Well it's exciting to see the development in God's Work, to see the Gospel of God's kingdom going forward, to see a level of unity – and this was certainly a topic of conversation over the past week with the seminar going on – a higher level of unity in United Church of God than we have experienced – perhaps, maybe, a higher level of unity than we have seen in the Church over many decades. And that's exciting. We are focused on getting done what God has called us to do.

I wanted to address it from a particular point of view – the job that God has called us to do –  because He gave this job to somebody else first. He gave it to Isaiah – in one sense, in principle to the patriarchs before him and to the few prophets that came before him – but Isaiah being the first of the Major Prophets. One of my areas of instruction for the Ambassador Bible Center is the Major Prophets. Isaiah was the first one – the most eloquent one. He is often called the Shakespeare of the prophets. God gave him a job. He began his ministry about 740 B.C. – give or take a few years – we don't have an exact date, but it was during the time of King Uzziah's reign in the house of Judah, which is where Isaiah lived. He prophesied for about sixty years. It was a long, long service. His ministry began around the time of the Assyrian invasion of the house of Israel to the north. Remember, at that time, there were two nations there. We had the ten tribes that formed the house of Israel and the two tribes, plus the tribe of Levi, that formed the house of Judah in the south. The capital of the northern kingdom of Israel was in Samaria and the capital of the house of Judah was in Jerusalem, which is where Isaiah was.

He primarily served in the land of Judah, through the crisis of another Assyrian invasion that came later, after the ten tribes were all deported, taken captive, defeated and taken captive and deported to various frontiers of the Assyrian empire north and east of where they had lived. Then Sennacherib, another emperor of the Assyrians came charging down against the house of Judah and as he came in the wave of invasion, he conquered all of frontier towns or the fortified cities, it says in the scriptures, which would be the cities that were built as the first line of defense out of the edge of the borders of the house of Judah.

Then he besieged Jerusalem and that was the time, of course, that Hezekiah was king. Hezekiah was a good king – a faithful king – and was a good friend of Isaiah. And he took the letter that had been written by Rabshakeh, which is one of the commanders of the Assyrian emperor, and he took it to the temple area, and he got down and prayed, and laid out that letter and read it to God. And Isaiah carried the message that God would intervene. And He did. He sent the death angel that night and the Assyrian army, the next day, woke up dead. Well, it says that in the King James. It says that "and in the morning, behold, they woke in the morning and they were all dead." It doesn't say exactly who woke up, but it sounds like they woke up dead! They did! 185,000 soldiers wiped out overnight, without the Judeans having to raise a finger. They had taken a hit because they lost 200,000 Jews in the deportation that took place in the Sennacherib's invasion. Those Jews then got tossed into the mix of the wandering tribes of Israel down through time, but that's another story. But Isaiah was right there, seeing all this happen, seeing Israel collapse in the north and seeing Judah being besieged to the south.

His name means "The Lord saves – The Eternal saves" – that's what Isaiah's name means. He's one of our primary sources of the millennial prophecies of the ruler, Jesus Christ. It is Isaiah that we quote most of the time. In fact, it was Isaiah that Christ and the apostles quoted most of the time. Of all of the…I think it's about 283 quotations of the Old Testament found in the New Testament, most of them are from Isaiah. He is quoted more often than anybody else.

He had an interesting prophetic theme which gets us down to the job that God gave him. His prophetic theme was the remnant that would be saved. The Eternal Saves is what his name means and then you'll see in the book – and we'll look at some of those places – a remnant of the house of Judah and the remnant of the house of Israel would be saved and would return to the land. Some of the Jews eventually did, much later at the time King Cyrus conquered the Babylonians. That would have been about 538-539 B.C. – then Ezra led back a contingent. But the house of Israel never returned en masse. They still had been gone from the Promised Land.

Isaiah had two sons and I'll just give you the name of his oldest – Shear Jashib – but it means, A Remnant Shall Return. So the theme of the book is encased in his son's name. Being a prophet, his family had to be involved in his prophecy. His wife in fact was a prophetess – Isaiah 8:3 mentions that. Let's notice, in Isaiah 1, this concept of the remnants, because it will factor into the job that God gave to Isaiah – a job, brethren, that in fact has yet to be finished. Thus, the title of this sermon is Finishing Isaiah's Job. Isaiah 1:9 – well lets back up to verse 7, I want to get a little bit of context here, sort of the impact.

Isaiah 1:7 – Your country is desolate, your cities are burned with fire; strangers devour your land in your presence and it is desolate, as overthrown by strangers. So the daughter of Zion is left as a booth in a vineyard... A booth would have been a shelter, a little hut out in the vineyard where you kept tools and where perhaps the vineyard workers sometimes would take a break in the shade in the early part of the season before the vines themselves produced shade, that would be all that was left, a hut and a field.

Isaiah 1:8 - …a hut in the garden of cucumbers…oh there's another hut; you can either be in the vineyard or the field of cucumbers, either way…a besieged city. That's the condition that the nation was in in the north in Israel and it was going to be in Judah as well unless…verse 9.

Isaiah 1:9 – Unless the Lord of hosts had left us a very small remnant, we would have been like Sodom and we would have been made like Gomorrah.

That doesn't address the sexual immorality of Sodom and Gomorrah there, but it addresses the fact that God destroyed those two cities entirely – wiped them out. So we have then with Isaiah talking about a remnant. That's the major theme of his book. Notice in chapter 6 – Isaiah had a résumé, we just sort of went over his résumé, didn't we? What he was called to do, his talents and capabilities, his eloquence, his faithfulness to God? In chapter 6, though, we have his job interview. He had to get the job. He had to have an interview as well.

It says that in the year that King Uzziah died…. So this – actually, this particular calling –  seemed to come a little while after he had begun to prophesy. It was like adding another layer of responsibility upon him. 

Isaiah 6:1 - In the year King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on the throne, high and lifted up.

