All Glory to God our Father

Let us turn to Isaiah 50

1 “Where is the certificate of divorce
By which I have sent your mother away?

To the Jews in Babylon, who were suffering under his hand, and who might be apt to complain that God had dealt with them with as much caprice and cruelty as a man did with his wife, when he gave her a writing of divorce, and put her away without any just cause.
Let us now go to Deuteronomy 24 and look into the Law concerning divorce.
Deuteronomy 24: 1-5
“When a man takes a wife and marries her, and it happens that she finds no favor in his eyes because he has found some indecency in her, and he writes her a certificate of divorce and puts it in her hand and sends her out from his house,
2 and she leaves his house and goes and becomes another man’s wife,
3 and if the latter husband turns against her and writes her a certificate of divorce and puts it in her hand and sends her out of his house, or if the latter husband dies who took her to be his wife,
4 then her former husband who sent her away is not allowed to take her again to be his wife, since she has been defiled; for that is an abomination before the Lord, and you shall not bring sin on the land which the Lord your God gives you as an inheritance.
5 “When a man takes a new wife, he shall not go out with the army nor be charged with any duty; he shall be free at home one year and shall give happiness to his wife whom he has taken.

This custom of divorce Moses found was probably in existence among the Jews, and also in surrounding nations, and as it was difficult if not impossible at once to remove it, he permitted it on account of the hardness of the hearts of the Jews.

Now let’s go to Matthew 19 and see what Jesus tells us about the subject.
Matthew 19:3-9
3 Some Pharisees came to Jesus, testing Him and asking, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any reason at all?”
4 And He answered and said, “Have you not read that He who created them from the beginning made them male and female,
5 and said, ‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’?
6 So they are no longer two, but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let no man separate.”
7 They *said to Him, “Why then did Moses command to give her a certificate of divorce and send her away?”
8 He said to them, “Because of your hardness of heart Moses permitted you to divorce your wives; but from the beginning it has not been this way.
9 And I say to you, whoever divorces his wife, except for immorality, and marries another woman commits adultery.

So why is God is talking about divorce? The Jews were in a sense the woman or bride that God had wedded to.
Revelation 21:9 Then one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls full of the seven last plagues came and spoke with me, saying, “Come here, I will show you the bride, the wife of the Lamb.”
They were his people and he was their God. But once the Jews moved into the Promised Land, they began to play the harlot. We find that the people who had been living in the Promised Land, before the Jews got there, were living in sin. God had told Joshua to remove or kill these people. This makes many believers and unbelievers uncomfortable. And I have to wonder, have they really read the Bible?

It brings to mind 2 other Isaiah passages,
Isaiah 29:16 You have everything backward! Should the potter be thought of as clay? Should what is made say of its maker, “He didn’t make me”? Should what is shaped say of the one who shaped it, “He doesn’t understand”?

Isaiah 64:8 But now, LORD, you are our father. We are the clay, and you are our potter. All of us are the work of your hand.

People who think that God was wrong to kill these poor Canaanites are ignorant clay talking back to the Potter.

In Joshua 11:14 All the spoil of these cities and the cattle, the sons of Israel took as their plunder; but they struck every man with the edge of the sword, until they had destroyed them. They left no one who breathed.

There are at least two reasons why God did this. The first is evidenced in what came to pass when Israel did not obey God in this command. God wanted the land cleared of all temptations to His people to turn from Him, His worship and His law. The Canaanites were a threat to the purity of God’s people. He had set them apart, consecrated them, adopted them. In giving this order, He was protecting them.

Joshua 11:20 For it was of the Lord to harden their hearts, to meet Israel in battle in order that he might utterly destroy them, that they might receive no mercy, but that he might destroy them, just as the Lord had commanded Moses.

If you are still troubled by this, I recommend you go and read the book of Joshua. The Canaanites knew of God, but rejected Him. Rahab the prostitute confirmed this. The wages of sin is death and we are very good at forgetting this.

Joshua, for all his faithfulness, left the job unfinished. Once Israel had taken the land, once they began to feel safe, they started to think it might be helpful to leave some of the Canaanites around, to fetch their water and chop their wood. The book of Judges reveals the results. Those few who were spared became a snare, just as God predicted they would. Soon, everyone did what was right in their own eyes.

God had not formally thrown out the wife (Judah) whom he had chosen as he had done her sister Israel.
Jeremiah 3:8 “And I saw that for all the adulteries of faithless Israel, I had sent her away and given her a writ of divorce, yet her treacherous sister Judah did not fear; but she went and was a harlot also.

Israel was given up to her iniquities. I think here in American, we are inches away from that very thing we are talking about with Israel.

If you are keeping track, we are not even through with verse one yet. When I first looked at Isaiah 50, I thought, hmm, short lesson. We might have to all go out and shoot some hoops in the gym to fill in the rest of the time. To those reading this online, our room is connected to the gym. This building used to be the Grove City School back in the day.

Or to whom of My creditors did I sell you?
Behold, you were sold for your iniquities,
And for your transgressions your mother was sent away.

Among the Hebrews, a father had the right, by the law of Moses, if he was oppressed with debt, to sell his children. In like manner, if a man had stolen anything, and had nothing to make restitution, he might be sold for the theft. God is being quite clear here. Ye have sold yourselves; You have gone into captivity only on account of your sins. It has been your own act, and you have thus become bondmen to a foreign power only by your own choice.

2 “Why was there no man when I came?
When I called, why was there none to answer?

God was calling them to repentance, but no man of the nation yielded to obedience. He sent them prophets, but they did not listen. Isaiah was told this, from the lips of our Lord.

Isaiah 6:9 He said, “Go, and tell this people:
‘Keep on listening, but do not perceive;
Keep on looking, but do not understand.

