It’s so good to see everybody again this afternoon. We just thank the Lord for a beautiful day in Oklahoma. We pray that as we open the Scriptures again today that hearts will be blessed and opened from one end of this country to the other. For those of you joining us on television, and we know that every day we have new listeners, we pray that the Spirit will open your understanding.

Okay, we’re in the beginning of book number 62, and the next twelve programs will be part and parcel of book 62. How much will be in Isaiah? I’m not sure yet, but these first four programs will be. So, let us turn to Isaiah 57. We’re going to pick up pretty much where we left off in our last taping.

I guess I should do this at the beginning of every four programs, I want to keep reminding our folks that Isaiah writes 700 years before Christ. He writes almost 100 years before the Babylonian captivity, which is his primary warning to the people of the things to come, that the enemy will be overrunning them. But on the other hand, remember, Isaiah doesn’t limit his prophecy to just the oncoming Babylonian captivity. He’s also looking forward to the Roman destruction of the city in 70 AD when they would be dispersed into every nation of the world. Then he also looks forward to the very end and the Tribulation and the Second Coming of Christ.

So, as we’ve been stressing, you have to almost dissect it yourself – is he talking about the near term? Is he talking about the mid-term? Or, is he talking about the final end? Some of them all meld together. But, the warnings and everything concerning Israel are with the view that one day the Glory of the Lord will still come upon them in spite of their unbelief and their rebelliousness.

So, the whole book of Isaiah is almost a roller coaster of the spiritual climate of the nation of Israel. When they are in a spiritual high, the Lord is blessing them. Then, it isn’t long until they go down into abject wickedness and idolatry. After the Babylonian captivity the Jews were never again guilty of idolatry. That’s one of the unique things of Scripture. Idolatry was the thing that caused God’s wrath that caused the judgment that destroyed Jerusalem and the Temple. But, when they came back from the 70 years in Babylon, they never again were guilty of idolatry.

But, as Isaiah writes, this is the number one thing that God has against the nation of Israel - their abject falling into idolatry. To such a pitiful extent, as we’re going to see here in the very first few verses, that even Israel, God’s chosen people, would go so far down into abject idolatry as to do the they did.

"But draw nigh hither, ye sons of the sorceress, the seed of the adulterer and the whore." Now, why in the world such language? Well, in antiquity, to refer to someone as the "son of a prostitute" was about as low a term as you could put on him. It was a term of scorn. So, this is how God is referring to His chosen people, Israel.

Now, remember whenever you see these sexual connotations here, it’s not physical, it’s spiritual. When we speak of adultery here it’s not physical adultery. It was spiritual adultery when Israel would start having relationships with pagan gods and goddesses instead of the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. All right, so here’s how He refers to the children of Israel, a term of scorn, "you who are the offspring of a prostitute." Remember, even Hosea, by illustration, married a prostitute who gave him children but went back to the street and finally comes back and becomes the restored, forgiven wife of Hosea. This again, is just a typical picture of Israel.

"Against whom do ye sport yourselves? against whom make ye a wide mouth, and draw out the tongue?..." Now, you know I had to read that three or four times before it hit me. You know what he’s talking about? What do kids usually do when they make a face? They stick out the tongue. Well, that’s exactly the expression used here and you know what? It happened during the campaign didn’t it? Yeah, one of our ladies in the middle of the campaign stuck out her tongue at somebody. Well, it’s nothing new. It’s way back here in Isaiah’s day. So, that’s what Israel was doing to God! They were literally sticking out their tongue at Him in scornful rebellion.

You know, whenever I bring some of these things out of Isaiah I get a kick out of you in the audience how you suddenly catch on that this is exactly what’s in vogue today. There’s nothing new under the sun! Everything that has been will be Ecclesiastes tells us. All right and he says:

"…against whom [do you stick out the tongue]? are ye not children of transgression, a seed of falsehood," They are absolutely ignorant of truth, but they’re steeped in falsehood and false religions.

"Enflaming yourselves with idols under every green tree,…" What were they doing? Wherever there was a tree, they had idols. They were constantly worshipping those idols. Now, we’re not talking about Gentiles, we’re not talking about the Egyptians or the Babylonians, these are Israelites! All right, now watch the next portion. This is enough to make your stomach turn.

"…slaying the children (the babies, the little ones) in the valleys under the cliffs of the rocks?" Now, in order to get the full explanation of that verse I have to bring you up to verse 9.

"And thou wentest to the king…" Now the word king here in the Hebrew is the pagan god Molock. Now most of you remember that Molock was associated with what? Fire. He was called the ‘fire god’ and the depiction of the idol was a huge, ugly looking thing with great outstretched arms. And what would they do with those arms? Heat them white hot. And then lay their children on them as an offering to this pagan god. That was Israel! Unbelievable!

"And thou wentest to the king (you went to that great idol Molock) with ointment, (to pacify) and didst increase thy perfumes, and didst send thy messengers far off, (in other words, to the prophets, like Isaiah, get out of here we don’t want you around here. We want to do this by ourselves. So, they laid their children on these white-hot arms of Molock.) and didst debase thyself even unto hell." All right, this valley referred to in verse 5 was actually called, I think in another place here in the section, we may come up to it later, and it was the "valley of Tophet." The word "toph" in the Hebrew was "drum."

Okay, now put all this together. In this valley in which this fire god Molock was located, and where they offered their little infant children and their small children on those white hot arms of Molock, what would those children do? Scream! Now, in order to cover up the screams, what would they do? Beat the drums. That’s what the word toph means in Hebrew, a drum. So, it was called the valley of drums in order to drown out the hideous screams of their little children. Isn’t it awful?

Now, I was reading an account of a friend that just came back from Thailand. He left me some stuff to read. Some of the people amongst whom he was working not too many years ago were being intensely persecuted by the Burmese. It showed a picture of a fellow who had escaped them. But before he escaped they had actually held his feet in open fire to burn them so that he couldn’t walk. Well, see, we’re not accustomed to that kind of stuff in America, but that’s what’s going on around the world. I told Mike as he left, you know, almost every morning I pray that the Lord will come quickly. Not to take us out of our misery because we’ve got it pretty good, but for the sake of people like that who in other areas of the world are suffering beyond our comprehension, for whatever reason or another.

Not only in the area of Christianity but in other areas, you take Africa and the Sudan, these people are being murdered and slaughtered, so it behooves us to pray that the Lord will come. But it’s been this way since antiquity where people have been brought into places of such suffering. All right, come back to verse 5, and this is what the picture is, they were bringing their little children and offering them to the fire god Molock under the noise of these incessant drums that would drown out, hopefully, the screams of their little ones.

"Enflaming yourselves with idols under every green tree, slaying the children in the valleys under the cliffs of the rocks? 6. Among the smooth stones of the stream is thy portion;…" Now, unless you understand some of antiquity, that doesn’t mean much. What do you suppose they were doing with these smooth stones from the creek bed? Making them an idol! Now, watch the rest of the verse and it’ll make sense.

"…they, (these smooth stones from the creek bed) they are thy lot: even to them (these worthless stones) thou has poured out a drink offering, thou hast offered a meat offering. Should I (God says) receive comfort in these?" Well, to whom would people pour out a drink and meat offering? A god. See how ridiculous people can get? We think it’s bad, but hey, we don’t know the half of it.

Now, I know we’ve got a segment in our society that are all in a dither. They can’t imagine that people would vote based on moral values. But, you see they don’t get it! They can’t comprehend that. But listen, Israel was even further down than that. They would actually go find a nice smooth stone in a creek bed, take it home and make it an idol! Now then, God says to these Israelites, "Should I receive comfort in these?" Is that part of your worship of Me? Well, absolutely not.

"Upon a lofty and high mountain hast thou set thy bed: (Now, the word bed here is an ‘altar,’ a pagan altar.) even thither wentest thou up to offer sacrifice." Not to a sleeping bed, but to an altar. Now, verse 8:

"Behind the doors also and the posts hast thou set up thy remembrance: for thou hast discovered thyself to another than me,…" Now again, what does the term ‘discover thyself’ mean? Take off the clothes! Like someone preparing for an adulterous act physically. Can’t do it until they take off the clothes. Well, that’s exactly what’s mentioned here. Israel, nationally, had literally taken off their spiritual clothes to appear to the pagan gods as something they would want to have a relationship with. So, here’s the language:

"…and art gone up; thou hast enlarged thy bed, (altar again instead of the word bed) and made thee a covenant with them; (Who? Pagan gods) thou lovedst their bed where thou sawest it."

Well now, lest you think that this is just uniquely Isaiah, we do this quite often because it’s just so graphically easy to understand. Turn with me to Jeremiah 44. Now again, you’ve got to remember that Jeremiah is much the same kind of a prophet, but he’s writing approximately 100 years later. Jeremiah is now writing at the time of the Babylonian captivity. Isaiah is writing a hundred years before it, but their prophecies coincide so beautifully because they’re both dealing with the same wickedness in the Nation of Israel – idolatry.

All right, in Jeremiah 44 starting at verse 15. Now don’t forget, this is Israel! The Israelites! The offspring of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and Moses and they’ve got the Temple down there at Jerusalem. The Law, of course, has almost been lost. They don’t even know where it is.

"Then all the men which knew that their wives had burned incense unto other gods, and all the women that stood by, (who were guilty of that) a great multitude, even all the people that dwelt in the land of Egypt, in Pathros, answered Jeremiah, saying," Now, these were Jews who had been down in those foreign nations; they answered Jeremiah saying:

"As for the word that thou has spoken unto us in the name of the LORD, (Jehovah) we will not hearken (or listen) unto you. 17. But we will certainly do whatsoever thing goeth forth out of our own mouth,…" What is that? That’s rebellion. They’re not going to do what God says to do.

"…[we’re going] to burn incense unto (whom?) the queen of heaven,…" A female goddess and whenever mankind back in antiquity worshipped the female goddesses, the sexual immorality went to the greatest depths. That was just part and parcel of the worship of these female goddesses.

"…and to pour out drink-offerings unto her, as we have done, we, and our fathers, our kings,and our princes, in the cities of Judah, and in the streets of Jerusalem: (imagine!) for then had we plenty of victuals, and were well, and saw no evil." Now, that was a lie, because it was the other way around.

