Welcome to The Word for Today.
The Word for Today is a continuous study
of the Bible taught by Pastor Chuck Smith
of Calvary Chapel, Costa Mesa, California.
Pastor Chuck is currently teaching from the Old
Testament, and for those of you following along
in your Bibles, we'll be continuing today in
Isaiah 11, beginning with verse 5, as we
continue with an in-depth And
out of his mouth, and this is the
scripture we wanted to come to, there is
a sharp sword, that with it he should
smite the nations.
That is, it's just his word, he speaks
his word, and with his word he smites
the nations.
That's just what Isaiah tells us.
His word will be like a rod in
punishment.
And he shall rule them with a rod
of iron, and he treads the winepress of
the fierceness of the wrath of Almighty God.
And he has on his vesture and on
his thigh a name that is written, the
King of Kings and the Lord of Lords.
And John tells about, saw the angel standing
in the sun, crying with a loud voice,
for all of the fowls to come and
feast upon the bodies of those that will
be slain in this great carnage of the
battle of Armageddon.
And then he saw the Antichrist, the beast,
and the kings of the earth and their
armies.
They were gathered together to make war against
him that sat on the horse and against
his army.
So Satan's diverts the people.
Now the Antichrist will be the incarnation of
Satan, and they will try to stop the
reign of Jesus Christ.
And so they turn to make war against
Jesus and against his army as we come
with the Lord back to the earth.
And the beast, the Antichrist, was taken, and
with him the false prophet that worked the
miracles before him, by which he deceived those
that had received the mark of the beast
and those that worshipped his image.
And these were both cast alive into a
lake that is burning with brimstone.
And the remnant were slain with the sword
of him that sat upon the horse, which
sword proceeded out of his mouth.
And all of the fowls were filled with
their flesh.
Now it's not going to be much of
a contest.
Jesus will just say, drop dead.
And it's over.
That's it.
Even as he spoke the world into existence.
In Genesis you read, and God said, let
there be light, and there was light.
He just said it.
Let there be light.
In Hebrew it's a little more intense than
that.
It is Yahiyar wa Yahir.
And God said, light be and light was.
I mean, that's the power of God.
He can speak into existence, and he can
also speak out of existence.
And having spoken the world into existence, he
will also speak out of existence, those who
have gathered together to oppose his reign upon
the earth.
When he came the first time as a
child, it was prophesied that he would be
despised and rejected by men.
It was prophesied that he would be betrayed
by a friend for 30 pieces of silver.
It was prophesied that he would be slain
or put to death with the transgressors.
But it was also prophesied, and the prophecy
here is concerning his second coming and his
reign, and his glorious reign over the earth,
and in righteousness, in power, in judgment.
And not judging by what he sees or
by what he hears, but just by what
he knows about man and the hearts of
man.
And thus his judgment will be true and
righteous.
And by his word, the judgment will proceed.
And thus we see that the book of
Revelation confirms that which Isaiah is speaking about
here, that with the rod of his mouth,
he will smite the earthly minded, and he
will slay the wicked with the breath of
his lips.
He speaks the word and the judgment is
fulfilled.
And righteousness shall be the girdle of his
loins, wrapped around in righteousness, and faithfulness the
girdle of his reins.
So, the two characteristics, the righteousness and the
faithfulness.
Remember his name in the book of Revelation
is faithful and true.
Now, during the time of the reign of
Christ upon the earth, and when you pray
thy kingdom come, thy will be done in
earth as it is in heaven.
This is what we are longing for.
And as I said, as we proceed through
Isaiah, he will give us a lot of
insights into the new age.
Now, the people are saying that we are
in a new age now.
Don't you believe it?
God has much better for us than what's
currently going on.
And the new age is not going to
be brought to pass by man or by
channelers, but the new age will be brought
about through the return of Jesus Christ, and
that's the age of his kingdom and his
reign upon the earth.
Now, during that time, it's interesting, I was
reading where 5,000 people gathered in Stockholm,
Sweden to think good thoughts, and project these
positive thoughts towards the situation in the Middle
East to try to diffuse this whole thing
that's happening down there.
And how people are trying to, by meditation,
come into this consciousness of the, you know,
God consciousness.
And the new age movement is declaring that
they have entered into the next realm of
the evolutionary process of man.
And in tying it together with evolution, they
say that evolution actually is an evolution of
consciousness, as well as a physical kind of
an evolution from a worm to a man.
It's also an evolution of consciousness because you
have a greater consciousness than a worm.
And so, as we make these changes in
the evolutionary spiral upwards, we have this evolution
of consciousness.
And that man is on the verge, mankind
is on the verge of making this next
evolutionary change.