Isaiah 6:11 Then I said, “Lord, how long?” And He answered,
“Until cities are devastated and without inhabitant,
Houses are without people
And the land is utterly desolate,

They had not been punished without warning. But no one was listening. Are we listening now? We have the whole story. We cannot say we have not been warned, yet we will. Do not sit passively in your church pew. It’s an amazing attribute of ourselves. We get comfortable, we start taking things for granted. And the older we get, the more lethargic we become. Willing to let things be, even if we aren’t really happy with what’s going on. With the pressure of the world, demanding that Christianity change to meet the social whims of our society, you do know that your church can change from something that it once was to something that it now is not. All the while you’re sitting there in your pew. So you have to wonder, how much satan is too much satan in your life? It’s between you and Jesus.

Is My hand so short that it cannot ransom?
Or have I no power to deliver?

God is asking, what is the reason of this contempt and rebellion? Is it because you expect no good from me, but think I am either unwilling or unable to save you? God never deprived any of their advantages, except for their sins. The Jews were sent into Babylon for their idolatry, a sin which broke the covenant; and they were at last rejected for crucifying the Lord of glory. God called on them to leave their sins, and prevent their own ruin. Last of all, the Son came to his own, but his own received him not. When God calls men to happiness, and they will not answer, they are justly left to be miserable. Are you now in this position? Are you unhappy with your life and circumstances? This is not the fault of God. He has his hand out, still. Why is it you don’t take hold of it?

Behold, I dry up the sea with My rebuke,
I make the rivers a wilderness;
Their fish stink for lack of water
And die of thirst.

It is tragically ironic that we have a large number of people today that are claiming God does not exist. Some by exclaiming it and some by apathy. Yahweh, our Creator, could at a breath, dissolve this universe and start over if that be his will. But, in spite of our sinful ways, He does love us and expects us to love Him back. We go back to the clay yelling at the Potter.

Jeremiah 18:1-8 The word which came to Jeremiah from the Lord saying,
2 “Arise and go down to the potter’s house, and there I will announce My words to you.” 3 Then I went down to the potter’s house, and there he was, making something on the wheel.
4 But the vessel that he was making of clay was spoiled in the hand of the potter; so he remade it into another vessel, as it pleased the potter to make.
5 Then the word of the Lord came to me saying,
6 “Can I not, O house of Israel, deal with you as this potter does?” declares the Lord. “Behold, like the clay in the potter’s hand, so are you in My hand, O house of Israel.
7 At one moment I might speak concerning a nation or concerning a kingdom to uproot, to pull down, or to destroy it;
8 if that nation against which I have spoken turns from its evil, I will relent concerning the calamity I planned to bring on it.

God in his Mercy and Grace will relent from punishment if you repent. That has always been the lesson. If the Canaanites had repented, they would have been forgiven and allowed to live. Nineveh did. Much to Jonah’s disgust. And as a people, if we got our sackcloth and ashes on and repented, the Lord would turn from punishing us for our many iniquities. If we would only act like we are children of God, with an inheritance of Heaven.

3 “I clothe the heavens with blackness
And make sackcloth their covering.”

This next part, to my mind, is Jesus speaking.

4 The Lord God has given Me the tongue of disciples,
That I may know how to sustain the weary one with a word.
He awakens Me morning by morning,
He awakens My ear to listen as a disciple.

5 The Lord God has opened My ear;
And I was not disobedient
Nor did I turn back.

Mark 14:32-42 32 They came to a place named Gethsemane; and He *said to His disciples, “Sit here until I have prayed.”
33 And He *took with Him Peter and James and John, and began to be very distressed and troubled.
34 And He *said to them, “My soul is deeply grieved to the point of death; remain here and keep watch.”
35 And He went a little beyond them, and fell to the ground and began to pray that if it were possible, the hour might pass Him by.
36 And He was saying, “Abba! Father! All things are possible for You; remove this cup from Me; yet not what I will, but what You will.”
37 And He *came and *found them sleeping, and *said to Peter, “Simon, are you asleep? Could you not keep watch for one hour?
38 Keep watching and praying that you may not come into temptation; the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.”
39 Again He went away and prayed, saying the same words. 40 And again He came and found them sleeping, for their eyes were very heavy; and they did not know what to answer Him.
41 And He *came the third time, and *said to them, “Are you still sleeping and resting? It is enough; the hour has come; behold, the Son of Man is being betrayed into the hands of sinners.
42 Get up, let us be going; behold, the one who betrays Me is at hand!”

6 I gave My back to those who strike Me,
And My cheeks to those who pluck out the beard;
I did not cover My face from humiliation and spitting.

This would be at this time in Mark 14:65 Some began to spit at Him, and to blindfold Him, and to beat Him with their fists, and to say to Him, “Prophesy!” And the officers received Him with slaps in the face.
Our Lord and Savior, our Messiah, was degraded and put up with persecution and savagery from the people he came to save.

And yet…

Matthew 23:37 “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, the way a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were unwilling.

7 For the Lord God helps Me,
Therefore, I am not disgraced;
Therefore, I have set My face like flint,
And I know that I will not be ashamed.

Luke 23:9 And he questioned Him at some length; but He answered him nothing.

Since Jesus did speak before the High Priest and before Pilate, His not speaking before Herod is the means by which Isaiah 53:7 was fulfilled.
Each of the trials was before a different authority:
Religious authority – the High Priest and Sanhedrin
Political/legal authority – Pilate on behalf of the Roman Empire
King of over Galilee and Peraea – Herod the tetrarch (Antipas)

Herod was “king” over a limited territory of Israel and over a limited number of Jewish people. Jesus was ultimately executed for this reason:

Now Pilate wrote a title and put it on the cross. And the writing was: JESUS OF NAZARETH, THE KING OF THE JEWS. (John 19:19 NKJV)

This declaration by Pilate recognized Jesus as King of the Jews, a legal title which would include those Jewish people scattered throughout the Roman Empire. This contrasts with Herod whose kingship was over a limited part of Israel (Galilee and Paraea). So as a sheep is silent before its shearers, Jesus was silent before Herod who “shearing” Him of a limited kingdom (Herod’s). But Jesus is not silent before the High Priest who cannot take away His position as the True and Great High Priest and He is not silent before Pilate who will recognize Him as King of all Jewish people.

8 He who vindicates Me is near;
Who will contend with Me?
Let us stand up to each other;
Who has a case against Me?
Let him draw near to Me.

