Wednesday, February
13, 2013, 1:11 a.m. – the Lord Jesus woke me up. A song was playing in my
mind. I inquired of the Lord if he had woken me, and if he wanted me to get up.
Then the song “Enter In” began
playing in my mind, so I got up to hear from the Lord. Speak, Lord, for your
servant is listening. I read Isaiah
65:1-16 (NIV 1984):
“I revealed myself to
those who did not ask for me;
I was found by those who did not seek me.
To a nation that did
not call on my name,
I said, ‘Here am I, here am I.’
All day long I have
held out my hands
to an obstinate people,
who walk in ways not
good,
pursuing their own imaginations—
a people who
continually provoke me
to my very face…
Such people are smoke
in my nostrils,
a fire that keeps burning all day.
“See, it stands
written before me:
I will not keep silent but will pay back in
full;
I will pay it back into their laps—
both your sins and the
sins of your fathers,”
says the Lord.
“Because they burned
sacrifices on the mountains
and defied me on the hills,
I will measure into
their laps
the full payment for their former deeds.”
This is what the Lord
says:
“As when juice is
still found in a cluster of grapes
and men say, ‘Don’t destroy it,
there is yet some good in it,’
so will I do in behalf
of my servants;
I will not destroy them all.
I will bring forth
descendants from Jacob,
and from Judah those who will possess my
mountains;
my chosen people will
inherit them,
and there will my servants live.
… for my people who
seek me.
“But as for you who
forsake the Lord
and forget my holy mountain,
who spread a table for
Fortune
and fill bowls of mixed wine for Destiny,
I will destine you for
the sword,
and you will all bend down for the
slaughter;
for I called but you
did not answer,
I spoke but you did not listen.
You did evil in my sight
and chose what displeases me…”
Here am I!
Romans 5:8 says: “But God demonstrates his own love for us
in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” 1 John 4:10 says: “This
is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an
atoning sacrifice for our sins.” Jesus said, “No one can come to me unless the
Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up at the last day” (John
6:44).
God/Jesus took the initiative to provide the way for our
salvation. Christ died for us while we were still dead in our sins. We can’t
come to faith in Jesus Christ unless the Father draws us to him. Jesus did not
die for us because of our goodness or in response to our desire for him. We can
only seek him because he has provided the way for us to seek him. In other
words, we can never reach God through our own goodness or through our own human
efforts. It is by grace we are saved, through faith - and this not from
ourselves, it is the gift of God - not by works lest any man should boast (see
Eph. 2:8-9).
Obstinate People
Many of the people who called themselves by God’s name were
being bull-headed, stubborn, rebellious, unmoved and determined not to agree
with God about their sin nor to obey his commands, for they were set in their
ways and were persistent about continuing in what they had been doing despite
God’s loving arms reaching out to them day after day calling them to repentance
and inviting them to return to their Lord.
Many today who claim the name Christian, or who say they
have been saved and believe they have the hope of eternal life are in this same
boat. They want all the blessings of God without the sacrifice, commitment,
surrender and death to self and sin. And many a church leader is teaching them
that nothing is required of them – no repentance and no obedience required.
Yet, Jesus said that if anyone would come after him, he must
deny (disallow) himself (his self-life) and take up his cross daily (die daily
to sin and self) and follow (obey) him (see Luke 9:23-25). Paul, speaking in
the Spirit, said that the way we come to Christ is by forsaking (dying to;
putting off) our old lives of sin, by being transformed in heart and mind (the
working of the Spirit of God), and by putting on our new selves in Christ
Jesus, “created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness” (see Eph.
4:17-24). He also said that when we came to faith in Christ we died to sin, “because
anyone who has died has been freed from sin” (see Ro. 6:2-7). Jesus Christ died
for all, so that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for
him who died for them (see 2 Co. 5:15).
