Isaiah, Chapter 29

We're privileged to be able to proceed in God's word through the book of Isaiah here. And if you're joining with us here this morning, we have kind of an exceptional number of pages here. Six, usually it's about four. But you can track with us here. This is a page number on your handout in the lower corner. And some of the slides I might show up here won't correspond to what you have there. That is, it's not on the handout. So anyway, you can track with us that way.

Our pattern here, as we've been going through Isaiah since the beginning of December, is to first summarize each of the chapters and then zero in on a focal point passage, sometimes, as we did last week, just one verse. In this case, it's a little bit longer passage.

If we look at Isaiah 29, where our passage draws from here this morning, the first 16 verses speak of the difficult time that is to come, still yet to come, upon the Jews in Israel, this time that is called the Tribulation. Nations will come upon Israel during that time.

The Jewish people will come to a place where they will despair of hope. In spite of their military prowess, they will come to a place where they'll say, we can't survive this based on the power and the abilities that we have. They will come to recognize that the Lord is their only hope. they will finally come to a place of seeing the Lord as their only hope and the Lord is indeed their certain hope because the Lord carries out a saving for the nation. It is clear to all of them that they've been saved through Him.

The next verses, 17-24, will be the verses we'll be taking a look at. These are verses that describe how things will be when Christ returns to this earth to reign upon the earth over the entire earth from Jerusalem. Here's the timeline that goes along with the passage we'll be looking at here. Verses 17 through 24 describe what is known as the millennial kingdom, the thousand year reign of Christ upon this present earth. And so that's described there. Right before that is the time that's the tribulation period that we talked about, a seven year period of time. you are somewhere about here, okay? Just so you get oriented. All right.

Human beings who populate this millennial kingdom, this time yet to come, will be coming out of the tribulation and surviving that. They'll be composed of Gentiles and Jews, and they will be the ones who will populate the earth entirely into that 1,000 year period of time. We of the church, however, are going to be a different spot. Those who are saved from the time of Acts 2, the day of Pentecost, until the rapture, when the Lord takes us home just prior to this tribulation period we pointed out, will have resurrected bodies. We will return and be with the Lord during this time that Isaiah is describing, all of us in resurrection bodies. All of us. So we will be there. What he's describing, you'll see it. You'll be there. But we'll be there as the church, which Isaiah has not described. So we will look to New Testament passages to reveal that.

Now, I'm going to bring up this name Ariel. I have to first make clear this is not the mermaid, not the little mermaid, not that. No, this is instead a name for Jerusalem that, in fact, only shows up here in this chapter in Isaiah. Some have said that Ariel means Lion of God, and it's one of those compound words. It could mean that. In this context, however, I think Isaiah intended for it to convey something else. Let me explain why.

The last half of verse 1 says this, Add year to year, observe your feasts on schedule. You see, Israel was given initially seven appointed feasts according to the law of Moses. They added some to that. For example, a number of us are familiar with Hanukkah, which was added between the time of the Old and New Testaments. They added Purim, which is based on the book of Esther and the events there. But the first seven feasts were ones that were laid out in the law of Moses. And in Isaiah's time, those were the ones that were in effect.

Now, you might ask the question, how can aerial have two meanings? That doesn't seem normal. It's because you have compound words, and when you do that, it's possible that something could reasonably and legitimately have two different possible meanings. Here's an example. N-O-W-H-E-R-E in English, does it convey now here or nowhere? Okay? Depends on how you divide it up. So when they compound a word, it can mean different things. And so Ariel also can mean altar hearth. And that would mean here, here is Jerusalem. It is the one place where the Jews have a legitimate temple. It is a place where they have an altar burning fire all the time.

According to the Mosaic law, they were required to do so. And they would keep the fire burning for all these annual feasts that they would have, all seven of them. And so people coming to Jerusalem, and a great number of people that were there during these feasts were visitors from out of the area, sometimes way out of the area, coming to Jerusalem. And you could always, as you came into Jerusalem, coming over that same hill, if you came anywhere from along the east, the same one that Jesus came over that day in what is called the Triumphal Entry, you would see this pillar of smoke coming up off the altars all the time, constantly. So here are the seven feasts of the Torah.

