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
chapter 14 beginning with verse 12.
As we continue with an in-depth study,
here's Pastor Chuck.
And Satan doesn't come as some ugly, horrible,
repulsive kind of creature.
He always comes with the idea of wonderful,
exciting, beautiful.
And that's why it's so deceptive.
Because he promises you light.
And he promises you excitement.
But he brings death.
He promised to Eve, you know, you eat
of this, you're going to be as gods.
You'll know good from evil.
But it brought the fall.
Now, Satan, being this cherubim, being the anointed
cherub that covers, or the ruling cherub, being
in the garden of God, every precious stone
for his covering, perfect in beauty, perfect in
wisdom, perfect in all of his ways until
the day that iniquity was found in him.
What is the iniquity?
Being created as a self-determinate being, as
his man, Satan had the capacity of choice.
And Satan decided to exercise his will against
the will of God.
And that's what basically sin is all about.
It's rebellion against God's authority.
God who reigns over the universe as the
creator, the sovereign God, did create creatures of,
and gave to them the capacity of choice
so that as they worshiped him, their worship
would be meaningful.
If he had created robots, no capacity of
choice, though they may worship him, the worship
would not be meaningful.
So that God might receive meaningful worship from
his creation, he created angels and men with
self-determination.
Satan chose to rebel against God in the
exalting of himself.
And so we read of his I wills,
five of them.
This is the exercise of his will against
the will of God, rebellion, which constitutes sin.
I will ascend into heaven.
This is what he said in his heart.
I will exalt my throne above the stars
of God, the stars of God being the
angels.
I will exalt my throne above all of
the angels of God.
I will sit also upon the mount of
the congregation in the sides of the north.
I will ascend above the heights of the
clouds.
And then finally and climactically, I will be
like the Most High.
I will be as God, or I will
be God.
Now this being God is the very thing
that perpetrated his fall, that desire to be
God.
And so he said, yet thou will be
brought down to hell to the sides of
the pit.
Satan, when he came to Eve in tempting
her, used the same lure.
You will be as God, knowing good from
evil.
The Hindus believe that by going through their
rituals, their fastings, their prayers, their meditations, their
chantings and all, that they can come to
a place where they are transformed into the
God state.
The New Age movement, which is modern day
Hinduism, or is Hinduism in Western garb, is
telling man the same thing, that you can
ascend into the God state.
And they speak of that universal consciousness and
this altering of our consciousness and the
conscious levels, so that you can ascend into
the universal consciousness of God and you become
God.
Shirley MacLaine, I am God.
And it is something that is being espoused
by the New Age movement.
It is something that the Mormons are attracted
to.
For the hope of the Mormon is when
he dies to become God and to have
his own planet and take his celestial wife
and be joined with her on that planet
and to populate that planet with a lot
of little Mormons and watch over them as
they develop and answer their prayers and have
power and authority and all over them.
So that when a marriage is sealed in
the temple, at the time of their consecration
of the marriage or the wedding in the
temple, the wife is given a new special
name.
So that when the husband comes to his
planet, when he calls that new special name
that is given to his wife, then she
comes and together they procreate and start their
new planet.
If he doesn't call her name, she's out
of luck.
She wasn't good to him, didn't bring his
coffee in the morning, and didn't serve him
well in this life, and so he gets
even with her.
He doesn't call her name when he gets
to his kingdom.
And he calls another name.
So wives, treat your husbands well.
You want your name to be called.
So, tragically, many of the TV evangelists and
TV personalities today have taken up this same,
man is God kind of a heresy.
And as they promulgated the heresies of
positive confession, of writing your own tickets,
of creating your own reality, and as they
spoke of the creative power of words, the
word of faith and its creative force, and
how that you can create your own reality
and you can have whatever you wish and
whatever you desire, these are characteristics that belong
to God.
God is sovereign, and God does create and
can create His own realities.
And when man then steps into that position
of control, and he can have whatever he
desires if he exercises the proper attitudes and
positive attitudes and confessions and all towards it,
creating his own reality, God is no longer
in control of that man's life.
He is in control of his own life.
And thus, man is elevated even by that
doctrine to the God state.
And so that would be a doctrine that
would be assumed by the teaching of positive
confession and all, even if they did not
take the next step and talk about God
-man and man becoming God and you are
gods, it would be an assumption that would
be made in the fact that I am
able to create my own reality.
