Watchman Radio Hour

David Shult: Welcome to the Watchman Radio Hour. Coming to you from Portland, Oregon here in the beautiful Northwest. This is David Shult your announcer. The Watchman Radio Hour is a production of Watchman Radio Ministries International, an evangelistic ministry reaching out to the peoples of the world with the gospel of Jesus Christ. And now here is our speaker, Alex Dodson, to bring you this week's message from God's Word.

Alex Dodson: For our scripture reading today, let us turn to Isaiah, chapter 66 and we'll begin reading in verse 22. Let us hear the word of God. "As the new heavens and the new earth that I make will endure before me," declares the Lord, "so will your name and descendants endure. From one new moon to another and from one Sabbath to another, all mankind will come and bow down before me," says the Lord. "And they will go out and look upon the dead bodies of those who rebelled against me. Their worm will not die, nor will their fire be quenched and they will be loathsome to all mankind."

Our Father in heaven, we thank you for the Bible that you have given to us. We thank you that it's your infallible word and that we can put our full confidence in everything that it says. And now, oh Father, as we come to study your word, we pray that you will send forth your Holy Spirit in great convicting power. In Christ's name we pray, amen.

What is the future of the church in this age? If we believe what some teach, then the future is pretty gloomy. Popular teaching today by some evangelicals is that the church will go down in defeat in this age and have to escape or be raptured out of the way before the great tribulation takes place. The best we can do is to witness as much as possible before the end comes, which may very well be soon.

We know that Jesus will return in the future, but we do not know when. Some think his coming will be at any moment. What then is our vision for the church in this age? Is the church just something to be salvaged in an age that will end in defeat for God's people before Jesus returns? This is the belief of many today. This view is very pessimistic and offers little hope for the church in this age.

Yet, is this the view that Jesus wants us to have of the church? What did Jesus say? In Matthew 16:18, Jesus said, "And I say unto thee, that thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it." For those who believe in the defeat of the church in this age, this verse must pose a great problem. This verse talks of victory, not defeat. This verse talks of a church that will be like a mighty tide that will be so powerful that Satan and all his forces will not be able to stop it.

Another passage where Jesus speaks of the future of the church is Matthew 28:19 and 20 where he says, "Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I will be with you always, to the very end of the age." Here Jesus talks about making disciples of all the nations, not just some and not just some individuals, but whole nations of people.

He also talks as if this will be something that will go on until the very end of the age and that he will be with his church right up to the very last day of the age, it indicates in the Greek. There's no talk of defeat or need to escape this age. This sounds like the orders of a commanding general to go and win the whole world to Christ and he assures us that it will not be a losing cause because he will be with us all the way to the very last day of the age.

Contrast the above to a popular Christian writer who says, "Even with such a heaven-high privilege, the Bible predicts that the church will fail and all but a believing remnant will fall away from the faith." But does the Bible really say this? Does the Bible really say that the church will fail and that all but only a believing remnant will fall away from the faith? Is that how the Bible depicts the church?

Our vision of the church in the future is very important. Do we have a defeatist vision like many do today? Or do we have a more optimistic view of the church for the future? Today we want to look at Isaiah's vision of the future for the church. What did he see? Our text is Isaiah 66 and verses 22 through 24, which I want to read again and it says, "As the new heavens and the new earth that I make will endure before me," declares the Lord, "so will your name and descendants endure."

"From one new moon to another and from one Sabbath to another, all mankind will come and bow down before me," says the Lord. "And they will go out and look upon the dead bodies of those who rebelled against me. Their worm will not die, nor will their fire be quenched and they will be loathsome to all mankind." The church will ever expand and remain throughout the age. Is the church going to get so weak that it will go down in defeat and have to escape this age, as so many teach today?

Or will the church expand and be victorious and remain to the very last day of this age? I believe the prophets of the Old Testament saw a church of the future that is quite different from what some of our modern-day prophets of doom tell us. For example, Isaiah speaks of a church that will be a light to the world and to which whole nations will come. In Isaiah 60:1-3, it says, "Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord rises upon you."