So Isaiah was one of the few men who was privileged with a vision of the throne of God. He had one, Ezekiel had one, John the apostle had one – of course, that was the book of Revelation – is replete with that. So did the apostle Paul. He talks about, in 2 Corinthians 13, about going in vision to the third heaven. And he wasn't sure if it was a vision or if it was real. It was so intense and so real that it seemed like it was real, but of course no man has ascended into heaven, so it was a vision. And he makes that clear enough as he goes on. But Isaiah had one. And this is the only one, I think, that mentions that there was a train on the robe that God wore as He sat on His throne in the temple in the heaven.

Isaiah 6: 2 – And above it stood seraphim…these are angelic hosts or part of the angelic host rather…each one had six wings…they were unusual, cherubim had four but the seraphim had six…with two he covered his face…he's got two in front of his face…and two in front of his feet and with two he flew.

Some of the angels are really quite fantastic to consider with the descriptions we have. We can't fill in all the blanks, so we just sort of imagine just a little bit, but we will get to meet them. Isaiah has met them and he was impressed.

Isaiah 6:3 – And one cried to the other…the seraphim are calling back and forth, "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of the hosts; the whole earth is full of His glory."

So it seems that, if we can think of a role for them, perhaps they are leaders in the singing praises to God. You know, there are a council of 24 elders of the angels who are in front of the throne of God. John wrote about that in Revelation. The seraphim seem to have a responsibility of leading the praise toward God. They probably do other things as well.

Isaiah 6:4 – And the posts of the door were shaken by the voice of him who cried out, and the house was filled with smoke.

Isaiah 6:5 – So I said…wherever Isaiah was, there was a lot of shaking going on and probably he was helping it, he was shaking… "Woe is me, I am undone! Because I am a man of unclean lips and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips, for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts." Probably thought he was going to die, because he knew you can't look upon God and still live.

Isaiah 6:6 – Then one of the seraphim flew to him…this is a vision you see, because the dream is far more real than the highest definition virtual reality that you can imagine electronically, those are sham games compared to the real deal of a vision from God. One of the seraphim flew to him, having in his hand a live coal which he had taken with the tongs from the altar.

And that would apparently be the altar of burnt incense that's in the temple of God in the third heaven, corresponding to, or actually being, what the temple on earth in Solomon's day and the tabernacle in Moses's day was a simply of a replica of, and inside of that was an altar of incense, which had fire burning in it. So there were hot coals so the priest – whenever the ceremonies called for it – could take their censors – which were very similar to a ladle, but a very ornate one – and they would scoop up a coal, upon which they could sprinkle the finely ground incense as they were conducting simple ceremonies in the temple giving off a wonderful fragrance. So here he brings that hot coal:

Isaiah 6:7 – And he touched my mouth with it…Isaiah said…and said, "Behold, this has touched your lips; your iniquity is taken away, and your sin is purged….or covered."

Isaiah 6:8 – And then I heard the voice of the Lord saying: - so suddenly Isaiah has regained his composure with the encouragement of the particular seraphim there – and I heard the voice of the Lord saying, "Whom shall I send, and who will go for Us?" So He had a job that needed to be done and He's asking who He can send and who will go for Us. And so Isaiah, as I said, has regained his composure and he said: "Here I am! Send me!" He volunteered for the job and so he was to go and do that.

You know, this section of scripture was actually read and written about by a journalist – an American journalist – named Alfred Nock – Nock is the last name – a journalist and philosopher. And he wrote an essay – very interesting one – called Isaiah's Job, back in the 1930's and he was reflecting upon the religious milieu in America, because he was an American in America –  at least at the time – and he wrote a few lines. I thought I'd read some snippets from his piece. He said:

"I cannot remember a time when so many energumens – energumens is an interesting term in itself, meaning things that are emitting energy – were so variously proclaiming the Word – meaning the Bible – to the multitude, and telling them what they must do to be saved. And this being so, it occurred to me that the story of Isaiah might have something in it to steady and compose the human spirit until this tyranny of windiness is overpast." I don't know if you picked up on the whip crack at the end of the sentence, but the "tyranny of windiness" is the way he described the run of the mill preaching about the Bible – you know, from traditional Christianity. "Until this tyranny of windiness is overpast."

But in Isaiah he felt that there was something that would steady and compose the human spirit, thus he wrote this essay, called Isaiah's Job. He paraphrased some of what we just read in this way:

"In the year of Uzziah's death, the Lord commissioned the prophet to go out and warn the people of the wrath to come, to tell them what a worthless lot they are. Tell them what is wrong and why and what's going to happen unless they have a change of heart and straighten out. Don't mince matters." (Now this is God talking to Isaiah in Nock's paraphrase.)  "Make it clear they are positively down to their last chance. Give it to them good and strong and keep giving it to them. I suppose, though, I ought to tell you" -  he added – "that it won't do any good. I want you to go out there. I want you to do this job. I want you to keep hammering away. But just a word to the wise: It won't help. It won't do any good. The official class and their intelligentsia will turn up their noses at you and the masses will not even listen. They will keep on in their own ways until they carry everything down to destruction, and you will probably be lucky if you get out with your life."

Of course that makes you and I wonder, then, why would you do it? And I'm sure it made Isaiah wonder. In fact he has a way of saying it – made him wonder – and we'll look at that in a moment. But Nock continues with his paraphrase here, he says:

"Isaiah had been very willing to do the job. In fact, he'd asked for it." – we just read that – " but the prospect put a new face on the situation. It raised the obvious question, ‘Why, if all that was so – if the enterprise were to be a failure from the start – was there any sense in starting it?' What's the deal? ‘Ah' the Lord said, ‘You don't get the point. There is a remnant out there – that you know nothing about. They are obscure, unorganized and inarticulate – each one rubbing along as best he can. They need to be encouraged and braced up, because when everything else is completely gone to the dogs'" I don't know if you've ever used that saying. I grew up with it. You know, when something has gone to the dogs, it means it has completely broken down –  when everyone has gone to the dogs) "‘they are the ones – the remnant – who will come back and build up a new society. And meanwhile, your preaching will reassure them and keep them hanging on. Your job is to take care of the remnant. So be off now and set about it.'"

Now Nock, of course, didn't understand the resurrection of the dead, God's plan of salvation, and how everything would unfold, and how He would ultimately offer salvation to all of the remnant and the masses themselves. But we understand that. But I think his observation on Isaiah's job is quite striking – quite interesting.

