When you look at the Bible in whole (from Genesis to Revelation), I’ve learned that there is one prevailing story. You can read any book in the Bible and it will mention something about this story. You can take the timeline from Genesis 1:1 and keep going. You’ll know where you are and what’s being talked about.

This is an interpretation of a Biblical timeline and represents a "Pre-Millennial" view, meaning that Christ comes back (the Second Coming) at the start of His Millennial Reign here on Earth. We’ll see that this morning.

What I’m saying is that a lot of events are described by the prophets. Draw a picture. Relate them to the timeline. For example, last night my daughter called me on behalf of a cousin and said, "Dad, we have some questions for you. In Revelation, when it says …" She got all confused with her question so she asked the cousin to join the conversation. Understand that this cousin (and this side of the family) has always viewed my family as "Jesus Freaks." The cousin gets on the line and starts to ask me questions. She says, "I’ve been reading the ‘Left Behind’ series. After I read that, I could not help but go to the Bible and see what it really says. So I’ve been reading all over the place: Deuteronomy, Revelation, etc." And she had some questions. Here’s my point: she was asking questions about the End Times and wanted to read it for herself in the Bible. She knew that "Left Behind" was fiction and not the Bible, the source. She went all the way back to Deuteronomy and the Law, "Are the laws still valid today?" and so forth. This cousin was trying to get the picture. If she could get the picture, she could read Revelation, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, etc., and know where she was. It’s the setting. It’s the conditions surrounding what you’re reading.

For example, when you read the Old Testament, it’s Law. That’s what’s in there. When you read the New Testament, what are you talking about? The love of Christ, grace, the forgiveness of sins, the Church, etc. When you read about the End Times, what are you talking about? A time when this "Antichrist" will rule on Earth, Christ will rule on Earth, and then the Final Judgment.

She asked about the "New Earth" and the "New Heaven." There is no sun or moon because the glory of Christ shines over everything. I’m telling you some things now that we’ll study in Revelation but she asked, "What is this? What’s going on?" If you know the timeline, you can deduce the time. The Millennial Reign will be much like the time before sin entered the world. Everything was pure. In between, we have man’s fall from grace and break in God’s relationship. That’s why I keep stressing this. It’s so important to me.

Isaiah is one of the Old Testament prophets during the Assyrian conquest of the Northern Kingdom. He talks about that between chapters 32 and 36. You can find out about the Sennacherib crisis when Assyria went after the Southern Kingdom and Jerusalem after they had wiped out the Northern Kingdom. God prevented them from doing it. It was a miracle. You can read about it in the Bible. Not an arrow was shot into Jerusalem. That was a prophecy that was made. No one believed it because Assyria was such a powerful World Empire. They said, "No. They’re just going to come and wipe us off the face of the Earth." But they didn’t. That’s what Isaiah is about.

Isaiah 52:13-53:4

13. See, my servant will act wisely; he will be raised and lifted up and highly exalted.
14. Just as there were many who were appalled at him -- his appearance was so disfigured beyond that of any man and his form marred beyond human likeness--
15. so will he sprinkle many nations, and kings will shut their mouths because of him. For what they were not told, they will see, and what they have not heard, they will understand.
1. Who has believed our message and to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed?
2. He grew up before him like a tender shoot, and like a root out of dry ground. He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.
3. He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering. Like one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not.
4. Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows, yet we considered him stricken by God, smitten by him, and afflicted.

You’ve heard this before. Who is he talking about? Jesus. This is prophecy, written hundreds of years before Christ. That’s why I call Isaiah the "Fifth Gospel" because he is so specific. He tells us things about Christ that we don’t read about in the Gospels.

Isaiah 53:5a

But he was pierced for our transgressions,

Nails, through His hands and feet on the cross. A spear pierced His side.

Isaiah 53:5b

he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed.

That’s very descriptive of what Christ did on the cross for us from a spiritual point of view.

Isaiah 53:6-7

We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth; he was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth.

Jesus didn’t talk to Pontius Pilate when on trial.

Isaiah 53:8-9a

By oppression and judgment he was taken away. And who can speak of his descendants? For he was cut off from the land of the living; for the transgression of my people he was stricken. He was assigned a grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death,

If you remember His burial, He was given a rich man’s tomb (Joseph of Arimathea).

