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 if you're following along in your
Bible, we'll be continuing today in Isaiah chapter
29, beginning with verse 12, as we continue
with an in-depth message entitled, The Woe
to Jerusalem.
1.
One thing is needful, O my Father, One
thing is needful, O my God, That I
sit at your feet and pour out my
love.
This thing is needful, O my God.
And now with today's study, here's Pastor Chuck.
2.
Wherefore the Lord said, Forasmuch as this people
draw near me with their mouth, and with
their lips they do honor me, but have
removed their heart far from me, and their
fear toward me is taught by the precept
of men.
It isn't a genuine fear of God.
They're taught, well, you should fear God, so
they fold their hands and close their eyes
when they pray.
But it isn't a true reverence of God
from their hearts.
And so, he speaks of these people, and
these are the people who are in the
temple worshipping.
They draw near with their lips.
Now, this is where we are in danger.
We're in the house of God, worshipping God,
and through our singing we were drawing near
with our lips, but where is our heart?
That's the important issue.
They were drawing near with their lips, but
their heart was far from him.
Therefore, because of this, God said, I will
proceed to do a marvelous work among the
people, a work that will cause them to
wonder.
For the wisdom of the wise men shall
perish, and the understanding of the prudent shall
be hid.
Woe unto them that seek deep to hide
their counsel from the Lord, and their works
are in the dark, and they say, Who
seeth us, and who knoweth us?
In the 73rd Psalm, Asaph the psalmist speaks
of those who turned against God and blasphemed
God.
And he said, They say, How doth God
know?
Is there wisdom in the Most High?
And this is what Isaiah is quoting them
as saying here.
They think that they are hiding from God.
They think that they are getting by with
their evil.
They think that God really doesn't see, or
God really doesn't know.
They do not realize, as Paul said, in
Him we live and we move and we
have our being.
I cannot escape the presence of God.
In a couple of weeks we'll be in
chapter 33.
And we'll be looking at that passage of
Scripture in chapter 33 of Isaiah, where he
talks about when God destroyed the Assyrians, as
He promised to do.
When He destroyed the Assyrian army, He said,
Fear gripped the hearts of the sinners in
Zion.
They were terrified, for they saw what the
power of God could do to the enemies
of God.
And they said, Who amongst us can dwell
in the midst of this devouring fire?
They saw God like a devouring fire.
They saw it destroy and devour the Assyrian
army.
And they said, Whoa, man, who amongst us
can dwell in the midst of this, this
kind of holiness and purity, this devouring fire
of God?
They came to the realization that God as
a fire is everywhere.
You can't escape Him.
It wasn't who of us can run from
this devouring fire.
You can't run from it.
You are in the fire.
The question is, what is it doing to
you?
And so this awareness of the presence of
God, I need to have it, that consciousness
of God's presence.
These people thought that they were doing things
that God didn't see, God didn't know.
They are saying, Who can see us and
who knows?
But surely, He said, your turning of things
upside down shall be esteemed as the potter's
clay, for shall the work say of him
that made it, he made me not?
Or shall the thing framed say of him
that framed it, he hath no understanding?
God's going to turn things upside down.
And so the logic of man is turned
upside down.
Like a piece of clay on a potter's
wheel, the pot that has been formed by
the potter.
As it sits there in its finished state,
can they say, well, I just evolved.
He didn't make me.
I just exist.
That's inert.
And we laugh.
We know that the pot doesn't form itself,
even though it is of inert material, is
not alive, is not complex.
But we can see in the creation, the
fact of a creator.
That's logical.
Our minds can buy that logic and that
reason.
How can you have a building without builders?
How can you have a watch without a
watchmaker?
But what has happened is that through the
years from early childhood, our children are being
taught in a logical premise that you can
have creation without a creator.
That's illogical.
That there is no real design behind the
human body.
It is all the result of accidental circumstances
over billions of years, matter acting upon matter.
There is no real design to your eye.
It's just a marvelous, marvelous series of accidents
by which you can see.
No real design.
Now that's illogical.
But it is as if when your child
is first playing with blocks and you're teaching
him to count with blocks and to add
with blocks.
And you start teaching your child two plus
two equals five.
I've got two here.
One, two, three, four.
One, two, three, five.
Two plus two equals five.
But you see, if you continue to teach
that to him all the time, two plus
two equals five.
And when he starts to school and from
kindergarten on through school, he is taught two
plus two equals five.
It's an illogical premise, but he will come
to believe that two plus two equals five,
but he will be destroyed from ever able
to do math or understand math.
You've destroyed the base for mathematics.