Here they are laid out on the calendar. What you see is they're bunched up in the spring and then another bunch of them in the fall. So a Jew who wanted to make a pilgrimage to Jerusalem could be there during that time, but the altar hearth would be continuing all the time with a fire, nonstop. You have this chart, and I'll let you memorize that at your leisure. A test will be on the way out.

Okay, so who was responsible for the fire? A big question. Under the Mosaic law, they were not to let the fire go out. You can imagine they gave that to the young priests. Hey, your job is to keep that fire going all the time. But it's 2 a.m. I don't care. Keep the fire going, okay? Always had to keep the fire burning continuously. You must not let it go out. According to the Mosaic law, keeping the fire going is the people's job, specifically assigned to the priests. The people must keep the fire going.

Now, different assignment in the church. We don't have a temple in Jerusalem, do we? In fact, the Jews don't even now. Instead, we have a different imperative. Do not quench the Spirit. Do not put out the Spirit's fire, Paul wrote to the church in Thessalonica.

It's easy to think that our Christian faith is just sort of a machine that you crank. Oh, we go through the motions. We just sort of crank through the activities. But that's not God's design, is it? What was happening in Israel's day is they were saying, okay, we've got these feasts, we've got the festivals, and we'll do all our stuff like we're supposed to do. They were going through the motions. They were going through the motions.

It's easy for our Christian faith to be that way, too. For us to just drop into a machine-like activity. That's not God's design. The Christian life is designed by God to be His life constantly provided for us. John 10, 28, he starts off, he says, I am constantly giving them life. Or Paul writes in Colossians 3, 4, Christ who is, present tense, our life.

It's not up to us to keep the machine going as if by a crank. It's not up to us to keep it empowered. It's His to do. Biblical faith isn't a you turn the crank to keep it going kind of deal. You don't just grab the crank and keep it turning and the Lord says you keep cranking and you keep going.

No. It's His life. He is the One who energizes us. The Lord calls us instead to behold Him and His Word by faith, so that we are then transformed from glory to glory. We will, and this is a promise, this is predestined, we will be conformed to the image of the Lord of Life. It's God's to-do. It's not ours. We don't have to keep the fire burning. Our place is not to quench the fire. Let's take a look at the specific passage we've got here. One of the things we want to point out is that this passage through and through is full of the Hebrew poetry patterns.

Remember those? We've kind of pointed these out with some interesting little things that fly across the screen in order to keep you awake. But so, you know, HPP, Hal-Phil-Phil, Hebrew poetry pattern is an Isaiah hippie. However, it helps you remember it.

That's what we're doing here. We're looking at some patterns. Why do we look at the patterns? We've been through now 29 chapters as of today of Isaiah, and we pointed these out. I want to go back and reiterate, why are we looking at these patterns besides it's interesting?

First thing is they help us in making sure we are interpreting a passage correctly. If something is restated two or even three times, does that help you? Yeah. Not just repeating the same words, but stating the same truth. Because remember, the Hebrew poetry doesn't rhyme sounds like we do in English, it rhymes meanings. So if you have the same meaning or a similar meaning restated two or three times, that helps us make sure we're understanding what's being said. They're also commonly present as one or more restatements. The same thing, it gives us a cross-check. Did we understand what this said? Did we understand what this said? A cross-check from one to the next.

They also are stated as complementary parts of a whole. It'll state something about heaven and earth in the same way we saw in Genesis 1. God created the heavens and the earth in the Jewish mind to state two halves of the whole was to underscore the entire thing. God made heaven and earth was a way of saying He made everything. So the two halves of a whole also help us to understand the passage. Okay, here are some examples there.

In verse 18, on that day the deaf will hear the words of a book. Isn't that an interesting way of saying it? And out of their gloom and darkness, the eyes of the blind will see. The afflicted will increase their gladness in the Lord, and the needy of mankind will rejoice in the Holy One of Israel.