The words are the strongest assertion of His absolute freedom from anything that an adversary could lay hold of on which to found a charge, and not merely so, but they also dare to assert that the unerring and all-penetrating eye of the Judge of all will look into His heart, and find nothing there but the mirrored image of His own perfection.

9 Behold, the Lord God helps Me;
Who is he who condemns Me?
Behold, they will all wear out like a garment;
The moth will eat them.

Not exactly following the line of this story, but instructive all the same,
Acts 12: 18-23 “At break of day, there was consternation among the soldiers about what had become of Peter.

19 Herod made a search for him, but didn’t find him, so then he examined the guards, and commanded that they be executed. Herod then went down from Judea to Caesarea, and spent time there.”

“20 Now Herod was very angry with the people of Tyre and Sidon. Their country depended on the king’s country for food, so they came to him with a united front to make peace —they’d been able to win over Blastus, the king’s personal aide.

21 On an appointed day, Herod dressed himself in royal clothing, sat on the throne, and made a speech to them.
22 The people shouted, ‘The voice of God, and not of a man!’
23 Immediately an angel of the Lord struck him, because he didn’t give God the glory. He was eaten by worms and died.”

You go against God and moths will eat you, worms will eat you, sometimes dogs will eat you. That was a reference to Jezebel in 2 Kings 9:10.

10 Who is among you that fears the Lord,
That obeys the voice of His servant,
That walks in darkness and has no light?
Let him trust in the name of the Lord and rely on his God.

God is light. John 1:5 The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.

11 Behold, all you who kindle a fire,
Who encircle yourselves with firebrands,
Walk in the light of your fire
And among the brands you have set ablaze.
This you will have from My hand:
You will lie down in torment.

God is light, yet we try to make our own light. Go forth, realizing that we are children of God, and act as such.  And by your fruits, they will know you. Matthew 7:16

All Glory given to God the Father

Isaiah 9:6
For unto us a Child is born, Unto us a Son is given; And the government will be upon His shoulder. And His name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

Luke 2:1-20
2 Now in those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus, that a census be taken of all the inhabited earth. ² This was the first census taken while Quirinius was governor of Syria. ³ And everyone was on his way to register for the census, each to his own city. ⁴ Joseph also went up from Galilee, from the city of Nazareth, to Judea, to the city of David which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and family of David, ⁵ in order to register along with Mary, who was engaged to him, and was with child. ⁶ While they were there, the days were completed for her to give birth. ⁷ And she gave birth to her firstborn son; and she wrapped Him in cloths, and laid Him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.

⁸ In the same region there were some shepherds staying out in the fields and keeping watch over their flock by night. ⁹ And an angel of the Lord suddenly stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them; and they were terribly frightened. ¹⁰ But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid; for behold, I bring you good news of great joy which will be for all the people; ¹¹ for today in the city of David there has been born for you a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. ¹² This will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.” ¹³ And suddenly there appeared with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying,

¹⁵ When the angels had gone away from them into heaven, the shepherds began saying to one another, “Let us go straight to Bethlehem then, and see this thing that has happened which the Lord has made known to us.” ¹⁶ So they came in a hurry and found their way to Mary and Joseph, and the baby as He lay in the manger. ¹⁷ When they had seen this, they made known the statement which had been told them about this Child. ¹⁸ And all who heard it wondered at the things which were told them by the shepherds. ¹⁹ But Mary treasured all these things, pondering them in her heart. ²⁰ The shepherds went back, glorifying and praising God for all that they had heard and seen, just as had been told them.

All Glory to God our Father

Let us turn to Isaiah 49 and go through this wonderful message of hope and affirmation to the people of Israel, from their Creator and God.

Salvation Reaches to the End of the Earth
1 Listen to Me, O islands,
And pay attention, you peoples from afar.
The Lord called Me from the womb;
From the body of My mother He named Me.

It was a Hebrew custom back in that day to call people from beyond the sea islands, for obvious reasons. Elohim (Hebrew for God) is bringing up 2 points here. He is not just talking to Israel here but to us Gentiles, in fact the whole world. And the Jews would wonder at this. We talked about this last week. Gentiles were not included in the Jews’ spiritual world view. They thought their Messiah would come and smash the Gentiles and they, the Jews, would then have the entire world as a “Promised Land”. They were so convinced of their Christ, which is a title not a name, as Christ is a Greek translation of Messiah. He would come as a King and military commander that would throw off the heavy hand of Rome and continue on from there. We are talking still about 600 years into the future so most of this message and what Isaiah had spoken of in the past, I am pretty sure went right over their heads. They had eyes to see, but did not, ears to hear, but would not. It is ever the same, then as now.
The second point is that our Messiah will be born of a woman, indicating that he would be born human. John 1:13 who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.

2 He has made My mouth like a sharp sword,
In the shadow of His hand He has concealed Me;
And He has also made Me a select arrow,
He has hidden Me in His quiver.

We find another reference to this sharp sword in Revelation 19:15 From His mouth comes a sharp sword, so that with it He may strike down the nations, and He will rule them with a rod of iron; and He treads the wine press of the fierce wrath of God, the Almighty.

God has given power to His Servant (Christ) to speak effectively and thereby to conquer His enemies.
I do love how this is stated “In the shadow of His hand He has concealed Me”. Meaning that Christ was held hidden until the time He was needed. This is still the case, as with the first coming and now the second. We have prophecy pointing to about when, but not precisely so. The books of Daniel and Revelation give us clues but no one knows but the Father. That is found in quite a few places in the New Testament. We will use this one. Mark 13:32 But of that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but the Father alone.
And yet, we argue about this endlessly. The hubris of Man.

3 He said to Me, “You are My Servant, Israel,
In Whom I will show My glory.”
4 But I said, “I have toiled in vain,
I have spent My strength for nothing and vanity;
Yet surely the justice due to Me is with the Lord,
And My reward with My God.”