"But since we left off burning incense to the queen of heaven, and to pour out drink-offerings unto her, we have wanted all things, and have been consumed by the sword and by the famine." They got it wrong. Why were they being consumed by famine and the sword? It was because they were worshipping the queen of heaven instead of the God of Heaven. Isn’t it amazing how the human race can be so, what’s the word? Ignorant. Idiotic. Yeah, that’s what it is.

Okay, back to Isaiah chapter 57, the time is just about gone already. Now, verse 10:

"Thou art wearied in the greatness of thy way; yet saidst thou not, There is no hope: thou hast found the life of thine hand; therefore thou wast not grieved. 11. And of whom hast thou been afraid or feared, that thou has lied, and hast not remembered me, (God says through the prophet) nor laid it to thy heart? have I not held my piece even of old, and thou fearest me not?"

"I will declare thy righteousness and thy works; for they shall not profit thee. 13. When thou criest, let thy companies deliver thee; but the wind shall carry them all away; vanity shall take them: but he that putteth his trust in me shall possess the land, and shall inherit my holy mountain." In other words, there was always that small percentage of believers even in abject idolatrous Israel. There was still that small segment of believers, and those believers are still going to inherit the promises of Israel’s God.

"And shall say, Cast ye up, cast ye up, prepare the way, take up the stumbling block out of the way of my people. 15. For thus saith the high and lofty One (another term for God) that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy; I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit, (In other words, a believer in Israel had that relationship with the God of Abraham just as well as some of the patriarchs themselves.) to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones." That is the true believers. Now, verse 16, we’re going to move quickly, because I want to get into a later chapter in the next program.

"For (God says) I will not contend forever, neither will I be always wroth: for the spirit should fail before me, and the souls which I have made. 17. For the iniquity of his covetousness was I wroth,…" Now, whenever you see the word covetousness in the Old Testament, it usually is associated with idolatry. Coveting and idolatry and even Paul will put those two words together over and over. They were hand in glove – coveting and idolatry.

"For the iniquity (then) of [their idolatry], was I wroth, and smote him: I hid me, and was wroth, and he went on frowardly in the way of his heart. (speaking of Israel as a Nation) 18. I have seen his ways, and will heal him: I will lead him also, and restore comforts unto him and to his mourners. 19. I create the fruit of the lips; Peace, peace to him that is far off, and to him that is near, saith the LORD; and I will heal him." Now, that reminds me of a verse way up in Romans. Let’s see how Paul puts it, because we still like to compare Scripture with Scripture whenever possible.

Come up with me to Romans chapter 10, and Paul uses almost the same language for us today. Even though chapter 10 is directed first and foremost to Jewish people, yet it is so appropriate for us. Lets start with verse 6. Now, this is Paul and he says:

"But the righteousness which is of faith speaketh on this wise, Say not in thine heart, Who shall ascend into heaven? (that is, to bring Christ down from above:) 7. Or, who shall descend into the deep? (that is, to bring up Christ again from the dead.) 8. But what saith it? The word is nigh thee, even in they mouth, and in thy heart; (What word?) that is, the word of faith, which we preach;"

Here is the word of faith for us.

"That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, (or that Jesus is Lord) and shalt believe in thine heart that God has raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved." All right, now of course, Israel wasn’t being approached with faith in the death, burial, and resurrection as we are today, but nevertheless, they were to approach the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob by faith. They had to believe that He was. They had to be obedient to His Word. Now, back to Isaiah 57, and in the closing minutes let’s look at the last two verses,

"But…" Regardless Old Testament or New, "But" still means what? The Flipside! The just will live by faith and God will honor that faith. They’re going to have peace with God because they know that His righteousness has been imputed unto them. But, the flipside:

"But the wicked (the unbelieving) are like the troubled sea, when it cannot rest, whose waters (speaking of the sea now) cast up mire and dirt." I imagine Floridians could tell us about that after all their hurricanes, how the sea can roar and be riled up with that which lies on the bottom. That’s the lost person, because now look at the last verse.

"There is no peace, saith my God, (to what people?) to the wicked." Oh, they can drown out and they can try to cover it with all of their raucous activity, but do they have peace in the hearts? No! So many of our wealthy, especially athletes and entertainers, can take it in by the millions. Are they happy? Are they content? No. Most of them, in a few years, are bankrupt because…why? They spent all their millions trying to find a certain amount of peace. And to the wicked "There is no peace," and never can be.

All right, now on the other hand, let’s again go back to Romans. This time let’s stop at Romans chapter 5, and what a difference between the peaceless existence of the wicked and the peaceful existence of the believer.

"Therefore (And remember, when we taught Romans we always point out when Paul uses ‘therefore’ he’s referring to that which went before.) being justified by faith,…" Now for us our faith is in that finished work of the cross – "that Christ died for our sins, was buried, and rose from the dead!" All right, when we trust that, then we’re justified by that kind of faith, and if we’re justified what do we have?

"…we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ:" No believer has to fear going into God’s presence. If the trumpet call should happen today, we don’t have to be shaking in our boots. If death should suddenly come, we don’t have to be afraid of death, "because we have peace with God." I can’t skip verse 2.

"By whom (that is the Lord Jesus Christ) also we have access by faith (Not works, we don’t work for it, we simply believe it. We trust in what Christ has done and what He has promised.) into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God." That’s our lot as a believer. Well, Israel had much the same opportunity in antiquity. Now, they weren’t placing faith in a death, burial, and resurrection. They were placing their faith in the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. The God of Israel. All they had to do was be obedient to what He told them as a nation of people, but were they? No. For the most part they utterly rejected all of His commandments. They rejected all of His requirements for temple worship and all that. They wanted new things. They’d rather run down and worship some pagan idol. They would rather offer their own children than to exercise faith in the God of Abraham.

Okay, it’s good to see everybody back from their coffee break. I imagine this is what makes our program unique. The people watching see the coffee cups and they wonder what in the world is going on. The other thing is this blackboard. They flip through the channels and see the blackboard and they think wait a minute, what was that? See, I get all this in the mail. Then they back up and watch a little longer. You know we’re pretty confident that if we can just get people to watch five minutes they’ll usually stay with it. Some say they just happened to catch our program, but we also know that things just don’t happen. Whatever the situation we’re glad you’ve become part of the ministry.

All right, for those of you here in the studio audience, we’re now ready to get into chapter 59 of the Book of Isaiah. I’m going to skip chapter 58 and let you read that at your leisure and go into chapter 59. While you’re looking that up, I’ll remind our TV audience that we are now in book 62. If you multiply that times twelve that tells us we’ve produced over 700 of these programs. Doesn’t seem possible does it, Kenneth and Luther? You guys have been with us since the beginning. It’s unbelievable. Louise, I don’t imagine you’ve missed more than one or two either have you?

Okay, for those of you out in television, let’s jump in at chapter 59 of Isaiah verse 1, and the very first word is:

"Behold, (in other words, pay attention) the LORD’s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; neither is his ear heavy, that it cannot hear:" Now, I’m sure many of you have been aware of that verse most of your life. You probably didn’t know where it was, but you’ve heard it. Well, what does it mean? Listen, God is always ready to extend salvation to the person who is ready to believe.

But, this is Israel’s problem: they wanted nothing to do with God. They wanted to do their own thing. In fact, a verse just comes to mind. I hope I’m still in the right place. I didn’t even think of it when I was preparing for this. But come back with me to - I think it’s the last verse of the book of Judges. I hope that’s where it is. That would be what - chapter 21 of Judges? This is 700 years before Isaiah. So, you see, people don’t change. Isn’t it amazing? I think I made this comment in our last taping. Why did God call out Israel and tell them that they were to be different? Well, to prove the point that even though they’re different, they’re all the same.

The evolutionists have a little cliché they like to use that "the more things go by the more they stay the same." Well, there’s a certain amount of truth in that. People do not change. The human race is driven by the old satanic Adamic nature, and it’s been that way now for almost 6000 years. But look at Israel now 700 years before Isaiah, who was 700 years before Christ, so actually this is 1400 years before Christ and just a little while after the Law was given to Moses. Last verse of Judges 21 and this just says it all:

"In those days there was no king in Israel: every man did that which was right in his own eyes." What do they call that today in modern technology? Situation ethics. If you’re comfortable with it, do it. Well, that’s what Israel was doing way back here. Listen, God has never given man that kind of freedom. He has never given us the freedom to just do whatever our old Adamic nature tells us to do. Yet Israel was so guilty of that very thing, all through their national existence.

All right, come back with me, if you will, to Isaiah 59. In spite of their rebellion, in spite of their unbelief, was God ready to save the man who would believe? Sure He was! Were His ears stopped up that He could not hear? Never! Even today, as the world is steeped in high-tech iniquity, that’s about what it amounts to. It’s the same old immorality that was back in antiquity; only now it’s associated with high technology, but it’s the same old stuff. Is God unable to hear the cry of a person for salvation? No. God’s ears aren’t stopped today anymore than in the days of Isaiah.

All right, now look at the first word of the next verse. "But…" See, that’s the flip side. Even though God is willing to save any Jew or Israelite that would have wanted to be obedient to what God had said. He was ready. But the flip side, this is where they really were.

"But your iniquities (their sin, their wickedness) have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear." Well now, even today, do you hear much about sin anymore? No. You hardly ever hear anything about sin. Oh, we may decry some of the acts of some people, but to just simply call it sin, most preachers are afraid to use the word. It’s always been the dilemma that keeps mankind from a relationship with God! It wasn’t God’s fault. God was listening. God was ready for their cry. But they were so steeped in their sin that God didn’t even enter their thinking.

"For your hands are defiled with blood, (murders didn’t even bother them) and your fingers with iniquity; your lips have spoken lies, your tongue hath muttered perverseness." Now, I know that we may be getting kind of tired of this throughout the whole book of Isaiah, but the reason I’m staying with it is because we’re in the same dilemma in America today.

I still like to make that parallel even though Scripture doesn’t, because America was unknown in Scripture. But I do feel there is a parallel that you and I can use because not only was Israel God’s chosen people, they were under His promises. Godly men, on Biblical principals, established our beloved land.

In fact, I told somebody the other day that you will hear the media and these liberals decrying the Word of God someplace, such as in the courthouse. When Iris and I were in Washington DC a few years ago, I think we hit about every monument in town. And the thing that amazed me the most was that even the monument of Thomas Jefferson, who was probably the least spiritual of all of our founding fathers, even in the Jefferson Memorial – there was Scripture verse after Scripture verse after Scripture verse.