Let's go back to Isaiah 6 and let's look again at what he said here. Isaiah 6:8 just to recap slightly.

Isaiah 6:8 – And I heard the voice of the Lord, saying: "Whom shall I send and who shall go for Us?" Then I said, "Here am I, send me."

Isaiah 6:9 – And He said, "Go, and tell this people: ‘Keep on hearing, but do not understand, keep on seeing, but do not perceive.'  That's what he's supposed to tell them?

Well, I think Nock was capturing the sense of it. Go tell this people. Keep telling it. Don't back off. Keep hammering away. But then you're saying, in essence, to them, "Keeping on hearing but don't understand, keep on seeing but don't perceive." It isn't going to do any good, ultimately, as far as turning the whole society around. He goes on in verse 10:

Isaiah 6:10 – "Make the heart of this people dull, and their ears heavy, and shut their eyes, lest they see with their eyes and hear with their ears and understand with their heart and return and be healed."

And you can see why Isaiah would say, "Ah, they're not going to listen. And if you don't want them to hear right now, or see right now, or be healed right now, then why do I have to do this job?" Isaiah's way of asking why was more, "How long, how long do I have to do this?" And God answers in verse 11 in the middle of it:

Isaiah 6:11 – "Until the cities are laid waste and without inhabitant, and the houses are without a man, the land is utterly desolate…" So it was a puzzlement why he would have to do it for so long. But he said that there was something there, this is where the remnant comes in.

Isaiah 6:13 – "But yet a tenth will be in it, and will return and be for consuming, as a terebinth tree or as an oak, whose stump remains in it when it is cut down. So the holy seed shall be its stump." There shall be something left to come back and build up again.

Now the tenth – the remnant being a tenth – is an interesting statistic. In Amos 5:3…let's turn and look at Amos 5:3. Amos was contemporary with Isaiah. Frankly, Micah was also contemporary with him. They were both working on Isaiah's job, which is why themes in Isaiah were carried by them as well, and, sometimes even the wording – you know, the famous thing about "beating your swords into plowshares?" We always quote that out of Isaiah 2, but it's found in Micah 4, as well.

We know that, in the end time, there are prophecies of massive destruction and there are certain prophecies that indicate percentages of people dying from this and from that. Ezekiel has this terrifying prophecy of thirds in the 5th chapter of Ezekiel. Amos has the overall statistic.

Amos 5:1-2 – This is the word which I take up against you, a lamentation, O house of Israel:  The virgin of Israel has fallen, she will rise no more. She lies forsaken on her land; there is no one to raise her up.

Well, Amos was seeing what Isaiah was seeing to the north, because by 722 or 721, Samaria had collapsed, and what had been left of the house of Israel had been taken captive and hauled away – by 720 they were gone. They weren't up there anymore. So Amos was seeing that as well. There was no one to raise her up.

Amos 5:3 – For thus says the Lord God:  "The city that goes out by a thousand shall have a hundred left, and that which goes out by a hundred shall have ten left to the house of Israel."

Now there was a prophecy of the destruction of the nation at that time, but as we know there is a parallel, or a duality, to prophecy. And we see that prophecy being applied through the great tribulation time ahead of us. Read the book of Revelation and you see a lot of statistics –  destruction that occurs. And it seems like that statistic of Amos 5:3, sobering and sad as it is, could well be all that survive through that time of horrendous trouble, like the world will have never seen, and will be there to begin repopulating the Millennium – one tenth of the population. Now we normally apply that to the nations descended from the tribes of Israel, but it's entirely possible that it applies to the other nations as well – the nations that aren't descended from Israel. Very sobering, indeed.

But here Isaiah had this job he had to do, and that job isn't finished yet. And that's made clear by Christ Himself. Let's turn to Matthew 13. Jesus Christ made it clear that Isaiah's job didn't get finished by Isaiah – didn't get finished even with the help of Amos and Micah and certain others during his lifetime. And it wasn't finished by Jeremiah, or Ezekiel, or anybody else – still not done. Matthew 13 – the apostles are – the apostles-to-be, rather – are quite puzzled by the way Christ talks to the public. The first few verses lead up to the introduction, too, and then He tells what we call the Parable of the Sower – or the planter – which gets started in verse 3 and goes through verse 9.

Matthew 13:10 – The disciples came to Him and said to Him, "Why do You speak to them in parables?" Why don't we just tell them what we're going to tell them? Why do you speak to them in parables? And He answered; Jesus answered them in verse 11:

Matthew 10:11 – "Because it has been given to you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven (or the kingdom of God) but to them it has not been given." Doesn't that sound just a lot like what God was saying to Isaiah? "You'll understand this. They don't understand it. Therefore, I am not going to tell them the details."

Matthew 13:12-15 – "For whoever has, to him more will be given, and he will have an abundance; but whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken away from him. Therefore I speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand. And in them the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled…Hearing you shall hear and not understand, seeing you will see and not perceive for the hearts of this people have grown dull, their ears are hard of hearing and their eyes they have closed lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears, lest they should understand with their hearts and turn and that I should heal them."

So what Christ was saying? "It isn't time for them to know these things like you know them, now. But the message has to go out all the same." That's what Christ is explaining here. The disciples asked Him why He talked to the masses in parables, so He quotes Isaiah 6 – just what we read earlier – the job that God gave Isaiah. And then verse 17 I think helps to make it very clear.

Matthew 13:16  - "Blessed are your eyes for they see and your ears because they hear; for assuredly I say to you that many prophets and righteous men desired to see what you see and didn't see it, and hear what you hear and didn't hear it."

"This is your time and you understand it now. Their time is not yet. But you have to preach it all the same." And that has to do a lot with what the parable is about. We'll come back to that in a minute. Let's go back and size up the situation, because here we are. We're the ones who have to finish Isaiah's job. We have to finish preaching. We have to finish going out and, seemingly –  and I don't know how you describe a job where you didn't know the point of the job – we called it pounding sand down a rat hole where I grew up. Why are you doing that? There's a rat hole here and I'm pounding sand down it! Just seemed like it was fruitless. Why was I doing it? But it had to be done. And Isaiah must have thought that sometimes, as well, yet it had to be done. And God told him to do it, so he had to do it. Likewise, He has told us to do it, and we have to do it. But there is meaning and there is understanding. We'll see how this all fits together.