This Servant, Israel, is still Christ. Verse 4 is referring to the first coming in which the Servant was met with rejection by his nation. It must have seemed to some as a failure because of his crucifixion and death on the cross. Only criminals died like that. But Christ defeated death, “and rose again on the third day, He ascended into heaven, And sitteth on the right hand of God the Father Almighty; From thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead.”
We know this as the Apostles Creed.
The Lutheran Church always says it and the Baptist Church never does. You can add the Lord’s Prayer to that list also. And I believe it comes down to the idea that if you repeat something, so often, that it becomes something less than it was. It is no longer relevant, just part of the service. I would agree to that in regards to those “Christians” that go to Church because that’s what “good people” do. If the only reason you go to Church is to be seen and then go home and continue life without any evidence of Jesus in your actions, and there are many of these, well, REPENT SINNER! THE END IS NIGH!
Sorry, I couldn’t resist that. It seems everyday is just one day closer to me standing on the corner with a cardboard sign, shouting at cars.

5 And now says the Lord, who formed Me from the womb to be His Servant,
To bring Jacob back to Him, so that Israel might be gathered to Him
(For I am honored in the sight of the Lord,
And My God is My strength),

It is the Servant’s mission to bring Israel back into the fold, where they will finally look up and see their Messiah, their King and think to themselves, OH! What have we done?

6 He says, “It is too small a thing that You should be My Servant
To raise up the tribes of Jacob and to restore the preserved ones of Israel;
I will also make You a light of the nations
So that My salvation may reach to the end of the earth.”

Let’s go to Luke 2 and read this wonderful prophecy when Jesus was but a wee lad.

Luke 2:25-32
25 And there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon; and this man was righteous and devout, looking for the consolation of Israel; and the Holy Spirit was upon him.
26 And it had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord’s Christ.
27 And he came in the Spirit into the temple; and when the parents brought in the child Jesus, to carry out for Him the custom of the Law, 28 then he took Him into his arms, and blessed God, and said,

29 “Now Lord, You are releasing Your bond-servant to depart in peace,
According to Your word;
30 For my eyes have seen Your salvation,
31 Which You have prepared in the presence of all peoples,
32 A Light of revelation to the Gentiles,
And the glory of Your people Israel.”

There will be people, those who have not been snatched up in the Rapture, they will still come to Christ and it will be through the Remnant of those Jews that are left, after they have been winnowed down. 144,000 Jews will fulfill the role they were destined to have and be effective evangelists to the rest of the world.

7 Thus says the Lord, the Redeemer of Israel and its Holy One,
To the despised One,
To the One abhorred by the nation,
To the Servant of rulers,
“Kings will see and arise,
Princes will also bow down,
Because of the Lord who is faithful, the Holy One of Israel who has chosen You.”

Christ was the Suffering Servant, as found in Isaiah 53, despised by all in power. That day will come when every knee will bow. Philippians 2:10 So that at the name of Jesus EVERY KNEE WILL BOW, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth.

8 Thus says the Lord,
“In a favorable time I have answered You,
And in a day of salvation I have helped You;
And I will keep You and give You for a covenant of the people,
To restore the land, to make them inherit the desolate heritages;

The Grace of God had been bestowed upon sinners and in that day to come, His Servant will accomplish the final deliverance of Israel.
Paul used the context of verse 8 to the Corinthians.
2 Corinthians 6:1-2 And working together with Him, we also urge you not to receive the grace of God in vain— 2 for He says,
“At the acceptable time I listened to you,
And on the day of salvation I helped you.”
Behold, now is “the acceptable time,” behold, now is “the day of salvation”

Truly, now is the acceptable time for your salvation. If you have not accepted Christ as your Lord and Savior, repented your sins, GET ON IT! God is waiting, with his hand held out toward you. And He knows absolutely everything of your life. Come to your Father, your life awaits you, not here, but in Heaven.

9 Saying to those who are bound, ‘Go forth,’
To those who are in darkness, ‘Show yourselves.’
Along the roads they will feed,
And their pasture will be on all bare heights.
10 “They will not hunger or thirst,
Nor will the scorching heat or sun strike them down;
For He who has compassion on them will lead them
And will guide them to springs of water.
11 “I will make all My mountains a road,
And My highways will be raised up.
12 “Behold, these will come from afar;
And lo, these will come from the north and from the west,
And these from the land of Sinim.”
13 Shout for joy, O heavens! And rejoice, O earth!
Break forth into joyful shouting, O mountains!
For the Lord has comforted His people
And will have compassion on His afflicted.

Those who are bound, those who are dwelling in darkness, and there are many of us afflicted.
Depression, pain from the body breaking down, yoked to whatever you have yoked yourself to.
Revelation 7:16-17 16 They will hunger no longer, nor thirst anymore; nor will the sun beat down on them, nor any heat; 17 for the Lamb in the center of the throne will be their shepherd, and will guide them to springs of the water of life; and God will wipe every tear from their eyes.”

Just a few more weary days and then, I’ll fly away.

Promise to Zion
14 But Zion said, “The Lord has forsaken me,
And the Lord has forgotten me.”

We are ever ungrateful, God doesn’t listen to my prayers. Hmm. Have you repented your sins to Him, really? Is there something that you’ve done that you know is wrong, for we all know the right and wrong of things, that you’ve hidden from Him? Hidden? Did you miss the part where it is said that He knows the count of the hairs of your head. Luke 12:7 Indeed, the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Do not fear; you are more valuable than many sparrows.

To which God responds in the next verse.

15 “Can a woman forget her nursing child
And have no compassion on the son of her womb?
Even these may forget, but I will not forget you.

