This transcript was generated by whisper.ai.

(upbeat music) - Welcome back for week eight, day four of our look through the
book of Isaiah. We're going to look at Isaiah chapter 65 today, focusing on verses
17 to 25. Let me begin with a question.

How would you feel if you went to stay in a friend's house and then you were
told, oh, by the way, you're going to stay in the servant's quarters. You picture
this little room out back, separated, isolated, not nearly as nice as the main
house. You might feel a little put out, like I gotta stay in the servant's
quarters?

It's hard to break through this idea that servants are second class citizens
'cause that's how we treat them as human beings. But God's servants are entirely
different. When it comes to spiritual things, servants are first class saints.

God loves and appreciates and honors his servants. They're the most honored.
They get the best places.

To say you're in the servant's quarters is like, wow, I get to be in the
servant's quarters? And God says we get to spend eternity in the servant's
quarters. It's a whole new story.

Not a room out back, not separated, not ignored, not isolated. These are places
of honor. These are mansions of glory.

It says these servant quarters say, well done, my good and faithful servant over
every door. There is no greater place to spend eternity than in the quarters of
God's servants. So what are these like, these servant's quarters?

What do we have to look forward to in God's eternity? As we're walking through
this second half of the book of Isaiah, what it means to live in the comfort of
God. One of the keys to living in God's comfort is recognizing the promise of
eternity 'cause sometimes this life, what's happening in the circumstances of
your days today, offers no comfort at all in your daily circumstances.

Maybe you think that's true for you, but if you look back in history, look at
some of the Christians that have lived in the most desperate of times, most
persecuted of times, you recognize that there's been no seeming comfort for
their lives. So what do you do? You look to the hope of eternity 'cause our time
on this earth is but a few seconds compared to the eternity of time that we're
going to have in heaven.

The Bible describes this place we're going to spend eternity. It's not a retirement
home. It's not even a resort hotel.

He describes it as the beautiful city of God. So I'd like to have some fun
talking about this today 'cause we should be able to smile when we talk about
the hope of heaven. When we talk about heaven, Christians should enjoy talking
about where we're going to spend all of eternity because it's the great hope that
we're headed for.

So you've probably seen those brochures that they write for resort communities,
for planned cities that emphasize all the wonders of the community 'cause they
want you to move there, they want you to live there. I was wondering as I read
through these verses how a brochure for heaven, God's servants quarters might
read. Now our sales brochures that we write today, they make everything sound
better than it actually is.

God's truth about heaven can't possibly describe it for as good as it really is,
as good as it truly will be because the greatness of what he's going to do is
beyond our human understanding on this earth. But in what he describes here in
beginning of verse 17, let's just use some phrases that might be in one of those
brochures that describe what we're looking forward to. First, everything is new,
stays new, and will never be anything but new.

Verse 17, behold, I will create new heavens and a new earth. The former things
will not be remembered nor will they come to mind. New means new.

When you move into a new city, new community, you like the fact that it's new
but then it gets old. It's never going to get old in heaven. A new heaven and a new
earth.

Heaven is God's recreation project. He's making everything new. There's a fresh
start for all of his creation, including you and me.

Earth, heaven, too. New heaven, new earth. Now, what will that new heaven and
new earth be like?

Will it be anything like the old heaven and old earth? Well, not in the sin, not
in the struggles. But whatever beauty God has here, he's going to, in the new
heaven and earth, create that, recreate that in a way that's above and beyond
any expectation we could have.

There are not many clues in scripture about how God's going to do this. Maybe the
best is in Romans 8, when the scripture talks about God is going to redeem all of
creation in the day that he redeems us as his servants. He's going to set all of
his creation free.

So just think of what that's going to mean. This city of God set free. Everything
we enjoy here on this earth that God has made, God has created, recreated in
perfection and enjoyed for all of eternity.

The former things, they're not even going to be remembered. Not a trace of them,
not worth remembering because of what God's going to do in eternity. Going through
this brochure, description number two.

It's going to be a delightful place to live in, filled with the best people you've
ever met. And the sound of this city is like nothing you've ever heard. Verse 18
to 19.

But be glad and rejoice forever in what I will create. For I will create
Jerusalem to be a delight and its people a joy. I will rejoice over Jerusalem
and take delight in my people.

The sound of weeping and of crying will be heard in it no more. So God creates
this city to be a delight. He's the architect.

There will never be a pain, never a disappointment, never a grief, no confusion,
no rejection, no sickness, no heartache. Think of all the things that make your
heartache right now. That bring tears.

Those things will be left behind forever. Not even the sound of those things.
There's not going to be another like them in heaven.

So the sound of this place is only the sound of joy. Only joy for all eternity.
Third description.

It's the kind of place you feel like you could live in forever, and you will.
Isaiah 65 20. Never again will there be in it an infant who lives but a few
days, or an old man who does not live out his years.

He who dies at a hundred will be thought a mere youth. He who fails to reach a
hundred will be considered accursed. Now, as Isaiah describes heaven, he's
describing it in poetic terms.

