Hosea chapter 2 verse 15, who was a contemporary part of Isaiah's ministry, but again in the northern kingdom. Isaiah is in the southern kingdom.
Hosea said, I will give her her vineyards from there in the valley of Achor as a door of hope, and she shall sing there. And so the Lord is always telling the Jews, ultimately I'm going to fix everything, but you've got to stick with me to benefit from these things. And now here's Pastor Rick as he continues teaching through the book of Isaiah chapter 65 on this edition of Cross Reference Radio.
Yeah, that would be terrible. This group of spiritual reprobates, they boasted special spiritual insights, achievements, and status, just like the Nicolations in Revelation 2. You know, we're superior. The influence of Gnosticism carried that into the church whenever it could. By lording over the people, they were able to lead them astray.
We see this today. People that have a platform stand behind lecterns, not pulpits. And in front of, not congregations, but crowds, and they control them with all sorts of clever sayings and leaving out the scriptures, all of the scriptures.
They cherry pick what they want to help their cause. This was happening in the early days when John the Apostle was still alive and Jesus wrote to the church, church of Thyatira, you allow that woman, Jezebel, she knew who she was, who calls herself a prophetess, to teach and seduce my servants to commit sexual immorality and eat things sacrificed to idols. So it's happening here in Israel in Isaiah 65 verse 5. It's happening in the church today. It was happening in the church in the days of John. We're aware of these things.
We just must not back down. When the church gets sidetracked by all the petty little things that people want, instead of sticking to the word of God, Acts 2 42, the doctrine and the communion, the fellowship and the prayer, that she weakens herself and she becomes in time just this social entity that just another one on the shelf. And it takes a lot to stay off that shelf where he refers to the smoke and the fire from here in verse 5, he mentions, these are smoke in my nostrils and a fire that burns all the day. Well, the smoke and the fire is a reference to their pagan sacrifices in verse 3 and the incense they offered to demons. They thought they're gods in verse 7. And so Isaiah is just, you know, pointing out, you think these things are reaching God, they're annoying the true God, they're angering him. You're further angering him. The smoke in the nostrils indicates something that is unbearable.
And if you, you know, be maybe around a campfire and you get a gust of smoke up into your nose, you got to get oxygen. The self-righteous, judgmental people irritate God is what is being said. And that's what he said. God said, I hate the doctrine of the Nicolations. Look up the abominations, the things that God considers an abomination and you'd be surprised how many people are walking around, driving around, completely oblivious to these things. I was watching an interview, I can only take like two minutes of any interview it seems, and this was someone asking questions of this activist who is saying, well, God made me this way.
And so, you know, he approves. And it's just the ignorance. It's like God doesn't, we know, you guys know that. The same on abortion, you know, it's a fetus, which I think is Latin for little child.
I'm serious. It's not a child. It's not a child at conception. It's just a zygote to something else.
Whenever we can, if we can tell them, no, thus says the Lord, conception is the beginning of life. You know, just pray to God. If you are a student of the word, if you are fortunate enough to attend a church that emphasizes the word, you've got to, I would think, be saying, God, give me targets. Don't just load me up. Give me something to shoot at. And pray that God will bring people in. And he does it in various ways.
It could be family members, you know, certainly raising up children, you answer their questions. Always looking to be effective, to strike back at hell by having flow from us that which God has invested in us. Anyway, you can say, Lord, look, I sit through these long sermons. Let's make it worthwhile.
Try that. See what he says and get back to me. Anyway, verse six, behold, it is written before me, I will not keep silence, but will repay, even repay into their bosom. Verse seven, your iniquities and the iniquities of your fathers together, says Yahweh, who have burned incense on the mountains and blasphemed me on the hills.
Therefore, I will measure their former work into their bosom. So God responds again to Isaiah's questions that there's going to be judgment. I'm going to respond in judgment and punishment. Now, bosom here, he uses it in verse six and seven, indicates that God is going to strike to the heart of the problem. He is going to penetrate. His judgments will strike deep. They will penetrate. They will achieve its goal.
