February 9, 2025 - The Conclusion of Isaiah: The Bartizan of the Church (Isaiah 66:20-24)

The Conclusion of Isaiah: The Bartizan of the Church (Isaiah 66:20-24)

Rev. Myung-Sin Choi

20 Then they shall bring all your brethren for an offering to the Lord out of all nations, on horses and in chariots and in litters, on mules and on camels, to My holy mountain Jerusalem,” says the Lord, “as the children of Israel bring an offering in a clean vessel into the house of the Lord. 21 And I will also take some of them for priests and Levites,” says the Lord. 22 “For as the new heavens and the new earth Which I will make shall remain before Me,” says the Lord, “So shall your descendants and your name remain. 23 And it shall come to pass That from one New Moon to another, And from one Sabbath to another, All flesh shall come to worship before Me,” says the Lord. 24 “And they shall go forth and look Upon the corpses of the men Who have transgressed against Me. For their worm does not die, And their fire is not quenched. They shall be an abhorrence to all flesh.”

Introduction

This is the last chapter of Isaiah and I feel like God has given great grace through the book of Isaiah. Before worship, I was waiting by the door pacing back and forth because I was so excited to deliver this sermon. When I was thinking about this sermon, I was so anticipated to give this message to you all. We have read the book of Isaiah so far but the book of Isaiah is basically a shortened version of the Old and New Testament combined. Everything is enriched within the book of Isaiah. The main content of the book of Isaiah is talking about God’s blessings and judgment. The standard of God’s blessings and judgment is God’s 10 commandments. The method of God’s judgment and blessings is recorded in Deuteronomy 28. This is the life that we must live by and the standard that we must live by. To organize the entire book of Isaiah that we read about, it talked about the prophecies of God’s judgment on Assyria and Babylon. Chapters 1-35 of the book of Isaiah talked about what happens when you go against God’s judgment. God continued to give warnings that He would give judgment on Assyria and Babylon. If you look in the chapters of 36-39, it talks about what prophecies will take place. King Hezekiah’s prayers turned around God’s judgment. It also talked about God’s grace and redemption in the rest of the chapters of Isaiah. There are specific chapters in the book of Isaiah that talked about the prophecy of the coming of Christ. Just as it was prophesied, Jesus will come, He will die, and resurrect. Through the grace of God’s redemption will spread to the rest of the earth. Chapters of 60-66, it speaks about the birth of the church. Today’s main passage speaks about the last judgment. 

1. The Bartizan of the Age of the Church

1) The sacrifices that God receives

Verse 20 - God gave us an important message here. During the time of the law in the Old Testament, mankind had to give blood animal sacrifices to God. But now, in the age of the church, something about sacrifices changed. This is important. In the Old Testament, they would give blood animal sacrifices but in the New Testament, you would bring your brethren as sacrifices. How would this take place? You would bring you brethren in chariots, on mules, and camels. We are talking about living sacrifices, living people. How can living people be sacrificed? John Calvin said that the children of the devil are taken by the blood of Jesus Christ, they are saved to become children of God. This is how they become living sacrifices. We are not giving dead blood sacrifices anymore but as children of God, we are giving ourselves as living sacrifices through worship. 

Romans 15:16 “To be a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles. He gave me the priestly duty of proclaiming the gospel of God, so that the Gentiles might become an offering acceptable to God, sanctified by the Holy Spirit.” - What is the sacrifice that God is most pleased with? For Gentiles to be in our midst. It is for people to return back to God and give glory to God through worship. This is what pleases God the most. When I meditated on this, I realized something very significant. I realized that this gospel that is alive, is tremendous and powerful. This is why God blessed evangelists and missionaries so much. To please God the most, we need to direct our direction to give life to those who are spiritually dead. The New Year’s message, we received the message that we will live for the Lord and die for the Lord. The life that we must live this year, we must live for the life saving movement. We must live to give life to our brethren. 

2) The new Levites

Verse 21 - This is a tremendous message. Back in the days, only the Levites could take on priesthood and Gentiles could not enter the holy place. But now, God allowed Gentiles to become priests and give them roles that only Levites could do in this verse. Apostle Paul understood this. 

1 Corinthians 12:28 “And God has appointed these in the church: first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, after that miracles, then gifts of healings, helps, administrations, varieties of tongues.” - In the Old Testament, all of these tasks were only given to Levites but through the church, God has given us these roles. When you look at each of these tasks, it is all directed towards the life saving movement and training. God has given us grace and spiritual gifts so that we can fulfill these roles. The roles and tasks that you do at church, it is such a gift and blessing. God has given you a role of a Levite and God has given you a special grace. 

