A Messenger of Good News

“I have aroused one from the north, and he has come;

From the rising of the sun he will call on My name;

And he will come upon rulers as upon mortar,

Even as the potter treads clay.”

Who has declared this from the beginning, that we might know?

Or from former times, that we may say, “He is right!”?

Surely there was no one who declared,

Surely there was no one who proclaimed,

Surely there was no one who heard your words.

“Formerly I said to Zion, ‘Behold, here they are.’

And to Jerusalem, ‘I will give a messenger of good news.’

“But when I look, there is no one,

And there is no counselor among them

Who, if I ask, can give an answer.

“Behold, all of them are false;

Their works are worthless,

Their molten images are wind and emptiness.” (Isaiah 41:25-29 NASB1995)

 

From What I Understand

 

The Jews who had rebelled against the Lord were in captivity in Babylon, and it was nearing the end of their 70 years of captivity. And God was raising up Cyrus to be their deliverer. And Cyrus is often seen as a foreshadowing of Jesus Christ as our deliverer, which will now be the context here.

 

The Situation Today

 

Many people professing to be God’s people are still living in captivity to sin. Although God has spoken to them about their sin, and about their need to repent of their sins, they have not listened to the Lord. For although they give lip service to the Lord, their hearts are far from him. They are the self-indulgent, and the addicted to sin, and especially sexual immorality is huge. They are liars, by practice, who chase after the idols of this world and who do not pursue God and his righteousness and godly and morally pure living.

 

Many of them are just going through the motions of religious practice, some of them for the purpose to appear righteous on the outside while they are still living in sin, kind of like the Pharisees of Jesus’ day. They are those who chase after the gods of this world, who indulge in their sinful pleasures, and who like to play pretend to give off one image while they live another. They love mind games for the purpose to confuse others, and to lead others astray from the truth of what is really happening, some behind closed doors.

 

And we who are true followers of Christ are to be discerning people so that we do not get caught in any of their traps. For they will lay traps for us (not physical ones) hoping that we will fall into them, like what the Pharisees did to Jesus, hoping to have an opportunity to accuse us of something so that they can find a way to discredit us. We should be careful that we don’t end up getting caught up in their webs of deceit. So we need to pray to the Lord, asking him to identify these traps for us, so we do not fall into them.

 

Now who are the ones laying these traps for us to fall into? Many of them are preachers of the Scriptures, who are pastors and elders in today’s modern market-driven adulterous “churches” which are in an unholy union with the world and with the ungodly, because they are partnered with the ungodly, and are thus following their marketing schemes. And God forbids that this should take place within his body, the body of Christ, his church. Yet it appears that in the USA this describes the majority of “the church.”

 

And it appears that the majority of them are teaching a false gospel message intended to tickle itching ears, which lessens God’s requirements for faith which saves, and which gives their adherents free reign to keep living in sin, only now without feeling guilty, and now with false promises of forgiveness of all sin and heaven as their eternal destiny. But this is without teaching the importance of us dying to sin and walking in obedience to our Lord and to his commands, by God’s grace, in his power and strength.

 

But it isn’t just preachers and prophets and evangelists who are doing this. Newscasters and politicians and actors and sports heroes and people of wealth and importance and influence in the world are also among those who are teaching lies to the people (not all of them), and who are purposefully and willfully leading the people astray to what is false, to what is not of God, but what is of the flesh of man. And many of their followers are also teaching the same lies on the internet, and the masses are believing them.

 

For they are not teaching the true nature of Jesus Christ, and of what he did for us on that cross, and the truth of his gospel message. But Jesus, in his death on that cross, put our sins to death with him so that, by genuine God-persuaded faith in Jesus we will die to sin, deny self, and follow Jesus in obedience to his commands. For if sin is what we obey, in practice, and not obedience to God, we will not inherit eternal life with God.

 

[Matthew 7:13-14,21-23; Luke 9:23-26; John 10:27-30; Acts 26:18; Romans 2:6-8; Romans 6:1-23; Romans 8:1-14; 1 Corinthians 10:1-22; Galatians 5:16-24; Ephesians 4:17-32; Ephesians 5:3-6; Titus 2:11-14; Hebrews 12:1-2; 1 Peter 2:24; 1 John 1:5-10; 1 John 2:3-6; 1 John 3:4-10]

 

So, be students of the Scriptures who study them in their appropriate context, who are being led of the Spirit of God to truth and to holy living, who make it your practice to not walk in sin but to walk in holiness according to God’s will and purpose, in the power of God in your life. And be those who are watchful and prayerful and who seek the counsel of God with regard to who we should believe, or not believe, so that we do not end up falling for the lies and end up rejecting the truth. For we live in an age of deception!

 

Oh, to Be Like Thee, Blessed Redeemer

 

Lyrics by Thomas O. Chisholm, 1897

Music by W. J. Kirkpatrick, 1897

 

Oh, to be like Thee! blessèd Redeemer,

This is my constant longing and prayer;

Gladly I’ll forfeit all of earth’s treasures,

Jesus, Thy perfect likeness to wear.

 

Oh, to be like Thee! full of compassion,

Loving, forgiving, tender and kind,

Helping the helpless, cheering the fainting,

Seeking the wandering sinner to find.

 

O to be like Thee! lowly in spirit,

Holy and harmless, patient and brave;

Meekly enduring cruel reproaches,

Willing to suffer others to save.

 

O to be like Thee! while I am pleading,

Pour out Thy Spirit, fill with Thy love;

Make me a temple meet for Thy dwelling,

Fit me for life and Heaven above.

 

Oh, to be like Thee! Oh, to be like Thee,

Blessèd Redeemer, pure as Thou art;

Come in Thy sweetness, come in Thy fullness;

Stamp Thine own image deep on my heart.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KrYhiK2nQBg

 

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A Messenger of Good News

An Original Work / July 19, 2025

Christ’s Free Servant, Sue J Love