Isaiah 53:9b-10a

though he had done no violence, nor was any deceit in his mouth. Yet it was the LORD's will to crush him and cause him to suffer,

This was an unusual way of looking at it: from God’s perspective. God allowed Him to be crushed because He willingly took on all of our sins.

Isaiah 53:10b

and though the LORD makes his life a guilt offering, he will see his offspring and prolong his days, and the will of the LORD will prosper in his hand.

You can read this. This is all talking about Christ. Do you see that in Isaiah? So Isaiah prophesied around 750 BC but what time is he talking about? AD 30-33—Christ’s death. He’s very descriptive.

Isaiah 59:20-60:3

20. "The Redeemer will come to Zion, to those in Jacob who repent of their sins," declares the LORD.
21. "As for me, this is my covenant with them," says the LORD. "My Spirit, who is on you, and my words that I have put in your mouth will not depart from your mouth, or from the mouths of your children, or from the mouths of their descendants from this time on and forever," says the LORD.
1. "Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the LORD rises upon you.
2. See, darkness covers the earth and thick darkness is over the peoples, but the LORD rises upon you and his glory appears over you.
3. Nations will come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your dawn.

All right. Help me. Pretend you’re reading this at home, alone. Use the timeline and tell me what he’s talking about. It’s the End Times. Do you see it? He’s talking about "darkness," "the glory of the Lord," "the nations will come to your light," etc. Remember that last week I told you to ask, "Has it happened, is it happening, or is it yet to happen?" This has yet to happen. He’s talking about the Second Coming of Christ. Let’s continue. This gets good.

Isaiah 60:4-6

"Lift up your eyes and look about you: All assemble and come to you; your sons come from afar, and your daughters are carried on the arm. Then you will look and be radiant, your heart will throb and swell with joy; the wealth on the seas will be brought to you, to you the riches of the nations will come. Herds of camels will cover your land, young camels of Midian and Ephah. And all from Sheba will come, bearing gold and incense and proclaiming the praise of the LORD.

I know that you have to read this carefully but what’s being said there? Basically, somebody is going somewhere bringing what? Gold and incense. When Christ came the first time, what did the wise men bring? Gold, incense, and myrrh. What was myrrh used for? Embalming the body. The first time Christ came, all three things were brought: gold, to represent His royalty; incense, for the fragrance of His life; and myrrh, to anoint the body because He was going to die. If we’re talking about the Second Coming of Christ, what’s missing in this description? The myrrh. Why? We don’t need it. He’s already been crucified. There will be no more death. You’ll see that the Bible is so consistent when you see the little things like this. It is not inconsistent. You can’t say, "Well, see, myrrh’s gone. There’s an error!" No. The myrrh’s not for His Second Coming. It’s for His first time—He had to die for our sins.

Isaiah 61:1-3

The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is on me, because the LORD has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners, to proclaim the year of the LORD's favor and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn, and provide for those who grieve in Zion-- to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair. They will be called oaks of righteousness, a planting of the LORD for the display of his splendor.

I spoke with a friend this week who’s struggling with frontal lobe dementia. He was in despair. He said the Holy Spirit came on him and said, "Do you know who’s taking care of you? Do you know who’s in charge of your life?" He had to answer, "God." He dealt with that for 20-30 minutes. It’s a great testimony. He said, "You know, it was so convicting to me. I said, ‘God, it’s you.’" He said that as soon as he acknowledged that, a peace came over him, "It doesn’t matter what happens to me now because now I understand what God is doing in my life."

That’s what these verses say. "the oil of gladness instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair." My friend is a walking testimony of this. He has the oil of gladness and a garment of praise.

Does anyone recall that when Jesus went to his hometown, they asked Him to read from the scrolls? That was a normal thing for Jews to do in the synagogue: read and pray. Jesus read Isaiah 61:1 and 61:2 until He got to "the day of vengeance of our God." He stopped and sat down. Why did He stop? What is the "the day of vengeance of our God?" That’s the Final Judgment. Jesus said, "I am here. It’s been fulfilled." and He stopped. Everybody got upset and kicked Him out of town.

What is the "Lord’s favor?" That through the blood of Christ, we have forgiveness of sins. We have grace and love because of what He did. Jesus said, "I have come to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor," and stopped. The "day of vengeance" is His Second Coming. Is that not amazing to you that this is in the Bible? This makes sense to me. This could not have been man-made, "Well, over here we’ll say this but over there we’ll have Jesus say that." It doesn’t work that way. God is the author of the Bible. This is an example of how He is true and consistent with His Word. I find that amazing.

