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Isaiah 66 vs 7-24

Calvary Chapel Cherry Creek

September 4, 2024 • Pastor Matt Korniotes • Isaiah 66:7–24

Isaiah Chapter 66 Verses 7 – 11

·    This makes it entirely clear that the woman ready to give birth described to us in Revelation 12 was and is indeed Israel and the birth coming forth is the Messiah!

·    And Isaiah says here, “Before she was in labor, she gave birth; before her pain came, she delivered a male child. Who has heard of such a thing?” Child birth is painful, or so I’ve heard! But the result of the child delivered is a cause for joy! This prophecy has at least two meanings…

·    One, God is working His plan such that there will come a day when the result will be glorious and it will come without torment or trouble! Victory will come easily to the people of God! I think of Neo in the Matrix when he figures out that he has the ability to control the matrix and then all of a sudden, he cannot be touched. He can’t even be troubled by Agent Smith any longer! (I know, that movie is decades old but it paints a good picture…)

·    Proverbs 1:27 speaks of those that refuse to turn to the Lord for help, accept His help, obey His direction…, “When your terror comes like a storm, and your destruction comes like a whirlwind, when distress and anguish come upon you…” Do you know that God has promised to be YOUR God and YOUR Savior? Look how this chapter ends in Proverbs Chapter 1 verses 28 – 33…

·    “Then they will call on me, but I will not answer; They will seek me diligently, but they will not find me. Because they hated knowledge and did not choose the fear of the Lord. They would have none of my counsel, and despised my every rebuke. Therefore, they shall eat the fruit of their own way, and be filled to the full with their own fancies. For the turning away of the simple will slay them, and the complacency of fools will destroy them; But whoever listens to me will dwell safely, and will be secure, without fear of evil.”

·    This is a powerful promise given to us by Isaiah that without pain, we will bring forth, Salvation Himself will come forth into our lives if we would but hear Him, believe Him, heed Him…, just simply obey Him.

·    The second way one can take these verses, specific to Israel, is how their greatest troubles would come AFTER the Messiah. Why? They reject Him. The rejection of Jesus Christ will eventually thrust Israel into the Great Tribulation, the Time of Jacob’s Trouble. Jeremiah 30:7, “Alas! For that day is great, so that none is like it; and it is the time of Jacob’s trouble, but he shall be saved out it,” (speaking of the final salvation of Israel). But that time is yet ahead and that time is after the Messiah had/has already come…

Isaiah Chapter 66 Verses 12 - 13

·    God comforts those who groan in this present age by long-casting to what will come AND by reminding us NOW of the Messiah who HAS COME into this world. Giving that to us not only as a present hope and encouragement but a reminder of His faithfulness!

·    Can a nation be born at once!? Absolutely! 2600 years later! At once, May 14, 1948 Israel was born again and all those today who live for today yes but live for today from a position of the coming Kingdom, all of y’all today can look to Israel and allow even the fact that they are on the map to comfort you as a parent would comfort their child!

Isaiah Chapter 66 Verse 14

·    Isn’t that SO true! We look to Israel and we see the faithfulness of God and the effectivity of His Word! The unquenchable power of the promises of God! And yet, the entire world seems to disdain this little sliver of people! Israel as a land and a population is equivalent to 0.12% of the world! That is like, have you ever clipped your toenails? I SURE HOPE SO you disgusting animal! But that one small clipping that flung off into the carpet that you can’t find…, that’s Israel! AND everyone, the entire WORLD, is concerned! Isn’t God’s Word TRUE!!

Isaiah Chapter 66 Verses 15 – 17

·    The completion of this prophecy is Revelation Chapter 19. Revelation 19:11-15 says, “Now I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse. And He who sat on him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness He judges and makes war. His eyes were like a flame of fire, and on His head were many crowns. He had a name written that no one knew except Himself. He was clothed with a robe dipped in blood, and His name is called The Word of God. And the armies in heaven, clothed in fine linen, white and clean, followed Him on white horses. Now out of His mouth goes a sharp sword, that with it He should strike the nations. And He Himself will rule them with a rod of iron. He Himself treads the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God.”

