wine press was for the wine in the higher elevations. We didn't want to get caught by the Midianites who would come day or night and take his grain, and so that's not going to happen anymore. Sworn, here it says, the Lord has sworn by his right hand and by the arm of his strength. Well, you would swear by a greater authority who could hold you accountable to some degree, either in conscience or in fact. Well, there's no greater authority than God. So, he points back to himself. In other words, this is an emphatic divine commitment.

There is no equal or higher. God says, look, I'm telling you, I'm going to do it, all right? And I'm God.

That's almost a Brooklyn flair to how I presented that. I didn't mean that part. But anyway, verse 9, but those who have gathered it shall eat it and praise Yahweh. Those who have brought it together shall drink it in my holy courts. Well, Isaiah 40 and through 48 tells us it's going to be a millennial temple. We're not as sure as Ezekiel was when he said it.

We are sure it's going to happen. He's not the only one, but he's the main. He gave more detail than anybody else concerning the millennial temple. There's been the Temple of Solomon. That was the first one.

Then Zerubbabel. That was the second one. And then Herod developed Zerubbabel's temple, expanded it, and he really put a lot into it. And there may be a third one. And Antichrist will have his talons in that one, it looks like.

But that's not the one that is talked about here. This is Ezekiel's temple. Anyway, the world will be making pilgrimages to Jerusalem, to this temple, to express their worship. And, you know, we at that time will be on a whole other level than the survivors of the Great Tribulation that will be populating the earth at this time. But the Jewish people have not received their Messiah, as we all know, but at this time they will clearly understand God. Their theology will be right on, but right now Paul says this about their theology. Their minds were blinded, for until this day the same veil remains unlifted in the reading of the Old Testament, because the veil is taken away in Christ. But even to this day when Moses is red, the veil lies on their heart.

Nevertheless, when one turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. Why? Well, to understand Christ. Why? So I can go to heaven.

Is that it? Absolutely not. There's being saved, and then there's going back to get others saved. They'll be part of that process in some form. And just, you know, sharing the faith verbally is not the only way.

There's other contributions we make to the processes of God. When the Lord says in Tarry in Jerusalem, and you shall receive power. For what? So you can name it and claim it? You can get a new car?

Of course not. So you can be witnesses. So you can speak about your salvation with authority from the Holy Spirit, right? From the throne of God, you're going to be plugged in. There'll be no veil there.

You'll clearly understand these things. And I think a lot of Christians never develop this. When they're given the chance to preach, they may shy away from it. But it's the more you share your faith, the more the power begins to flow.

Then you got to watch, of course, pride, right? This isn't just, man, there's sin everywhere. I mean, you know, if you preach your little heart out, if I finish a sermon and I don't go, boy, that was years ago, there was a pastor, an older pastor in the Calvary movement. Ritter was his last name. And he tells this story that he's preaching in Costa Mason.

The chancellor is more elevated than this one. I think there's about six or seven steps on that one. Anyway, he's finished. He says, boy, I nailed that message.

Got it. As he's going on the stairs, yeah, he fell right on his face. I think about that every Sunday that I go down these stairs. It's not a Sunday that has been that I have, don't you fall.

Not now. Do it later when no one's here. Anyhow, yeah, you so, you know, that's how it is. You do a good job in Christ. You make sure you leave it, leave it with him.

And backslapping yourself is just not a good idea. Anyway, verse 10, go through, go through, go through the gates, prepare the way for the people, build up, build up the highway, take out the stones, lift up a banner for the peoples. Well, every spiritual obstacle is going to be gone.

No more religious stumbling blocks. The debris from Armageddon has to be removed. Remember when Christ comes back, he's not going to do all the cleanup. There's going to be a mess on earth from all those wars and hurricanes and tsunamis and all the other stuff taking place.

Somebody's got to do something with it. Well, here we're going to have thoroughfares developed, travel routes to the place of global place of worship. I'm sure it'll be restaurants because the life's going to continue. No spiritual rubbish to hinder the progress. Today, you know, the Jews want to cut a, not a Suez Canal, but a canal from the northern ear of the Red Sea. They want to cut through, through their territory, through Gaza into the Mediterranean. Well, that's going to put a damper on the relationship with Egypt. Egypt's going to say, hey, you're taking business from us.

We've got this Suez thing over here. So to make, to pull something like that, man, the politics going to be all in the way. It might happen. It might not.

I don't know. But I know this. When Christ comes back, the politics won't interfere with anything that makes sense. If God says this is the right route, it's going to be the right route. There'll be no palms to grease and all that stuff.

And it's just, you know, well, my constituents, there won't be any of that. And this is what is being said here. The world system will be over. I love this verse. One of my favorites, 1 Corinthians, chapter 15, verse 24. Then comes the end, when he delivers the kingdom to God the Father, when he puts an end to all rule and all authority and power. Yeah, because he's going to have it. And he's going to delegate it again to the righteous.