Let's go back to another interesting comment by Albert Nock. He talked about the remnant that is out there and then he talked about the masses, the general public and he differentiated between the two. He said: "As the word ‘masses' is commonly used, it suggested agglomerations of the poor – the underprivileged people, laboring people, proletarians. And it means nothing like that. It means simply the majority. The mass man is the one who has neither the force of intellect to apprehend the principles, issuing in what we'd call as the humane life" (a sense of moral duty in other words) "nor the force of character to adhere to those principles steadily and strictly as laws of conduct."

He's talking about the masses are the people who don't have that internal drive and conscience that strives to do essentially what the Bible says. And because such people make up the great and overwhelming majority of mankind, they are called collectively, the masses. They are the simple, the gullible, the weak, the emotionally immature, the unprincipled – I'm not quoting him now; I'm summarizing what he was talking about – the morally wishy-washy, the fool, the wicked, the run of the mill, and all economic and educational strata, all occupations, all walks of life. And it's also their leaders, the intelligentsia, the bulk of the educators, the bulk of the religious leaders, politicians, judges and lawyers, all the sports and entertainment media idols.

Remember the scripture in Isaiah 3:12 – it's one when we quote something from Isaiah 3 –  maybe it's in your scripture cards you got from the last ABC class. I'm not sure. I didn't look through to see if Isaiah 3:12 was there, but you know it, it says this:

Isaiah 3:12 – "As for My people, children are their oppressors, and women rule over them. O My people! Those who lead you cause you to err, and destroy the way of your paths."

Those who lead you cause you to fall into error and that is what the masses are led by. Those who lead them cause them to err. So some of the masses are those who are the leaders. It's not just the underprivileged. The masses are the vast majority of mankind in all nations – America included. And we're not being pejorative by any means. Remember God is not trying to convert the world at this time. That will come later.

Let's look at a passage in the New Testament. It's in 2 Corinthians 4. It begins to give clarity to this seemingly enigmatic job that God gave Isaiah – and we have thus inherited, as being a part of God's people today – in the business of proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom of God.

2 Corinthians 4:3 – But even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, whose minds the god of this age has blinded – or sometimes it's rendered the god of this world, the Greek word is cosmos,which means age or society, in that sense of the word – not necessarily the planet – whose minds the god of this age has blinded…. We know who the god of this age is. He's the prince of the power of the air – the spirit that now works in the children of disobedience – in Ephesians. It's Satan, of course – the devil, that serpent of old who has deceived all the nations.

Verse 4 - …he has blinded, who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is in the image of God, should shine on them.

Satan is blocking the understanding of society through deception, so they don't understand the gospel. The time will come when that deception will be wiped away. In the meantime, there are just a few who are trying to hold the line, because they can read, at least in a common sense way, what the Bible says and try to put it to work. Now let's look at the masses a little bit more, again using Nock's explanation of them. He said:

"The picture which Isaiah presents of the Judean masses is most unfavorable" – I would say that's true. "In his view, the mass man, be he high or be he lowly, rich or poor, prince or pauper,  gets off very badly." In other words, he's not that great of a chap. "He appears not only weak-minded and weak-willed, but by consequence, knavish, arrogant, grasping, dissipated, unprincipled and unscrupulous." There's a list of adjectives for you!

"The mass woman also gets off badly, as sharing all the mass man untoward qualities" – or bad qualities – untoward – we don't use untoward very often these days – "and contributing a few of her own, in the way of vanity, and laziness, and extravagance and foible." Then he adds in something that is kind of odd, but makes sense in the time he wrote this – in the 1930's – "The list of luxury-products that she patronized is interesting. It calls to mind the women's page of a Sunday paper in 1928, or the display set forth in one of our professedly ‘smart' periodicals." And you think what a list of likely products?  They're in Isaiah 1, and also in chapter 3, and elsewhere in the book of Isaiah. It talks about all the things that the women – high-fashioned women of that day – wore and the kind of conduct that they had – just like the kind of conduct the mass man had in those days.

Now I would say something about the mass man and the mass woman – that the masses in history have tended to be more responsible when there was a strong and common sense remnant within a society. When there was not a very strong remnant, or when the remnant was deliberately weakened, then the masses tend to set a worse tone in the society. We see that in the ups and downs in the house of Israel and the house of Judah. When they had good kings, things tended to go better and people tended to be more responsible, even at the mass level – the general population level. When the king was bad, that weakened the hand of those who were trying to hold society together – those who believed in marriage, those who believed in being good parents, those who believed in being honest, they tried to hand that on to their own children. But when they were weakened by a bad king, then the foolishness of the masses tended to have a bigger effect on society.

Now when you think, this doesn't sound like the huddled masses that are supposed to come to our shore and sail under the shadow of Lady Liberty. Right – the term masses has been changed. The ancient writers, philosophers and historians used masses just like Nock is using masses, but after the enlightenment of the 1600's, and into the 1700 and 1800's, some European philosophers came up with the idea that the masses were somehow the repository of moral values in society. They declared that the weaknesses of the masses – they recognized that they had weaknesses – and they said the weaknesses were not their fault. It's not their fault. It's the fault of the others –  meaning the remnant, I presume. It's not their fault, but they were the fault of their environment and society itself, so they don't have any responsibility – self-responsibility. You think, "Well that doesn't sound right. Everybody has to be responsible for himself." Correct. It doesn't sound right, because that kind of thinking ultimately produced the political doctrine of the perfectibility of man. The perfectibility of man is a philosophy that led to the socialist and communist movements, and all the wonderful things that they have brought to modern society. I think a little sarcasm is appropriate at that point.

Now, looking back – again, a little history lesson here – some people remember the French Revolution, not because they were there but because they had to read about it, in 1890's. The French Revolution went crazy, the slaughter and the political executions were terrifying, it was like demons were running loose and making the French kill each other off, which pretty much was the description of it. That was because of the new definition of the masses, they thought the masses did have the morality and they relied upon them and they were like relying upon a broken tooth as the proverb says.