·    And interesting here, Isaiah tells us that a portion of those that are destroyed it says here are those that, “Go after an idol in the midst, eating swine’s flesh and the abomination and the mouse…” All things that are unclean in the eyes of the Lord however, so wildly relevant for today, he says before those things in verse 17, these are “those who sanctify themselves and purify themselves to the gardens…” We aren’t to do those things…, we are to let God sanctify us and purify us. The implication here is that they are their own gods…

·    This is rampant, RAMPANT in the world and a major issue even in the church today. Defining God on our own terms. Or making God the center of your life but giving Him no voice and no authority!

·    In terms of the world, it’s almost impenetrable! God is love. And leaving it there. So, no matter what I do, no matter if I follow Him or not, God must love me and accept me. That is in no way God as revealed to us in the scripture. That is a complete twisting of the word of God. It just simply stops short of who God really is… But its through that type of thinking that folks establish their salvation…

·    For God to sanctify and purify me, I must completely submit to Him. NO other way. Am I holy in my own eyes or am I holy in His eyes? Psalm 119:9-11 says, “How can a young man cleanse his way? By taking heed according to Your word. With my whole heart I have sought you; Oh, let me not wander from Your commandments! Your word I have hidden in my heart that I might not sin against you!” It’s like a husband in his own way is faithful to his wife, loves his wife. But she has no say in it… He is NOT faithful and that is NOT love! And yet this has become personally totally acceptable even in the church!

·    Verse 17 actually says, look at it in the Hebrew, these are “those who are dedicated to themselves…, and those that proclaim within themselves their own innocence…” This is the real separation of the sheep and the goats, man… Loyalty and dedication of heart to Jesus, the Good Shepherd or first place dedication to the god, me!

Isaiah Chapter 66 Verses 18 – 21

·    All of this simply speaks of the divisions and appointing of peoples as Jesus takes over rule one day soon to come… Interesting as well that it appears that God extends the priesthood past the bloodline of the Old Testament/Covenant as He “takes some of them for priests and Levites…”

Isaiah Chapter 66 Verses 22 – 24

·    After the battle of Armageddon, there will be so many bodies that a good entire career will be able to be made just out of dealing with the corpses. Jeremiah 25:33 says, “And at that day the slain of the Lord shall be from one end of the earth even to the other end of the earth. They shall not be lamented, or gathered, or buried; they shall become refuse on the ground.” Just in the land of Israel alone, we read in Ezekiel 39:12, “For seven months the house of Israel will be burying them, in order to cleanse the land.”

·    And this is end-game, not just for the Book of Isaiah but for this world and the history of creation, at one point in the future, all flesh shall come to worship before Me, says the Lord. That word for worship is literally to obey and to honor the Lord. And the kicker is this…, it won’t matter then, worshipping then doesn’t get you there…, it’s all about today whom you choose to worship today…, because in this day, in a way, there’s no more choice… Why? Because that choice has already been made. And so revealing…, here’s the choice today…, worship (honor and wanting obedience to the Lord), or the worm which doesn’t die and fire that isn’t quenched…

·    That is the flesh! The worm doesn’t stop worming! Decaying and degrading and distracting from the life that God wants for you and for real for real, the life we each want for ourselves also! “They shall be an abhorrence to all flesh.” A strong, disgusting word only used twice in scripture…, it means contemptable…, it means repulsive…

·    The fire of the flesh though, never quenched…, always burns…, just some folks can’t help themselves but be moths… always getting burnt and never learning… Serving the Lord, this book the theme of it all and the revelation of it all, life is so so so much better serving and obeying the Lord. Many will hear it. Many will understand it. Many will agree with it. Only the wise will find it…

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