And so he'll believe a fallacy because he's
been taught the fallacy, but he'll never be
able to logically do math problems.
Now in the same token, you teach a
child that he is the product of accidents
that you can have.
And the basic foundation is you can have
a design without a designer.
There's no understanding with the creator.
There's no, there's no real mind intelligence behind
life.
That all of these life forms do not
manifest intelligence, but they are all the product
of accidents.
Now, if you continue to teach the child
that and in his science classes, he's taught
that these things all came about as they
matter worked on matter and the mutations took
place and so forth.
And it's evolved into this complex form that
appears to have a design, but there is
no understanding with the creator.
He didn't really make you, you just exist
by this series of accidents.
The child will come to believe that he
is the product of an accident, but he
will never be able to logically deal with
the issues of life because his whole basis
for logic is gone.
The basis for logic is there is a
designer behind every design.
And so they believe that fallacy and thus
they're destroyed from ever being able to logically.
And that's why so many illogical things are
being done today.
You say, how in the world can they
do that?
What's the matter with them?
Where is their brain?
Well, their whole capacity to think logically and
rationally has been destroyed because of the logical
base being destroyed.
And so Isaiah is speaking about that here.
The piece of clay saying, he didn't make
me.
The thing that is framed says of him
that framed it, he doesn't have any understanding.
It's illogical.
And man has turned to that kind of
illogic and calls it science.
It's bunkum.
Now the prophet, as he so often does,
at this point goes out into the future
and he goes out into that glorious new
age that is coming.
Now people talk about the new age today,
but this isn't it.
And I'm rather glad this isn't it because
I had hoped for a lot better.
And the Bible promises me a lot better.
The glorious day of the Lord when he
shall reign and righteousness shall cover the earth
as the waters to cover the seas.
And so is it not yet a very
little while in God's timing, days as a
thousand years, thousand years as a day.
That's what Peter tells us and he tells
us to wait for the coming of the
Lord, have patience.
A very little while and Lebanon shall be
turned into a fruitful field.
The fruitful field shall be esteemed as a
forest.
And in that day shall the deaf hear
the words of the book.
The deaf ears will be open.
The eyes of the blind shall see out
of obscurity and out of darkness and the
meek also shall increase their joy in the
Lord.
And the poor among men shall rejoice in
the Holy One of Israel.
When Jesus was ministering and John the Baptist
who had been the forerunner had said to
his disciples, there's the Lamb of God who
takes away the sin of the world.
And Herod put John in prison and Jesus
wasn't doing what John expected him to do.
He wasn't coming and knocking Herod off the
throne and getting rid of the Roman appointed
powers.
And John was getting impatient there in prison
so he sent some of his disciples to
say, hey are you the one we're looking
for or shall we start looking for someone
else?
Let's get the show on the road.
And so in the same hour there were
many who came to Jesus.
Deaf he touched and they were able to
hear.
Blind they were able to see.
The lame they were able to walk.
And after about an hour or so Jesus
said to John's disciples, go back and tell
John what you saw.
The deaf are hearing.
The blind are seeing.
The lame are walking.
And unto the poor the gospel is being
preached.
He was referring to this day of the
Lord prophesied in Isaiah.
Now that was only a foreshadowing.
When Jesus Christ comes to establish His reign
and His kingdom upon the earth it will
be wholesale throughout the earth as the earth
is restored to as God's original intent.
There will be no physical infirmities, no sicknesses,
no suffering, no pain, no debilitating diseases, no
blindness.
Now the terrible one is the Antichrist, verse
20.
For the terrible one is brought to naught,
nothing.
And the scorner, the false prophet is consumed.
And all that watch for iniquity are cut
off.
It's going to be a righteous reign.
He shall reign in righteousness, and in judgment,
and in justice.
And the iniquity will be cut off.
That make a man an offender for a
word, and lay a snare for him that
reproveth in the gate, and turns aside the
just for a thing of nothing.
Therefore thus saith the Lord who redeemed Abraham
concerning the house of Jacob, Jacob shall not
now be ashamed, neither shall his face now
wax pale.
But when he seeth his children, the work
of mine hands in the midst of him,
they shall sanctify my name, and sanctify the
Holy One of Jacob, and shall fear the
God of Israel.
Now they also that erred in spirit shall
come to understanding, and they that murmured shall
learn doctrine."
So that day when people will turn to
God, will understand, and they'll see the work
of God on the earth.
Now in chapter 30, he deals with the
rebellion of the people to the word of
God.
The Assyrians have now conquered the northern kingdom
of Israel.
The Assyrians are now on their way to
attack Jerusalem.