Because I’ve become sensitive to this, it caused me to do a search of which denominations or churches support Planned Parenthood, which is is a polite way of saying, which churches support abortion.

https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2018/01/22/american-religious-groups-vary-widely-in-their-views-of-abortion/

I was horrified at the result. It would have been better to have asked which churches don’t support abortion. Google has an interesting algorithm that even if you asked the negative of that question, you get the positive first and foremost. I ask all of you to investigate on your own to find out what your church does and does not support. If you don’t know where to start, I would ask the Pastor what they believe in. But you might say to yourself, “Well my church might support that stuff, but I don’t and never would”. Well done stalwart defender of the Faith (I say in my ironic voice). Did you know, that if a church or denomination supports Planned Parenthood, some of the money you give to the collection plate goes to Planned Parenthood.
Even if you don’t support what the church supports, and I would wonder why you would go to a church like that, your money is sent in support of whatever the church supports. Many of these churches have people that just can’t be bothered to cause a fuss, Swedes are like that, you know. They just want to go, have coffee with men or ladies, chat and laugh, sit through the sermon, sing a few songs and go home.

Jesus doesn’t want to cause a fuss at Judgement time either. He’ll just say, “I never knew you” and that’s that.

Matthew 7:21-23 “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter. 22 Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?’ 23 And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness.’

Remember last week when I asked how much satan in your life is too much? It’s up to you and God.

16 “Behold, I have inscribed you on the palms of My hands;
Your walls are continually before Me.

There is Jewish custom, referred to in Exodus 13:9 And it shall serve as a sign to you on your hand, and as a reminder on your forehead, that the law of the Lord may be in your mouth; for with a powerful hand the Lord brought you out of Egypt.

So they would puncture their hands with a symbol of their city as a sign of devotion.

17 “Your builders hurry;
Your destroyers and devastators
Will depart from you.
18 “Lift up your eyes and look around;
All of them gather together, they come to you.
As I live,” declares the Lord,
“You will surely put on all of them as jewels and bind them on as a bride.
19 “For your waste and desolate places and your destroyed land—
Surely now you will be too cramped for the inhabitants,
And those who swallowed you will be far away.
20 “The children of whom you were bereaved will yet say in your ears,
‘The place is too cramped for me;
Make room for me that I may live here.’

After the faithful remnant is gathered in salvation and the Gentiles are brought to faith in the Kingdom through Jewish witnesses, millennial Jerusalem will not be large enough to contain all its inhabitants.

21 “Then you will say in your heart,
‘Who has begotten these for me,
Since I have been bereaved of my children
And am barren, an exile and a wanderer?
And who has reared these?
Behold, I was left alone;
From where did these come?’”

The Jewish perspective is too narrow and always has been. She has seen herself as a widow, abandoned by her true Husband, the Lord. God has not forgotten or abandoned her. While the symbolic Jewish widow was weeping and feeling sorry for herself, the Lord was preparing lasting legacy for her, preserving her remnant and bringing her back safely from Babylon.

22 Thus says the Lord God,
“Behold, I will lift up My hand to the nations
And set up My standard to the peoples;
And they will bring your sons in their bosom,
And your daughters will be carried on their shoulders.
23 “Kings will be your guardians,
And their princesses your nurses.
They will bow down to you with their faces to the earth
And lick the dust of your feet;
And you will know that I am the Lord;
Those who hopefully wait for Me will not be put to shame.

Those mighty men, Rulers and Princes that oppressed them will now serve and care for them.
Lick the dust from your feet and know that I am the Lord. And keep in mind that our Lord is judge over all. We have no part in that judgment. Sometimes we suffer to the Glory of the Lord.
1 Peter 5:10 10 After you have suffered for a little while, the God of all grace, who called you to His eternal glory in Christ, will Himself perfect, confirm, strengthen and establish you.

24 “Can the prey be taken from the mighty man,
Or the captives of a tyrant be rescued?”

25 Surely, thus says the Lord,
“Even the captives of the mighty man will be taken away,
And the prey of the tyrant will be rescued;
For I will contend with the one who contends with you,
And I will save your sons.
26 “I will feed your oppressors with their own flesh,
And they will become drunk with their own blood as with sweet wine;
And all flesh will know that I, the Lord, am your Savior
And your Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob.”

God’s deliverance of Israel will be so dramatic that the world will recognize that the Lord, the Savior, the Redeemer and Mighty One of Israel is the true God.
Ezekiel 39:7 My holy name I will make known in the midst of My people Israel; and I will not let My holy name be profaned anymore. And the nations will know that I am the Lord, the Holy One in Israel.

Habakkuk 2:14 For the earth will be filled
With the knowledge of the glory of the Lord,
As the waters cover the sea.

Let us end with Psalm 115
Glory to God Alone
1 Not to us, Yahweh, not to us,
but to Your name give glory
because of Your faithful love, because of Your truth.
2 Why should the nations say,
“Where is their God?”
3 Our God is in heaven
and does whatever He pleases.

4 Their idols are silver and gold,
made by human hands.
5 They have mouths but cannot speak,
eyes, but cannot see.
6 They have ears but cannot hear,
noses, but cannot smell.
7 They have hands but cannot feel,
feet, but cannot walk.
They cannot make a sound with their throats.
8 Those who make them are just like them,
as are all who trust in them.

9 Israel, trust in the Lord!
He is their help and shield.
10 House of Aaron, trust in the Lord!
He is their help and shield.
11 You who fear the Lord, trust in the Lord!
He is their help and shield.
12 The Lord remembers us and will bless us.
He will bless the house of Israel;
He will bless the house of Aaron;
13 He will bless those who fear the Lord—
small and great alike.

14 May the Lord add to your numbers,
both yours and your children’s.
15 May you be blessed by the Lord,
the Maker of heaven and earth.
16 The heavens are the Lord’s,
but the earth He has given to the human race.
17 It is not the dead who praise the Lord,
nor any of those descending into the silence of death.
18 But we will praise the Lord,
both now and forever.
Hallelujah!