"See, darkness covers the earth and thick darkness is over the peoples, but the Lord rises upon you and his glory appears over you. Nations will come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your dawn." What a contrast again to some of our modern-day prophets who predict imminent doom and defeat for the church in this age. Isaiah predicts an ever-expanding church that will remain and be victorious.

Now let us see in the first place a promise that the church will continue. Verse 22 says, "As the new heavens and the new earth that I make will endure before me," declares the Lord, "so will your name and descendants endure." The promise of a new age coming. From Isaiah's perspective he saw a new age coming. There would be a new heaven and a new earth, not in the eternal sense only as we so often hear taught.

He saw a new age coming which would not be so far away. It is true that the new age would eventually lead to an eternal age, but his immediate vision looked forward to the gospel age. Edward J. Young writes, "As God originally created the heavens and the earth, so now he is going to make the participle suggests near futurity—new heavens and a new earth, which will stand before him under his constant care and protection."

The old Israel will pass away, but from it there will spring the remnant that has survived the judgment and together with it be a great influx of Gentiles, all of which will form the true Israel of God under the new dispensation. In the old dispensation, this Israel of God, the church, had been practically identical with the literal nation. But in the new dispensation, the Gentiles should be fellow heirs and of the same body and partakers of his promise in Christ by the gospel.

To the intent that now under the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the church the manifold wisdom of God. So says Ephesians 3:6 and 10. Keil and Delitzsch write, "The prophet here thinks of the church of the future as being upon a new earth and under a new heaven." Matthew Henry comments, "So that they are new heavens and a new earth that God will create and these are preparative for the new heavens and the new earth designed at the end of time."

So says Second Peter 3:13. Isaiah saw not only a new heaven and a new earth in the far eternal future, but something much nearer, a new age when the Messiah would come, which would be the gospel age or the age that we're living in now. When Jesus came, he ushered in a new kingdom and a new age. In Mark 1:15, Jesus said, "The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe the gospel."

Jesus came to bring the kingdom of God into this world. He came to usher in a new age in which the gospel would eventually prevail and the kingdom of the world would become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ. Or as Daniel prophesied, "Then the sovereignty, power and greatness of the kingdoms under the whole heaven will be handed over to the saints, the most people of the Most High. His kingdom will be an everlasting kingdom and all rulers will worship and obey him." Daniel 7:27.

The kingdom that Jesus came to introduce into this world would be a victorious kingdom that would not be defeated. And then let us see that the church will progress and multiply, its descendants would continue. Isaiah prophesies a church that will remain and have descendants who would remain. Again verse 22 says, "As the new heavens and the new earth that I make will endure before me," declares the Lord, "so will your name and descendants endure."

In Acts 2:39 it says, "The promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off, for all whom the Lord our God will call." The church that the apostles were establishing would have a future and many descendants. It would not be a fly-by-night church; it would endure into the distant future and have many descendants yet to come. Edward J. Young writes, "By your seed and your name, he has in mind the spiritual Israel of which he has been speaking."

Seed refers to the descendants of the people of God who form the subject of this address. Their perpetuity is to be assured. Name indicates reputation. Forever the church will be recognized as the people whom God has chosen to be his own. Matthew Henry writes, "The gospel dispensation is to continue to the end of time and not to be succeeded by any other. The kingdom of Christ is a kingdom that cannot be moved."

The laws and privileges of it are things that cannot be shaken but shall remain. It shall therefore remain because it is before God. It is under his eye and care and special protection. It will be maintained in a seed that shall serve Christ. Your seed and in your name shall remain a seed of ministers, a seed of Christians as one generation of both passes away, another generation shall come.

And thus the name of Christ with that of Christian shall continue on earth while the earth remains and his throne as the days of heaven. The gates of hell, though they fight against the church, shall not prevail nor wear out the saints of the Most High. The church would not die, but would continue far into the future and would remain. And then secondly, there's a promise of the ever-expanding influence of the church.