I can take control and I can have
whatever I desire by making my confession and
all.
And God then has to honor my faith
and what I have said and what I
have claimed and all.
And God becomes really subservient to me.
And God is no longer in control of
my life.
I am in control and God is obeying
my whims and my wishes.
Thus, you see, the next step logically would
be I am God.
And they took that step, unfortunately.
And many of the TV evangelists that are
well known today are teaching this heresy in
the TV personalities, even locally, are teaching that
you are little gods and that you look
in the mirror and you see God.
And God looks in the mirror and He
sees you.
And you are gods.
And it's just this stuff that goes way
back to Satan who said, I will be
like the Most High.
And yet the Lord said, you'll be brought
down to hell, to the sides of the
pit.
And they that see thee shall narrowly look
upon thee.
That is, they'll sort of squint.
When you see Satan there in hell, you'll
squint and say, is that the guy that
gave me such a hassle, gave me such
a bad time?
They that see thee will narrowly look upon
thee and consider thee saying, is this the
man that made the earth to tremble, that
did shake the kingdoms?
That's the one that did all the damage?
You take a universal tour and you get
to see this one who created so many
problems.
That made the world as a wilderness and
destroyed the cities thereof and opened not the
house of His prisoners.
Now turning again to Babylon and its destruction,
all of the kings of the nations, even
all of them, lie in glory, every one
in his own house.
But thou art cast out of thy grave
like an abominable branch, and as the raiment
of those that are slain, thrust through with
a sword that go down to the stones
of the pit as a carcass that is
trodden under feet.
Thou shalt not be joined with them in
burial because thou hast destroyed thy land, and
you have slain the people, and the seed
of evildoers shall never be renowned.
So prepare slaughter for His children for the
iniquity of their fathers, that they do not
rise nor possess the land nor fill the
face of the world with cities.
For I will rise up against them, saith
the Lord of hosts, I'll cut off from
Babylon the name and the remnant, the son,
the nephew, saith the Lord, and I will
also make it a possession for the bitter
and the pools of water, and I will
sweep it with the besom of destruction, saith
the Lord of hosts.
For the Lord of hosts hath sworn, saying,
Surely as I have fought, so shall it
come to pass.
As I have purposed, so shall it stand."
So God's destruction of Babylon will be thorough.
It will be complete.
Nothing will remain.
And the Lord said, I have sworn.
As I have fought, so shall it come
to pass.
God's word is faithful.
God's word is sure.
God's word shall stand.
As I have purposed, God said, so shall
it stand.
Whenever God swears, I'm always taking note.
Because that's something you can be absolutely sure
of.
God who is true and who cannot lie,
when He takes an oath to proclaim a
truth, then mark that in heavy underlining because
you can be sure that God will fulfill
His purposes.
That I will break the Assyrian in my
land.
Now He turns from Babylon to Assyria.
The immediate danger is not from Babylon.
That will come later.
The immediate danger is Assyria.
At this very time, Assyria is carrying away
captive the northern kingdom of Israel.
This is the time of the death of
Ahaz the king, at the time that Hezekiah
is coming into the throne, 726 BC.
And at this time, the process of the
destruction of Israel is taking place by Assyria.
And thus, He speaks of Assyria, that I
will break the Assyrian in my land.
And upon my mountains, I will tread him
underfoot.
And then shall his yoke depart from off
of them and his burden will depart from
off their shoulders.
And this is the purpose that is purposed
upon the whole earth.
And this is the hand that is stretched
out upon all nations.
For the Lord of hosts has purposed and
who can disannul it?
His hand is stretched out, who can turn
it back?
Now, Assyria conquered the northern kingdom of Israel
and then they began to invade Judah at
the time that Hezekiah was king.
And the Rebbekshek came with the message from
Sheneq Reb, the king of Assyria, and said,
don't trust in your God that He will
deliver you.
Because none of the gods of the other
nations have been able to deliver them from
the Assyrians.
And capitulate and we will spare you, but
if you don't, we're going to exterminate you.
Now Isaiah said to Hezekiah, don't worry, don't
fret over this because God is going to
destroy the Assyrians.
Now here Isaiah prophesied that God would break
the Assyrians in His land and upon the
mountains He would tread them underfoot.