All Glory to God our Father

Today we will go through Isaiah 48 and marvel that this chapter, written about 2,600 years ago, could be written for us today. We gentiles, through the ministry of Paul, after the Jews had rejected their Messiah and their role of ambassadors of Christ’s church unto us, we gentiles have now become sons of Abraham. And this would have scandalized the Jews of that day as we were reviled as pagans, idolizers and generally unpleasant people. Not that the Jews hadn’t worshipped a golden calf or 2 during most of their history. We are a different people, but God knew that and knew that the Jews would be obstinate, but gave them the free will to do what they would. And because the Jews played their strong suit, which for them was obstinently stupid over the patently obvious, God sent his Apostles to the Gentiles, which caused the Apostles to stumble around a bit until they got with the program

Here we find Peter had a dream from God:
Acts 10:9-16
9 On the next day, as they were on their way and approaching the city, Peter went up on the housetop about the sixth hour to pray.
10 But he became hungry and was desiring to eat; but while they were making preparations, he fell into a trance;
11 and he *saw the sky opened up, and an object like a great sheet coming down, lowered by four corners to the ground,
12 and there were in it all kinds of four-footed animals and crawling creatures of the earth and birds of the air.
13 A voice came to him, “Get up, Peter, kill and eat!”
14 But Peter said, “By no means, Lord, for I have never eaten anything unholy and unclean.”
15 Again a voice came to him a second time, “What God has cleansed, no longer consider unholy.”
16 This happened three times, and immediately the object was taken up into the sky.

So what separates us from the Jews is circumcision and what we eat. But what is unclean and where did that idea come from? You have to go back another 500 years, when Moses was leading them out of Egypt to the promised land, God came to them, and he did that a lot back then, and told them what to eat and what not to eat.

Leviticus 11:1-8
1 The Lord spoke again to Moses and to Aaron, saying to them,
2 “Speak to the sons of Israel, saying, ‘These are the creatures which you may eat from all the animals that are on the earth.
3 Whatever divides a hoof, thus making split hoofs, and chews the cud, among the animals, that you may eat.
4 Nevertheless, you are not to eat of these, among those which chew the cud, or among those which divide the hoof: the camel, for though it chews cud, it does not divide the hoof, it is unclean to you.
5 Likewise, the shaphan, for though it chews cud, it does not divide the hoof, it is unclean to you;
6 the rabbit also, for though it chews cud, it does not divide the hoof, it is unclean to you;
7 and the pig, for though it divides the hoof, thus making a split hoof, it does not chew cud, it is unclean to you.
8 You shall not eat of their flesh nor touch their carcasses; they are unclean to you.

So you see, there were things they could eat and very specific things they could not eat. And I believe the whole “what you eat” thing came from wanting to separate them from what they had done in Egypt, the eating, customs and such. They had lived in Egypt for 430 years and the Egyptians were a Godless people. They had many gods of the small “g” variety. I believe God wanted to have a very clear separation between these 2 peoples, so they didn’t become Jews that acted like Egyptians in the promised land.
Also, sanitary conditions in the hot desert, with close proximity to around 2 million neighbors, made it necessary for God to spell out exactly what to eat and how to prepare it.
Exodus 12:37 37 Now the sons of Israel journeyed from Rameses to Succoth, about six hundred thousand men on foot, aside from children.
I have no idea why women didn’t get mentioned in this passage. It might be a Hebrew thing of you don’t state the obvious.

So food made us different from the Jews, and that got Peter in trouble with Paul. Peter came to Antioch while Paul was there. In fact that is why Peter and Paul were in the same place. Paul had just been officially accepted by the Apostles as one of them after 14 years of going out among the gentiles and preaching that Jesus is our Savior. This was a big relief to Paul, not that he needed to be justified by men when Jesus was his boss, but it’s nice to be accepted by whom you work with. Peter at this time had been hanging around with gentiles, living with them, eating with them and going native, as the saying goes. Then, some Jews who were labeled “so-called believers” because they were false ones, show up and give Peter the stink eye for living like a gentile. Peter, who had exhibited poor choices in his day, starts to shun the gentiles and act like the false believing Jews. Paul, with his brand new and shiny Apostle badge, decides that Peter needs to be publicly spanked back into doing the right thing.

Galatians 2:11-21
11 But when Peter came to Antioch, I had to oppose him to his face, for what he did was very wrong.
12 When he first arrived, he ate with the Gentile believers, who were not circumcised. But afterward, when some friends of James came, Peter wouldn’t eat with the Gentiles anymore. He was afraid of criticism from these people who insisted on the necessity of circumcision.
13 As a result, other Jewish believers followed Peter’s hypocrisy, and even Barnabas was led astray by their hypocrisy.
14 When I saw that they were not following the truth of the gospel message, I said to Peter in front of all the others, “Since you, a Jew by birth, have discarded the Jewish laws and are living like a Gentile, why are you now trying to make these Gentiles follow the Jewish traditions?
15 “You and I are Jews by birth, not ‘sinners’ like the Gentiles.
16 Yet we know that a person is made right with God by faith in Jesus Christ, not by obeying the law. And we have believed in Christ Jesus, so that we might be made right with God because of our faith in Christ, not because we have obeyed the law. For no one will ever be made right with God by obeying the law.”
17 But suppose we seek to be made right with God through faith in Christ and then we are found guilty because we have abandoned the law. Would that mean Christ has led us into sin? Absolutely not!
18 Rather, I am a sinner if I rebuild the old system of law I already tore down.
19 For when I tried to keep the law, it condemned me. So I died to the law—I stopped trying to meet all its requirements—so that I might live for God.
20 My old self has been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. So I live in this earthly body by trusting in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
21 I do not treat the grace of God as meaningless. For if keeping the law could make us right with God, then there was no need for Christ to die.

There is nothing in the Bible that stated how red Peter’s face became when this happened, but that’s probably a good thing, as we would still be arguing about it.

What I have done is separate out the Jews from ourselves. The Jews did not and still have not accepted Christ as their Lord and Savior and quite often had trouble accepting the Father, too. And we will see that in Isaiah 48. What we will also see is how this book not only speaks of the past but talks to us today. Keep in mind that people, unbelievers, will scoff at that idea.

A prime example of why you should not send you children to college these days.
William Dever, a professor of archaeology from Lycoming College. “I doubt that the miracles attributed to him ever took place. I don’t think he led three million Israelites out of Egypt in an exodus across the Sinai. This was on ABC online news from Dec 28, 2012.