Verse 23 says, "From one new moon to another and from one Sabbath to another, all mankind will come and bow down before me," says the Lord. Worship will be on a continuous basis. In this future age, worship would be all over the world and would be going on continuously. Malachi 1:11 says, "My name will be great among the nations, from the rising to the setting of the sun. In every place, incense and pure offerings will be brought to my name, because my name will be great among the nations," says the Lord Almighty.

In John 4:21 through 23 Jesus declared, "Believe me, woman, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks."

Jesus spoke of a time that was coming and had already come when the worship at the temple in Jerusalem would cease and people all over the world would worship the Lord wherever they were. Edward J. Young writes, "Using these figures, the prophet teaches that there will be a faithful, regular, legitimate worship of God on the part of all flesh in the new dispensation which the—when the new heavens and the new earth are in existence."

And Matthew Henry said, "That the public worship of God in religious assemblies shall be carefully and constantly attended upon by all that are thus brought as an offering to the Lord. This is described in expressions suited to the Old Testament dispensation to show that though the ceremonial law should be abolished and the temple service should come to an end, yet God should be still as regularly, constantly and acceptably worshipped as ever."

"Heretofore only Jews went up to appear before God and they were bound to attend only three times a year and the males only. But now all flesh, Gentiles as well as Jews, women as well as men, shall come and worship God in his presence. And though not in his temple at Jerusalem, but in religious assemblies dispersed all over the world, shall be to them as the tabernacle of meeting was to the Jews."

"God will in them record his name. And though but two or three come together, he will be among them and bless them, and they shall have the benefit of these holy convocations frequently, every new moon and every Sabbath, not as formerly at the three annual feasts only." And then he writes, "The new moons and the Sabbaths are mentioned because under the law, though the yearly feasts were to be celebrated at Jerusalem, yet the new moons and the Sabbaths were religiously observed all the country over in the schools of the prophets first and afterwards in the synagogues according to the model of which Christian assemblies seem to be formed."

Where the Lord's Day is weekly sanctified and the Lord's Supper monthly celebrated and both are duly attended on, there this promise is fulfilled. There the Christian new moons and Sabbaths are observed. And then there is an indication here of promise of progression and expansion. This worship by all flesh on a continuous basis seems to indicate a progression and expansion of the church and its influence in the world.

This is not something that happens immediately, but will happen in the future and will happen more and more. In Isaiah 2:2 it says, "In the last days the mountain of the Lord's temple will be established as chief among the mountains; it will be raised above the hills and all nations will stream to it." In Isaiah 11:9 it says, "They will neither harm nor destroy on all my holy mountain, for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea."

Both of these verses point to a time of worldwide worship of God and a time when the church will be shining brightly all over the world. The gospel will surely progress to greater fruitfulness as this age continues. Matthew Henry writes, "Christ is our temple in whom by faith all believers meet. And now that the church is so far extended, it is impossible that all should meet at one place."

"But it is fit that there should be a certain time appointed that the service may be done certainly and frequently and a token thereby given of the spiritual communion which all Christian assemblies have with each other by faith, hope and holy love." Thomas Goodwin, who lived in the 17th century, wrote, "There will come a time when the generality of mankind both Jew and Gentile shall come to Jesus Christ. He hath but little takings of the world yet, but he will have before he hath done."

Goodwin looked forward with the eyes of faith and believed the prophets who spoke of the future prosperity of the church. And Thomas Brooks wrote in 1662, "There will come a time when in this world holiness shall be more general and more eminent than ever it hath been since Adam fell in paradise." Brooks, unlike modern-day preachers of gloom, saw a bright future for the kingdom of God in this world.

James Renwick, anticipating brighter days ahead, wrote in the 17th century, "There have been great and glorious days of the gospel in this land, but they have been small in comparison of what shall be." And Spurgeon in commenting on Psalm 86:9, which says, "All nations whom thou hast made shall come and worship before thee, O Lord, and shall glorify thy name."