Now in the American Revolutionary days, when we look back as Americans, we kind of look back like that was a wonderful time, but the same thinking about the masses that was going to affect France was present in America, except the difference was, we had a remnant who were in powerful positions of leadership. They were called the Founding Fathers and they didn't believe in the masses nonsense – which is probably why at first, Thomas Payne, who was a writer in the Revolutionary era, almost adulated or adored George Washington, and a couple years later he couldn't stand him. He moved to France. Thomas Payne was not as discerning as the Founding Fathers by any means. He was articulate in certain ways, but he wasn't as discerning.

So you see in a revolution you had a case where you had many – and that was really one of the blessings that God brought in bringing about a turn in history at that time for the tribe of Joseph – is that you had many Founding Fathers who were, to a large degree, fairly much in lock step. There were a few, who were a little off, but they were steadied out by the rest.

So, who is the remnant today? That's history and I don't want to bore you with history. Some people are, you know. I hope that you get over that sometime. It's fascinating. It's the story of man. I also know that some of you love history and see the lessons in it. Bear in mind we do have to read history periodically – at least once every seven days – but I would recommend you read it every day. Read the history that's in the Bible.

Now let's go back – who is the remnant today? Let's bring this up to our modern time and try to get a sense of where we are, what our part of Isaiah's job is, what we have to do. Albert Nock defined the remnant in contrast to the masses in a couple of sentences. He said:

"The line of differentiation between the masses and the remnant is set in variably by quality, not by circumstance." It doesn't matter if they're poor or rich, doesn't matter if they're highly educated or not very highly educated. It's quality – quality of common sense – probably the innate wisdom that, in fact, corresponds with God's will. "The remnant is those who by force of intellect are able to apprehend these principles that were listed earlier, living a responsible life. To understand those principles and by force of character are able, at least measurably, to cleave to them." Doesn't mean they're converted, it just means that they see what is sound, and they follow that, and try to teach it to their children. The masses are those who are unable to do either. They drift. They do better if they are positively influenced by a strong remnant. The remnant can now be called highly conservative in today's parlance, because that's where it's drifted. It used to be it was across the left and right board – at least in the United States – but now it would be labeled as being conservative, because polarization has taken place in so much of society today.

The remnant in the Israelite descendant nations has been, through history – back in ancient Israel as well as now, in the modern descendant nations – those who grasp this great truth. There is good and there is evil, and God is not neutral between them. The masses are those who don't understand that statement and they think that, if there is a God, He doesn't care what we do. That's the difference between a remnant and a mass. The remnant is the principled, the morally solid, the steady and sound families – those who serve, in a sense, as neighborhood and national anchors in a wind driven age. We live in a wind driven age for sure.

Now let's look at the remnant again in Isaiah. This is chapter 10 that we want to have our next view of – Isaiah 10. As I said, it's a theme and you'll find the word remnant scattered all through the book of Isaiah, and then Jeremiah picks it up, and so does Ezekiel. But Isaiah, really, was the torch bearer of the remnant theology, as the commentaries refer to the book of Isaiah. Isaiah 10:20-22.

Isaiah 10:20-22 – Then it shall come to pass in that day that the remnant of Israel and such as have escaped of the house of Jacob, will never again depend on him who defeated them, but will depend on the Lord, the Holy One of Israel, in truth. The remnant will return, the remnant of Jacob, to the Mighty God. For though your people, O Israel, be as the sand of the sea, a remnant of them will return; the destruction decreed shall overflow with righteousness.

Things will get better at the end – oh much better – there will be a surviving remnant. We're going to ask the question, "How do we know who that remnant is?" We'll get to that later. We'll save that up. But in chapter 11, I want to read another comment about the remnant and give a setting for how it ties into end time prophecy and the prophecy of the kingdom of God on earth. Verse 11 first, and then 16.

Isaiah 11:11 – It shall come to pass in that day that the Lord will set His hand again the second time to recover the remnant of His people who are left from Assyria and Egypt, from Pathros and Cush, from Elam and Shinar, from Hammath and the islands of the sea. He will recover what is left of Israel again, in verse 11. In verse 16:

Isaiah 11:16 – There will be a highway for the remnant of His people, who will be left from Assyria, as it was for Israel in the day that they came up from the land of Egypt.

Now, when you put this together – we call this the second exodus – the surviving Israelites –  those of the nations descended from the tribes in the past – after the great tribulation and the Day of the Lord, three and half years takes place and Christ returns, then the resurrected saints and the angels go and begin to bring those people back to the Promised Land. So we first of all, start there again where the nation state of Israel is – in fact except the borders are expanded to a certain degree. That's the second exodus, which is right after the time of Christ's return.

Let's look now at a prophecy about the masses in chapter 28, because Israel had those who behaved like the masses, as were viewed by the ancient writers – not just the ancient writers about the Israelite nation either. We'll get to that in a moment.

Isaiah 28:1 – Woe to the crown of pride, to the drunkards of Ephraim, whose glorious beauty is a fading flower which is at the head of the verdant valleys, to those overcome with wine! The drunkards of Ephriam.

Now we know from research, biblically, as well as historically, that Ephriam is the ancestor of the English. So does that mean that the English are the primary drunkards? Not necessarily – Ephriam and the house of Israel – the ten tribes to the north. Ephriam was the dominant tribe. Their first king's name was Jeroboam and he was an Ephriamite. Thus, Ephriam had that sort of dominant position during the history of the ten tribes. Thus the "drunkards of Ephriam" has a broader application than just one tribe. Then in verse 7-8:

Isaiah 28:7-8 – But they have erred through wine and through intoxicating drink are out of the way; the priest and the prophet have erred through intoxicating drink, they are swallowed up by wine, they are out of the way through intoxicating drink; they err in vision, they stumble in judgment, for all tables are full of vomit and filth. No place is clean.