They're like bunker busting bombs. There's no hiding from them. And so the clear teaching of the first seven verses is that the Gentiles are brought in and the apostate Jews, not all the Jews, but the ones that reject their own scripture, they will be dealt with. And he'll revisit this list in chapter 66. Now, verse eight, thus says Yahweh, as the new wine is found in the cluster and no one says, and one says, pardon me, and one says, do not destroy it, for a blessing is in it. So I will do for my servants sake that I may not destroy them all.
It's pretty terrifying. Paul said, knowing the terror of the Lord, we persuade all men. You know, we get so hooked up on grace, we may lose sight that there's a terror that awaits those who fool around with God in a wicked way. The final fury of judgment is Jacob's trouble, but the Jews have, of course, suffered much since let his blood be upon us and our children. Ezekiel talks about God purging out the unbelievers. He uses that word, and he will purge the Antichrist, the anti-Christian Jews from Israel in the great tribulation period. Evidently, there's no other way.
For if there were, he would have taken that route. Free will is a very serious thing, and I don't know how anybody could deny it. I think when you read the Old Testament, don't you get so many offerings, then you're mindful of the free will offering.
It means something. So he will purge the unrighteous, but he will also establish the righteous Jews, the remnant within Israel, and the two witnesses, the 144,000 Jews will be very active, very busy. You can't say it will be an exciting time, but it will be hot with activity. Verse 9, I will bring forth descendants from Jacob and from Judah and heir of my mountains, and my elect shall inherit it and my servants shall dwell there. So the great tribulation survivors who are not in their glorified bodies, they are not immortal.
They are subjects still to death. We will be in our glorified bodies and a part of the new heavenly Jerusalem. But the great tribulation survivors who come to Christ through those horrors, what's being addressed here, my elect shall inherit, my servants shall dwell there, is a dual application. Messiah, of course, the heir from Judah. You can't miss that if you know the scriptures, but you also understand that he is talking about the Jewish people inheriting their land. But back to Messiah, Hebrews 1, verse 2, his son whom he has appointed heir of all things, through whom also he made the worlds.
Well, there's no need, only God can make the worlds. Verse 10, Sharon shall be a fold of flocks and the valley of Achor, a place for herds to lie down, my people who have sought me, for my people who have sought me. Well, first of all, take Sharon, a low land there on the western side of the land of Israel, extremely fertile, known for its agriculture.
So they're going to inherit this area, it will still be theirs. But Achor, see now if you're a student of scripture, Achor might stand out. It's a valley near Jericho, northeast of Jerusalem, and it was where Achan received judgment and the execution of judgment on him for disobeying God on the battlefield. Well, the time is going to come when Achor will no longer be associated with Achan's judgment and the execution of his judgment. God is going to do new things in a place that, again, was associated with the terrible judgment of God. There at Achor also, the people, after he was judged, they humbled themselves before the Lord, and in that execution of Achan, they disassociated themselves with blatant unbelief, which is what God was looking for. Because Joshua was like, here's that end, what happened here?
Ai is this little place, we should have taken it. And God said, this sin in the camp has got to be dealt with. So finally, the valley will be a vineyard, and Hosea rings in and says, it's going to be a door of hope. And just in this little place, God takes this little place, Achor, and just sort of shows off grace. As if to say, if I could do it at Achor, I'd do it anywhere I want.
And it will be everywhere, because that's what I want. Hosea, chapter 2, verse 15, who was a contemporary part of Isaiah's ministry, but again, in the northern kingdom, Isaiah's in the southern kingdom. Hosea said, I will give her her vineyards from there in the valley of Achor as a door of hope, and she shall sing there. And so the Lord is always telling the Jews, ultimately, I'm going to fix everything, but you've got to stick with me to benefit from these things, which is the very thing that they've not been good at, and the church cannot brag that she's outdone her. So there is always hope for those who humble themselves and seek to walk in the fear of the Lord.
