Vol. 1  Timely Greetings  Nos. 44, 45

THE ONLY PEACE OF MIND

Volume 1
Numbers 44, 45


Copyright, 1953 Reprint
All rights reserved
V.T. HOUTEFF


THINGS THAT OBTAIN BEFORE 
AND AFTER THE EARTH IS MADE NEW

THE MIGHTY ESAUS AND 
THE UNPRETENTIOUS JACOBS


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TEXT FOR PRAYER
Be Doers Of The Word

   Our thought for prayer is found in "The Mount of Blessing," p. 209 --

   "Not all who profess His name and wear His badge are Christ's.  Many who have taught in My
name, said Jesus, will be found wanting at last.  'Many will say to Me in that day, Lord, Lord,
have we not prophesied in Thy name?  and in Thy name have cast out devils?  and in Thy name
done many wonderful works?  And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you; depart from
Me, ye that work iniquity.'

   "There are persons who believe that they are right, when they are wrong.  While claiming Christ
as their Lord, and professedly doing great works in His name, they are workers of iniquity.  'With
their mouth they show much love, but their heart goeth after their covetousness.'  He who
declares God's Word is to them 'as a very lovely song of one that hath a pleasant voice, and can
play well on an instrument; for they hear Thy words; but they do them not.'"

   The people here described like to hear God's Word, but that is as far as they go.  I hope there
are none here only to listen, but to do something about it.  Only the doers of the Word are
justified.  Let us kneel and earnestly pray that God will help us not to be mere professors of the
Truth, but actual doers of It.

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THINGS THAT OBTAIN BEFORE 
AND AFTER THE EARTH IS MADE NEW 
Isaiah 65

TEXT OF ADDRESS BY V.T. HOUTEFF,
MINISTER OF DAVIDIAN 7TH-DAY ADVENTISTS
SABBATH, JUNE 7, 1947
MT. CARMEL CHAPEL
WACO, TEXAS

   We are to study the sixty-fifth chapter of Isaiah.  As we study we shall see that it bears record
of things that take place in the period before the earth is made new, and in the period after it is
made new.  We shall begin our study with the first verse.

Isa. 65:1 -- "I am sought of them that asked not for Me; I am found of them that sought Me not: I
said, Behold Me, behold Me, unto a nation that was not called by My name."

   Paul, writing to the Romans, applies this verse to the Gentiles coming into the Gospel (Rom.
10:20).  They are, therefore, those who sought the Lord without asking for Him, and those who
found Him without seeking after Him.  This condition laden with results, points out that the Lord
is easily found.

Isa. 65:2 -- "I have spread out My hands all the day unto a rebellious people, which walketh in a
way that was not good, after their own thoughts."

   Here is a great contrast between the well-informed in the things of God, and the ignorant
Gentiles.  While the former are pulling away, although the Lord is tearfully pleading with them,
the latter are drawing

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nigh to Him.  Here we see how patient God is.  He continues to plead on and on.  It is hard for
Him to give up a sinner before all possible means to save are exhausted.  Here is clearly seen that
it is easier to save a heathen than it is to save a well satisfied deluded Christian.

Isa. 65:3 -- "A people that provoketh Me to anger continually to My face; that sacrificeth in
gardens, and burneth incense upon altars of brick."

   To sacrifice in gardens is to make a display of religion, and altars of brick (the product of man,
not of God's creation as is stone), are the works of man.  Cain offered an undesirable sacrifice, but
the people brought to view in this scripture offer on an undesirable altar.  The one is as bad as the
other.  And what could altars of brick be if not places of worship which God Himself has not
commanded to be built?

Isa. 65:4 -- "Which remain among the graves, and lodge in the monuments, which eat swine's
flesh, and broth of abominable things is in their vessels."

   To remain among the graves is to be denied of having a part in the resurrection of the saints. 
And to lodge in the monuments is to live in a so-called exalted cliff of life -- dead to God and alive
to the world.

   The Jews were quite careful of what they ate, but here is a forecast of a people whose appetites
are as loose as were Adam's and Eve's while partaking of the forbidden fruit.