Because of their penchant for not controlling their appetites and not controlling their emotions and thoughts, they err in vision – the vision of the country, the vision of what's right, and in judgment – on how to make a judgment of what's right and what's wrong. They don't know how, because they give themselves over, with not having any sort of character to withstand it, but they give themselves over to intoxication. And what do you think is one of the greatest problems that our society faces today? Certainly in America, I know it does and must be very similar in many other nations as well – it's alcoholism – drunkenness through that or the instance drunkenness of using drugs. See, with alcohol you can drink responsibly – not to drunkenness –  and that's why God allows it – but doesn't allow the drunkenness. Being a drunkard can keep you out of the kingdom of God. Using drugs leads to instant drunkenness. That's the whole purpose for hallucinatory drugs, or any other kinds of drugs, or medications that are drugs.

We live in an age that, for the past fifty years, has just, I don't know, I guess you could say, has been drug infested. Instead of bug infested, it's been drug infested, and it's a very very sad thing. And that is the way of the masses – just go with the flow. If it feels good, do it – you know, all their philosophies that came out of the twenties, as well, There was a song in the 1920's that echoed that "if it feels good do it." It was called I Love Me. A few of the lines were, "I love me, I'm wild about myself, I wrap my arms around myself and give myself a squeeze, I love me!" They didn't ever stop. That's mass thinking – the bulk of the population – that's not remnant thinking. That's not responsible thinking. It's not all about us. It's about others as well.

Isaiah 28:14-15 – Therefore hear the word of the Eternal, you scornful men, who rule over this people who are in Jerusalem, because you have said, "We have made a covenant with death, and with Sheol (or the grave) we are in agreement. When the overflowing scourge passes through, it won't come to us. We have made an agreement; it isn't going to hurt us. We have made lies our refuge, and under falsehood we have hidden ourselves."

Where is the world today – especially those in northwest Europe, the United States, the British nations, as well? Have we not made lies our refuge – economic lies, political lies, moral lies? We look around and we mourn. We see it happening. We understand it from the perspective that even the remnant in society doesn't understand yet, and we mourn what is happening, because they have done just this. This is a commentary on our society today. Just look at the news tomorrow and you'll see people making lies, people claiming their refuge, and people claiming that they'll never be hurt by these things. They'll survive economically or whatever other way they are concerned. Economics is, right now, the hot issue, obviously.

But amidst all this mass thinking – the crazy thinking of the general population – in the middle of that, verse 5 and 6 is the remnant.

Isaiah 28:5-6 – In that day the Lord of hosts will be a crown of glory and a diadem of beauty to the remnant of His people. For a spirit of justice to him who sits in judgment, and for strength to those who turn back to the battle at the gate.

And in Israel there were those who did that at periodical and important times, there were those who tried to do that but when the masses were too strong, then they were shoved aside. We have been blessed with having a fairly strong remnant in the 20th century, but it has been weakened badly within the past few decades – very much.

Now what about a remnant in the Gentile nations? We've talked about Israelite nations. What about those nations that aren't descended, physically, from the ancient tribes of Israel? Let's go to Greece, for example – the writings of Plato. He recognized the masses and the remnants in his society as well. He saw the difference between those who tried – who have solid families and marriages and believed in all of the basic morals that define a stable society. Marcus Aurelius –  he sounds like he's even more interesting to read than Plato, because he only wrote one book –  Plato wrote quite a few – but he was the Emperor of Rome from 161-180 AD, and he wrote his own personal journal, which has become sort of a book of proverbs, of sorts. But he wrote about the fickleness of the masses and the steadiness of the remnant in Roman society as well – in the Roman Empire. It exists in all nations – not just nations that came from Israel. There's a remnant in the Gentile societies. And you'll say, "Yeah, but where is the evidence in the Bible for that?" Well, let's look at a very interesting passage in Romans 2. It is probably one of the most interesting parenthetical statements you will find in the Bible. Romans 2:13-15 – now we'll read verse 12, to get the tenor of what's being discussed.

Romans 2:12 – For as many as have sinned without the law, will also perish without law, and as many  as have sinned in the law will be judged by the law. And then we shift into a parenthetical statement, we're talking about whether we need to obey God's law or not but it says:

Romans 2:13 – (for not the hearers of the law are just in the sight of God, but the doers of the law will be justified; …that's a memory verse, we have to do what is right, do God's law in that sense, then Paul tosses in this historical commentary, under inspiration, so it's not just Paul.

Romans 2:14 - for when Gentiles, who do not have the law – and the Gentile nations don't have the heritage of God's law; they didn't have Moses in their background that God delivered the law through, but – when Gentiles, who do not have the law by nature do the things in the law – they marry, they take care of their children, they don't murder, they stop thieves and they don't steal themselves, so they're obeying many of the Commandments – they do things in the law, these, although not having the law – because it's not part of their background – are a law unto themselves. They have a sense of responsibility to do the right thing, and to be fair, and to be honest, and to care for their families, as I said, and care for the next generation coming along –  they are a law to themselves,

Romans 2:15 – who show by the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and between themselves, their thoughts accusing or else excusing them) – if they do what's wrong, it accuses them. If they do what is right, then they are excusing them. They're not feeling guilty, in other words, if they do what's right.

So there we have it – a commentary on how a remnant of society in the Gentile nations, all through history, has existed as well – those who hold things together while the rest of society doesn't really care – doesn't think about it, drifts along, goes with the flow and tends to pull things down to the dogs.

Now, who will be the surviving remnant to start the millennial world tomorrow when Christ has returned? We know with a certainty that the solid physical remnant of morality in society will be – rather we don't know with a certainty that the remnants in society – that is talked about coming back to the promised land – we don't know with certainty that they will be those who have striven to be the remnant in society today. We can't know that for certain. But we do know this: somebody will survive. There will be a remnant that will survive – that tenth of the population of Israelite nations, and likely the same, or nearly the same, percentage from the Gentile nations.

Now when you think back, when Elijah was so discouraged and depressed he thought he was the only one that was following God, he found out, no, it was 7,001! God knew exactly who the 7,000 were. He knew He had a remnant in the northern kingdom of Israel that Elijah didn't know about. And they were holding the line and they had not bowed the knee to Baal. So what I'm giving is a speculation – but I think it's a reasonable speculation – about who is likely that God will bring through the famine and pestilence – who were in captivity – that they will likely be the remnant. I think it's a fair speculation, or at least partly, significantly be part remnant.

