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Nowadays to Better Days (Part C)

Cross Reference Radio / Pastor Rick Gaston
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January 14, 2025 6:00 am

Nowadays to Better Days (Part C)

Cross Reference Radio / Pastor Rick Gaston

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January 14, 2025 6:00 am

God thru Isaiah explains His righteous judgments against an apostate people that do not want God in their lives. He then goes on to tell of their future restoration, along with the gentile nations, to Him in the millennial kingdom to come.

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The Millennial Age concludes with God, if I can say it this way, uncreating the universe. He dissolves it. He doesn't reverse it in that sense. And he creates a new universe, an eternal one.

The Kingdom Age is not the eternal universe. Peter says, looking for the hastening, the coming of the day of God because of which the heavens will be dissolved, being on fire, and the elements will melt with fervent heat. 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 as he continues teaching in Isaiah chapter 65. 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 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 parts of Isaiah though that did fill in, 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, and unless you're, you know, one of the infiltrators, you're not a true Christian, but you're saying you are, when they're no shorter to 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. 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 joke.

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 and 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 prophecy 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. Well, here the two distinct movements in verse 17, the millennial kingdom or the millennial age, the kingdom age, and a separate movement, the new heavens and the new earth.

They're not the same. The return of Christ. So if we go to 1 Corinthians 15 verse 24, then comes the end when he delivers the kingdom of God to the father, when he puts an end to all rule and all authority and power. That begins the kingdom age. That ends the great tribulation period.

Human history as we know it is over. Then the next verse, for he must reign till he has put all enemies under his feet. That's the millennial kingdom into the release of Satan when then Satan is finally dealt with. And then verse 27 of 1 Corinthians 15, for he has put all things under his feet, but when he says all things are put under him, it is evident that he who put all things under him is expected. And so he exercises his sovereignty and that's when that phase of the new heavens and a new earth as spoken of in Revelation 21 4. The culmination of Isaiah's visions finalize this world's future.

Now the prophets moved freely between these phrases with their prophetic plan. And only by comparing scripture to scripture can the puzzle be put together. It said as though they were handed, you know, alright to Daniel I'm going to give this amount of puzzle to Ezekiel, he'll get these, Isaiah will get these, some of them will have some of the same, but they're all going to be little parts of the puzzle. And then the New Testament comes along and we put them together. And we put them together by using all that God has handed in puzzle form. So you know that you're not in the new heavens and new earth after the kingdom age if there's still death and crime and things like that.

You know you're in the new kingdom age if there is, you know, no longer Satan around. So you're putting the puzzle together and there are many parts. And the more you study it, the more you see it, the easier it becomes. And so you end up organizing your end time theology. And this is true with all about theology.

You begin to organize just the commandments of the Lord, the character of Christ. G. Campbell Morgan, a British pastor from another generation, he loved preaching on Christ. He wrote the, you know, he wrote commentary on every book of the Bible, but he focused on the gospels, the crisis of Christ, the teachings of Christ, the parables of Christ. He just loved preaching Christ. And I loved reading G. Campbell Morgan. I had to learn how to read him though because that British accent was just tough.

I did have to learn, wow, like this guy is boring. But anyway, then the whole world opened up. So the millennial age concludes with God, if I can say it this way, uncreating the universe, he dissolves it.

He doesn't like reverse it in that sense. And he creates a new universe, an eternal one. The kingdom age is not the eternal universe. Peter says, looking for the hastening, the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be dissolved, being on fire, and the elements will melt with fervent heat. Nevertheless, we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells. Well, Isaiah gets back to this in chapter 66, verse 22 of Isaiah. For as the new heavens and the new earth, which I will make, shall remain before me, says Yahweh, so shall your descendants and your name remain. That's to the Jews, right? Okay, what about the Gentiles? So the righteous, period. Because that's really what the New Testament church is. It's just the righteous. Well, Ephesians chapter 3. Unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen. Man, you've got to love how this just moves around these puzzles.

The pieces fit in perfectly. If men were writing it, they'd try to get it all into the one. There would be no puzzle.