   Although we as a people profess to be strict in keeping the unclean meats away from our tables,
this

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scripture, nevertheless, unveils the shameful truth.  It makes known that many are indulging in
these abominable things.  In one part of the world perhaps they indulge in one abomination, and in
another part of the world they indulge in another abomination.

Isa. 65:5 -- "Which say, Stand by thyself, come not near to me; for I am holier than thou.  These
are a smoke in My nose, a fire that burneth all the day."

   On the one hand they are as careless as they can be, eating anything and everything, clean and
unclean alike.  And on the other hand they have a high opinion of themselves -- they think
themselves holier than any others.  Plainly, then, those who indulge in the abominations which
verse four tells about, are the very ones who protest against having communion with those who
try to live a life consistent with their profession, fearing that reformation might take place. Satanic
indeed!  God hates hypocrites more than He hates any other kind of sinners.  Those who are thus
pushed to the right and to the left, see the perfect fulfillment of this scripture at this very time.

Isa. 65:6, 7 -- "Behold, it is written before Me: I will not keep silence, but will recompense, even
recompense into their bosom, your iniquities, and the iniquities of your fathers together, saith the
Lord, which have burned incense upon the mountains, and blasphemed Me upon the hills:
therefore will I measure their former work into their bosom."

   Verse six needs no comments, and but a sentence on verse seven will suffice.  The Pharisees of
yesterday and the Pharisees of today, so to speak, we see are to receive similar rewards.

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Isa. 65:8, 9 -- "Thus saith the Lord, As the new wine is found in the cluster, and one saith,
Destroy it not; for a blessing is in it: so will I do for My servants' sakes, that I may not destroy
them all.  And I will bring forth a seed out of Jacob, and out of Judah an inheritor of My
mountains: and Mine elect shall inherit it, and My servants shall dwell there."

   The seed of Jacob, the inheritor out of Judah, is, of course, Christ.  The elect, His servants, are
those who escape the destruction here mentioned.  They are to be a blessing to others. 
Symbolically speaking, the mountains are the kingdoms of Judah and Israel gathered together as
also foretold in Ezekiel 37:16-28.  But if taken literally, the mountains are those in the Promised
Land.  The phrase, "Mine elect shall inherit it," changes the object from the plural "mountains" to
the singular "it," and makes the symbolism carry both thoughts, the Kingdom and the location of
It.  The verse that follows verifies this very thought.

Isa. 65:10 -- "And Sharon shall be a fold of flocks, and the valley of Achor a place for the herds to
lie down in, for My people that have sought Me."

   Verses nine and ten carry us from the Jewish period into the Christian era, then down to the
restoration and consolidation of the kingdoms of Judah and Israel in the land of our fathers,
Sharon and Achor.

Isa. 65:11 -- "But ye are they that forsake the Lord, that forget My holy mountain, that prepare a
table for that troop, and that furnish the drink offering unto that number."

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   Those who are to be destroyed are those who do not particularly care for His holy mountain,
the Kingdom mentioned in these scriptures.  They are those who prepare a table, or who assemble
passages of Scripture taken out of their setting, and with them they feed (teach) the group, or the
troop that is of the same mind as themselves.  To "furnish the drink offering" is as much as to say
that the troop is drinking in whatever their teachers put out.

Isa. 65:12 -- "Therefore will I number you to the sword, and ye shall all bow down to the
slaughter: because when I called, ye did not answer; when I spake, ye did not hear; but did evil
before Mine eyes, and did choose that wherein I delighted not."

   To this call of God they do not answer.  Neither do they hear Him speaking, for they are
inclined to do evil.  They delight in their own ways and hate the Lord's.  Of this sin they are
possibly not conscious.

Isa. 65:13-15 -- "Therefore thus saith the Lord God, Behold, My servants shall eat, but ye shall be
hungry: behold, My servants shall drink, but ye shall be thirsty: behold, My servants shall rejoice,
but ye shall be ashamed: behold, My servants shall sing for joy of heart, but ye shall cry for
sorrow of heart, and shall howl for vexation of spirit.  And ye shall leave your name for a curse
unto My chosen: for the Lord God shall slay thee, and call His servants by another name."