We're going through a process right now of
evolutionary change, and they say that some have
already entered into the new level of the
evolutionary chain, and that is this level of
consciousness, which is that God consciousness.
And so, the whole idea is for you,
through meditation and all, to make this transition
and the evolutionary change, and you can come
into the universal consciousness.
And that, of course, comes directly out of
the Hindu religion.
Sai Baba, the Rajneesh, and so forth, are
bringing men into this new level of consciousness.
And thus, you can actually have an evolutionary
transformation and come in, you know, and we're
going to change the world by our thinking
and by this consciousness, and we're going to
save dear Mother Earth.
And it's a whole thing that man is,
you know, talking so much about the environment
and saving the environment and all.
It's true that our whole environment is suffering
tremendously because of man and because of man's
greed.
But man does not have the capacity to
save his environment.
We can't change it.
Only Jesus will be able to make the
changes that are described here.
For during the time that he reigns, the
wolf will dwell with the lamb, the leopard
will lie down with the goat, and the
calf and the young lion and the fatling
will be together, and a little child shall
lead them.
That ferocity of nature in the animals will
be removed.
They will all be peaceful and docile.
The lions and all of them, the elephants,
you can, you know, they'll all be peaceful
and docile, and it'll be just the world
as God created it.
Not a world that is suffering as the
result of sin and the curse of sin.
So the beautiful picture of a little child
leading a lion around and probably just grab
hold of the mane and pulls the lion
the direction he wants it to go.
The cow and the bear shall feed together,
and their young ones will lie together, and
the lion will eat straw like the ox.
No longer carnivorous, but eating, grazing in the
fields.
And the nursing child, and it's interesting that
the children are brought into this picture of
the Kingdom Age.
We are told in another passage of Scripture
that they will play in the streets in
safety.
That here the little children, the nursing child,
will play on the hole of a poisonous
snake, and the weaned child, one who's just
a little above the nursing age, will put
his hand upon the cockatrice's den, which of
course is another poisonous snake.
Now the, they shall not hurt nor destroy
in all my holy mountain, for the earth
shall be full of the knowledge of the
Lord as the waters cover the sea.
And so a glorious time when the whole
earth is filled with the knowledge of the
Lord.
Psalm 2 comes into play here, where God
says to his son Jesus, ask of me
and I will give to you the heathen
for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of
the earth for thy possession.
And it tells how the kings of the
earth had gathered together against God, the scene
that we read in Revelation 19.
But it says the Lord who dwells in
heaven shall laugh, for he shall have them
in derision.
And he will establish his righteous king upon
the throne.
So it all ties together.
The future day, when Jesus comes to reign
over the whole earth, and it will be
an earth that will be filled with the
knowledge of the Lord.
And in that day, there shall be a
root of Jesse.
God's promise to David will be fulfilled.
David's seed, the Messiah, Jesus Christ will sit
upon the throne.
And as we read in Revelation, he shall
reign forever and ever.
And so in that day, there shall be
a root of Jesse, which shall stand for
a signal of the people.
And to him will the Gentiles seek, and
his rest shall be glorious.
Now when Jesus comes to reign upon the
earth, he will reign in the holy mountain,
Mount Zion, in Jerusalem.
And we read that the kings of the
earth will gather each year to present their
gifts unto him.
Now who are the kings of the earth
that will be gathering in Jerusalem?
Well, you're looking at one.
In Revelation chapter 1, as he is describing
Jesus Christ for us, he tells us, verse
5, and in giving the John to the
seven churches grace and peace from God and
from the seven spirits.
And as we mentioned, that is a reference,
they feel, to the 11th chapter.
Here's sevenfold working of the spirit.
And from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful
witness, the first begotten of the dead, the
prince of the kings of the earth, unto
him that loved us and washed us from
our sins in his own blood, and hath
made us kings and priests unto God and
his father, to him be glory and dominion
forever.
So he has made us to be kings.
In chapter 5 of the book of Revelation,
when Jesus opens the, or takes the little
scroll to break the seals, in verse 9
it declares, and they sang a new song
saying, Thou art worthy to take the book
and to open the seals, for you were
slain, and you've redeemed us to God by
your blood out of every kindred and tongue
and people and nation, and you have made
us unto our God kings and priests, and
we shall reign on the earth.
So you'll have a free trip to Jerusalem
every year to bring to him the gifts
and to just sit and worship and enjoy.
Now, the church of Jesus Christ has this
promise to be kings and priests, reigning with
Christ upon the earth.
You remember that Jesus gave us a parable
that dealt with the master who went away,
and when he came back again to the
kingdom, he gathered together the nations, and he
separated them as a shepherd separates his sheep
from the goats.