Jude:17-20
“Dear friends, remember what the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ said before. They said to you, “In the last times there will be people who laugh about God, following their own evil desires which are against God.” These are the people who divide you, people whose thoughts are only of this world, who do not have the Spirit. But dear friends, use your most holy faith to build yourselves up, praying in the Holy Spirit.”

2 Peter 3:3-8
“First, you must understand this: In the last days people who follow their own desires will appear. These disrespectful people will ridicule God’s promise by saying, “What’s happened to his promise to return? Ever since our ancestors died, everything continues as it did from the beginning of the world.” They are deliberately ignoring one fact: Because of God’s word, heaven and earth existed a long time ago. The earth appeared out of water and was kept alive by water. Water also flooded and destroyed that world. By God’s word, the present heaven and earth are designated to be burned. They are being kept until the day ungodly people will be judged and destroyed. Dear friends, don’t ignore this fact: One day with the Lord is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like one day.”

Don’t get sidetracked with these boys talking about the “Last Days.” We are focusing on the here and now. Let us turn to Isaiah 48.

Israel’s Obstinacy
1 “Hear this, O house of Jacob, who are named Israel
And who came forth from the loins of Judah,
Who swear by the name of the Lord
And invoke the God of Israel,
But not in truth nor in righteousness.
2 “For they call themselves after the holy city
And lean on the God of Israel;
The Lord of hosts is His name.
3 “I declared the former things long ago
And they went forth from My mouth, and I proclaimed them.
Suddenly I acted, and they came to pass.
4 “Because I know that you are obstinate,
And your neck is an iron sinew
And your forehead bronze,
5 Therefore I declared them to you long ago,
Before they took place I proclaimed them to you,
So that you would not say, ‘My idol has done them,
And my graven image and my molten image have commanded them.’
6 “You have heard; look at all this.
And you, will you not declare it?
I proclaim to you new things from this time,
Even hidden things which you have not known.
7 “They are created now and not long ago;
And before today you have not heard them,
So that you will not say, ‘Behold, I knew them.’
8 “You have not heard, you have not known.
Even from long ago your ear has not been open,
Because I knew that you would deal very treacherously;
And you have been called a rebel from birth.
9 “For the sake of My name I delay My wrath,
And for My praise I restrain it for you,
In order not to cut you off.
10 “Behold, I have refined you, but not as silver;
I have tested you in the furnace of affliction.
11 “For My own sake, for My own sake, I will act;
For how can My name be profaned?
And My glory I will not give to another.

Deliverance Promised
12 “Listen to Me, O Jacob, even Israel whom I called;
I am He, I am the first, I am also the last.
13 “Surely My hand founded the earth,
And My right hand spread out the heavens;
When I call to them, they stand together.
14 “Assemble, all of you, and listen!
Who among them has declared these things?
The Lord loves him; he will carry out His good pleasure on Babylon,
And His arm will be against the Chaldeans.
15 “I, even I, have spoken; indeed I have called him,
I have brought him, and He will make his ways successful.
16 “Come near to Me, listen to this:
From the first I have not spoken in secret,
From the time it took place, I was there.
And now the Lord God has sent Me, and His Spirit.”
17 Thus says the Lord, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel,
“I am the Lord your God, who teaches you to profit,
Who leads you in the way you should go.
18 “If only you had paid attention to My commandments!
Then your well-being would have been like a river,
And your righteousness like the waves of the sea.
19 “Your descendants would have been like the sand,
And your offspring like its grains;
Their name would never be cut off or destroyed from My presence.”
20 Go forth from Babylon! Flee from the Chaldeans!
Declare with the sound of joyful shouting, proclaim this,
Send it out to the end of the earth;
Say, “The Lord has redeemed His servant Jacob.”
21 They did not thirst when He led them through the deserts.
He made the water flow out of the rock for them;
He split the rock and the water gushed forth.
22 “There is no peace for the wicked,” says the Lord.

Some things that caught my attention:

Verse 1: We swear by the name of the Lord – But not in truth nor in righteousness.
Yes, quite literally. I am talking about how we use the Lord’s name in vain. You say “that’s not the true sense of the term here.” Yes and no. If we are dealing with a strictly English translation of this term, I am going to interpret it as having 2 meanings. One, taking the Lord’s name in vain and two, swearing our dedication to God, falsely. I heard it a couple of nights ago, on the phone. A relative of mine, one that I had not seen in 45 years, had contacted me, wanting to chat and get back together. When asking about me, I gave her my now standard answer of my life really started in 2018, because I accepted the Lord and everything before was of no consequence, in fact bordering on garbage. I then dropped into a mini sermon, asking of course, has she accepted Christ? “Oh, I’m good” she tells me. She states that she’s not really religious, but she’s good with God. Oh really? How good is God with you? John 15:2 “Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit, He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit, He prunes it so that it may bear more fruit.

You may have lived a charmed life, and by her account, she has, but all that is for naught if you haven’t accepted and repented with Christ. And that small matter of faith without works is not faith at all.

James 2:14-26
14 What use is it, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but he has no works? Can that faith save him?
15 If a brother or sister is without clothing and in need of daily food,
16 and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and be filled,” and yet you do not give them what is necessary for their body, what use is that? 17 Even so faith, if it has no works, is dead, being by itself.
18 But someone may well say, “You have faith and I have works; show me your faith without the works, and I will show you my faith by my works.” 19 You believe that God is one. You do well; the demons also believe, and shudder.
20 But are you willing to recognize, you foolish fellow, that faith without works is useless?
21 Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered up Isaac his son on the altar?
22 You see that faith was working with his works, and as a result of the works, faith was perfected;
23 and the Scripture was fulfilled which says, “And Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness,” and he was called the friend of God.
24 You see that a man is justified by works and not by faith alone.
25 In the same way, was not Rahab the harlot also justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out by another way?
26 For just as the body without the spirit is dead, so also faith without works is dead.

Verse 4: “Because I know that you are obstinate, And your neck is an iron sinew And your forehead bronze” – How stubborn of a people are WE? You all know the word of God or at least you know some of it. However, we are a fallen people, all of us. And as of the Saved, the Holy Spirit is within you. The Bible tells us not to associate with sin.The short version is 1 Corinthians 15:33 Do not be deceived: “Bad company ruins good morals.”
I will also throw in Proverbs 13:20 Whoever walks with the wise becomes wise, but the companion of fools will suffer harm.