Ash seek, knock, and it shall be given to you. So I wanted to add, years ago, there was a man that would come with his family, his brother and his brother's family. He was single, never married, no kids, and he was a self-proclaimed atheist. And so I got to talking with him one particular day, actually at my house, he was a landscaper, and we're talking about a very easy person to talk with, a very pleasant person to talk with, but refusing to believe, but wanted to talk about the Bible, crying out, but not wanting to believe. So I said to him, will you go home, when you go, I say that to everybody that comes by my house, will you go home? But I said, when you go home, would you ask God to show himself to you? And he thought about it, and I looked at him while he was thinking about it, and he says, no, I'm not going to do that.
Heartbreaking. Maybe he did, maybe it convicted him, and who knows, the state. But there's a case of someone who would not ask, seek, or knock, so he's not going to get in. And we can tell the person, if you ask God, if you seek him, if you knock, he'll open to you. Without that, what do we have to give an unbeliever? And a lot of people have taken that advice, and have gone and done that very thing, and have cried out to God.
Some have done it without promptings of scripture, have just done it, and have been saved. I called out to God, you may have heard testimonies. Yahweh, verse 11, but you are those who forsake Yahweh, who forget my holy mountain, who prepare a table for Gad, and who furnish a drink offering for Menai. Verse 12, therefore, I will number you for the sword, and you shall all bow down to the slaughter, because when I called, you did not answer.
When I spoke, you did not hear. But did evil before my eyes, and chose that in which I do not delight. This is just clear, and it is blunt, and it is God still reaching out. The idea is, you'll hear this and say, I'm guilty, I repent. And that's another one, watching another interview of a pastor. And the question was, what does a person have to do to get right with God?
Well, I didn't watch much more after he first started. I don't say he's wrong, but he misapplied a verse. And I just, you know, so simple.
It's not complicated. Repent. Turn to God. Admit your sin.
Find out what he's got to say. Confess the Lord Jesus as risen and coming again, and the only Savior, and that you're a sinner. It's a very simple thing to do. In fact, it's so simple that many have never been told how to repent, and have done it, and have been saved. Just a glance at God, they've realized how dirty they are, how in need of a Savior they are, without even getting the formula. So, it's not tricky.
I don't mean to sound critical of the pastor, because it's, you know, it's tough work, I hear. I'm sure people say that, boy, I just wish you'd get to the point. And if I, no. Anyway, Gad means fortune. It's a Canaanite god, this is not the tribe of Gad. And Menai means destiny. And so, there's another Canaanite god for fate and destiny.
Like, you know, people into horoscopes in their future, and Ouija board trying to find out, and so you have, you know, I want fortune, and I want to know my future so I can spend my fortune on it. The idea is those who forsake the Lord ignore His work, His word, His worship. They wasted on false gods, and they wasted on gods of fortune and destiny.
And that's what they were doing. Paul likely has this in mind when he writes to the Corinthians, in 1 Corinthians 10, verses 21, 22, and you can look that up. Bottom line is, God sees two kinds of people, those who forsake Him and those who serve Him.
That's where it ultimately will land, that's the climax of a person's will, is are you going to seek Him and serve Him, or are you going to willfully forsake and reject sense, not in the stumble, fail sense. Verse 13, Therefore thus says the Lord Yahweh, Behold, my servants shall eat, but you shall be hungry. Behold, my servants shall drink, but you shall be thirsty. Behold, my servants shall rejoice, but you shall be ashamed. Verse 14, Behold, my servants shall sing for joy of heart, but you shall cry for sorrow of heart and wail for grief of spirit. Verse 15, You shall leave your name as a curse to my chosen, for the Lord Yahweh will slay you and call His servants by another name. Well, I think Isaiah had some faces in mind when he was writing this. There were people so wicked in his time, and not only his time, of course, but he's the one writing this, and it's the far reached, the relevance of God's word.