This all came to mind while I was reading an article the other night about the Washington Monument, the big tall spire. Well, we weren’t able to go when we were there because it was under renovation and closed. But it’s now open. This article revealed that at the very pinnacle of the spire that stands on top of this national monument is something that makes direct reference to God. That’s what America was founded on.

Every memorial in Washington D. C. is saturated with Scripture verses. You go into the Lincoln Memorial and it’s all over the place. Then they try to tell us that we’re to have nothing to do with Scripture in public places. They’re going to have to sandblast most of Washington! But here is where we have come. We’ve come under the influence of these people that want to take God and the Word of God out of every segment of life because of this stupid statement – "separation of Church and State." Our founding fathers never intended to separate God from government. All they said was that the religious entities were not to control government, and that government was not to establish a national religion. We certainly all agree to that. I don’t want any particular denomination to have clout over government. But I certainly see nothing wrong with government realizing their responsibility under God. He’s Sovereign. That’s the way He intended it to be. All right, so Israel you see is just a good illustration of where we are as a nation today. It’s the same thing. My, you can just constantly make comparisons.

"None calleth for justice, nor any pleadeth for truth: they trust in vanity, (See, that which appeals to the flesh.) and speak lies; (My, it gets to the place where they can tell a lie and get called on it tomorrow, and it doesn’t bother them at all.) they conceive mischief, and bring forth iniquity." Now, here’s another allegory, if I can call it that.

"They hatch cockatrice’ eggs, (Now, I don’t know what a cockatrice egg would taste like, but I don’t imagine it was very good.) and weave the spider’s web: (See the analogy here?) he that eateth of their eggs dieth, and that which is crushed breaketh out into a viper." These are all just illustrations in a language that no one can say, "Well, I don’t know what he’s talking about." It’s obvious. It spells nothing but trouble.

"Their webs shall not become garments, neither shall they cover themselves with their works:…" Now, what’s that a reference to? Adam and Eve, after they had first eaten, what’d they do? They went and sewed fig leaves. They thought they could cover their nakedness. Did they? No! It didn’t hold water with God. Their nakedness wasn’t covered until He provided the skins of animals back in Genesis chapter 3. This is all a reference that just as ridiculous as sewing fig leaves by Adam and Eve, so also the Israelites are trying to cover themselves with false works.

"…their works are works of iniquity, and the act of violence is in their hands. Now remember, whenever you see the word violence in Scripture what are we talking about? Murder!

" Their feet run to evil, and they make haste to shed innocent blood: their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity; wasting and destruction are in their paths." Boy, I mean it’s just one thing after another. Now, let’s see how Paul puts it. Let’s jump up to Romans. I don’t want to stay in the Old Testament. Otherwise someone will say, "Well, Les, I get tired of you being in the Old Testament too much." No, we’re going to jump back and forth. Now, let’s come up to Romans chapter 1 a minute, and see if there’s much difference between 700 BC and several years after the cross. Well, you know as well as I do. Not a bit. It’s the same old human race. All right, let’s drop in at verse 28. This could almost be Isaiah writing to Israel. In fact, I think he even quotes a couple verses out of Isaiah.

"And even as they (ungodly people) did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient (or normal. Now here it comes.) 29. Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, (This is Paul writing; this isn’t Isaiah.) murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers, 30. Backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, 31. Without understanding, covenant-breakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful:" My goodness, can’t get much worse than that can it? But what is it? That’s the picture of the human race – until they experience God’s saving grace.

All right, come back again to Isaiah. This is all just to show us that the human race is incorrigibly wicked because they are under the old Adamic nature. All right, back to Isaiah 59 verse 8:

"The way of peace they know not;" Like we looked at in the last program, being justified by faith we have peace with God, we have no fear of being brought into His presence because our sins have been forgiven. But Israel didn’t have that. They had no peace.

"…and there is no judgment in their goings:" Now the word judgment, as I understand it in the Old Testament, is that kind of rule that brings tranquillity. In other words, that’s the whole purpose of government in the first place, to guarantee the peace and safety of the civilian population. Paul tells us the same thing for today.

"I exhort therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men; 2. For kings, and for all that are in authority; that we may lead a quite and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty." All right, but back here as Isaiah writes there is no government of that type.

"The way of peace they know not; and there is no judgment in their goings: they have made them crooked paths: whosoever goeth therein shall not know peace." But like we saw earlier in the chapter, they’re going to be in constant turmoil.

"Therefore is judgment (or that kind of a fair government) far from us, neither doth justice overtake us: we wait for light, but behold obscurity; for brightness, but we walk (where?) in darkness." Now verse 10. This is the spiritual description again of Israel and America.

"We grope for the wall like the blind, (Now that can’t be improved on, can it? That’s as plain as you can picture it, how a blind person just gropes to figure out where he is. All right, and that’s what Israel was.) and we grope as if we had no eyes: we stumble at noon day as in the (middle of the) night; we are in desolate places as dead men." (what a horrible picture of the nation) 11. We roar all like bears, and mourn sore like doves:…" You know, whenever I read the Old Testament I almost smile. I’m always amazed, because the language is the same as you’d use today.

What does a bear do when it is trapped? Iris and I have firsthand understanding of that. We stayed with a couple outside of Yellowstone Park a few years ago. They’d had a big grizzly and her two cubs come into their front yard and eat out of their apple tree. So, they called for the park people, and they came and set a trap. The old mama bear went in first and was trapped, but they couldn’t get the cubs. So, for almost 48 hours that old mama bear just roared and roared. They said you couldn’t sleep at night for the roaring of that old mama bear.

Well, I read something like this and I can’t help but think of something like that. That was Israel. Like a trapped Mama. Now, why did she roar? Her babies were up there in the apple tree and she knew it. Here’s the connotation. Israel in their unbelief and in their wickedness was just like a roaring bear. Then the other one is like "doves." What kind of doves? Mourning doves with their mournful song. Between the two you have the extreme on both ends - that was Israel. But that’s also America. I can’t help but bring the two together.

"…we look for judgment, but there is none; (There is no sensible government or judgment.) for salvation, but it is far off from us." Is that God’s fault? No! We already saw that His ears aren’t stopped and His arm isn’t shortened. So, whose fault is it? It is unbelieving Israel. And today is no different. Why are people groping in their spiritual blindness? Because that is where they want to be. That’s where they choose to be. They don’t have to be there. God is ready and willing. He’s constantly on the alert.

Do you remember, way back in one of my earlier programs, how I gave the illustration of a swimming pool full of kids on a hot summer afternoon? If you’ve got a lifeguard that knows what he or she is doing, in the midst of all that screaming and laughing and everything, if there’s one little, weak cry of a kid in trouble, they hear it, and they’re after them. Well, that’s God. In the midst of all the turmoil of this world, His ear is still tender for the cry of a lost person seeking salvation, and He’s there instantly.

"For our transgressions are multiplied before thee, and our sins testify against us: for our transgressions are with us; and as for our iniquities, we know them; 13. In transgressing and lying against the LORD, and departing away from our God, speaking oppression and revolt, conceiving and uttering from the heart words of falsehood." Instead of dwelling on things that were honest and true and along the lines of godliness, they were totally the opposite.

Now another New Testament scripture comes to mind. Let’s go all the way up to Titus chapter 2. This, again, is Paul writing to you and me. Even as believers we have to be on constant guard against these thoughts that will take us in the wrong direction. After all, where does everything begin? In the thought. Everything has to start with a thought. That’s why we have to be constantly aware.

"For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men," Now, remember what we just heard in Isaiah? His arm is not shortened. His ears are not closed. Well, it’s the same way here. God’s grace has appeared to every human being, one way or another. Now, verse 12, what does the grace of God teach you and I as believers?

"Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, (the lusts of the flesh) we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, (Now that’s a small ‘g’. We’re to live godly lives. That simply means an absence of sinful living. We are to live all of these things.) in this present world;" You don’t have to wait to get over to eternity for this. This is the here and now. How many church people can sit in church on Sunday morning and yet the rest of the week know nothing of this. Israel was the same. Oh, they kept their temple worship. It had already been counterfeited and it had been adulterated, but they were still religious. But there was no faith connected with it. They thought more of their wickedness than they did of pleasing God. All right, back to Isaiah 59.

"And judgment (Again, I’m still going to use that definition. Judgment referred to a governmental authority that would bring peace and happiness to its people.) is turned away backward, (They don’t even want that which is good for them.) and justice standeth afar off:" You know, every once in a while we’ll have one of our listeners that has gone through a court situation for whatever reason write and invariably was justice served? No. Too often it isn’t. You know why? Because too many of our judges are corrupt. If you’ve got a corrupt judge, justice will not be served.

So, here’s what’s happening in Israel. The same thing, you couldn’t find justice. There wasn’t anything fair. If you weren’t part and parcel of the murdering crowd and the lying crowd you just couldn’t survive. We in America are getting there so fast ourselves.

"…for truth is fallen in the street,…" Isn’t that beautiful? My, that just says it like it is. Truth is something that’s walked underfoot. It’s fallen in the street,

"…and equity (fairness) cannot enter. 15. Yea, truth faileth; and he that departeth from evil maketh himself (what?) a prey:…" You stand for that which is right in Israel at this time and you were probably murdered for it. They couldn’t stand you. Well, in some areas of our country it’s already that way. The godly people of our land are hated for the most part. You stand up for truth and you won’t last long. A sorry state of affairs, isn’t it?

"…and the LORD saw it, and it displeased him that there was no judgment. (or fair system of rule) 16. And he saw that there was no man, and wondered that there was no intercessor: (not even the like of an Isaiah) therefore his arm brought salvation unto him; and his righteousness, it sustained him. 17. For he put on righteousness as a breastplate, and an helmet of salvation upon his head; and he put on the garments of vengeance for clothing, and was clad with zeal as a cloak." All right, again, let’s go back and see how Paul puts it in the last chapter of Ephesians. It is the same language and same illustration. Here is Paul, during this Age of Grace, comparing the situation with Israel in the time of Isaiah. With this we can just about come to the end of our program. Ephesians chapter 6 and let’s drop in at verse 10, this is still appropriate for us today, just as it was for Israel in 700 BC.

"Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might. 11. Put on the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles (or all the devices) of the devil. 12. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places." Not in the pew but in the places of spiritual and denominational authority. All right, now here he almost quotes from Isaiah.