   These evil doers may not now give even a thought to this solemn warning, but as sure as day is
followed by night, just that sure their want, shame, sorrow, and calamity are soon to come.

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   The denominational name will they leave to God's servants; that is, to those who escape from
the Lord's sword shall the name consequently be left.  The name, however, is left only as a curse,
and His servants will be called by another name which "the mouth of the Lord shall name."

Isa. 65:16 -- "That he who blesseth himself in the earth shall bless himself in the God of Truth;
and he that sweareth in the earth shall swear by the God of Truth; because the former troubles are
forgotten, and because they are hid from Mine eyes."

   In this verse it is implied that the Lord is taking this strange action because His unfaithful
servants have not been blessing themselves in the God of Truth.  Consequently, they must have
been blessing themselves in the god of falsehood; that is, they have been teaching, approving, and
spreading falsehood while the Lord is endeavoring to bless all His servants with Truth fresh from
His throne.  To those who embrace His Truth for this time, He will never bring up their past.

Isa. 65:17 -- "For, behold, I create new heavens and a new earth: and the former shall not be
remembered, nor come into mind."

   Here we are brought down to the time the Lord finally renews the heaven and the earth.

Isa. 65:18, 19 -- "But be ye glad and rejoice for ever in that which I create: for, behold, I create
Jerusalem a rejoicing, and her people a joy.  And I will rejoice in Jerusalem, and joy in My people:
and the voice of weeping shall be no more heard in her, nor the voice of crying."

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   We are encouraged to rejoice because Jerusalem, as well as her people, are created for joy.

Isa. 65:20 -- "There shall be no more thence an infant of days, nor an old man that hath not filled
his days: for the child shall die an hundred years old; but the sinner being an hundred years old
shall be accursed."

   Concerning the wicked in the earth made new, who come up in the second resurrection, the
resurrection of the unjust (Rev. 20:5), there shall be neither birth nor death among them for one
hundred years.  Thus the only children that shall be among them will be those who are raised from
the dead.  Consequently both those who are old and those who are young will have lived a
hundred years from the resurrection of the unjust to the second death.  Thus the child and the
sinner, becoming a hundred years old in the earth made new, shall both succumb in the end of the
century.  Then the righteous shall inhabit the whole earth.

Isa. 65:21, 22 -- "And they shall build houses, and inhabit them; and they shall plant vineyards,
and eat the fruit of them.  They shall not build, and another inhabit; they shall not plant, and
another eat: for as the days of a tree are the days of My people, and Mine elect shall long enjoy
the work of their hands."

   Again we see that the Hereafter is to be as real and as natural as was the Garden of Eden in the
day it was created.  So the message of Elijah shall indeed restore all things -- all that was lost
through sin.

Isa. 65:23 -- "They shall not labour in vain, nor bring forth for trouble; for they are the seed of the
blessed of the Lord, and their offspring with them."

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   Much of our labor on this earth is done in vain, and many of our sons and daughters are also
born in vain.  But in the earth made new, no one shall labor in vain, and nothing shall be brought
forth for trouble.

Isa. 65:24 -- "And it shall come to pass, that before they call, I will answer; and while they are yet
speaking, I will hear."

   For the answers to some of our prayers we often wait long, and most of them are not answered
as we want them to be.  But in the earth made new there shall be no delay and no disappointment.

Isa. 65:25 -- "The wolf and the lamb shall feed together, and the lion shall eat straw like the
bullock: and dust shall be the serpent's meat.  They shall not hurt nor destroy in all My holy
mountain, saith the Lord."

   There shall be peace all around.  We shall not see men quarreling nor beasts fighting and eating
one another.  There shall be real and perfect peace among them all.

   If we could only realize what God has prepared for them that love to study His Word and to
walk in His ever-increasing Light, then we would make God's business our chief interest; then we
would no longer waste our energies striving for the material things of life.  They will be added
unto us while we diligently labor for the upbuilding of His Kingdom, for He Himself says: "The
workman is worthy of his hire."

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