Wednesday, January
30, 2013, 6:16 a.m. – the Lord Jesus woke me with the song “Rejoice in the Lord Always” playing in
my mind. Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening. I read Isaiah 29-30, but I will focus mainly
on chapter 30, which I will only quote in part. http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Isaiah%2030&version=NIV1984
The Obstinate
Children
In applying this passage of scripture to today, we must
understand that the children of God are now the true church, the body of
Christ, his temple. Obstinate and rebellious children of God still exist today,
and the same message, in principle and in Biblical truth, that applied to
Israel/Judah of old still applies to God’s people today.
The obstinate children are described here as those who carry
out plans that are not God’s and who form an alliance, but not by God’s Spirit,
“heaping sin upon sin.” In the OT, they
went to Egypt for their protection against Assyria instead of consulting God. Today
the church in the U.S. looks to the protection of the U.S. government via the
501c3 non-profit status for incorporation, thus bringing itself under the
umbrella of the U.S. government. This dependency upon man instead of on God, or
perhaps in combination with dependency on God, will be to the shame of God’s
people within the institutional church, because their dependency in man will be
brought under the judgment of God, so the people will realize that it was vain
to put their trust in man instead of in God, for mankind will fail them.
As well, the church of today, particularly speaking of the
institutional church here in America, puts their trust, overall, largely in the
reasoning, thinking, planning and schemes of men (and women), oftentimes over
and above, or in place of God and his word. Human marketing schemes modeled
after big business oftentimes replace seeking God’s face to see what plans he
has for his church and how it is to grow. Man-made religion, practices, rituals
and traditions often get top-billing over and above God and his word. Books
written by men and women are replacing the Bible and/or are interpreting God’s
word to the people and the people of God are not, for the most part, it
appears, taking the time to test what is being taught against God’s word, but
are just buying into whatever they hear. Entertainment and pleasing the flesh
of mankind are central in many of our “worship” services in order to draw in
large crowds of people, but to what? – A cleaned-up version of what the world
is offering.
Tell us Pleasant
Things
The people did not want to hear the warnings of Isaiah, and
many of today’s church people and leaders are the same. If they are confronted
with the truth of what they are doing, they reject it. They don’t want to be
confronted with their sin. They want only messages that tickle their itching
ears, and they want to hear only what is pleasant, i.e. they want lies and
deception over and above the truth of God’s word because then they can continue
in their course of action in following after the ways of man and of their own
flesh. These, too, are a “rebellious
people, deceitful children, children unwilling to listen to the Lord’s instruction.”
They do not want to be confronted with the truths of God’s word and “with the Holy One of Israel” (of the
church, the body of Christ).
Many teach a gospel absent of true repentance and obedience
to Christ and his commands, thus ignoring much of the New Testament teachings
concerning the requirements of both repentance and obedience for salvation (See
Eph. 4:17-24; Luke 9:23-25). They do not teach the necessity of death to our
old lives of sin and of a conscious choice of our wills to now follow the Lord
Jesus Christ in obedience and surrender to his will for our lives. They have
reduced the gospel of Jesus Christ to nothing more than an acceptance of a
particular religion or lifestyle change, an emotional one-time decision at an
altar thus “guaranteeing” eternity in heaven with God (not), or to mere
acknowledgement of what Christ Jesus did for us when he died on the cross for
our sins. Yet, they choose to forget that Jesus died so we could be free from
slavery to sin day-to-day, and so we could be free to walk humbly before God in
true righteousness and holiness in his power and in his strength.
The High Wall
The Lord God told his people of old that because they had
rejected God’s messages, they had relied on oppression and depended on deceit,
this sin would become for them “like a
high wall, cracked and bulging, that collapses suddenly, in an instant. It will
break in pieces like pottery,
shattered so mercilessly…” The wall was the wall of lies and deception and
oppression that the people and leaders had built for their own safety and
prosperity. Wow! Does this ever speak of much of the institutional church in
America today, in particular among its leaders! I have personally witnessed
this over and over again, and the Lord has shown me much more, and I have
observed how this training in marketing the church as one would market a
business, which often involves lies and deception and oppression, has swept
across evangelical Christianity in America like the spreading of a cult. One
day God is going to judge his church for this sin and the sin of ignoring his
commands.