Ephesians 6:13-17

"Wherefore take unto you the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. 14. Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness; 15. And your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace; 16. Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked. (And now look at verse 17, word for word from Isaiah.) 17. And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God:" Why does he emphasize the helmet? Because under the helmet is what? The brain. The mind. The very source of all our activity. So the Word of God is our weapon. But this weapon does nothing unless you have everything upstairs that you need. How do we get that? Through the leading, the directing, of the Holy Spirit, and we depend on Him for all of our needs.

Okay, I see everybody is back in here after your coffee break. For those of you out in television that are rather new to the program, we always like to periodically let it be known that we tape four programs in succession here on a Wednesday afternoon. Between each half-hour program we have a coffee break. The ladies bring in enough refreshments for a ‘log rolling,’ so we have a good time all afternoon with Bible study and sweet fellowship.

We’re in Isaiah chapter 59. We’re going to pick up where we left off because I want to come in at verse 20 and 21 and the first part of chapter 60 this half-hour. Remember, that in spite of all of Israel’s sin, God still puts before them the prospect of glorious things to come, especially that earthly kingdom. Now, as I’ve said before and I’ll say it again, most of Christendom, church-goers and Sunday School people, don’t have a clue as to this thousand year earthly kingdom coming on the earth. The reason they know nothing of it - it isn’t taught in their particular denomination. But just because it isn’t taught doesn’t mean that it’s not going to happen!

This glorious earthly kingdom with Christ Himself as the King will be primarily to fulfill all of the promises made to the nation of Israel. The end result of everything will be this glorious Kingdom over which they will be the primary nation. We’ll be looking at that sometime in the next two programs. All right, so even though it’s depressing to read about all of Israel’s sin and their unbelief and their wickedness, yet the prospect is still out in front of them of this glory yet to come.

"According to their deeds, (that is their unlawful, wicked deeds) accordingly he will repay, fury to his adversaries, recompense to his enemies; to the islands (or the borders of other nations) he will repay and recompense. 19. So shall they fear the name of the LORD from the west, and his glory from the rising of the sun. (which is the east) When the enemy shall come in like a flood, (which of course, is a reference now to the Babylonians) the Spirit of the LORD shall lift up a standard against him." All right, now we’ll leap all the way up in verse 20 to Christ’s first advent.

"And the Redeemer (And you see that’s capitalized. So, it’s a title, and it simply means the One who will pay the price for Israel’s salvation. That is going to be their Messiah.) shall come to Zion, (Never forget Zion is Jerusalem. Mount Zion is in Jerusalem. Never forget that.) and unto them that turn from transgression in Jacob, saith the LORD." All right, now when Christ came to the nation at His first advent, just like it’s been all the way in their history, how many responded and believed who He was? Just a small percentage, only a few.

All right, now let’s go again and see how the Apostle Paul deals with that phenomenon. Let’s go again to Romans, chapter 11. It was only a small percentage of Israel that could understand and believe who Jesus of Nazareth really was. Of course, it carries over into Paul’s writings here in Romans 11 as he’s dealing with the nation of Israel. Here Paul is showing that even from antiquity and up to his present time, as I said last program, things never change. There was a remnant back then, there’s a remnant here, and there will be a remnant in the end-time scenario.

"God hath not cast away his people (Israel) which he foreknew." Now, that flies in the face of a lot of teaching that’s going out today that God was all through with the Jew after 70 AD and that everything promised Israel has been given to the Church. Not according to Romans 11! They have to throw this chapter away, because here it’s as plain as day that:

"…Know you not what the scripture saith of Elijah? how he maketh intercession to God against Israel, saying," Now watch, if this isn’t a true ringer with what we’ve been reading in Isaiah. Even Elijah was already experiencing it.

"Lord, they have killed thy prophets, and digged down thine altars; and I am left alone, and they seek my life." Why were they seeking Elijah’s life? Because he was a true man of God, and they didn’t like him in their midst. That’s been Israel’s history.

"But what saith the answer of God unto him? (That is to Elijah.) I have reserved to myself seven thousand men, who have not bowed the knee to the image of Baal." Baal was the god in Elijah’s day. In Isaiah’s day it was Molock and some of the others. But it’s always that same small percentage that did not fall into rank unbelief. Now, look at verse 5, Paul writes:

"Even so then at this present time (as he writes, in about 60 AD, just a few years before Rome will come in and destroy the Temple and the city) there is a remnant (that small percentage) according to the election of grace." So, what happened? Verse 7:

"What then? Israel (the nation) hath not obtained that which he seeketh for;" Well, now what does that mean? Well, all up through the Old Testament, because of the prophets, they had an understanding that there was a King and Kingdom coming, and that it would be glorious. And in spite of all those promises they still would turn their back on it. Now, Paul makes reference to that fact. Israel was looking for a King and Kingdom, but they didn’t get it because they wouldn’t believe who Jesus was.

See, that’s the whole thrust of Christ’s earthly ministry. I guess I can use one of my favorite verses while we’re in Romans anyway. Jump ahead a few pages to chapter 15. Many of you have heard me use this verse. I use it so often on my traveling seminars as an introduction to almost any subject I want to teach on for a whole day. I can start with this verse. Romans 15 verse 8. Most of Christendom doesn’t even know it’s in their Bible. But it is. It is! Where Paul says:

Romans 15:8

"Now I say that Jesus Christ was a minister of the circumcision (that’s Israel, and for what purpose?) for the truth of God, (Now, what was His purpose when He came to the nation in His first advent?) to confirm (or fulfill or bring to fruition) the promises made unto the fathers." That says it all! So, why did Christ approach the nation of Israel? To proclaim Himself as their King and how He was ready to bring in this glorious Kingdom promised all through the Old Testament. But did they accept it? No. Their unbelief caused them to be blind to even that for which they were looking.

Now again, you know my favorite illustration of that was when they could have had the Promised Land. They could have gone in and had the land flowing with milk and honey. When I make these two comparisons, I always ask the question, was He playing games with Israel when He said the land of milk and honey is theirs? No, it was for real. They could have had it. But why didn’t they? Unbelief. Oh, we can’t beat those Canaanites. They’re too big. They’re cities are walled. Where was their faith? They had none. So, they had to turn around and die in the desert. Well, it was the same way at His first advent. Here He made all the fulfillment promises. If they would just believe who He was they could have had it, but only a few did, and that wasn’t enough because it had to be the whole nation. So, what a sad commentary. But, listen, don’t just blame Israel. That’s the world in general.

In fact, I was just talking to someone on the phone yesterday and we got to talking about some of these parallel percentages. When seven thousand in Israel didn’t bow the knee to Baal, out of a population of seven million, now most of you have heard me use this before, what was the percentage? It was one tenth of one percent, or one out of a thousand. That’s all.

Now, look at America today. Even though our churches may be full of raucous worshippers, how many are true believers? How many are resting on that finished work of the cross? (That’s faith that he died for your sins, was buried, and rose again.) There are not many. I’m not going to be bold enough to say one tenth of one percent, although I’d like to. But listen, it’s going to be a small percentage. When the Lord comes, they won’t even miss us. Those that are missing won’t even make a dent in the population. So it was in Israel.

Now, back to Isaiah and verse 21 as Isaiah is leaping all the way over the Babylonian invasion and he’s coming all the way up now to His (Christ’s) first advent in verse 20, which we just looked at. Now, verse 21:

"As for me, this is my covenant with them, (that is believing Israel) saith the LORD; My Spirit that is upon thee, and my words which I have put in thy mouth, shall not depart out of thy mouth, nor out of the mouth of thy seed, nor out of the mouth of thy seed’s seed, saith the LORD, from henceforth and forever." Now, when Israel rejected Him at His first coming this won’t become fulfilled until when? The Second Coming. At His Second Coming we can expect Israel to come under the fulfillment of what we call the covenant that He makes with Israel.

Jeremiah, let’s look at it a minute, Jeremiah 31 and the new covenant. Not the old covenant of Law, but the new covenant, which will be ushered in at the advent of the Kingdom. Now, of course, when Israel rejected everything at His first coming this was pushed back 2000 years, which nothing in Scripture indicates. There’s nothing in here to indicate a 2000-year period between His first advent and His second. It may even be more. We’ve already come almost to 2000, according to our calendar anyway. But, whatever, it’s going to be at His Second Coming. This new covenant is not for the church as so many would try to tell you it is. This will be for the nation of Israel.

"Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah:" Now, that has never been made yet, because Israel rejected everything. But when He comes the second time it will become a reality. Now verse 32. This is what that new covenant is going to be, just like Isaiah foretold in his writing.

"Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; (That was the covenant of Law. This is going to supersede the Mosaic covenant of Law.) which my covenant they brake, although I was an husband unto them, saith the LORD:" He didn’t give up on them any more than a husband will on his unfaithful wife. Now, verse 33:

"But, this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, (That is, after anything intervening and He finally comes and sets up His Kingdom, this is what’s going to happen to every Jew that comes into that Kingdom experience.) saith the LORD, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people." It’s going to be an automatic thing.

"And they shall teach no more every man his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, Know the LORD: for they shall all know me,…" See, there won’t be any unbelievers to stick out the tongue in the Kingdom. They’re all going to be of like minds.

"…from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the LORD: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more." That’s coming! But until that day, Israel is still plagued with all the things that Isaiah is writing about.

Okay, let’s come back again to Isaiah where we just left off, and that would be in chapter 60. Isaiah chapter 60 and this, of course, is a reference first and foremost to His first coming and the following Kingdom, if Israel would have accepted it. But they didn’t. So now, they’ve been sent into the dispersion, they’ve been scattered into the nations of the world. They have now been coming back these last many years to their ancient homeland in order to be ready for His Second Coming. It’s no accident that the Jews are back in the Holy Land. It’s no accident that they have become a nation of people once again. They have to be there for the coming of their Messiah at His Second Coming. All right, but now we’re talking about the first advent in verse 1.

"Arise, (the prophet writes) shine; for thy light is come,…" Whose light? Israel’s. And Who is Israel’s light? The Messiah, Jesus of Bethlehem and later on of Nazareth.

"…and the glory of the LORD is risen upon thee. (the Nation of Israel) 2. For, behold, the darkness (spiritual darkness) shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the people:" (Israel) Even though they had the temple and the priesthood, yet it was nothing but a manmade ‘works’ religion by the time Christ comes, and they are in a spiritual darkness. "But," that’s not going to stop God.