Spurgeon writes, "David was not a believer in the theory that the world will grow worse and worse and that the dispensation will wind up with general darkness and idolatry. Earth's sun is to go down amid tenfold night if some of our prophetic brethren are to be believed. Not so do we expect, but we look for a day when the dwellers in all lands shall learn righteousness, shall trust in the Savior, shall worship thee alone, O God, and shall glorify thy name."

"The modern notion has greatly dampened the zeal of the church for missions and the sooner it's shown to be unscriptural, the better for the cause of God. It neither consorts with prophecy, honors God, nor inspires the church with order. Far hence it be driven." If we take the prophets seriously, such as Isaiah, we must look for brighter days for the church in this age and doubt not that they will come.

And then let us see in the third place that the enemies of God will not last. Verse 24 says, "And they will go out and look upon the dead bodies of those who rebelled against me. Their worm will not die, nor will their fire be quenched and they will be loathsome to all mankind." The enemies of God will be defeated. If this last verse shows anything, it shows that God's enemies will not last, that they will go down in defeat.

In First Corinthians 15:24 through 25 it says, "Then the end will come when he hands over the kingdom to God the Father after he has destroyed all dominion, authority and power. For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet." Jesus is reigning right now and he's destroying his enemies right now and he will be victorious in this age.

Revelation 19, in symbolic language, gives a description of Christ and the church being victorious over their enemies. In Revelation 19 verses 11 through 18 it says, "I saw heaven standing open and there before me was a white horse, whose rider is called Faithful and True. With justice he judges and makes war. His eyes are like blazing fire and on his head are many crowns. He has a name written on him that no one but he himself knows."

"He is dressed in a robe dipped in blood and his name is the Word of God. The armies of heaven were following him, riding on white horses and dressed in fine linen, white and clean. Out of his mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations. He will rule them with an iron scepter. He treads the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God Almighty."

"On his robe and on his thigh, he has this name written, KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS. And I saw an angel standing in the sun who cried in a loud voice to all the birds flying in midair, 'Come, gather together for the great supper of God so that you may eat the flesh of kings, generals and mighty men, of horses and their riders and the flesh of all people, free and slave, small and great.'" The enemies of God will not prevail. They will go down in defeat. We can be assured of that.

And then let us see that there's an eternal punishment of the wicked. The other thing this last verse shows is that the wicked will be punished eternally for their sin. Edward J. Young comments on this last verse, "The sight, however, will remind them and should ever remind us of the greatness of our redemption and of the terrible punishment from which we have been saved by Christ."

"Thus the wicked ones of Israel are cast out and perish eternally and the tragic and terrible consequences of transgression are brought before our eyes. Whereas the reference in the first instance is to those of ancient Israel, they who are Jews according to the flesh, it must be remembered that this sad fate will be shared by all who have transgressed against God."

Those who do not come to Christ will go to an eternal punishment. It is only in Christ that we can be delivered from the wrath to come. But what about you today? Do you know Christ? Are you saved, or do you continue in your sins at enmity with God? If you continue in such a condition, you will surely go to an eternal punishment. However, there is hope for you if you will only repent at once and turn to Christ for salvation.

Jesus said the time has come. The kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe the gospel. Come to Christ today. Our Father in heaven, we thank you for the promises of the prophets of the Old Testament. We thank you for this wonderful promise of Isaiah. We thank you for this promise of a age to come. We thank you for the promise that the church will endure.

We thank you, O Lord, that Jesus Christ came and died on the cross for our sins and we thank you that whoever believes the gospel and puts their trust in Christ will be saved. And we pray, O Lord, for the furtherance of the gospel today all over the world. We pray that many nations of people will come to Christ in this age. We pray for the progress of the church. We pray for the prosperity of the church. We pray for victory over Satan and his kingdom on every hand. In Christ's name we pray, amen.

David Shult: We hope this week's broadcast has been a blessing to you. If you have any questions about Mr. Dodson's message, please write us. You may email us at info@watchmanradio.org. Our mailing address is Watchman Radio Ministries International, Post Office Box 13251, Portland, Oregon 97213. That's Watchman Radio Ministries International, Post Office Box 13251, Portland, Oregon 97213.

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