Notice Isaiah 61 – here we have again, in the Shakespeare of the prophets, one of the most magnificent of his prophecies. We read it at the Feast, because it has to do with the Feast, but it also has to do with the beginning of the ministry of Jesus Christ, because He quoted this. He opened the scroll of Isaiah on the Sabbath in Nazareth and He read this passage as the keystone themes of His ministry and His first coming.

Isaiah 61:1-3 – "The spirit of the Lord God is upon Me, because the Lord has anointed Me4 to preach good tidings to the poor; (preaching the gospel to the poor) He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound; to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all who mourn, to console those who mourn in Zion, to give them beauty for ashes, and the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they may be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord that He may be glorified."

Isaiah 61:4 – And they shall rebuild the old ruins…when everything has gone to the dog, these are the ones who will come back and rebuild the old ruins…and they shall raise up the former desolations, and repair the ruined cities, the desolations of many generations.

Now Christ cited that as the theme for His ministry. In many respects, that was also what Isaiah was doing in his ministry and, quite frankly, it is what we strive to do in ours now. Proclaim the gospel, the glad tidings, the good news of the wonderful world tomorrow, the kingdom of God. It's going to be on earth, but it's going to be for all eternity – beyond that in the spirit.

So when we look at those who will survive and do the rebuilding, I think it's possible - maybe more than possible, maybe somewhat likely – that it is those who are trying to hold society together now. That would be poetic justice for that to happen, I think. As Christ continues His mission, whoever is the surviving remnant will, in fact, be those, when everything goes to the dogs, will be the ones who will come back and build up the new society.

Of course we might ask, well what is our role as resurrected saints when it's time to do the rebuilding? Won't we be doing that? No, the survivors will do that. We'll be ruling with Christ.  We're not going to run around building the buildings. They get to do that. That's their fun. That's their satisfaction. We just help them. We inspire, direct and guide them. In that sense, we work through that remnant that does survive to do the rebuilding of society to come.

So where does the Church fit in? Aren't we a part of the remnant? One person, who heard me talk about the remnant some time ago, said that she always thought the remnant was the Church. In fact the Church of God is a remnant, but it is not the remnant that we've been talking about. Let me show you It's in Romans 11, the first five verses of Romans 11. We are a remnant all right – a very specific remnant.

Romans 11:1 – I say then, has God cast away His people? Now bear in mind, Romans 9-11, the apostle Paul is talking about the role of Israel, what happened to Israel, what's going to happen to Israel, so this is all within that general context. I say then, has God cast away His people? Certainly not! For I also am an Israelite, of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin. God has not cast away His people whom He foreknew. God planned to have a people He would call Israel.

Romans 1:2 – Or do you not know that the Scripture says of Elijah, how he pleads with the Lord against Israel, saying, "Lord, they have killed Your prophets, torn down your altars and I alone am left and they seek my life"?

Romans 1:4 – But does the divine response say to him? "I have reserved for Myself seven thousand men who have not bowed the knee to Baal." Just what we citedearlier.

Romans 1:5 – Even so then, at this present time there is a remnant according to the election of grace.

And the Church falls into that category on the election of grace, although granted, that there was just a physical remnant that was holding things together. That would be God's grace, too. We are under the grace of God's forgiveness of our sins – the grace that all mankind must ultimately come under – and it is the ultimate grace, but grace means favor, divine favor – a gift in that sense and that has come in many forms. Any blessing from God is a part of His grace. The greatest one, though, is to have our sins forgiven and be given His spirit on our way toward the kingdom of God.

So, is the Church in our age called from the remnant in society or the masses? What's our source? Well there is a scripture that gives us an indication a few pages further on.  1 Corinthians 1:26-29.

1 Corinthians 1:26 – For you see your calling, brethren – we sing this one in a hymn by the way – you see your calling, brethren, that not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble are called.

1 Corinthians 1:27-29 -  But God has chosen – it seems like there are a few of them, okay, but not many – but God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and He has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things that are mighty; and the base things of the world and the things which are despised God has chosen, and the things which are not, to bring to nothing the things that are, that no flesh should glory in His presence.

Not many wise men now are called – the bottom line is God's Church is, from this passage, a mix of the masses and the remnant. And, apart from God's goodness and grace, we're just not such hot stuff. But with God's involvement in our lives, we can do the work that God gave Isaiah. In verses 30-31 we have been given something wonderful.

1 Corinthians 1:30-31 – But of Him you are in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God – and righteousness and sanctification and redemption – as it is written, "He who glories, let him glory in the Lord."

Christ has become our wisdom. Far beyond the understanding of Christ that the world has had over the years, we truly understand who Jesus Christ is, and we understand our relationship with the Father through Him. Therefore, as today's remnant of grace, what are expected to do? I think the motto of the United Church of God is a clue – preach the gospel and prepare a people. Now the gospel is the true gospel of the Kingdom of God, of course, and the people being prepared are the Church, but there is more preparing that we have to do. Our message has something fascinating about it – and it always has frankly. Consider this: God's Work includes reassuring and strengthening the remnant in society.

Did you ever write a memo or a letter to somebody – or an e-mail or a text – you've even texted somebody and you knew full well that another person or persons would read your message and that, frankly, there was a message that you really wanted to get across to the person who knew the other person's message? Ever do that? Of course we have, so you wrote a message within the message. Now whether they all listen or not, we have always known that our message of the gospel of the Kingdom of God is heard and read by the masses, including their mass leaders and the intelligentsia. We've always known that. We've always known that a few would respond to our preaching of the gospel in the mass media. We have always known that only a few of the few who respond to our public preaching would then be called into the Church of God.

Notice in Mark 4 – Mark 4 is actually a parallel to Matthew 13. This is an echo of what we have just read:

Mark 4:10 – And when He was alone, those around Him with the twelve asked Him about the parable. And He said to them, "To you it has been given to know the mystery of the kingdom of God; but to those who are outside, all things come in parables, so that, ‘Seeing they may see and not perceive, hearing they may hear and not understand; lest they should turn, and their sins should be forgiven them.'"