"…but the LORD shall arise upon thee, and his glory shall be seen upon thee." Then, if Israel would have been obedient and if they would have recognized who Jesus was, the Tribulation would have gone by, the King would have set up His Kingdom and then Israel could have been what?

"And the Gentiles shall come to thy light, and kings to the brightness of thy rising." That was their prospect. But they lost it. They lost that opportunity when they rejected their Messiah. So, now, there will be no unsaved Gentiles after Christ sets up His Kingdom because that will have totally changed. Now, turn to Matthew 23. This is just to show you that Christ knew Israel was going to reject Him, and that they would have to wait for a period of time, it never tells us how long, until He would yet return and give them the King and the Kingdom. All through His earthly ministry He gives no indication of Israel’s rejection, even though the vast majority were not becoming followers and believers. Yet, He did not indicate that there would be a break in the time or in the outflow of Old Testament prophecy.

Here in Matthew 23 verses 37-39, are verses I’m sure you’re all acquainted with. These are a couple of verses that I just cherish.

"O Jerusalem, Jerusalem,…" Can’t you hear Him? Many of you have seen the painting of Christ sitting on the Mount of Olives looking out over the city. This is where I think the painter got the setting. He sits here and looks out over the city that is now rejecting Him out of hand, and this is His heart-cry,

"O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets,…" (They’ve been doing it for hundreds of years.) and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often (all the way through their history) I would have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not!" Now, it’s unfortunate in our day and time that very few people know what a phenomenon that is. When I was a kid, when we still had the old, as we called it, the old cluck or setting hen with her little brood of chicks. My, she could just ‘tick, tick, tick, tick’ and here they’d all come and hide under her feathers. Just totally disappear. Well, it’s exactly the illustration He’s drawing.

How He would have called Israel under His Almighty feathers, as the Psalmist put it, "I will hide under the feathers of your wing." That was the connotation. The old hen with her brood and He says, "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, how often I would have gathered thy children together even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, but you would not." Little chicks had brains enough to come running. But Israel wouldn’t. Quite an analogy isn’t it? But "You would not." You couldn’t sense your danger. You couldn’t sense the tranquillity under My wings, and you rejected me out of hand. All right, now then, here’s where I think He gives an indication that Israel is going to reject Him and all the promises are going to fall through the cracks until a later time. So, He says in verse 38:

"Behold, your house is left unto you (what?) desolate. 39. For I say unto you, (Now, here comes the indication; now nobody understood this. The Twelve didn’t grasp it. They thought everything was going to keep right on coming. He would yet set up His Kingdom. But the Lord knew.) Ye shall not see me henceforth, until (So, it’s still coming, but it’s going to be at a later time.) ye shall say, (that is Israel as a Nation) Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord." That, of course, will be at His Second Coming.

All right, now let’s back up into the Old Testament and stop at Zechariah, which is just ahead of Malachi. Drop in with me at chapter 12 and verse 10. This is prophecy and it fits right in with what the Lord said in Matthew 23. God speaking through the prophet says:

"And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplications: and they (the Nation of Israel) shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him, as one mourneth for his only son,…" In other words, when they’re reunited. Not a mourning of death and losing that son, but of a renewed acquaintance like Joseph and his brethren wept on one another’s necks. It was not because they were losing him, but because they were being reunited. All right, and then we read on:

"And shall be in bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn." All right, now the next one is in chapter 13, verse 6. Now see, all of this prophetically showed that Christ would suffer and die and then yet set up His Kingdom.

"And one shall say unto him, (That is at His Second Coming, after He has made Himself available to the population.) what are these wounds in thine hands?" Now, what does that tell you? When He returns in that resurrected body, what’s going to be the evidence of His suffering? Nail prints in His hands. He’s coming back physically and visibly in that same body with which He ascended in Acts chapter 1. Here’s the proof of it - prophetically. They’re going to say, when He returns:

"…what are these wounds in thine hands? Then he shall answer, Those with which I was wounded in the house of my friends." Well, who were His friends? Israel! It’s all so obvious. Now, come back to Isaiah chapter 60 verse 3.

"And the Gentiles shall come to thy light,…" Now see, I hope you have gathered, in all of our studies over the years, that God never instructed Israel to evangelize the Gentiles. Never. Jonah was the lone exception. He was sent to Ninevah. That was all. That was for fulfilling a ‘type.’ But nevertheless, we always like to make it plain and simple that Israel only had one requirement from their God – to be obedient to the Mosaic Law and the system of Law and Temple worship. They were to take it all by faith and look forward to this coming glorious King and His Kingdom. That’s all Israel was expected to know. They knew nothing of a crucifixion. They knew nothing of a death, burial, and resurrection, and God didn’t expect them to. But they were to believe what God was telling them. They would not. They refused it.

All right, now if they would have accepted that King and the Kingdom, they could have evangelized the whole world. That was the prospect, because in Exodus 19 God said, "every Jew would be a priest," or a go-between. But when they rejected the King and the Kingdom, they lost that opportunity of evangelizing the Gentile world, because there will be no lost Gentiles in the Kingdom. Now, that’s a no-no, because the Lord Himself said, except a man be born again he cannot see or enter the Kingdom of Heaven. But in the Old Testament prophecies that was Israel’s possibility of being the light to the Gentile world under the Kingship of their Redeemer and their Messiah. But when they rejected Him they lost it all, at least for a couple thousand years.

As we begin our 4^th lesson for today, we always like to remind you how much we appreciate your letters and phone calls and your gifts and prayers, everything that makes this ministry possible. How we thrill at how many are coming to a real knowledge of salvation. We get letter after letter where they’ll say, "I’ve been in church all my life, but for the first time I’m not afraid to die. I’m ready for the Lord to come." Well, nothing could thrill us more. So, you just keep praying that the Lord will continue to use us, and that the Holy Spirit can work through us.

Okay, we’re going to jump right in where we left off in Isaiah chapter 60. Now all of a sudden, instead of all the horrors of Israel’s iniquity and unbelief, we’re looking at the glorious prospect of when their Messiah will come and Israel will enjoy the blessings of the Kingdom. So, it’s a whole different scenario with entirely different language. All right, let’s just jump in at verse 4 - well, I’d like to read verse 3 where we left off in the last lesson.

"And the Gentiles (the non-Jewish world) shall come to thy light,…" Whose light? Israel’s. Now, too much of Christendom does not understand that Isaiah is not writing to the Gentile world. He’s only writing to Israel, and Christ was Israel’s light at first. Now, Christ will be the Light of the world. He is today, but in Israel’s antiquity it was to that nation that the prophets are addressing.

"And the Gentiles shall come to thy (Israel’s) light (their Messiah, their Redeemer.) and kings to the brightness of thy rising." Now verse 4, here is the instruction for the nation of Israel.

"Lift up thine eyes round about, and see: all they gather themselves together, they come to thee: thy sons shall come from far, and thy daughters shall be nursed at thy side. 5. Then thou shalt see, and flow together, and thine heart shall fear, and be enlarged; because the abundance of the sea shall be converted unto thee, the forces of the Gentiles shall come unto thee." All right, let’s go back and pick this up in Deuteronomy. I think we may have looked at this several programs back. But here in Deuteronomy 28 come the promises of these glorious blessings that are still awaiting the nation of Israel. They’re still going to come! Don’t you think for a minute they won’t. It’ll be in God’s own time, but it’s going to happen.

All right, Deuteronomy 28, we’ll just take a look at verse 1 and 2 just to open the chapter and then we’ll look at a couple of verses that are the fulfillment of all this. This is Moses writing 3500 years ago in 1500 BC.

"And it shall come to pass, if (See, it’s all conditional, depending on Israel’s ability to be obedient and believe.) thou shalt hearken diligently to the voice of the LORD thy God, to observe and to do all his commandments which I command thee this day, that the LORD thy God will set thee (Israel, the nation) on high above all nations of the earth: (See that? That’s God’s promise even through the prophet Moses.) 2. And all these blessings shall come on thee, and overtake thee, if thou shalt hearken unto the voice of the LORD thy God." All right, now all the various blessings are listed, but now, just for sake of time, let us come down to verse 12. This will never happen until they have the King and His Kingdom.

"The LORD shall open unto thee his good treasure, the heaven to give the rain unto thy land in his season, and to bless all the work of thine hand: and thou shalt lend unto many nations, and thou shalt not borrow. (They’re never going to be short of operating cash.) 13. And the LORD shall make thee the head, (that is of all the nations of the world) and not the tail; (Which they are now, you remember. They are the smallest nation, practically, on earth) and thou shalt be above only, and thou shalt not be beneath; (In other words, they’re not going to be at the bottom of the totem pole. They’re going to be the head nation once this glorious Kingdom comes in.) if that thou hearken unto the commandments of the LORD thy God, which I command thee this day, to observe and to do them:" Now, of course, Israel lost the first opportunity at His first advent. By the time He returns at His second advent we’re going to find that they will recognize Him, as we saw in the last half-hour, by the wounds in His hands. They will know that He is that promised Messiah, Redeemer, and King.

All right, back to Isaiah chapter 60. I want you to keep this upper most in your thinking - that the day is coming when Israel will be a blessing to the Gentile nations, and they (Israel) will be the greatest nation on the earth.

You know, it goes back to common sense numbers. You see, by the end of the Tribulation, when the whole planet will be totally destroyed as we understand it, and the vast majority of the population is going to be destroyed, yet there is that one-third of Israel that is going to be kept safe out in the desert. Israel’s population is about 15 million today. A third of that is five million. So, there are going to be five million Israelites that are going to come through the Tribulation. But all the other nations are only going to have a small percentage of survivors.

It’s like after a humongous earthquake today, four or five days after the earthquake they’ll find a few survivors in the rubble. Well, that’s an indication of the surviving Gentiles. So what does that tell you? There’ll only be a few in every Gentile nation, compared to five million Jews. So, if you start with five million, over maybe a few hundred thousand or a million, it follows that who’s going to be the greatest nation on earth? Israel. And they will be! Israel will be the greatest nation on earth.

Come all the way back to Isaiah chapter 2. In light of this it all makes sense, but you have to put the big picture together. Isaiah chapter 2 verse 2. This is where we really started in our whole study in Isaiah several months ago.

"And it shall come to pass in the last days,…" In other words, in that last thousand years of this old planet’s history, when the King will return and set up His glorious Kingdom, with the capital in Jerusalem. Now, look at the language.

"…that the mountain (or the Kingdom) of the LORD’s house shall be established in the top of the mountains,…" Now mountains and hills in Old Testament symbolism are kingdoms and nations, or empires, however you want to put it.