Restatement of the same idea, so that we understand the passage better. Here's the next one, for the ruthless will come to an end, the scorner will be finished, all who are in town doing evil will be cut off. The pattern of will, will, will. And then restatement each time. Or here's one, Jacob shall not now be ashamed, nor shall his face now turn pale. In verse 23, we have a triple statement there of the same truth. And then finally, the last one. Similar, and there's a distinction even though it looks similar, and we'll look into that in a minute.

One of the other points we want to make is that Isaiah is talking about the Gentiles and Israel. He is not revealing about the church yet, because as we saw some time ago studying Ephesians chapter 3, the church is not described in Isaiah. We get that out of the New Testament. But still, it's valuable for us to read Isaiah and to study it.

Why? There's a lot of things that haven't changed. And, like this time here, you will be there. You will see this. What hasn't changed? God's character has not changed, has it? God's character has not changed at all. He was telling the Jews, and we've seen through Isaiah, I will send a Savior. The advantage we have now is we can look back on that, but we see what Isaiah foretold. Also, the character of man has not changed, except for those who have been saved. And so there are things that are constant.

The Gentiles are an earthly ethnic distinction. The Jews, Israel, is an earthly ethnic distinction. The Church is a heavenly people of no ethnic distinction. Paul says, in Christ there is neither Jew nor Greek. No ethnic distinction in Christ. This morning's passage looks at the time ahead when all three of these groups will focus on Christ. The Church entirely as a heavenly resurrected people. All right, today we're going to be serving an eight-course meal. You ready for that? What we're going to be doing is stepping through these eight verses here and go through them one at a time.

So I hope I didn't get your stomachs going too quickly there. Alright. Now, there's this phrase that pops up, a little while. Do you know what a little while is? And you've got to get an idea of when these prophets say a little while. What does that mean? I'll tell you what a little while is. Do you know what it is? A little while is twenty years ago. What do I mean by that? Twenty years ago, my daughter would say, oh daddy, as a little three-year-old, that was a little while, okay? Not the same kind of while, we're talking about a different one. Okay.

A little while, the Old Testament prophets would frequently use this phrase, a little while, and as we've seen in Isaiah before, in that day, to point to a future time. Sometimes it would be a time that was maybe years away. In this case, it's many centuries away and yet to be fulfilled at this point in time. We as human beings certainly wouldn't call it a little while, but it was a prophetic way of saying in a time yet to come and in truth, not so long after all.

Haggai 2, 6 and 7 says, for thus says the Lord of hosts, once more in a little while, I'm going to shake the heavens and the earth. This is the tribulation period that we have spoken about here. I will shake the nations, and they will come with the wealth of all nations. I will fill this house with glory, says the Lord of hosts. Heck, I was talking about the temple at that point in time.

So this is the use of a little while. This prophecy has not yet been fulfilled, just like Isaiah's. So a little while can be thousands of years. So be patient, right? Now, this first verse is in not yet a little while before Lebanon will be turned into a fertile field, and a fertile field will be considered as a forest. We have to remember that in Isaiah's day, the Assyrians were going into Lebanon, the nation just north of Israel. You can see it on the satellite map there, a nice green area with desert except for Lebanon and Israel.

The Assyrians were trampling things and just ruining crops. People couldn't get to their crops because they were having to defend themselves. And so the Assyrians caused great ruin to the land. What was then destroyed in Isaiah's day, what was then trampled on, trees and vines broken down, the crops destroyed, would be turned into unimaginable fertility during the time when the Messiah comes. So much fertility Lebanon will be turned into a fertile field in what is considered a fertile field now in Lebanon. They'll say, oh that? You think that's fertile? That's nothing. Oh, that's just like a forest. It's like a forest floor. No, this will be fertile beyond imagination. That's what he's talking about here. Unimaginably fertile in this time to come.

The next verse there, on that day the deaf will hear the words of a book, and out of the gloom and darkness of the eyes of the blind will see. Certainly, even with today's technologies, deafness and blindness can be some pretty intense handicaps, although I've known some people to overcome them phenomenally. Nonetheless, they can be difficult. There are reasons, however, to see this not as figurative, but as literal, that he will heal, blind eyes, that he will heal deaf ears.

And one reason for that being what happened when Christ came the first time. Is that what he did? He did exactly that. And as a matter of fact, when John the Baptist asked, he sent a messenger, Christ, is it really you? He says, go tell John the Baptist, the blind see, the deaf hear.