But man, what a day that's going to be. I mean, when we come back and ten thousands of his saints will be with him, I'll be the one taking pictures of the Lord. Okay, that looks a little silly. I've never done that. I despise that, actually. But it is funny to kind of think of, there's a Lord, you know, cleaning house, and there's some guy there with his phone up.

I can't get a signal. All right, I'm sorry I did that. Let's have more formal preaching. Only the less aggressive carnal nature will be around. Satan will be locked away.

The world system will be gone. We have that triune enemy now, the evil trinity, Satan, the world in the flesh that we have to deal with. Well, two of them will be gone and one of them will be very weakened at this time with no Satan.

And then I think we'll find out just how much Satan messed with us, all of us, when he's locked away like, hey, this smells pretty good in here all of a sudden. So anyway, the banner flying here, of course, the undivided allegiance to God. And you can read about, I'll take one, there's three of them in Isaiah alone. Isaiah 49, 22. You might remember this. I don't think so. I don't think any of us remember so much of what was in back in Isaiah.

Some of it we do, of course, but let's see. Thus says the Lord, behold, I will lift up my hand in an oath to the nations and set them up and set up my standard for the peoples. They shall bring your sons in their arms and your daughters shall be carried on their shoulders. And someone stands up and says, yeah, I memorized that verse.

No, you didn't. Verse 11. Indeed, Yahweh has proclaimed to the end of the world, say to the daughter of Zion, surely your salvation is coming. Behold, his reward is with him and his work before him. Well, the glorious future awaits the righteous, of course, and the righteous are those right with God on his terms. But the New Testament applies the reward part of this verse to Christ. Well, wait a minute. It's Yahweh that has the reward.

Well, they must be the same person then. Revelation 22, verse 12. Behold, I am coming quickly. My reward is with me to give to everyone according to his work. His reward, his work. Again, Matthew chapter 16.

For the Son of Man will come in the glory of his Father with his angels, and then he will reward each according to his works. And so it's a significant verse, and it's a little irritating in my prep time. I'm going through this. I even looked at my last time we went through Isaiah. Almost none of the commentators make this connection with Revelation 22, 12. And I'm startled by that. Well, surely this one's got it.

Surely, after about 30 of them, none of them. However, if you look at the same commentators and their commentary on Revelation 22, many of them reference Isaiah 62, 11. Now, the only thing in that is me just venting to you, that they should have linked this, because it is a golden verse. It is a verse that says, this is the deity of Christ in the Old Testament. This is Yahweh bringing his reward with him, and it is a sign to Christ in the gospels from the mouth of Christ.

And then again, from the mouth of Christ, and then again in Revelation. I think it's a big deal. So one of the things, so I'm looking at the opening verse on my phone. I can take notes, and I'm looking at it, and I see a note there, and I'm thinking it's the commentator's note. So I'm looking, I said, man, this guy, he's writing. This is my beginning. These are my words.

It's amazing. I was kind of impressed on one hand and annoyed on the other hand. I was annoyed that I was saying almost the exact same thing, the exact scripture verses, and then I realized, oh, wait, these are my notes. So anyway, this is our form of confession. You get a pulpit, and you talk about the silly thing. And then afterwards, like, well, I'm kind of impressed that I really like what I was reading, because usually I don't like what I wrote.

But then on the other hand, it was like, how could you be so dumb to not recognize your own kid? So verse 12, and they shall call them the holy people, the redeemed of the Lord, and you shall be called sought out, a city not forsaken. So here we go again with the name changes.

The Lord just, you know, just so many things about the whole thing. It's going to be different than what we know today. The redeemed of the Lord, Goel, as Boaz was to poor Ruth, and you shall be called sought out. Yeah, because the world is going to be gobbling up the history, how they got to the place they are, how it is that Christ came back. They're going to be, I mean, they're just people in this world that know nothing about these things. They've been victimized, either through politicians or false religions, but then the survivors of the great tribulation period are going to be educated.

And then they in turn, well, the education has to continue on to their offspring, and we will all be a part of that. The city not forsaken, and I'll close with this from Zechariah chapter 8. This is a beautiful section. You go to Israel, you see a little bit of this happening today. There's a square there that I liked in Jerusalem in the Jewish quarter.

It's like an open square, and the kids just playing, and it's just really beautiful. Anyway, Zechariah 8, verse 4 and 5. Thus says Yahweh of hosts, old men and old women shall again sit in the streets of Jerusalem, each one with his staff in his hand, because of great age.

The streets of the city shall be full of boys and girls playing in the streets. And well, that's what's being called out here in verse 12 also. 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.
Whisper: medium.en / 2025-01-02 08:06:16 / 2025-01-02 08:15:39 / 9

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