And to those on his right hand, he
said, Come, ye blessed of the Father, inherit
the kingdom that was prepared for you from
the foundations of the earth.
But to those on his left hand, he
said, Depart from me, ye workers of iniquity.
Now, he gave another parable in which he
said that the Lord went away and entrusted
the servants with different amounts of money.
To one he gave ten talents, to another
five talents, to another he gave four talents,
and to another he gave one talent.
And when the Lord returned to find out
how the servants had done, to the one
to whom he had given five talents, he
said, Lord, I took your five talents, and
I invested and used them, and I have
now ten talents.
And he said, Well done, good and faithful
servant, I will make you ruler over ten
cities, enter into the joy of the Lord.
And the same with that of four, he
brought back eight, enter.
To the one who had given one talent,
he said, Lord, I know that you're, you
know, you're a hard businessman, and you really
want to exact where you haven't sown and
all.
And, and thus, I, I was very careful
with the talent you gave me.
I buried it, and now I've dug it
up, and here it is.
And he said, You know that I want
interest in all on my investments.
And he said, Take away the talent, and
give it to one that has ten.
And so to him who is, to him
that hath is given, but to him who
hath not is taken away even that which
he hath.
In other words, we're to use what God
has given us, and my faithfulness in what
I do with what God has given me
now will determine the degree in which I
will reign in the kingdom age.
And so here is a prophecy of that
time when Jesus will be reigning in Jerusalem,
and it will be a signal, really, to
the world, and the Gentiles will gather unto
him, and his rest shall be glorious.
Oh, the peace.
The Bible, in another place, says that in
that day there will be peace like a
river, and the earth will just be filled
with peace, and his rest will be glorious.
Today, we look at a world that's filled
with strife, filled with chaos.
There's no rest in the world today except
for the righteous.
And the world is like a troubled sea,
driven to and fro.
There's no rest, the Bible said, for the
wicked.
But our rest, even now, is in Jesus
Christ.
And he has a place of rest for
you.
And they who have entered into that rest
have ceased from their own labors.
The rest that we have in Christ is
that rest of faith, where I am trusting
in him fully and completely for my salvation
and for my righteous standing before God.
Face to face, Lord, let me know.
Face to face, Lord, let me see you.
Simply write or call and ask for ordering
details on tape or CD number C-3247.
Again, that's tape or CD number C-3247.
As we come to a close in today's
program, we'd like to introduce a brand new
book written by Pastor Chuck Smith, entitled, Six
Vital Questions of Life.
Once again, Pastor Chuck has helped us to
understand the scriptures with the anointing of the
Holy Spirit.
In his new book, Pastor Chuck considers six
life-changing questions asked by the apostle Paul
in the book of Romans, and then expounds
upon the biblical answers that can revolutionize your
Christian walk with God.
After discovering this revelation, the change was so
profound in Pastor Chuck's own life, he says
it was almost like a second conversion, putting
him in the winner's circle.
So, if you have any questions concerning your
relationship with God, the book Six Vital Questions
of Life by Pastor Chuck will reassure and
reinforce God's special plan and purpose for your
life.
To order Pastor Chuck's new book, Six Vital
Questions of Life, for yourself or for a
friend, you can call the word for today
at 1-800-272-WORD.
Or write to us at P.O. Box
8000, Costa Mesa, California, 92628.
Once again, that number to call is 1
-800-272-9673.
And for those of you that would like
to visit our website, you can do so
at www.twft.com.
Or if you would like to email us,
you can do so at info at twft
.com.
Well, coming up next time on The Word
for Today, Pastor Chuck will be continuing his
fascinating study through the book of Isaiah.
That's coming up next time on The Word
for Today.
And now, with our closing prayer, here's Pastor
Chuck.
I'm so glad that I'm a child of
the King and that there is therefore now
no condemnation because Jesus took the guilt of
my sin, died in my place.
And all I'm going to face is the
beautiful favor of God and the blessings of
God and the glory of living forever in
His kingdom, in His presence.
That's my choice.
I'm sticking with it.
And may the Lord bless you and may
His love be showered upon you as you
walk with Him.
The word of the Lord to Ace of
the King was, the Lord will be with
you if you'll be with Him.
But if you forsake Him, He will forsake
you.
But if you seek Him, you'll find Him.
It's perpetual.
If you want to be with the Lord
tonight, He'll be with you.
If you want to just walk your own
way, He'll let you.
But if you seek the Lord, you'll find
Him.
And may the Lord bless you as you
seek Him and seek His will, His plan,
His purpose for your life.
May you live in such a way as
to please Him.
I could live again.
Lord, let me love You face to face.
Amen.