So the Assyrians invaded and they began to
set up their host for the siege of
Jerusalem.
And the Assyrians were encamped on Mount Scopus.
They're on the edge of the city of
Jerusalem.
In fact, it's a tremendous vantage point to
look over the city of Jerusalem from Mount
Scopus.
And as they were encamped on Mount Scopus
ready to besiege Israel, or Judah and Jerusalem,
an angel of the Lord went through the
camp of the Assyrians.
And in the morning when the men of
Judah looked out at the camp of the
Assyrians, they saw all of these corpses lying
on the ground.
They went out and they counted them 185
,000 slain by the angel of the Lord
in that one night.
The Assyrian power was broken.
God said, I have purposed it and no
one can disannul it.
He did it and no one could disannul
it.
The great power of the world at that
time was destroyed by the hand of God
in one simple operation by one angel.
Now whenever you begin to tremble at the
power of man, just remember, one angel could
wipe out the whole total nuclear force of
Russia or the United States or anything else.
Could disannul it.
God said, I have purposed it, no man
can disannul it.
So Isaiah then tells us in verse 28
that in the year that King Ahaz died
was this burden.
In other words, this is when the Lord
laid this heavy burden upon me as I
saw the destruction of Babylon, as I saw
the future and the things that were going
to transpire, horrible things.
It created a real heaviness upon him, a
burden.
Rejoice not thou whole Palestinia, because the rod
of him that smote thee is broken.
Now for out of the serpent's root shall
come forth a cockatrice, and his fruit shall
be a fiery flying serpent.
You remember that out of the root of
Jesse would come the righteous branch who would
reign.
Now here out of the rod of him
that smote thee, because the rod of him
that smote thee, out of the serpent's root
there will come forth not a righteous branch,
but a poisonous serpent, and his fruit shall
be as a fiery flying serpent.
And the firstborn of the poor shall feed,
and the needy shall lie down in safety,
and I will kill thy root with famine,
and he shall slay thy remnant.
Howl, O gate!
Cry, O city!
Thou whole Palestinia art dissolved, for there shall
come from the north a smoke, and none
shall be alone in his appointed times.
And what shall one then answer the messengers
of the nation, that the Lord hath founded
Zion, and the poor of his people shall
trust in it."
So the Palestinian issue will be settled, and
the Lord will found Zion, and the poor
of his people shall trust in it.
Pastor Chuck Smith will return with a few
closing comments, but first I'd like to remind
you that today's message is available in its
unedited form on cassette or CD.
Simply write or call and ask for ordering
details on tape or CD number C-3248.
Again that's tape or CD number C-3248.
As we come to a close in today's
program we'd like to introduce a new book
by Pastor Chuck Smith written especially for today's
young generation.
Do you have what it takes to abstain
from the immorality of our culture?
Would you stand up for Jesus Christ in
a group of complete strangers?
What about in a group of your closest
friends?
It definitely takes a commitment to follow Jesus
Christ.
The word for today presents Pastor Chuck Smith's
new book, Standing Up in a Fallen World,
a Bible study based on the book of
Daniel, a young man who took a stand
for righteousness in a time when he could
have lost his life.
Filled with encouragement and application, Pastor Chuck teaches
a powerful message for today's young adults between
the ages of 12 and 20, urging them
to stand up against the compromise in the
world today and get ready for the Lord's
coming.
And now for the first time, the word
for today is made available clothing, t-shirts,
beanies, and hats for a limited time only,
equipping young adults to witness and revive their
generation.
Also available is a study guide especially designed
for students and family devotions.
To order your copy of Pastor Chuck's new
book, Standing Up in a Fallen World, the
clothing apparel and study guide, 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 a few closing comments, here's
Pastor Chuck.
Lord, we remember your word that says the
time has come when judgment must begin at
the house of the Lord.
Lord, we do ask that you would clean
house, your house.
And Father, we pray that you'll restore to
the church and to the name of Jesus
Christ, dignity, honesty, that we might be above
reproach, Lord.
Bless your church, your people.
May we grow strong that in these last
days we might be able to stand, Lord,
against all of the onslaught of evil that
is coming.
And be your light in this dark world.
In Jesus name, Amen.
This program is sponsored by the word for
today.
The radio ministry of Calvary Chapel, Costa Mesa,
California.