It would just be error. But God's got the puzzle and there's no error. And it's quite marvelous. Verse 18. Be glad and rejoice forever in what I create.

In other words, it's not yet made. For behold, I create Jerusalem as a rejoicing and her people a joy. Verse 19. I will rejoice in Jerusalem and joy in my people. The voice of weeping shall no longer be heard in her, nor the voice of crying. So here he assures the believers that the nowadays will be replaced with better days. And he is saying, my people will be happy and forgotten as in hidden from his eyes by choice.

I'm not looking into that. Ephesians chapter 2 now, verse 7. That in the ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness towards us in Christ Jesus. That's not for the Jews only. It's for the righteous.

That's going to be us. One day, one day you will leave this life and you will step into eternity. And because you're clothed in Christ, it will be an easy fit. And you have no reason to fear death. No matter how much Satan hounds you. No matter how much your own flesh tries to rattle you. Stick firm to the scripture. Verse 20. Could you imagine today you will be with me in paradise?

Well, am I going to like it? No. Shut his mouth. He had nothing else to say. I'm done. I'll be in paradise. I'll just get this over with. I'll just hurry up and die.

I'll be fine. Well, verse 20. No more shall an infant from there live but a few days, nor an old man who has not fulfilled his days. For the child shall die 100 years old, but the sinner being 100 years old shall be accursed. Well, a 100 years old person that is that old will be considered youthful. It doesn't mean that a child, an infant is going to stay an infant for 100 years. It means that if someone dies in the kingdom age, that's where we are at this place on God's clock, it's going to be just a kid. What is it, 100?

It's a kid. Because longevity of life will be restored as it was before the flood of Noah. And those entering the kingdom age at the end of the great tribulation will be either converts or convertible. That's why they're not purged out. But they're going to have kids.

And we'll come to where that is just stated in here. The kingdom age will be like Eden. The difference is Satan was in Eden. But as long as they stayed away from him, free will reigned.

And they could do whatever they want and things were fine. And it's going to be like that in the kingdom age, free will. But no Satan. He'll still be born sinners. Those people born and alive who survived the great tribulation and those born in this period are still going to have a sinful nature. For the child shall die 100 years old. So procreation continues. Not like the glorified ones who've died and received resurrected bodies are not given in marriage nor do they marriage like the angels.

These are fully human. And it's sort of like God is covering every argument against him. So people say, well, we never saw you.

So how could we believe you? Well, you know, and so you go get those before the flood, those after the flood, those during the law, those time of grace, all of these great tribulation, all of these periods are different angles on people coming to God. Well, death will be the exception rather than the rule in this period. And again, the population on earth will be historical because people are not dying like they do today. Ezekiel 44 verses 25 and 31 give us further evidence that some death of people and animals can still occur during this time. Now, maybe, just maybe, if somebody kills an animal, it's a capital crime because they're not supposed to hurt or harm on my mountain anymore. And God will rule with a rod of iron.

I'm just giving you one scenario. So there will be death and there will be sin, but these evils will be under unprecedented restraint. Nothing like it is now. Three unique characteristics of the kingdom age that which follows the tribulation age and the kingdom age and then the new absolute new heavens and earth. Well, first is there will be the global presence of righteous rule. Christ and David, church, the righteous Jews, it will be a different place. But there will also be the global absence of spiritual interference from Satan.

He'll be locked away. And then third will be longevity of life as it was before the flood. People will just, you know, the new 100 will be 500.

I don't know. But the sinner being 100 years old shall be accursed. So death will be related to judgment. Certain sins apparently will suffer swift and capital judgment. And God said, we're not going to have this and do away with them. Zechariah 13, and he's speaking, Zechariah is speaking about this period in time. It shall come to pass that if anyone still prophesies, then his father and mother who begot him will say to him, you shall not live because you have spoken lies in the name of Yahweh. And his father and mother who begot him shall thrust him through when he prophesies. And not that that ever happened or will happen. But the point is, the times that it will be, it will not, heresy will not be tolerated.

Rule with a rod of iron. That's New Testament and Old Testament theology alike. And again, this is not for us. We'll be part of the righteous government. Verse 21, they shall build houses and inhabit them. They shall plant vineyards and eat their fruit.