Isaiah 65:17

"Behold, I will create new heavens and a new earth. The former things will not be remembered, nor will they come to mind.

You would think we were reading from Revelation, wouldn’t you?

Isaiah 65:18-19

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.

This "weeping no more" is also over in Revelation and throughout the Bible. When it’s talking about the End Times, it says there will be no crying, no mourning, and no weeping. It’s one of the conditions of the End Times. The more you study these conditions and know what’s going on, you will read "no more crying," you will know quickly that it’s yet to happen. There is going to come a time when there is no more crying or weeping. No matter what you think you have to cry about, God says you won’t. He says that He will give us something with His peace such that we will have an understanding of why everything has happened. We’ll look back and say, "That was the greatest thing that ever happened. While I was on Earth, I thought it was horrible but now I see from God’s perspective. That was awesome." Instead of weeping, crying, and mourning, you’re rejoicing, "God, you are holy. You are amazing! You are unbelievable with what you’ve done." Do you see that? I hope you do.

Isaiah 66:22-24

"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."

Isaiah finishes great, doesn’t it!? He’s saying that in the End Times, not only will there be joy, glory, and praise, but those who have not accepted Christ will be thrown into the Lake of Fire and eternally separated from God. That’s what he’s talking about. From our point of view, judgment is both positive and negative. We get to the point where we say, "The negative is really righteousness. God is being righteous in judging these other people."

The cousin I talked about earlier has two children, ages 7 and 3. She said, "You know, I’m not too concerned about my 3 year old. She hasn’t accepted Christ but she’s asking questions and talking about Jesus. But I’m really worried about my 7 year old. He’s gotten to the point that he knows right from wrong. If he dies tonight, where’s he going to go?" How do I answer her? What’s the answer? If he knows the difference between right and wrong and if he’s been told about Christ, what does he have? He has a choice to make. I told her, "The way you have defined it, he has to be cast into the Lake of Fire."

"But," I said, "Let me tell you something about God and what you read in the Bible…" (You know this from the Old Testament.) "God will not call the Day of Judgment on a person until He knows that He’s exhausted everything He can do to draw that person to Him." We read that many times, over and over. God was patient. He said, "I think there’s still time. I’m going to give them another chance. I think there’s still time. I’m going to give them another chance." One of the most amazing things you’ll read in Revelation is that during the seven-year period, God will continue to give people chances. "One more time, will you accept me? One more time, will you accept me?"

So I said, "Don’t worry about him dying tonight. God is going to give him enough time and enough access. God is going to keep working on him and working on him." I said, "Here’s what you’re supposed to do and what God will hold you accountable for when you get to Heaven and stand before Him. He’s not going to hold you responsible for your son not accepting Christ. He’ll ask, ‘What did you do to help Mason? How were you, as a parent? Forget your son—that’s between me and him. What did you do?’" It was a great conversation.

Isaiah—N.K.;

Jeremiah & Ezekiel—S.K.

That’s what Isaiah finishes up with. You know the setting during which Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel were written. Isaiah was written during the Assyrian Captivity (Israel, the Northern Kingdom). Jeremiah and Ezekiel were written during the Babylonian Captivity (Judah, the Southern Kingdom). The Southern Kingdom was not destroyed by Assyria, again, because He said, "I’m going to give them more time to get right with me." God is so patient with us. We consistently fail but He is patient with us.

Assyria is wiped out by Babylon as a World Empire. You can read that in your world history books. Babylon lays siege to the Southern Kingdom. That’s what you read about in Jeremiah and Ezekiel. Knowing that they’re talking about this, what do you think you’ll find in Jeremiah and Ezekiel? If you were a prophet of God, what are you going to be telling the people? "Warning! Caution! Red Flag! Don’t go any further! You’re disobedient. God is going to judge you." Do you see that? It’s almost time. God reveals this to Jeremiah and Ezekiel. He says, "There’s not much time left for them. They’re finished."

In love, "Repent!"

This is where the cousin chimed in again. She and her family were in an ice cream parlor one Friday night. A bunch of teenagers were there. She began talking to one of the teenagers. The teenager said, "Do you mind if I ask you a personal question? How do you think you can get to Heaven?" This was from a teenager on a Friday night at an ice cream parlor in front of her friends. The cousin was blown away. She was shocked. I asked her, "Why do you think this teenager asked this? She is showing love for other people (not soft, emotional, touchy-feely love, but that God is a righteous judge and He is going to judge everybody one day). That teenager sees every person needing God. She saw you and wanted to talk to you. That is the love you have for your son and for other people. God is working through you and others to reach people for Christ."