Our Salvation
“In repentance and
rest is your salvation,
in quietness and trust is your strength,
but you would have none of it.”
“Yet the Lord longs to
be gracious to you;
he rises to show you compassion.
For the Lord is a God
of justice.
Blessed are all who wait for him!”
Paraphrasing vv. 19-22 to make it applicable to today:
“O people of my church, who, due to your rebellion, will
incur my loving discipline and correction, you will weep no more. How gracious
he will be when you cry for help! As soon as he hears, he will answer you.
Although the Lord gives you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction,
the truths of God’s word will be hidden no more; with your own eyes you will
see the truth plainly before you. Whether you turn to the right or to the left,
your ears will hear the Holy Spirit say to you, ‘This is the way; walk in it.’
Then you will defile your idols of wealth, entertainment, leisure, success,
prosperity, man-made religion, false teaching that tickles your itching ears, self-pleasure,
and your own plans, etc. You will throw these idols of men away as you would a
filthy rag no longer of use to you, and you will say, ‘Away with you!’”
Wow! This is a picture of revival. God desires that his
church be revived. If she will not submit on her own, and she will not repent
of her sins of self-pleasure and self-will and putting her trust in man over
and above or in place of her trust in God, then God will bring judgment upon
her as loving and divine correction and discipline in order to open her eyes to
see the truth of God’s word and of God’s will and purposes for her life, so
that she will repent, and she will call upon her one true God and Lord Jesus
Christ; she will return to her first love, and she will walk in the ways of the
Lord, and will forsake all her idols of men.
Spiritual Blessings
of Renewal
When the church is revived and she is back in a right
relationship with her Lord God, she will experience the spiritual blessings of
God in her life in abundance! The Lord Jesus will bind up her bruises and he
will heal the wounds he inflicted upon her in judgment. And, a big part of
those blessings will come in the form of the salvation of many lives for Jesus
Christ. All throughout these chapters in Isaiah, where he prophesied concerning
the last days, we have a picture of God’s judgments on his people, true Israel,
the church, the body of Christ who are living in rebellion and/or in
lukewarmness (cf. Revelation 2-3), followed by revival of God’s people and the
flocking of nations to Jesus Christ, his cross and to his salvation.
And, our hearts will rejoice, too, when the church is
revived and is fulfilling God’s purposes he intended for her, and when we lift
our voices in praise and in song and in giving public testimony of his saving grace,
then the eyes of people throughout the world will be opened to the majesty and
to the power of God in judgment but also in salvation. I believe Isaiah teaches
here throughout his writings that many nations will flock to salvation in Jesus
Christ their Lord and Messiah, and then the end will come.
Rejoice in the Lord
Always! / An Original Work / January 26, 2013
Based off Phil. 4 & Col. 3
Rejoice in our Lord
God always.
I say again: “Rejoice
always!”
Let your love and
kindness show forth.
Our Lord Christ will
soon appear.
Do not let yourself be
troubled.
Do not fear your
circumstances.
In all of life’s
complications,
Pray to God with
thankfulness.
God will give you
peace and rest.
Set your minds on
things of heaven:
What is true and right
and lovely.
Do not focus your
attention
On the things that
pass away.
Therefore put to death
your old self.
Clothe yourselves with
God’s compassion.
Put the word of Christ
in practice.
Let God’s peace rule
in your hearts.
Sing songs of praise
unto God.
In all of life’s
circumstances
I’ll learn to trust;
be contented.
Whether I have none or
plenty,
I will give thanks
unto God.
I can live my life to
please Him,
Because Jesus gives me
His strength.
My God will meet all
of my needs,
From his treasure
chest in Christ.
Glory, praise be unto
God.
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