What am I getting at, you ask? Well, you rub up against evil and evil will cling to you. And if you continue to rub up against evil, willfully, a lot of times, not really even considering it to be evil, it’s just what I do, what I have always done. How can that be bad? I just want to be entertained, you say. At what cost, I ask? Our culture has corrupted us, dulled us with what it does, we don’t even feel the wrong of it. I am not going to point a gnarled finger at any one thing. I say gnarled as that is all my pointer finger is these days.
The Holy Spirit, that part of God that is in you will convict you if you have taken what I have said here to heart. Let me now warn you that I am no prophet, no apostle, nobody special at all. Just some shlub that got the nod to do Bible Study and you are free to completely blow off what I say. It is between you and God. But be warned again, that if you continually rub up against evil, “oh it’s just a little evil” you say. Can you be just a little pregnant, I ask? The Holy Spirit will back off, your prayers to God could wind up in the spam filter. And eventually the Holy Spirit will “give you up unto whatever you willingly persist in doing.

Romans 1:24
Therefore God gave them over in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, so that their bodies would be dishonored among them.
This is God talking about lusts of the hearts, but God will throw his hands up and let you do your thing. Free will to honor Him or to walk away.

Verse 5: Therefore I declared them to you long ago,
Before they took place I proclaimed them to you,
So that you would not say, ‘My idol has done them,
And my graven image and my molten image have commanded them.’

We are not much on molten images these days, but we’ve pretty much replaced them with LCD screens or the big screen. I would call the entertainment industry our Babylon of today. We have a large segment of the population that have at least 3 generations trained through habituation and hooked on whatever comes across the boob tube. And then the internet comes along and boy howdy did that change things. Now we can instantly communicate with just about anybody without ever seeing their face. Back when a couple of boys from Israel made a program called ICQ, it allowed a user to chat with anybody around the world that was using the same program. My wife and I had friends from all around the world. Friends close enough that we thought we could travel and see them, all around the world and it revolutionized our concept of friends and what the internet was. This was around the late 1990’s. It was during this time that I was running my little slice of the internet. I managed a dial up service for around 1100 customers in Ruidoso NM. It was there that I started to see the dark side of what instant and anonymous communication meant on the Information Superhighway. Gambling, Porn, Cyber Theft, viruses that would infect your computer, you’d never know it, and steal all your information and then your computer would infect all your friends’ computers because that’s the way they programmed it. Even then, though I was not a Christian as I know it today, I was taken aback at what I saw.
I am pretty sure that the internet is how the final Antichrist will gather his followers so quickly. So let me change what I said. Hollywood used to be our Babylon and still has an attraction. The internet has now taken over as our Babylon.

Verse 13: “Surely My hand founded the earth,
And My right hand spread out the heavens;
I refer back to the university professor making claims of disbelieving the Bible. I have heard it from my own family. Disbelievers will claim that this world is the only thing that is real and the book you are quoting from is a fairy tale.
OK, buckle up, I am going to take another swing at this.
I hope you are aware that the entertainment industry that is so valued in our society is almost wholly composed of Godless people, and they are not shy about telling you that.
Whose master do you suppose they are serving? You might kid yourself and think, I can sit through all the cursing, innuendo, sex and killing and not be affected by it. Really? What is satan’s goal in all this? To dull your senses to sin, so that you are increasingly numb to what is paraded in front of your eyes. All in the name of entertaining you and keeping you happy. The command from Jesus was to love your neighbor as you would love yourself. This is in Mark 12:31. And how will you do this when you are so numb to sin that your neighbor is seen as more of an adversary to be wary of, than someone in need. There is evil in this world and it is in the form of keeping you happy and occupied. That is the supreme irony. What we comfortably consume would be the thing that keeps most of us out of Heaven.
Many people will dispute that. But then most “Christians” think of themselves as good people. I know I did. I mentioned in Sunday School at our Church that people want to turn off the television, because satan is its master.

Crickets…

You know that smile you get from people that says you are a weirdo, one to be tolerated but not listened to? Yeah, I get that and yes, I am a weirdo. This Sunday School is populated by most of the Elders and stalwart Believers of our church, the core group. And I love these people. But satan has done his work all throughout our Land. If you cannot get this core group of Believers to acknowledge that satan is in charge of what entertains them, well, what else will they find acceptable satan is in charge of? How much satan is too much satan?

They thought they were all armoured up and a little bit of evil slipped through a chink in their armor and has clung to them, rendering them unwilling to remove it from their lives. That’s absurd you think. I do too. Something or someone has persuaded them. Was it God, saying “It’s OK, I understand, I don’t mind a little idol worship”?

Definition of an idol: a person or thing that is greatly admired, loved, or revered. Or, an image or representation of a god used as an object of worship.
Definition of worship: the feeling or expression of reverence and adoration for a deity.

I say to “get rid TV”, they say “nope, they don’t see the harm and it keeps them entertained.”  And/or, “No way! What would I do with my time?”

I am as guilty as the rest. I use the internet for my entertainment and research. I have changed how I use it, my entertainment is mostly people building things. My rules are they cannot curse and that limits the vast majority of what’s out there. I have another rule that I will not look at anything that has the female form in it. Women dressed chastely are not a problem, but you don’t see much of that online. So, those are my rules and this is not about me. I have asked the Lord for some heavy duty discernment and armour and now I use approximately .003% of the internet.

The biggest threat to me online is people that profess to be Believers, but are not. Much like the Jews that were so-called believers, but were false. And that is where my brothers in Christ are very valuable. I have a couple of them that I bounce things off of and they correct me when I am wrong. Your friends in Christ are as important as going to Church.

This was a lot to talk about today. As I said before, you are under no compunction to listen to my message. Listen to the Holy Spirit within you. Read your Bible, talk to your friends in Christ.

And remember:

2 Timothy 3:16
16 All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; 17 so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work.