"…and shall be exalted above the hills; (but now here’s the key) and all nations shall flow unto it." What does that mean? It’s going to be the headquarters, the capital of the world, because it’ll be the crowning nation to which all the Gentile nations will subscribe.

All right, now back to Isaiah chapter 60 again. Here is the fulfillment of all these things. When the Redeemer will come to Zion, and he will be King of Kings and Lord of Lords. All right, now verse 6 - this is simply Old Testament language of tremendous activity or commerce and what have you.

"The multitude of camels (which of course were the primary source of transportation in Biblical times) shall cover thee, the dromedaries of Midian and Ephah; all they from Sheba shall come: they shall bring gold and incense; and they shall shew forth the praises of the LORD." See what that’s doing? The nations of the world are going to bring praise to the King of Kings, holding forth there in Jerusalem.

"All the flock of Kedar shall be gathered together unto thee, the rams of Nebaioth shall minister unto thee: they shall come up with acceptance on mine altar, and I will glorify the house of my glory." See what a difference that is from the previous chapters when we had to deal with Israel’s sin?

"Who are these that fly as a cloud, and as the doves to their windows? 9. Surely the isles shall wait for me, and the ships of Tarshish first, (Now, most Englishmen will think that Tarshish is a reference to England, but whatever.) to bring thy sons from far, their silver and their gold with them,…" Now, what does all this amount to? Well, whenever a conquering emperor would come in and take over a nation and the population, what would they do with their wealth? They would take it back to their own capital. When the Babylonians invaded and destroyed Jerusalem, they took all the wealth of Jerusalem back to Babylon. Well, this is going to be on a benevolent scale. Instead of robbing and pillaging, this is going to be a voluntary offering of all these things because of their adherence to the King of Glory.

"…their silver and their gold with them, unto the name of the LORD thy God, and to the Holy One of Israel, (why?) because he (God) hath glorified thee (the nation of Israel) 10. And the sons of strangers shall build up thy walls; and their kings shall minister unto thee: (See the obedience of all of the nations of the world to Israel’s king?) for in my wrath I smote thee, (back in their time of unbelief) but in my favor have I had mercy on thee." Remember how I opened the first program today? That we’ve got two sides of the question - Israel’s unbelief and God’s chastisement, Israel’s obedience and the blessings of God upon them. It’s just common sense.

"Therefore thy gates shall be open continually;…" Now, remember, this is probably spoken in symbolic language. If a city is sitting there ruling the world with open gates, what does that indicate? That no one is being withheld. It’s full access for everyone in that Kingdom world to the city of Jerusalem.

"…they shall not be shut day nor night; that men may bring unto thee the forces of the Gentiles, (See how the Gentiles are now being brought into the picture?) and that their kings may be brought. 12. For the nation and kingdom that will not serve thee will perish; (Well, what does it tell you? They’re either going to be part and parcel of it or they won’t even last.) yea, those nations shall be utterly wasted. 13. The glory of Lebanon (which was always the picture of the cedars of Lebanon) shall come unto thee, the fir tree, the pine tree, the box together, to beautify the place of my sanctuary; and I will make the place of my feet glorious. 14. The sons also of them that afflicted thee shall come bending unto thee; and all they that despised thee shall bow themselves down at the soles of thy feet; and they shall call thee, The city of the LORD, The Zion of the Holy One of Israel." See how plain all this is? This is Israel’s future.

Now even though today, for the most part, they’re a nation of iniquity and unbelief and their government is just as corrupt as anybody else’s government, the day will come when these believing Jews will have the King of Glory. They’re going to revel in all the blessings they have missed for these last 3000 years. All right, I’m going to bring you all the way down to verse 16:

"Thou shalt also suck the milk of the Gentiles, and shalt suck the breast of kings: (Instead of having to borrow it, it will just naturally flow into this Kingdom.) and thou shalt know that I the LORD am thy Savior and thy Redeemer, the mighty One of Jacob." See, we don’t lose the spiritual aspect.

Let’s come back to Luke chapter 1. Let’s look at it again, it never hurts to repeat. Luke chapter 1 - because this complements what Isaiah is talking about. Luke chapter 1 and we’ll jump in at verse 64. Now, here’s the backdrop. I think we rehearsed it in one of our previous tapings. The Lord announced the coming birth of John of the Baptist to his parents Zacharias and Elizabeth. The father, Zacharias, was stricken dumb, unable to speak. He was one of the priests operating in the Temple. Until John the Baptist was born, he was never able to speak a single word. But as soon as the baby was born:

"And his mouth was opened immediately, and his tongue loosed, and he spake, and praised God." Now here is one of those little remnants of Israel again, a true believing priest of God operating in the Temple.

"And fear came on all that dwelt around about them: and all these sayings were noised abroad throughout all the hill country of Judea. 66. And all they that heard them laid them up in their hearts, saying, What manner of child shall this be! (Now remember we’re not talking about Jesus, we’re talking about John the Baptist.) And the hand of the Lord was with him. 67. And his father (John the Baptist’s father) Zacharias was filled with the Holy Spirit,…" Remember, the Holy Spirit was operating long before Pentecost. All right, so the Holy Spirit came upon Zacharias and he spoke forth saying, now watch this very carefully because this is telling us what Israel was legitimately expecting. Legitimately. This is the voice of the Holy Spirit speaking through Zacharias.

"Blessed be the Lord God of (the world?) Israel; (this is all Jewish) for he hath visited and redeemed his people, (Israel.) 69. and hath raised up an horn of salvation (see there’s the spiritual connotation) for us in the house of his servant David; 70. As he spake by the mouth of his holy prophets, which have been since the world began: 71. That we (the nation of Israel) should be saved from our (sins? No.) enemies,…" We’re not dealing in the spiritual here, we’re dealing in the physical. That Israel will be spared from all her enemies. I’ve pointed this out many, many times. Who were their enemies at the time of Christ’s first advent? The same ones that you’ve got tonight. The Arab world. The Gentile world. They all hated the Jew then, as they hate them today.

All right, so this will turn the tables and, all of a sudden, instead of being the hated little nation of no consequence, they’re going to be the greatest nation on earth and all the world will respect them.

"…and from the hand of all that hate us; 72. To perform the mercy promised to our fathers, (see all the way back to Abraham) and to remember his holy covenant; (what covenant?) 73. The oath which he sware to our father Abraham," Now, you want to remember, what does the Abrahamic covenant contain? That the nation of Israel would be blessed supremely by the Creator God, but that also out of that nation would come the Redeemer for the whole human race. That was all promised to Abraham.

"That he (God) would grant unto us, (Israel) that we being delivered out of the hand of our enemies might serve him (God) without fear, 75. In holiness and righteousness…" Not in idolatry and covetousness and wickedness and immorality, but they would be a nation of holiness and righteousness.

"…before him, all the days of our life." That’s what Israel was looking for. Yet the main stream of Israel rejected it and consequently they were scattered into the nations of the world. Now they are back in the land and waiting for the Second Coming of Christ at which time they will certainly recognize Him and believe who He is. All right, back to Isaiah chapter 60, and verse 17.

"For brass I will bring gold, and for iron I will bring silver, and for wood brass, and for stone’s iron: I will also make thy officers peace, and thine exactors righteousness. (Now here comes another promise.) 18. Violence shall no more be heard in thy land,…" Quite the opposite from what we had earlier isn’t it? Because what did they have before? They had violence and murder and dishonesty. It’s going to be a total opposite.

"…wasting nor destruction within thy borders; (none of that) but thou shalt call thy walls Salvation, and thy gates Praise. 19. The sun shall be no more thy light by day; neither for brightness shall the moon give light unto thee: but the LORD shall be unto thee an everlasting light, and thy God thy glory." Now, that brings up a question. Are we going to have the sun, moon, and stars during the Kingdom. Yes. Because this planet is not going to change its position in the solar system. It’s going to be renovated, it’s going to be made like the Garden of Eden, but it’s not going to lose the sun and the moon and the stars. But now, here’s the glorious part. When Christ is ruling from Jerusalem, His eminence will be so bright that it will cause the sun to disappear like stars do in the daylight.

Think about that for a minute. They’re still going to be out there, but His brightness will be so beyond the sun and the moon and the stars that they won’t even be visible. Let me give you a good illustration, I think I’ve got time. Come back with me to Matthew, chapter 17, maybe this will help us understand the glory, the glory that’s yet coming to this old planet. Matthew 17, and remember this is the same person that’s coming back. Here of course He’s in His earthly ministry, He’s in His body of humiliation, but when He returns He’s going to be in His glorified, resurrected body. This is just a little glimpse of it, remember, just a little window.

"And after six day Jesus taketh Peter, James, and John his brother, and bringeth them up into an high mountain apart, 2. And was transfigured before them: (He was suddenly changed.) and his face did shine as the (what?) sun, and his raiment was white as the light." Now, do you get a little picture of that? I think those three men must have almost fallen down as dead men when they experienced that glorious light of the transfigured Jesus of Nazareth. And this is just a little preview. So, when He returns and sets up His Kingdom in Jerusalem, His brightness will be so exceedingly bright that the sun and the stars and the moon won’t even be discernible. All right, back to Isaiah chapter 60 and then it’s almost time to wind it up. Verse 20:

"Thy sun (not the sun out there in solar space, but Israel’s son, the Son of Righteousness, the God of Glory who is now ruling in Jerusalem) shall no more go down; neither shall thy moon withdraw itself: for the LORD (Jesus the Christ) shall be thy everlasting light,…" Have you ever seen this before? I’ll bet most people haven’t, but this is going to be the glory of His presence as He rules and reigns from Jerusalem. He will be so bright that Israel won’t even need the light from the solar system.

"…and the days of thy mourning shall be ended." Now listen, you all know, for the most part, what has been the existence of Israel down through history? Misery. Unbelief. My, they have been tortured and tormented. We all are aware of the Holocaust. We’re even aware today of the hatred that’s extended toward the Jewish people, just because they’re Jews. The Arabs spew their hate, just because they’re Jews. They haven’t done anything to the Arabs. That will all end.