The resurrected saints, us glorified bodies, coexisting with the tribulation survivors and the population that come from them. Verse 22, they shall not build and another inhabit. They shall not plant and another eat. For as the days of a tree, so shall be the days of my people and my elect shall long enjoy the work of their hands. And so the effects of longevity and relatively crimeless society are reiterated. Verse 23, they shall not labor in vain nor bring forth children for trouble, for they shall be as the descendants of the blessed Yahweh and their offspring with them.

So, there's nothing really to add radically different. No more delinquent youth is what, you know, they bring forth children and not for trouble. Revelation 20 verse 7, and when the thousand years have expired, Satan will be loosed out of his prison. And it then goes on to say the number about those who joined the rebellion with Satan, the number of whom is as the sand of the sea.

Okay, so I'm kind of trying to finish this chapter up and slow it down. Revelation 20 verses 7 and 8 are telling us that by the time Satan is released, the population is going to be just huge on earth. Not overcrowded because barren desert places will be lush with, you know, just places to live. Revelation 20 verse 8 says the number of whom is as the sand of the sea.

And so that's where that understanding comes from. We're not saying, well, you know, not going to be many people or just going to be a few billion. Rather, I think there's what, like 8 billion people estimated to be on earth. By this time, it would probably be 20, 30 billion.

Imagine Antarctica and the Siberian desert, the Gobi Desert. You know, all these places will be, you know, rich with farmland. Verse 24, it shall come to pass that before they call, I will answer and while they are still speaking, I will hear. So the desires of the reformed hearts of the people will be in perfect harmony with Yahweh, and that means there's no interval between prayer and answered prayer, as we have now oftentimes.

Not always, I mean, sometimes you could pray and God instantly answers, but many times there's a delay. And so God is saying we're going to be in rhythm with each other. Again, he's responding to Isaiah 64. Verse 25, now the wolf and the lamb shall feed together. The lion shall eat straw like an ox, and dust shall be the serpent's food. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my mountain says Yahweh.

So violence will not be tolerated. Creation's groanings and discord, such as now with predators and prey, will vanish. Carnivores will revert to vegetarianism and like it. I know, it's kind of hard to imagine, right?

Like I'd like a veggie burger with bacon. But anyway, this is an abridged version of Isaiah 11, but Romans chapter 8, we know this one, creation itself will also be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God, for we know that the whole creation groans and labors with birth pangs together until now. Well, that's going to get fixed and the full effect of Satan and eventually the curse itself will be very much welcomed. It says here the dust shall be the serpent's food.

Well, there's nothing new about that. Earthworms, that's their diet. The organic matter in the soil, they eat it and that will be for the serpents also. And serpents will not be, you know, despised by people.

More people will have them as pets than you can believe. I know, it's like, man, God's going to have to do something. They shall not hurt nor destroy in my holy mountain says the Lord. Well, it's not going to be because of Darwinism. We're not going to evolve into this state or is it going to be to that age of Aquarius that, you know, this spiritual new age nonsense, but it's going to be a decree of the creator and execution of his power down to the insect.

The insect kingdom is going to behave itself. So you say, well, where's the basis for that? That's why I give you cross references. So you'll say, okay, this is where he's getting it from.

Even if you don't agree, you understand, it's not pulled out of a hat. Hosea chapter 2. In that day, I will make a covenant for them with the beast of the field, with the birds of the air, and with the creeping things of the ground.

Is it wrong to say I told you so? Bow and sword of battle I will shatter from the earth to make them lie down safely. So we have these parts of the puzzle. We can figure out where things belong. It creates a lot of questions still that God says, I'm not answering those right now. Suffice it to understand things are going to be radical and they're going to be good for the righteous. Let's pray. Our Father in heaven, thank you for sharing with us this fascinating information that we can just, we struggle to imagine sometimes, but I don't think we struggle to believe it.

Your Holy Spirit comes along and says, this is how it's going to be. And we say amen. 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 additions 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 / 2025-01-14 08:06:33 / 2025-01-14 08:16:00 / 9

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