2. New Heaven and New Earth

1) Worship at church

Verses 22-23 - All of your appointments and roles will stand eternally that were originally given for only Levites. Calvin said that the new heaven and new earth is the church that we have now. This church, the body of Christ, your name will remain forever. It is a tremendous blessing that you have these roles within the church. 

Luke 10:20 “Nevertheless do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rather rejoice because your names are written in heaven.” - This is what Jesus said to His disciples. The disciples were thrilled that they were able to cast out evil spirits but Jesus tells them not to be happy with this but to be overjoyed that their names were written in heaven. To have your name written in heaven means that you will enter the glorious place in heaven with God and Jesus. God is telling us that we should be overjoyed because the happiness that we will experience in heaven is unfathomable and unimaginable. 

Verse 23 - The Levites are referring to us now. We don’t need to go to Jerusalem to give worship to God anymore. All saved children of God can give ourselves as living sacrifices to God. We are able to give worship to God in spirit and truth. We are able to gather all together with our spiritual brethren to give worship and all glory to God. We, as children of God, are able to come together as one and become one body with God, and give glory and worship to God. This must take place every week. The fact that we can give worship to God is a tremendous blessing. Enjoy this blessing. 

2) Judgment upon transgressors

Verse 24 - There were some theologians who proclaimed that these transgressors will suffer like this verse said. But those who transgress against God, they will suffer from God’s judgment. I interpret it as the last judgment and when Jesus returns back for the second coming, what will happen. 

Mark 9:48 “Where ‘Their worm does not die And the fire is not quenched.’ ” - It is talking about the last judgment. We are talking about eternal punishment. Those who don’t believe in God, they will be condemned. Those who look down on believers, they will face God’s judgment. Why do these people live like this? It is because they don’t know God and God’s word. If we meet these people, we need to save them. This is because we know and believe in God’s last judgment so we must save these people. This is the role and principle of those who have the gospel. 

The principle of the entire Bible is seen in Mark 16:16 “He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned.” - May you believe and have victory in Jesus Christ.    

3. The Bartizan of the Church

1) The 24-hour prayer team: Five-member team

As we close the book of Isaiah, I am thankful to God that God has given us an accurate message through the headquarters (HQ) core and business messages. These messages were God’s voice to us. Rev. Kwang-Su Ryu said to form the special evangelism team to give living sacrifices. We must not avoid and refuse these blessings. We confessed and resolved that we will live and die for the Lord in the year of 2025, we must hold onto this covenant. Right now, we have the lay leaders and remnant worship prayer team. We also have the children’s team and the multi-ethnic teams. We should divide into those teams and form prayer teams. What should we pray for? First, we must pray for those who are ill and sick. There are so many people here who have personal and sickness. As members of the church, we should pray for each other. For those who need Christ outside and inside of our church, we should pray for them. We must pray that true disciples are raised.

2) The 24-hour evangelism team

Right now, we must form the five member team and start the prayer team through our lay leaders and remnants. What should we pray for? For the five basics to be fulfilled in our lives. For God to open up Darakbang and Bible study meetings. For God to open up team ministry and give us the strength to save those who are spiritually desperate. For God to open up the mission home to save families. For God to open up the specialized church that through our speciality, God will use us to save people. Pray for God to open doors. Pray for regional churches to have the strength to save the region. It is okay if this doesn’t take place immediately but we must pray first. If we pray, then God will grant us the blessing of meeting. God will grant us answers absolutely because He has given us these prayer topics and covenant. This is the time schedule for our church. Through the prayer and evangelism team, if you pray, then God will open doors and answers will come. 

3) The 24-hour planning team

We are going to have our prayer teams and we need to pray for the three courtyards. Pray for the courtyards of the Gentiles, prayer/healing, and remnants. We have the Nalwalgo family here and we need to reach out to the children all over the world so we can save people. Through the individual prayer teams, we need to come up with strategies to reach out to people. I pray that we can actively participate in these prayer teams. We need to listen to God's message. I have received this message from the HQ messages. We will start this from today. We need to start immediately. Have victory. 

Conclusion  

Romans 12:1 “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service.” - We are here at worship service as living sacrifices to God. What does it mean to give ourselves as living sacrifices to God? We need to give ourselves to God. We must entrust ourselves to God. Whether we live or die, we must live for the Lord. God will be most pleased with this.