"Thy people also shall be all righteous: (There won’t be an unbeliever in their midst.) they shall inherit the land forever, (No Arab is going to stand in their way.) the branch of my planting, the work of my hands, that I (God says) may be glorified. 22. A little one shall become a thousand, and a small one a strong nation:" Now, this is all just to indicate how the nation of Israel is going to prosper in everything they touch. Their population is going to explode. Their wealth is going to explode. They are going to be everything that any nation on earth could ever hope to be. And the Lord says:

"…I the LORD will hasten it in his time." We’re getting there fast, and we think we’re close.

Once again, we always like to make it plain that we’re just a simple Bible study. We’re not associated with any one group. We’re not underwritten by anyone. The Lord just keeps supplying our every need, and, consequently, I have to thank all of you out there in television for your prayer support, your financial support, and my, how we enjoy your letters! Especially when folks write and tell us that after hearing us teach salvation, they have become true believers. Well, we give God credit for opening hearts so that you may believe in your heart for your salvation what Paul tells us in I Corinthians 15:1-4 "that Christ died for your sins, was buried, and rose again."

You know, so many folk think there’s got to be more to receiving salvation than that, but you see, that’s all God requires. In fact, if you try to do more than just believe that, then Christ shall profit you nothing, the Apostle Paul tells us in Galatians chapter 5.

All right, we’re going to keep right on going where we left off in the book of Isaiah. Now, hopefully, in the next four to eight programs, we’ll be winding up the book of Isaiah. But today we’re going to be in chapter 61. Again, like we’ve done almost all the way through Isaiah, in this first half-hour of an afternoon of taping I like to always remind folks of the wherewithal and the why and the who of these various books.

Isaiah was a prophet writing about 700 BC. He writes about 100 years before the prophesied judgment that would come upon Israel would actually come to pass. That’s why I always like to emphasize that God’s wheels grind slowly. Even though Isaiah prophesies these things as if they’re going to happen next month or next year, it was almost a hundred years before the first of these prophecies became a reality.

Then, secondly, I always like to mention that Isaiah is not just talking about the immediate, the hundred years, but he’s talking all the way up to the time of Christ’s first advent. The first advent was followed by the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple by the Romans in 70 AD. Then, he leaps even still further, beyond the Church Age, beyond the next 2000 years of prophecy, to the return of Christ at His Second Coming, which is preceded by the horrors of the Tribulation. So, we’re going to be looking at that aspect of prophecy today in Isaiah 61, as the one thousand year Kingdom rule now becomes more and more the center of prophecy. Now, there again, I always have to stop and explain that most of Christendom knows nothing of this thousand year rule and reign of Christ.

Of course, it was all precipitated by a fellow way back in the early years of the church by the name of Origen. He came up with the graphic idea that since Israel had rejected their Messiah and crucified Him, that God had, in turn, cast His judgment upon them by destroying the city and the Temple. He scattered the Jews throughout the then known world in 70 AD, therefore God must be all through with the Nation of Israel.

From that came this whole idea of no end-time prophecy or what I’ve always called Amillennialism, which now is more often referred to as "replacement theology." The whole following of that is that if Christ, and God, is through with the Nation of Israel and they have disappeared from the scene, then it follows that none of these end-time events can happen according to Scripture, because, after all, the Jew is gone.

All right, so we’re going to go into chapter 61 as we come toward the end of the book of Isaiah. Here we have the unfolding of literally the whole prophetic program. Now, before the program is over, I’m going to go to a timeline on the board. We’re going to show how all the Old Testament prophecies, especially since the call of Abraham and all the way up through the Book of Revelation, not counting Paul’s epistles, are all looking forward to the things that would unfold for the Nation of Israel. Everything concerning the Old Testament prophecies is zeroed in on the Jewish people, the Nation of Israel. So, you take Israel out of the mix and you cannot fulfill prophecy. It’s just as simple as that. So, contrary to a lot of these theologians, you see, I can look at all these Scripture verses and say, "Now, you’re going to tell me that’s not valid? That God lied?" But, He didn’t, and they are still valid.

All right, let’s start, if you will, here in the studio audience and those of you out in television with me, in Isaiah 61 verse 1, where the prophet writes:

"The Spirit of Lord GOD is upon me; (Now, that’s a reference to the Holy Spirit.) because the LORD (Now, remember, that’s the term of Jehovah that the Jew considered as the God of Israel.) hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the broken hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound; 2. To proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD, and the day of vengeance of our God; (and then that would be followed by) to comfort all that mourn;" Now, I’m going to stop there, because this is a portion of Scripture that Jesus used in the synagogue in Nazareth.

Now, remember, even though Jesus at one time told His questioners that He could not give them the day or the hour that all these things would come to finality, we know on the other hand, from His Deity side, He could have told them the exact day and hour. So, we always have to keep these things straight that never take away from His Deity. He was the God of Creation. In His earthly ministry He could have spoken one word and just as much could have happened as it did in the beginning. He had never laid aside His Deity. He had merely laid aside His Glory.

So, when they asked a question, yes, from his human side, He could not answer it. Never forget that in John’s Gospel, chapter 14, when the disciples were questioning him and Philip, you remember, said, "Lord, shew us the Father, and it sufficeth us." What was Jesus’ answer? "Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? He that hath seen me hath seen (who?) the Father;…" So, what does that tell you? Well, from the Father aspect of His Triune relationship, He could have given the exact day and hour.

All right, it is so obvious as we turn to Luke chapter 4. I want you to keep your hand in Isaiah 61, because we’re going to flip back and forth now and see how beautifully all of this fits together. I don’t intend to get it all done in this half-hour. We may have to spill over into the next program in order to cover all this, but we’re going to take it slowly and surely. I don’t care if it takes all four programs. We’ll take whatever time it takes. Luke chapter 4 and we’ll drop right in at verse 16.

"And he (Jesus) came to Nazareth, (His hometown) where he had been brought up: and, as his custom was, he went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day, (the seventh day Sabbath. Now, I always have to remind folks that in Christ’s earthly ministry He lived under the Law. He never abrogated it in one way or another.) and stood up for to read." In other words, that was their prerogative in synagogue. If somebody had something to say or something they wanted to read, they would just stand up and be recognized. So, this is what Jesus does. He stands up to read.

"And there was delivered unto him the book of the prophet Isaiah. (Which, of course, He must have asked for. Now, when I say must have, there are times in Scripture where you have to read between the lines. It can’t tell you every detail, so you read between the lines. So, He must have requested the Book of Isaiah.) And when he had opened the book, (Which was really a scroll, not a book as we understand.) he found the place where it was written." Now, again, what does that indicate? Well, He looked for it. He didn’t just open the Book of Isaiah and start reading. He knew exactly what He wanted to read at this particular time. So, he’s going to read and quote directly from what we just read in Isaiah 61 verses 1 and 2, and He reads:

"The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor;…" Now, here’s where I always have to stop. What Gospel was Jesus preaching in His earthly ministry? Well, not our Gospel of Grace. He hadn’t died yet! He couldn’t preach faith in His death, burial, and resurrection. It hadn’t happened.

Nobody knew it was going to happen except God Himself. So, now back up with me to Matthew. Keep your hand in Luke! Keep your hand in Isaiah! We’ll try to keep them all together. Back up with me to Matthew chapter 9. The Scripture is explicit, and yet most of Christendom refuses to see the difference. Matthew chapter 9, verse 35, now your Bible says it just as well as mine, so it’s not something I’ve dreamed up. It’s in the Book.

"And Jesus went about all the cities and the villages, teaching in their synagogues, (See how Jewish this is?) and preaching the gospel of the (Grace of God? No! The what?) kingdom,…" He uses that same term again, now turn ahead with me to Matthew 24, when He is referring to the future time, the seven years of Tribulation when the 144,000 Jews will go around the world and perform evangelism like the Church has never dreamed of. They will finally fulfill the Great Commission, to "go into all the world;" they’ll do it. But again they’re not going to be preaching the Gospel of the Grace of God, Jesus Himself tells us differently - Matthew 24 verse 14. If you’ve got a red-letter edition, it’ll be in red. He’s the One that is saying it. Matthew 24 verse 14, and He’s talking about the Tribulation. The whole chapter is Tribulation ground. So, now He comes to verse 14.

"And this gospel of the kingdom (See how plain that is? Just exactly the same term that He used in Matthew chapter 9.) shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then (what?) shall the end come.." Well, sure, the Gospel of the Kingdom will come back into the picture, once the Gospel of Grace has run its course in this Age of Grace. When we’re taken out of the way, then the Gospel of the Kingdom will pick back up again just like it was in Jesus’ day. It will be proclaimed during the seven years of Tribulation. By the time that seven years is over, those 144,000 Jews, with supernatural power and ability, will have indeed covered every tongue and tribe and dialect on the planet. Revelation tells us they will.

Okay, now then, come back with me to Luke chapter 4 and here we have Jesus, again under the Law, reading from Isaiah in the synagogue. He says, as He reads from Isaiah:

"…because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the broken hearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, 19. To preach the acceptable year of the Lord. (Then what did He do?) 20. And he closed the book, (scroll) and he gave it again to the minister, and sat down. (All right, don’t stop there. Let’s read on.) And the eyes of all them that were in the synagogue were fastened on him." Now, I like to stretch that a little, if I may. They weren’t just fastened, they were what? They were staring at Him. I imagine He could almost feel those eyes staring at Him, as what kind of an individual was this that could do what He had just done? Most people don’t know what He did. Well, I’m going to show you in just a minute. All right, so now, when He realized that they were almost shook up, He stood up again now in verse 21.

"And he began to say unto them, This day (Speaking in His generalized first advent, these three years of His earthly ministry.) is this scripture fulfilled in your ears." Now, watch what that says. That Scripture was what? "Fulfilled."

Everything that He had just read out of Isaiah, He had now accomplished in those few years of His earthly ministry. All right, now let’s go back to Isaiah 61 and see what He did that shook up the Jews in that Synagogue. Again, you’ve got to compare, so keep your hand in Luke and flip back and forth. Isaiah 61 again and we won’t read it all, but I’m just going to jump up to verse 2, to the closing words of what He read in the synagogue before He closed the scroll and sat down.

"To proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD, (That’s where He stopped and sat down.) and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all that mourn;" Now, goodness, if you have any knowledge of Scripture whatsoever, you know that the rest of that verse didn’t happen within the next few days after He spoke. In fact, it hasn’t happen yet, but it will someday, and we think we’re getting close.