If you have been taught and you have believed a gospel other
than this, then you have believed a false gospel of men, and you are still dead
in your sins. Jesus said that if we hold on to our old lives of sin we will
die, but if we die to our old lives of sin, we will live for eternity. If you
believe God’s grace means you can continue in willful sin and stubborn
rebellion and still have the hope of eternal life, please read these passages
of scripture in Ephesians 4, Luke 9, Romans 6, 2 Corinthians 5 and 1 John. Though
none of us will live in perfection while we are still on this earth, the
scriptures make it clear that we must not continue in willful sin and rebellion
against God and still think we have a relationship with God. If we do not obey
his commands, i.e. if we do not make it our practice to obey God, and we feel
we don’t have to, and so we continue in our own way, 1 John says we are liars
and we do not live by the truth if we say we love God.
Secret Vigil
The people were guilty of following pagan rituals, idolatry
and the worship of false gods. They provoked God because they claimed to know
and love God and yet they pursued their own imaginations, they offered
sacrifices to idols and they spent their nights in “secret vigil” in their idolatrous
ways. So, God said these people were smoke in his nostrils.
We who claim to know Christ, who call ourselves Christians
and followers of Christ – do we do the same? We may not bow down to the kinds
of idols the children of Israel were guilty of worshiping, but idols still exist
among God’s people, the church, today.
An idol can be anything in our lives which either replaces
God’s rightful place in our hearts, minds, devotion, emotion and commitment, or
that certainly takes priority over God/Jesus. An idol can thus be our own
bodies, clothing, a career, a house, entertainment in various forms,
technology, money, success, acceptance of people, sports, food, exercise,
self-pleasure, happiness, our friends, our co-workers, political figures,
famous people, musicians, artists, preachers, a church denomination, a church
building (edifice), and/or church work, etc. If we follow after any of these
(and more) in place of following Jesus Christ in obedience and surrendering to
his will for our lives, or we give priority to any of these over and above
priority to our Lord who saved us and who called us to be holy, then these are
probably idols in our lives that need to be removed.
We can usually tell what our idols are by the things that
take up the most of our free time or leisure time, consume most of our thinking
and conversations, are what will get us up early in the morning or will keep us
up late at night (aside from small children or other normal obligations), are
what we are the most passionate and excited about, where most of our spare
change will go, and what we will do in secret or in the dark where no one sees,
and so no one knows, but God knows and he sees always.
Not Keep Silent
All throughout the book of Isaiah we see a central theme.
The majority of the book is concerning Jesus Christ, the Messiah, the messianic
age, his salvation of the people via his blood sacrifice for our sins, the time
of judgments on the earth and on the people of the earth, including on God’s
rebellious people, followed by a time of revival, restoration and the flocking
of the nations to Jesus Christ and to salvation. This is then followed by the
Lord’s return, his kingdom reign on the earth, and here in chapter 65 we also
have recorded a message concerning the new heavens and the new earth.
The book of Revelation is mainly about the judgments of God
to come on the earth, though it is also about Jesus as our King of kings and
Lord of lords, his kingdom reign, the new heavens and the new earth, and
eternal life with God in glory for the repentant and the obedient. The book begins
with visions of Jesus Christ followed by letters to the seven churches in Asia,
which represent the church overall throughout many generations. Many believe
the letter to the church in Laodicea is representative of the church of these
final days before the Lord’s return, which fits perfectly with this passage in
Isaiah concerning the people of God who are rebellious, stubborn and who refuse
to repent of their sins.
In these letters to the churches, five of them are rebuked
by the Lord, are called to repentance, and if they do not repent, are promised
judgment by God in some form. Isaiah follows the same theme, and much of Isaiah
is in relation to the messianic age and the church age. So, I believe God is
saying to his church today that those who are living in stubborn and willful
rebellion against God and his commands, and who refuse to repent of their sins
of spiritual adultery and idolatry, God is going to judge them in order to
bring them back to himself in revival and in renewal, though not all will
return, and that many will thus flock to Jesus Christ and will find him to be
their Savior and Lord.
To those who seek the Lord, who are the Lord’s true
servants, they will have an inheritance with the Lord forever. So, if you have
not yet turned from your sin, and you have not yet made Jesus Christ truly your
Lord (master), I pray you will do so today.
Enter In / Jon Mohr, Steve Green, Greg Nelson
Enter in, enter in,
Surrender to the Spirit’s call
To die and enter in.
Enter in, find peace within,
The holy life awaits you,
Abundant life is waiting for you…
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