But for the church, there's a different message. While the apostles certainly did physical healing, and that was a part of their validation as apostles, there is a different kind of hearing and seeing that the Lord should look to, that the New Testament Scripture clearly points us to. So how do we take this now? We saw as we went through Revelation, and this is getting to be almost four and a half years now, four and a half years ago, we saw seven times there at the end of each one of the messages to the seven churches.

He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. Do you hear spiritually? I've written it physically. Do you hear spiritually? That's his focus. Or this one. Fixing our eyes on Jesus. This isn't a physical thing. This is a spiritual eye, as he's talking about here. For the church, the eyes and ears that the appeal goes towards is spiritual, not physical. The Lord wants us to see spiritually. The Lord wants us to hear spiritually. And spiritually speaking, the call here is to fix our eyes upon Jesus.

That we gaze upon Him. not just glance, not just look at a picture, but we gaze upon his infinitely wonderful character, that we behold him. Not a quick glance, not an academic look, but him personally. Paul wrote, as we saw in Ephesians, studying through that the first chapter, the eyes of your heart, and I translate this based on what I see the Greek saying, having been enlightened so that you will know what is the hope of his calling.

What are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints? Do you realize what that says? It's not our inheritance in Him, His inheritance in the saints. The Lord is looking forward to you as His inheritance. Isn't that amazing? Now, He wants the eyes of our hearts to be opened about that, or at least us to understand that having had it presented. He wants us to realize the Lord of Glory, who paid the price for you and I, has bought us. And He said, that's My inheritance. I'm looking forward to it. That's you and Me.

Isn't that amazing? Isn't that phenomenal? The next verse is, "...as the afflicted also will increase their gladness in the Lord, the needy of mankind will rejoice in the Holy One of Israel." This afflicted and needy, If you look at it, this thousand-year reign of Christ will be a time of miraculous relief.

Certainly, we have people in our own body who have been going through different kinds of physical maladies. I brought up in the Romans class right below us here, in the time right before, the fact that there are times when our bodies just don't cooperate. But there are all kinds of afflictions, aren't there? There are all kinds of difficulties that we will go through.

This will be a time when the Jews and Gentiles can look forward to immense relief from the things that plague them now. Afflictions of every kind. Need that is deep. We have massive needs in our culture right now. The very presence of the Messiah will, one, bring people to be very thankful for the relief from these pains that they've had physically, but they also recognize clearly it is because of Him that we have this relief. It's because of Him that it's taking place. For the Church, however, that's you and me, for those of us at this time who are in this body where the ethnic distinctions, Jew and Gentile, do not matter. For the church, there's a different perspective, a different significance about the afflictions and the needs.

I'll call it pots and pressure in 2 Corinthians 4, 7 through 10. But we have this treasure in earthen vessels. You feel like a pot? You feel like you've gone to pot? Anyway, here we go. So that the surpassing greatness of the power of God will be will be from God and not from ourselves. We are afflicted in every way. How many ways? Every way. Can I count them? Yeah. Notice the repeated theme in this passage. So that the surpassing greatness of the power will be of God and not from ourselves. Why are you afflicted? Why are you afflicted? The surpassing greatness will be shown to be of God and not from ourselves.

This is why our brother Hal is not with us here this morning. He's been undergoing one of these afflictions that Paul talks about. And it's been neat because the people in the hospital have been shocked. Chaplains, hospital psychiatrists and psychologists come to try to counsel him and comfort him.

And he says, I couldn't be better off. It doesn't get any better than this. This is exactly what the Lord has designed. That's what this is talking about. They can't believe it. They don't understand it. Even the chaplains come and they're baffled. Why? The surpassing greatness of the power is God and not of hell. Okay? The last line. So that the life of Jesus may be manifested in our body. It's not because we are Superman. It's not because of that.