But His was the progression of prophecy. After He had come at His first advent, and as we read so often from Romans chapter 15 verse 8, I won’t have you look at it, because I’ve used it so often most of you should know it as well as I do. "Now I say that Jesus Christ was (past tense. Now that’s Paul writing in about 60 AD, after the fact.) a minister of the circumcision (Who are the circumcision? Israel!) for the truth of God, (It wasn’t something Paul dreamed up. Then what does the rest of the verse say?) to confirm (fulfill) the promises made unto the fathers."

Well, what’s He telling us? Christ came to fulfill all the prophetic promises that had been written up through the Old Testament time. This is why He calls it, "the acceptable year of the LORD." Israel should have known who He was. How many times haven’t you heard me say that? Especially when I teach I Corinthians. Israel should have known. Israel could have known who He was. Why didn’t they know? Their unbelief. It was their acceptable time. He presented Himself with His valid credentials of miracles and signs and wonders. Israel should have been able to get it, but they refused.

It’s just like most of Christendom today. They’re not blind because they can’t help it. They’re blind because they don’t want to be any different. They don’t want to see the truth. "Just leave me alone. I’m comfortable." Well, Israel was the same way. They were blinded in their unbelief.

All right, now in order to make my point, I’ve got my board set now for my timeline. I can come up here and just rehearse from the Old Testament view. I want you to just stay focused on our top timeline, coming out of the Old Testament and all these prophecies of Moses back in the Torah. Then, beginning with the Psalms and we’re going to look at that in just a moment. Psalms is full of prophecies. In fact, Psalms 2 is the outline of human history. Now, these Old Testament prophets couldn’t understand it. It was beyond them, and we’ll show you that in just a minute. As a result of all of these prophecies of a King and a Kingdom, Christ came and began His three years of earthly ministry, signs, wonders, and miracles. Then what happened? Israel rejected it all, and they demanded His death. Of course, you know here’s another thing that people just don’t realize - Christ had to be lifted up. Didn’t He? "As the serpent was in the wilderness, so Christ had to be lifted up."

Now, what was the official means of executing the Jewish people? What was the official death? Stoning. Well, you see, if you stone someone you can’t lift him up like the serpent in the wilderness. So, you see, it couldn’t be left to the Jews to bring about His death. But the Romans, for a couple of hundred years, had been using this system of execution called crucifixion. So, this is according to God’s Divine purposes. Israel demanded it, but they couldn’t carry it out, because it wouldn’t be the right kind of death. So, Rome is brought into it and the Jews and Rome together bring about, not only His death, but also a death whereby He was lifted up and would draw all men unto Him.

All right, so you bring about the crucifixion, a supernatural act of God to fulfill His blueprint for the ages. All right, after He’s rejected there are forty days to prove, again, His resurrection life, and then He ascended back to glory. Now, according to all of our Old Testament, as we’re going to be seeing throughout the afternoon, the next event on the prophetic program was the Tribulation. The seven years of horror and God’s wrath and vexation to be followed by, as Isaiah has been showing over and over, after the judgment would always be what? The blessings. That’s been over and over. But now, this is the final one. So, after the horrors of God’s chastisement and His wrath, especially on the Nation of Israel, Christ would return and bring in the glory of the Kingdom.

Now, what’s missing? Well, we find it down on the second line, that contrary, or without any knowledge of the Old Testament prophecies, there is not one word of prophecy concerning the out-calling the Body of Christ, or what we call the Church Age, which is being completed as we speak. But, we’ll leave that for a later half-hour. Let’s stay on this top line which is all Israel. We did this when we started the little Book of James, but that’s a long time ago already.

Now, I’m going to do something that we haven’t done for a long time, to better understand what happened in Isaiah 61. I’m going to take you back to Psalms chapter 2. I can see already that we’re not going to get very far in this half-hour, but Psalms chapter 2 is what I call an almost perfect outline of this Old Testament prophetic program. That’s the best way I can put it. All of these Old Testament prophesies, looking forward to the crucifixion and the ascension; it’s all back there. Then would come the horrors of the Tribulation, then Christ returns and He would set up His glorious Kingdom. All right, Psalms chapter 2 puts it in a nutshell. It helps us understand other portions of Scripture that may not designate every aspect of this but only some of them. All right, Psalms chapter 2, we’ll read the whole first part of the chapter, starting at verse 1.

"Why do the heathen (the non-Jewish world) rage, and the people (That is the Nation of Israel.) imagine a vain thing?" Now, you’ve got the whole human race involved. You’ve got the non-Jewish world, the ‘heathen,’ and you’ve got Israel. As far as Scripture is concerned, those are the two major categories of the human race – Israel and the Gentiles.

"The kings of the earth set themselves, (in their pomp and their circumstance) and the rulers (Israel. Their religious leaders) take counsel (What’s the next word?) together, against the LORD,…" What do they call that now? Multilateralism? Well, anyhow, when they all get their heads together - you’ve already got it in Scripture. So, the Jewish leaders and the leaders of the Roman Empire decide together to put this innocent man to death. So they:

"…take counsel together, against the LORD, (Now, this is a prophecy concerning His rejection and His crucifixion, remember.) and against His anointed, (that is to be the Messiah of Israel) saying, 3. Let us break their bands asunder,…" Now, here’s the little tidbits of Scripture that I know most people miss. Why the pronoun "their" when it’s talking to God, or speaking of God, rather. Well, because you see, God is a plurality. God is a Triune God, so when we refer to Him honestly, it has to be in the plural pronoun. So, this is why it is. The world says, let us break God’s bands asunder, but God is plural, so the pronoun is "their."

"…and cast away their cords from us." What are they saying? We don’t want God ruling in our affairs. We don’t want Him in our business. You know what? It hasn’t changed a bit. Do you realize that the European Union’s new constitution, contrary to all the efforts of the Pope and various other Christian leaders in Europe, has not one word of reference to God or Christianity. They don’t want God in their business. Well, things haven’t changed a bit. It was no different back here with Rome and Israel. They wanted nothing to do with Him. Now, verse 4, and because of man’s foolishness:

"He (GOD) that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh: the Lord shall have them in derision." That’s what it says. God will sit in the heavens laughing. It will not be a laugh of amusement. There’s nothing funny about all this, but it’s a laugh of what? Scorn. And ridicule. The foolishness of men!

Okay, so here’s the whole picture. As Rome and Israel come together and consort together to get rid of this representative of the Deity, they bring about the crucifixion. So, we can’t blame the Jew alone. We can’t blame Rome alone. It took both sides of the question to bring it all about. Well, we’ll pick it up in our next half-hour.

All right, again, we always like to thank our listening audience for all of your prayer support, your financial, everything. We couldn’t do it without you. Whether your gifts are one dollar or more doesn’t matter, the Lord uses the small as much as the great. It’s enough that we can pay the bills, and that’s all we’re concerned about. When the girls come in and tell me the bills are all paid and we’ve got a little left in the checking account, that’s all that matters. So, keep praying for the ministry, because the Lord is reaching a lot of hearts! My goodness, you ought to read our mail!

All right, let’s go right back where we left off in our last half-hour. We started off in Isaiah 61:1-2. Jesus read from that portion in Luke 4:18-19, but He did something unusual by stopping in the middle of a verse. We’re picking up the meanings of all of these various verses and how we can split them when they end with His first advent and the rest of the verse is pushed out into the future. All right, so instead of starting in Isaiah 61, we’re going to go right back to Psalms 2, where we left off in our last half-hour. We’re showing how Psalms 2 is a beautiful outline of the whole Old Testament program. That’s the best word I can put on it. It’s just laid out in that chapter.

All right, we’re going to go back, and for just a little quick review we’ll start with verse 1 of chapter 2 of Psalms. Remembering what we just said a few moments ago, that here we have the bringing together of the Gentile and the Jewish authorities to bring about the crucifixion.

"Why do the heathen (the non-Jew) rage, and the people (Israel) imagine a vain thing? 2. The kings of the earth (in this case, Rome) set themselves, and the rulers (of Israel) take counsel together, against the LORD, and against his anointed, saying" You know how they did it, even as we reflect back on the movie "The Passion of the Christ."

"Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us." Or God’s leadership. They didn’t want it. Then verse 4 is God’s response from Heaven. It was that He sat and laughed a laugh of derision.

"He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh: the LORD shall have them in derision." After they’ve rejected the Messiah and put Him to death, this is the next step in the Old Testament prophetic program.

"Then (the next event) shall he speak unto them (Jew and Gentile) in his (what?) wrath,…" Now, that’s the exact opposite from grace. So, what are we talking about? Well, we’re talking about those seven years of Tribulation that was to follow.

Now, we’ve got my timeline back up here and we’re going to stay on this top line. After His three years of ministry, He’s crucified. He ascends back to glory. Now, according to all these references that we’re going to look at, the next thing to happen was the Tribulation. They had no idea that there was going to be a two thousand-year interruption, which is coming to a close even as we speak. Nobody had any idea of that. They were just looking for the Tribulation to come, ending with the Second Coming, and then would come in the 1000 year Kingdom Age. All right, now look at it here. After He’s crucified then He would:

"Then shall he speak unto them in his wrath, and vex them in his sore displeasure." Which will be the Tribulation. But it doesn’t stop there. The next verse is the next segment of the prophetic program. What is it? The Kingdom.

"Yet I have set my king (When Christ will return as King of Kings and Lord of Lord’s. That’s all according to prophecy.) upon my holy hill of Zion." Now, isn’t that exactly what all of prophecy is talking about? When Christ would return and bring in a Kingdom that would cover the whole planet. You can just come on down through this little Psalms 2 and it makes reference to how God the Son will rule, like in verse 8.

"Ask of me, and I shall give thee (that is the Son, I will give you) the heathen for thine inheritance,…" So, He’s not going to be just the ruler of Israel. He’s going to rule the whole world.

Now, a verse is coming to mind, and I’ve got to turn to them when they come to mind. Keep your hand in Psalms and jump all the way up to Zechariah, chapter 14. We’ll be coming to it later, but I want this verse right now.

"Behold the day of the LORD cometh, (that’s the Tribulation, the seven years) and thy spoil shall be divided in the midst of thee. (Now, here’s Armageddon) 2. For I will gather all nations against Jerusalem to battle;…" Then, verse 3:

"Then shall the LORD go forth, (His Second Coming) and fight against those nations,…" Now, verse 4 is in perfect accord with Acts chapter 1 when the angel told the eleven, "This same Jesus which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner…." You know how I always put that. How did He leave the Mount of Olives? Head first. Like a rocket! He just went up. Now, what does Zechariah say? He’s