You can't take this too literally 'cause we're not going to die in heaven. He's
helping us to picture eternity beginning with where we are now. Heaven is a
place for long-term living, long-term.

Isaiah's picturing here the abundance of this eternal life in two pictures.
Never again, he says, an infant that lives a few days. Hope will not go
unrealized in heaven.

Never. And never again, an old man who does not live out his years. Hope will
not go unfulfilled in heaven.

Never. And this picture of to not reach a hundred would be a curse. He's
picturing us the fact that life in heaven, this eternal life, is going to be
different than we've experienced any kind of life before.

What we think of as the longest life on this earth, a hundred, will be no life
at all in heaven because we have eternal life there. As he continues to go
through these descriptions, just letting us look forward to what God's going to do.
If I had this brochure in front of me, a next description, a fourth one would
be, you'll love the fruit-bearing vineyards on every lot.

Verses 21 to 23. They will build houses and dwell on them. They'll plant
vineyards and eat their fruit.

No longer will they build houses and others live in them or plant and others
eat. For as the days of a tree, so will be the days of my people. My chosen ones
will long enjoy the works of their hands.

They will not toil in vain or bear children doomed to misfortune. For there they
will be a people blessed by the Lord, they and their descendants with them.
Heaven is this place of fruit-bearing, where we will bear the fruit of
faithfully worshiping and serving God for all eternity.

On earth, sometimes you work your fingers to the bone, only to see no real
results or to see somebody else take the credit or get the benefit. For Israel,
whom Isaiah is writing to here, they would see their homes, their crops stolen
by the invading armies, everything they'd built taken away. So he says in
heaven, he will not toil in vain.

In heaven, our work for the Lord inevitably bears fruit. Now, work for the Lord.
Do we work in heaven?

Of course God has work for you to do and it's always going to bear fruit. Our toils
for the Lord here on earth are going to also bear fruit in heaven for eternity. The
ways that we built it with gold and silver and precious stones, the things that
last on this earth, we're going to see those bearing fruit in eternity, but God's
got other work for us to do in eternity.

It's pictured here in these verses and that's going to bear fruit for all eternity.
This picture of not bearing children doomed to misfortune, not saying we're
going to have children in heaven, it's a picture of the truth that everything that
we build will be built with hope. 'Cause it won't be lost.

We'll always work with hope, we'll always strive with purpose, we'll never look
forward to misfortune in heaven. And they will long enjoy the work of their
hands. Heaven is not a place we just lounge around and play harps.

It's a place where we will deeply enjoy the works that God has given us into our
hands for all of eternity. Fifth description, you've never felt closer to God
than you will in this city. Verse 24, before they call, I will answer.

While they're still speaking, I will hear. Before they call, I will answer. Even
the iPhone 50 won't be able to accomplish that.

Only God can do that 'cause only God knows our hearts. God can answer before we
call because he knows us better than we know ourselves. And heaven is going to be a
place where everything is answered before we even ask.

We usually apply this verse to our present day and it has some application
there. But the primary context here is our relationship to God in the new heaven
and the new earth. How close we will be to him before we even call God is there.

Sometimes, if we're not careful, we can picture ourselves as being actually
farther from God in heaven than we are on earth. Here on earth, we talk to him
anytime, we pray, he's with us through his Holy Spirit. And we think when we get
to heaven, we're going to be worshiping him with billions of people.

There he is, way up there on the throne. And I can't get to him. No, he's
present with us in heaven.

Before we call, he's going to answer. He's more with us, closer to us in the
eternity of heaven than here. Now, how is God going to be as close, that close to
billions of people all at the same time?

He's the eternal God. Only he can do that. We will worship together, but we'll
be closer to him than ever.

This description of heaven, one final description, maybe the most familiar
description from Isaiah 65. If it was in this brochure, it would be, "You will
not find a more peaceful neighborhood anywhere. " It's in verse 25.

"The wolf and the lamb will feed together, "and the lion will eat straw like the
ox, "but dust will be the serpent's food. "They will neither harm nor destroy at
all my holy mountain. "Sheep and wolves, lions and oxen, "these natural enemies
will enjoy eternal peace.

"And the serpent, the evil one, eats dust. " There's going to be nothing to sustain
evil in this place. Peace, peace between individuals, between families, between
God and man.

Peace that's not momentary, but lasts forever. Now, talking about all these
promises, he ends all of this by giving his guarantee as our architect, our
contractor, our caretaker of what we're looking forward to. The last words in
this description are, "I, the Lord, have spoken.

" Let's pray together. Lord, thank you that you've spoken. Spoken the truth
about our hope.

Spoken the truth about eternity. All of us, we can get so caught up in the day
to day that we forget this truth about ourselves. Help us to see it today, maybe
like never before.

The hope of heaven, the joy of heaven, and how it can impact our lives today
because we are looking forward to this. And you've guaranteed it. You have
spoken.

Help us to live in that place of trust, that place of hope. We ask it in Jesus'
name, amen. Well, tomorrow we're going to end our study in the book of Isaiah with
a look at the hand of the Lord in Isaiah 66.