But because the Lord's life, the Lord's power is made evident in those times of affliction. This gladness and rejoice, this relief from the physical afflictions will characterize this time of the millennium to come. Christ will reign on the earth from Jerusalem and the Jews and the Gentiles, populating the earth in physical bodies like ours, will have gladness and rejoicing. They'll say, the relief is just immense and isn't this wonderful? And they will attribute it to the very presence of Christ, the Messiah. on the earth. Those who will come to the Lord during that time will recognize it is because of Him and His presence and they will worship Him. For the church, however, there's a gladness and rejoicing that's different.

How do you like the contrast so far? Paul wrote in Philippians 4 from his place of house arrest. He was in Rome. There was a Praetorian guard chained to him 24-7. And by the way, that wasn't necessarily a real comfortable experience. One of the authors during the first century and slightly thereafter who was chained to a Roman guard 24-7, said it's like being chained to a wild beast. The Roman guard didn't necessarily have to treat you all that nicely.

This is Paul, and as he's chained to the Roman guard, he says, Rejoice in the Lord always. Again, I will say, rejoice. Rejoice in the Lord after I get out of the chains. Rejoice in the Lord once the chain soars, quit hurting. Rejoice in the Lord when I get better food. No. Rejoice in the Lord always. Again, he says, rejoice.

1 Peter 4, 12-14, Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal among you which comes upon you for your testing, as though some strange thing were happening to you, but to the degree you share the sufferings of Christ, keep on rejoicing. What? Sharing the sufferings of Christ? Rejoicing? All I can do is be glad when it's done, right? No. Sharing the sufferings of Christ, rejoicing, keeping on rejoicing in the midst of those.

Now that's radical different. That's radical different. Isaiah 29.20 is a triple restatement, if you will.

It says, The focus here is on ruthless, scorner, and all who are intent on doing evil. Now, we're not ruthless here. Ruth is right here with us in this room. Okay? So, here we have this focus and it's repeated. And then at the end, what's going to happen to them after the word will, in the English, we have come to an end, be finished, they'll be cut off.

We live in an era now, you know exactly what this is like, when people do often what they feel they can get away with. Have you noticed that? The thing that they do at the traffic light because no policeman is immediately apparent. The thing they do on the freeway when you see that. The thing that they do when they sign their 1040 form. Whatever you can get away with.

That's the standard for a great many people. This earthly reign of Christ, how do you do that when the one who is ruling the earth knows everything? A little tough, isn't it? He knows everything. So the attempt to violate things, if someone were to want to, isn't going to get anywhere at all. They will have no chance. But we live now, don't we? Right now. Until then, we live like this in the church. From Acts 2 until the time of the rapture, the Lord has a different plan.

Here in 1 Corinthians 6, 9, and 10, or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived, neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor vilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. Now that sounds pretty intense. You're not on the list.

Paul writes to the church at Corinth, which I think is We all know it was a church that was pretty messed up. But he still writes in verse 11, such were some of you, but you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and the Spirit of our God. Such were some of you. Now this particular verse reminds me of something. A number of you may be familiar.

This is Ray Steadman who was pastor at the church I grew up in. Some connection, he corresponded with Miles Stanford during the late 50s and early 60s. He was a pastor on staff in his early years with J. Vernon McGee and he was an assistant also to Harry Ironside, so some connections there. I remember him going through this verse and after reading it he says, how many people in this congregation fit into this description and could stand up here this morning and answer yes to such were some of you? Well, He asked them to stand.

And a whole bunch of people stand. And he said, I'm on that list. Such were some of you. As a matter of fact, he remarked that one of the people, as soon as everybody stood up, said, now that's my kind of people. And this is a neat thing. Because all these kinds of people, Paul could write to them, even at this church that had lots of trouble. He'd say, such were some of you. Such were some of you. And Paul could easily have added to the list, couldn't he?

And we could say along with him, yeah, such was I. Such was I. Verse 21 here, those who cause a person to be indicted by a word ensnare him who adjudicates at the gate and defraud the one on the right with meaningless arguments. all going to be ended.

No loopholes, no legal corruption, no scheme is going to get past the Lord. What do you do when you have an omniscient, that is an all-knowing, an omnipotent and all-powerful King of Kings and Lord of Lords reigning over the earth? It's not going to happen, is it? It's not going to happen.

