They Say, "Tell Us Pleasant Things"

Isaiah 30:1-5,8-11 ESV

“Ah, stubborn children,” declares the Lord,

“who carry out a plan, but not mine,

and who make an alliance, but not of my Spirit,

    that they may add sin to sin;

who set out to go down to Egypt,

    without asking for my direction,

to take refuge in the protection of Pharaoh

    and to seek shelter in the shadow of Egypt!

Therefore shall the protection of Pharaoh turn to your shame,

    and the shelter in the shadow of Egypt to your humiliation.

For though his officials are at Zoan

    and his envoys reach Hanes,

everyone comes to shame

    through a people that cannot profit them,

that brings neither help nor profit,

    but shame and disgrace.”

And now, go, write it before them on a tablet

    and inscribe it in a book,

that it may be for the time to come

    as a witness forever.

For they are a rebellious people,

    lying children,

children unwilling to hear

    the instruction of the Lord;

who say to the seers, “Do not see,”

    and to the prophets, “Do not prophesy to us what is right;

speak to us smooth things,

    prophesy illusions,

leave the way, turn aside from the path,

    let us hear no more about the Holy One of Israel.”

Although this is Old Testament, it is very applicable to Christians today. For the church, at least here in America, has largely formed an alliance not of God, and they are carrying out a plan not of God, for they have gone to their “Egypt” without asking direction from God, or without really listening to God’s answer, and they have taken refuge in the US government (the state), and they are relying on marketing books and businessmen to teach them how to grow their churches and how to attract the world to their gatherings.

So, instead of gathering together as the saints of God to encourage and to exhort one another in our walks of faith in obedience to our Lord, where the whole body can do the work of the ministry which God has assigned us to do, as his body, the gatherings have been now aimed at attracting the world and doing the kinds of things the world would want to come to. And so they have changed the whole meaning of “church,” and most are diluting the gospel message so as not to offend the people of the world with the truth.

And so they are definitely telling us who are still teaching the whole counsel of God to stop confronting them with their sins of idolatry and adultery and sexual immorality and lying, etc. And they want us to stop calling people to repentance and to walks of obedience to our Lord. And they want us to stop exposing the lies that we are being taught in many of these institutional churches. And they want us to tell them things that make them feel good and which don’t offend sinners. They want to hear pleasant things. But we who belong to Jesus need to keep speaking the truth.

And what is the truth that we need to keep speaking? It is that Jesus Christ (God the Son) came to earth, took on human form, and he preached repentance for the forgiveness of sins and obedience to him for eternal life with him. But he was hated for telling people the truth, and so his enemies had him hung on a cross to die. But in his death, he who is without sin, put our sins to death with him so that, by faith in him, we will die with him to sin and now walk in obedience to his commands.

But if we reject the gospel message that Jesus taught, and that his NT apostles taught (in context), and we rebel against the Lord and against his commands, and we chart our own course, and we go our own way, and we listen only to “pleasant things” which do not call for death to sin and obedience to God, and so we continue living in sin and not in walks of obedience to our Lord, then the Scriptures teach that we will die in our sins, and we will not inherit eternal life with God, regardless of what we profess.

[Matt 7:21-23; Lu 9:23-26; John 10:27-30; Acts 26:18; Rom 2:6-8; Rom 6:1-23; Rom 8:1-14; Rom 12:1-2; 1 Co 6:9-10,19-20; 1 Co 10:1-22; 2 Co 5:10,15,21; Gal 5:16-24; Gal 6:7-8; Eph 2:8-10; Eph 4:17-32; Eph 5:3-6; Col 1:21-23; Col 3:1-17; Titus 2:11-14; 1 Jn 1:5-10; 1 Jn 2:3-6,15-17; 1 Jn 3:4-10; 1 Pet 2:24; Heb 3:1-19; Heb 4:1-13; Heb 10:23-31; Heb 12:1-2]

They Say, “Tell Us Pleasant Things”

Video Talk

October 26, 2022

https://youtu.be/4tSJkC-504Q

Caution: This link may contain ads

The Lord’s Anointed  

An Original Work / December 16, 2011

Based off Isaiah 61

The Spirit of the Sov’reign Lord on me;

Anointed to preach the Good News;

Sent me to bind up the brokenhearted;

Proclaim freedom for the captives.

He sent me to preach release for pris’ners

Who are walking in sin’s darkness;

Proclaim God’s grace to all men who’ll listen;

And tell them about God’s judgments;

Comfort all who mourn;

Give crowns of beauty;

Oil of gladness and thanksgiving. 

They will be called oaks of God’s righteousness,

A planting of our Savior, God,

For the display of our Lord’s splendor, and

They will rebuild God’s holy church.

God will renew them, and will restore them,

And you’ll be called priests of the Lord.

You will be ministers of our God, and

You will rejoice in salvation.

The Lord loves justice;

He is faithful to 

Reward those who are seeking Him.

I delight greatly in the Lord;

My soul rejoices in my Savior, God.

He has clothed me with His salvation,

And in a robe of His righteousness.

He has given me priestly garments to wear, 

As the bride of Jesus Christ.

As the garden of our Lord and Savior, 

He causes us to grow in Him.

He makes righteousness, 

Praise, and thanksgiving

Spring up before all the nations. 

https://vimeo.com/114836524