They have already taken many of the fenced
cities of Judah.
And this military juggernaut is on its way
to Jerusalem.
And the prophet Isaiah is telling Hezekiah, just
trust in the Lord, and the Lord will
deliver you from the Assyrians.
Put your faith and your trust in God.
He will deliver you.
And he is telling the leaders of the
people, trust in God.
But they're not satisfied with that.
They feel that they must get help from
Egypt.
And so they are sending emissaries down to
Egypt with donkeys and camels that are loaded
down with rewards, treasury of Judah, to pay
for the Egyptians to send a military force
to help them defend themselves against the Assyrians.
In their sending to Egypt for help, and
in their relying upon Egypt for help, they
are denying their faith in God's ability to
help them.
And their going to Egypt is in direct
disobedience to the command of God.
And thus God looks upon it as rebellion
against Him.
And thus He begins declaring, Woe to the
rebellious children, saith the Lord, that take counsel.
You've gotten together in your councils, the cabinet
meetings, and you've decided that this is diplomacy,
and this is the wisest strategy to defend
ourselves against the Assyrians.
But the counsel is not of God.
In fact, it is against God.
And you seek to cover with a covering,
but not of My Spirit.
You're seeking to cover the bases with the
Egyptians and with this alliance with Egypt.
But you're not really seeking My help and
the help of My Spirit.
You're actually adding sin upon sin.
Those that go down into Egypt and they
have not sought My advice.
They seek to strengthen themselves with the strength
of Pharaoh, and they trust in the shadow
of Egypt.
And Egypt's help will only be as a
shadow.
There will be no substance to the help
that Egypt can get.
Therefore, because of this, shall the strength of
the Pharaoh be your shame.
The Pharaoh's gonna let you down.
Egypt won't help you.
In reality, Egypt, the forces of Egypt were
destroyed by the Assyrians.
And the trust in the shadow of Egypt
will only lead to your confusion.
For his princes were at Zon.
And his ambassadors came to Hainz.
Zon was in the area of the delta,
the Nile delta.
And Hainz was about a hundred miles upriver
from the present-day Cairo.
And here's where they met with the ambassadors.
Those ambassadors from Israel met with the ambassadors
of Egypt.
And they were all ashamed of the people
that could not profit them, nor be a
help nor a profit, but a shame and
a reproach.
The burden of the beast of the south
into the land of trouble and anguish.
In other words, you pass through the Negev
desert, the land of trouble and anguish, where
there are lions and vipers and fiery flying
serpents.
And you carried away the riches upon the
shoulders of the young donkeys and the treasures
upon the camels to a people that shall
not profit them.
You're wasting your money.
Using your money to gain the help of
the arm of flesh is a waste of
your money.
Trust in God.
Put your confidence in God.
For he said, the Egyptians shall help in
vain and to no purpose.
There won't be any help from Egypt.
Therefore, have I cried concerning this.
Face to face, Lord, let me know.
Face to face, Lord, let me see you.
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-3255.
Again, that's tape or CD number C-3255.
Well, Christmas time is soon approaching, and it's
easy to get caught up in the hustle
and bustle of the season, buying presents, decorating,
cooking.
The list grows longer every day.
Without realizing it, we can easily forget the
true meaning of why we celebrate our Lord's
birth.
For this reason, the word for today would
like to present a booklet by Pastor Chuck
Smith entitled, How Can a Man Be Born
Again?
And also an audio CD entitled, Why?
by Pastor Chuck that would be the perfect
compliment for Christmas cards and gifts this year.
Both resources share the gospel of Jesus Christ
and explain the true meaning of Christmas and
why a man born 2,000 years ago
can still affect the world today.
And best of all, they contain a message
leading people to accept Jesus Christ as their
personal Lord and Savior.
And remember, the word for today would like
to assist you this Christmas in spreading the
gospel of Jesus to your family, friends, and
co-workers.
Please call our customer service department to help
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So call the word for today at 1
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And for those of you that would like
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you can do so at info at twft
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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.
And now may the Lord be with you
and bless you and cause you to be
enriched in your knowledge and your understanding of
Him.
As you walk in fellowship with Him this
week, may your heart be in tune with
His.
And may your eyes be opened by the
Spirit of God.
That those things that concern God will become
a concern to you.
And may you really commit the issues of
your life to Him.
And may you have that quietness that comes
from confidence in God that He is going
to work and take care of those things
that concern you.
May you just cast all your cares upon
Him because He does care for you and
He is concerned about you.
So may it be a blessed week, growing
in your knowledge of Him, experiencing His love
and His closeness.
Lord, let me love you face to face.