Certainly, however, in our own time, Christians can avail themselves of legal options that are open to them. Paul even appealed to Caesar, which was an option available to him as a Roman citizen. But we are living a different day from that time, and the Lord has something else in mind. We will instead stand before the Lord Himself before this event takes place. That's right.

When the Lord takes us home, we will stand before Him. What are we going to do? We're going to stand before the Lord, folks. What will we do? What we should do is to, as we said before, to behold Him, to trust Him, to walk in fellowship with Him. Because when we stand before the Lord, it won't be to decide. If you're a believer here this morning, it won't be to decide, am I going to heaven or am I going to hell? It won't be a judgment of condemnation It will be a judgment of evaluation.

How can I reward you? One of the last things that the Lord says in the last chapter of Revelation is, My reward is with me. His coming, He is anticipating rewarding us. He wants to reward us in full. What is rewardable is not our best efforts, but what He does through us. It's His efforts through us. His energizing of us.

The next verse here, who redeemed Abraham. Think of this here. How did God redeem Abraham? It says in Genesis 15, 6, Then he believed in the Lord, Abraham did, and he reckoned it to him as righteousness. Paul quotes that in Romans and Galatians. It is believing that the Lord reckoned as righteousness, and by that Abraham was redeemed. even under the rule of law in Habakkuk 2.4, the last line there, but the righteous will live by his faith. It is by faith that redemption takes place in all times, including our own. This house of Jacob, it mentions it here. This will be a time when the house of Jacob will be the people of Israel who have all descended from Jacob. massive gathering there.

The people of Israel haven't seen this gathering as it will be at any time even now. Rather than the present situation, millions of people right now are surrounding the nation of Israel and saying, these people, this nation has no right to exist. They're denying the right of Israel to exist. Instead, this will all be turned around and all the People of the earth will look upon Israel as the chosen group, and they will look upon the Jews as the ones through whom they will see the Messiah. They will see the Jews as their access to the King of Kings. For us here in the church, what place do we have? Paul wrote, and here is the kind of image of the Mamertine prison fogged in the background.

For this reason, I also suffer these things. But I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed, and I am convinced that he is able to guard what I have entrusted unto him against that day, until that day. In verse 23, when he sees his children, the work of my hands in his midst, they will sanctify my name. And now we have a triple here. Sanctify my name, indeed will sanctify the Holy One of Jacob.

Stand in awe of the God of Israel. So who is this He? Jacob? Or is this kind of figurative, all the people of Israel? I'd suggest to you that it's possibly meant literally. Think about this. Here is the millennial kingdom, and certainly the Jews are gathered there in a time of prominence, but here is Jacob.

He will be resurrected. We know from several passages, even there in the Old Testament, he will be among them. Jacob will be able to see all the saved Jews that are living during that time. And all the saved Jews descended from him from the time before up until the time of Christ. All those thousand plus years. There will be quite a gathering. Literally, that could be fulfilled.

And notice it says, the work of my hands. This is a phrase that Isaiah uses four times. This is the second of those four. The biblical pattern is this. When God does something in the physical realm, it says, The work of my hands, or done by his hands. When God does something in the spiritual realm, it is said to be done without hands. That's a pattern in both the Old and New Testaments. Israel is the work of his hands, and so is earthly and ethnic.

We see this pattern in a number of different places here. I have a listing here from Job and Psalms, and of course these in Isaiah. A couple in Hebrews. I could point to others, but that gives enough of a sampling. And then the things that God does in the spiritual realm.

We point out here in Colossians 2.11 is one. This is done without hands and it is our identification in Christ. What has happened to you as a believer? You've been identified with Christ in His death, burial, resurrection, ascension and seeding. That is done by God. Yes, God is the one who made you in Christ.

1 Corinthians 1.30. And it is done without hands. Did God do it? Yes. But He did it without hands. That's the Hebrew way of saying He did it spiritually, but not physically. You are with Christ by God's doing. Our identification with Christ has the sequence that leaves us in Him. With hands or without hands? Without hands. Right? Without hands.