My servant has now become my servants, plural. These are significant changes, improvements actually, and as we've been going through Isaiah, the Jews as a servant have failed, the servant Messiah comes along, we're here now, the people are back in the picture. And again, God's dividing line, not between Jew and Gentile as such, but between seekers and forsakers, those who believe and those who do not. It is, again, a very simple formula, and you need no theological degree to be a powerhouse for God in being used by Him. So, those who are blessed or cursed, verses 13 through 16, the wicked, what is our, the Christian message to the wicked, or to those who reject Christ, you will not live happily ever after. That is the message.
You can live happily ever after. When Jesus said to the thief on the cross, today you will be with me in paradise, well, that thief, all he knew this was a good place where I'm going. He didn't know, he didn't have Revelation 20 and 21, 22 to tell us more. He had, you know, he had parts of Isaiah, though, that did fill in.
I don't know, who knows how much he knew or did not know, but anyway, he lived happily ever after. God says about these wicked people that there would be by-words for them, as with Judas Iscariot. If you say to somebody you're a Judas, it's a by-word. His name has become a curse. It's a beautiful name, unfortunately. Judas means Judah. It means praise, but he's corrupted the name.
Nobody wants to be associated with it. There are other names, too, that you may not want to be associated with. Anyway, God is saying I will build a memorial against unfaithfulness towards me. So let's contrast these things in verse 13 through 16, really most up to 15. God's servants, they shall eat, they shall drink, they shall rejoice, they shall sing for joy of heart, be called by a new name. Well, when you become a Christian, that starts.
You're called by a new name. Now you're a Christian, unless you're one of the infiltrators. You're not a true Christian, but you're saying you are, when there are no shortage of those types. They don't even believe in the Bible. The only thing they know about the Bible is that it has a cover. Well, the wicked, on the other hand, shall be hungry, thirsty, and shamed, cry for sorrow of heart, and leave their name as a curse.
So these contrasts are very sharp. Revelation chapter 2, verse 16, repent or else I will come to you quickly and will fight against them with the sword of my mouth. That's said to a church. That includes individuals, but it's a church. No church is above the judgment of God. That lampstand on the back of the sanctuary there is to remind me that he can come take it away anytime he wants.
It's his light. It's his church. But he also gives the assurance that he's not going to take it away if you are pursuing him according to the scriptures.
That's the blessed assurance of the saints. Otherwise, you can't get anything done. You'd be so guilt-ridden. I'm so unworthy. I can't do anything. That's what Satan would like to have you. I'm so unworthy. I can't do anything. Well, maybe you are in that bad of a position, but that's usually not the case.
And if you are, that can be worked on. Verse 16, so that he who blesses himself in the earth shall bless himself in the God of truth, and he who swears in the earth shall swear by the God of truth because the former troubles are forgotten and because they are hidden from my eyes. Well, the name here, the God of truth, literally the God of Amen. Amen means it's true. I don't say Amen until I'm finished. If I'm in a corporate group, I'm not saying Amen until I've heard all the prayers because there may be something I don't agree with. It's only happened once that I can recall, but I'm not saying Amen. Nope. I'm only saying Amen from my words.
I thought that'd be humorous to you. So anyway, it was somebody that found their way into the prayer group. I didn't know who that person was. In fact, what I did know about them the little bit wasn't favorable.
That's just a side note, I'm just saying. Now back to this though, the God of Amen, it is sure and faithful. Revelation 3.14, these things says the Amen.
The faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God. You cannot write like this on purpose. You cannot take these 66 writings and have them lock in as they do by human skill. Shakespeare could never have been, I appreciate Shakespeare. As people go, no one is more articulate than Shakespeare, and yet he couldn't write a masterpiece like this. None of them could.
Mark Twain, none of them. Right here is saying he is absolute, and he is absolutely real, and you need to be absolutely aware of this. Verse 17, For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth, and the former shall not be remembered nor come to mind. Well, God chooses to do that, and he can do that.
If he chooses to forget my sin, I'm not going to remind him. So, two distinct movements, and when the prophets gave their end time prophecies, or prophecies in general, they often gave them in phases. I don't believe they always understood all that they said. They had, you know, a shadow of it, but not all of it. Peter talks about that.
The things they looked into, we get to see. 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.
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