This is what the prophets are doing. The prophets are saying, "Turn. Don’t go any further." Jeremiah and Ezekiel have a love for Israel, saying, "Don’t go any further. It’s almost time. It’s almost over with." It’s that burning passion that flames in our hearts such that we can’t sit still. That’s the way the cousin described it. After we had discussed it, the cousin said, "You know, I have an uncle… I don’t want to see him go to hell. I don’t want to see him separated from God. I don’t want to see my son go to hell." I said, "Hooray! You’re right where Christians should be. You don’t want to see anybody lose their life, totally and eternally separated from God. You want to tell them about Christ." She said, "But they’re telling me I’m beginning to sound like an Arnold!" <Ha ha.> I said, "Praise the Lord!" It was unbelievable.

You, witness.

We’re doing this today. When is Christ returning? We don’t know, do we? We don’t know whether it will be one hour, one day, one week, one year, or a thousand years. We don’t know. But what does God say for today? He says, "Don’t worry about that time. What is today? Today is the appointed day. Today is for you." God will put people in your lives that He has been preparing. He has spent weeks, months, or years with this person, revealing little glimpses or snatches of Christ. They’ve heard about Him here and there. They’ve seen evil in the world. They’re saying, "What’s the meaning of life? What’s really going on?" At the same time this has been going on, God has been preparing you. You don’t know why or for what.

But one day, this person will be standing in line behind you at the grocery store. Somebody will give you an opening such that you can turn around and say, "Can you believe they said that?" It’s some incident where your life intersects with some other person God has been preparing. It’s for you to be a witness. I don’t mean that you should get on a soapbox and say, "You’re going to die in your eternal damnation if you don’t accept Christ." It doesn’t come across that way. God has prepared you to say whatever is supposed to be said to this person, at this moment, and in the way that will be most effective for them. I believe that. This is the sad part for us (myself included): I look back and there some situations where I said, "Well what will that person think of me? I don’t know what to say." You don’t do what you’re supposed to do. You quench the Holy Spirit. The Spirit was there. God orchestrated a monumental sequence of events to bring you two to that point. And we blow it. We say, "No, God. Not now. I’m not ready. I’m not qualified. I’m not convicted enough."

Without a shadow of a doubt, God put this cousin together with this teenager. Do you know what it did for the cousin? She told me, "At first I was shocked. Then I realized that I know the answer. I answered boldly, ‘The Lord, Jesus Christ…believe on Him…forgiveness of sins…’" Do you know what’s happened with the cousin since this event? She is more convinced, convicted, and empowered to talk to other people. God provided that opportunity. I would never have been able to have these conversations with her if the teenager had not witnessed to her. Do you see what I’m saying? Don’t be about this world and its’ affairs. Do the best job you can, as unto the Lord, with whatever you’re doing, but look for God working in your life and the lives of others. There is no more abundant life than that. It’s not in things, material possessions, power, or fame but in what God has for you in interactions with other people. What God is doing right now is tremendous. It’s amazing.

Jeremiah 2:19

Your wickedness will punish you; your backsliding will rebuke you. Consider then and realize how evil and bitter it is for you when you forsake the LORD your God and have no awe of me," declares the Lord, the LORD Almighty.

Do you see how Jeremiah could say that? You know the situation. You know the conditions. You know what’s going on. Read Jeremiah and Ezekiel.

Jeremiah 2:26-28

"As a thief is disgraced when he is caught, so the house of Israel is disgraced-- they, their kings and their officials, their priests and their prophets. They say to wood, `You are my father,' and to stone, `You gave me birth.' They have turned their backs to me and not their faces; yet when they are in trouble, they say, `Come and save us!' Where then are the gods you made for yourselves? Let them come if they can save you when you are in trouble! For you have as many gods as you have towns, O Judah.

Do you know what they’re talking about there? Idols.

That also describes the sad state of affairs today. People do not want to hear about God because they have their own idols. Their "wood" and "stone" may be their bank accounts, boats, planes, cars, golf clubs, etc. There’s nothing wrong with these things but it’s how you think about and use them.