That's your place. It says here that He will sanctify twice and then finally stand in awe. These are parallel, meaning that the people of Israel will truly set the Lord apart as holy here, coming with a condition of heart of worship that's true. They will truly worship the Lord. They will truly stand in awe of Him. However, we in the Church have a different place of blessing, a different manner of blessing, even though we're too called to worship the Lord and to have ultimate respect for Him.

This triple statement here is like this Hebrew pattern that we've seen in Isaiah before, where he says, holy, holy, holy. That's to emphasize his holiness. Or what we saw before was translated, perfect peace, is actually in the Hebrew, peace, peace. It's to emphasize it. It's to underscore it.

And what he's saying here, the people during the millennium will certainly worship the Lord, absolutely worship the Lord, absolutely and with certainty worship the Lord. Paul did something similar in writing the book of Ephesians, eight times in Ephesians. He speaks of the Father, Son, the Holy Spirit, the Trinity. He speaks with emphasis by repeating.

Have you run into a situation where somebody's come up to you and said, well, you got to call God by his Hebrew name or else it's not valid. I know Randy's encountered that on his personal website recently. Had one lady come up to him and said, well, you got to call him by this name or it's no good. Well, what they don't understand is that was given to Israel. We're not Israel, okay? We're the church. And so we're not forced into that mold.

That was specific for Israel, as shown in this passage here in Exodus. The last one, those who err in mind will know the truth and those who criticize will accept instruction. It's not some massively critical point, but looking at this thing, I think the first line is about the people of Israel. And the second line is about the Gentiles, and here's why. First of all, the error in mind.

You notice that as you go through the book of Acts, what were the Jews challenged to do as you read them, of them being presented with the gospel? They were told to repent. That means metanoia, change of mind. Okay? The Jews were called to change their mind. It was the Gentiles who were specifically told to believe. So it isn't some mind transfer. You don't swap out brains. That's not the point. Israel, during the millennial reign of Christ, will have God's Spirit within them so that they will not even have to teach one another. Therefore, they will know the truth. See that? But the Gentiles who don't have this promise, living during that time, will have to receive instructions.

That's the second line. Now, for us here in the Church, we know that all Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching. So, here in the Church, are we to be taught and to teach? Yes. Scripture lays that out. It is profitable for teaching, certainly for that. teaching in a great many contexts, not just so that we know stuff, not just for the sake of academia, but for life, so that we are equipped for the things that count and the relationships that matter in our personal walk with the Lord. Here is a truth that comes out of Colossians 1, 25-29. Paul is telling the church at Colossae that he had his assignments. He said that I might fully carry out the preaching of the Word of God. That's something that certainly would go on during the millennium. But Paul said he had this assignment. In verse 28 he says, We proclaim Him, admonishing every man and teaching every man with all wisdom, so that we may present every man complete in Christ. How does he do that? By his own best efforts? Does he do that?

Because the Lord said, here, you do this and when you're done, let me know how it went. And we'll just see how it came off. No. Here's the key. For this purpose I also labor. And that word labor means to labor to the point of exhaustion. Striving according to His power which mightily works within me. He does it not by His own efforts. He does it instead by the Lord's energizing. By the Lord's empowering.

See, we've been told in our culture to just do it. We've had millions of dollars pumped to just tell us to just do it. For us to do it. God's Word tells us that it's His design and desire that He do it through us, whatever the activity. By our dependence upon Him. That's faith. Faith is not, I believe it so I'm going to give it my best shot. I believe it so I'm going to give it the old college try. But faith is dependence. Believing Him. dependence upon him, dependence upon who he is and what he's done.

That's what he's called us to. And that's what we're called to convey to one another as believers. Let's pray. Lord, thank you. As we look at this passage, we can see how all who have put their trust in you, whether Gentiles, Jews, or Christians now during this time and this age, all, Lord, can put their trust in you and count on you as faithful. We thank you for that. We thank you for These things that You've laid out here for us, the truths that we can count upon, and we just pray as we look at the place that we have, we pray that we would be drawn to that intimacy with You, that we would be drawn to that dependence upon You, seeing Your Word not as facts to be stuffed into our head, but as guidance from our loving Lord, and as the beholding of Him. by which we are transformed and changed from glory to glory. We thank you for this marvelous truth. In Jesus' name, Amen.