It isn't time yet – and the parable of the sower talks about that – because the seed of the gospel, as it goes on to elaborate in the following verses, up to verse 20, the seed of the gospel falls on shallow ground, and stony ground, and some of it falls on rich and fertile ground. Various things come – normally it's the involvement of the great deceiver that sucks away the truth from the minds of others – but there is a general planting of the seeds of the gospel that is what our work is doing.

Therefore the parable of the sower, in the light of that mystery of the Kingdom of God that we understand – the calling of the remnant – will tend to be during the millennium. Whatever this surviving group is – whatever degree they are of today's societal remnant – they'll be called during the millennium, and then their descendants will be called through the millennium, and then the rest of the masses, and the society's remnants historically, will come during the Great White Throne Judgment. There is an unfolding of the offering of salvation and it's not Gods will that any should perish, but all should come to repentance.

No one will be left out. Everyone will have their opportunity – everyone. Therefore, the true gospel, widely distributed, can and should have a gradually galvanizing effect on those who try to stem the tide of the world's immoral downward slide. They carry a heavy load during the final days of this age. The message within the message of the true gospel is for them to know that God does exist, because that is being questioned constantly and militantly today, that He is a good God, and that He has a wonderful plan for mankind and will intervene soon in the events of this sad old world.

No doubt this will be an encouragement and help sustain them through the troubles and destruction of the tribulation. Albert Nock commented about reaching the remnant. He said: "The remnant are always so largely an unknown quantity, you don't know and never will know more than two things about them. You can be sure of those things however. We will know two things and no more. First, you know they exist, and second, that they will find you. Except for these two certainties, working for the remnant means working in impenetrable darkness."

He had a way with painting a picture there. He also commented: "It appears to me that Isaiah's job is not only a good job, but an extremely interesting one – especially so at the present time when nobody is doing it. It offers an open field with no competition. Our civilization so completely neglects the remnant and anyone going in with an eye single to their service might pretty well count down – all the trait that there is."

Here's the irony, the year that he wrote that was 1936 and it was published in 1937. In 1936 our modern preaching of the gospel of the kingdom of God was in its infancy in the Wilmette Valley in the state of Oregon. The preaching of the Church has been conveying a powerful message to the remnant, via the United States and Britain in Prophecy as a booklet, the World Tomorrow broadcast down through the decades, and The Plain Truth magazine down through the decades, as well. I think we published well over four million copies of The United States and Britain in Prophecy.

A few years ago I read a doctoral thesis that was written in 2002 – actually for the University of Nevada in Reno – and it was all about the proclamation of the Church over the decades since the 1930's – since the time Nock was writing this essay. The authors of this doctoral thesis had an assessment of the powerful impact on American culture that God's Church had during that time. Immediately I was pursuing evidence in the twenty or thirty pages that I read. It seemed to be fairly substantial. He cited three particularly notable ways that our preaching – and I speak collectively, going back through those decades – had an effect on society. And the first one was the modern identity of the tribes of Israel. It used to be called British Israelism. By the 1990's it was called Christian Israelism and an awful lot of fundamental conservative evangelical types were beginning to subscribe to it. The non-immortality of the soul – in other words, the mortal soul versus the immortal soul, was another powerful impact that has affected some theologians. I doubt that they'll give us a credit line, but the effect has been there.  And then the third was the coming millennium brought about by Christ's return and rule. Those were three of the main influences that the preaching of the gospel that we have historically been a part during that time.

The bottom line is we have preached to the remnant, we continue to do so, even if unconsciously. Within our message to the masses has been a message to the remnant, nonetheless. We don't know who they are but we certainly know they're there and we want to help them be a bit strengthened.

So our mission now is to finish Isaiah's job – to get it finished. There are four points I think that define that mission to a significant degree.

Number one. We, the Church are not the remnant. We are the remnant of grace. God expects much more from us spiritually. It's not good enough to hold what they would call conservative values and generally obey God. We need in, the Church of God, to fully obey God.

Number two. We, the Church, are not the masses either. We are the remnant of grace. God expects us to completely forsake society's mass man and mass woman ways and fully obey and follow Him. And so we need to beware of the temptations of the world. We need to faithfully hold the line on what's right and what's wrong and avoid the foolish, materialistic fad-following approach (that long line of adjectives, I found those myself) of society. It has an awful lot of ungodly behavior in the way it dresses or it doesn't dress – that's actually the main problem –  grooms, its speech, its music, its drunken drug abuse or its immoral sexual conduct. We don't want to have anything to do with that. That's mass thinking – very sinful thinking as well. Instead, we are to use God's spirit and wisely conduct ourselves in this age, recapturing true values – one of the great proverbs of our time.

Number three. We must preach, support the preaching, and live the example of the gospel of the Kingdom of God for all to see and hear – both the remnant and the masses.

Number four. We must prepare a people for the Lord at His returning – to rule the earth under our soon coming King, Jesus Christ. That people, obviously and clearly, includes us and all that our Lord God shall call into the Church, as it says in the book of Acts, but it also includes the remnants who are survivors of the troubles that will come, and have to be the ones that when everything has gone to the dogs, come back to rebuild society.

Thus we must finish Isaiah's job. Jeremiah and Ezekiel worked on it. So did Daniel, the rest of the prophets, John the Baptist, even Christ Himself. But He said that His servants would do even greater works than He did because He went to the Father, who would work through them.

The apostles worked on Isaiah's job and God's Church down through the centuries has done the same. Now finishing Isaiah's job is up to us. It's a tough job, but somebody's got to do it. It must not go begging. If there was ever a cause for renewed spiritual motivation – to fast and pray fervently, grow faithfully and overcoming sin in our life, to grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ – then this is it. If there was ever a reason to also pray fervently for the opportunity and for the spirit of boldness for Christ's ministry to preach the gospel of the Kingdom of God, then this is it. And if there was ever a reason for us to buckle down and diligently study God's Word, so that we might be bright living examples of the true gospel and be ready to give an answer of the hope that lies within us, this is it. We need to finish Isaiah's job.