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
31, beginning with verse 9, as we continue
with an in-depth message And
now with today's study, here's Pastor Chuck.
For in that day every man will cast
away his idols of silver and his idols
of gold, which your own hands have made
unto you for a sin.
When you see the work of God, when
you see the deliverance of God, then you
will forsake your idols that you have made.
Now it is true that the Egyptians did
not help.
It is also true that when the Egyptian
army was defeated and they realized there could
be no help, they did turn to the
Lord.
They did seek the Lord.
There was a revival.
There was a putting away of their idols,
even as Isaiah predicted here.
And God miraculously delivered them from the Assyrians.
God wiped out the Assyrian army.
We'll get that in a few more chapters,
37, 38.
And we will also see the effect of
the sinners in Zion when they saw what
God's presence did to the Assyrians.
Great fear came upon the sinners in Zion
when they saw God's devouring fires that destroyed
the Assyrian armies.
So the prophecy of their getting rid of
their idols that they had made, their idols
of silver and gold, unfortunately as time went
on, they went back to their idols.
They returned to their idolatry and ultimately their
idolatry was their ruin.
Any nation that gets God or any nation
that forsakes God and turns to idols, turns
to materialism, begins to worship materialism or begins
to worship pleasure, that nation is destined to
go down.
And those in Jerusalem did turn back to
idols, the worship of the idols.
And Jerusalem was destroyed by Babylon.
And the ruins of that city remained to
the present day.
You see, they had a custom of not
rebuilding a city in the sense of you
just come back and rebuild the houses and
all.
What they would do is just cover over
the old city and build on top of
it.
And that is what the Tells are.
The Tells are one city built on top
of another through the succeeding years as the
city would be destroyed.
When they would rebuild the city, they'd just
sort of cover over the old city and
build on top of that.
And thus, in some of the Tells, they're
artificial mountains, you can dig down 17 different
civilizations or cities that were built on top
of another over the years of time.
And you can count and you can look
at the various layers.
And so when they came back from the
Babylonian captivity, they followed that same practice.
They just covered over, they ruined houses that
had been destroyed by the Babylonians and they
built on top of it.
But you can go back and you can
dig down and find those houses.
And they have dug down on the Hill
of Ophel to the houses that were destroyed
by the Babylonians.
Actually, you can see a layer of charcoal
from the fire when the Babylonians burned the
city.
But the interesting thing in the excavation of
these houses in Jerusalem, they found hundreds, hundreds
of idols.
And it confirmed what Jeremiah was saying that
the people had turned idolatry.
And they're in the archaeological diggings.
Another interesting thing, in the diggings, in one
of the houses, they realized it was a
house of a scribe because they found the
seal of the scribe.
And when the scribe would, sort of a
notary public of sorts, and when he would,
you know, attest to a document or whatever,
they put the wax seal on it and
he had this little imprint, clay kind of
a pottery kind of a thing with an
imprint, his own imprint, that he would press
into it, much like we have our corporate
seals today.
And they found the seal of Shaphan, who
is mentioned in Jeremiah.
And that seal is now in the Museum
of Natural History there in Jerusalem.
But it's fascinating because it's the same fellow
that Jeremiah spoke about.
Just a few years ago, they discovered the
seal that he used.
I've been trying to get one of those
enterprising Arabs over there to make up a
copy of that, because, you know, those guys
are clever.
They can make copies of ancient coins and
ancient little artifacts and all.
And, of course, you have to be careful
when you buy stuff over there because it
looks like it's a thousand years old, but,
you know, they just brought it from the
factory that morning.
And they're very clever at making antiques.
But I said, if you would make a
copy of that seal, because they do have
it there in the museum now, if you
would make a copy of that, I said,
every Christian tourist that came to Israel would
want to take one of those home, because
it's so significant, mentioned in the Bible in
Jeremiah.
And here they found it just recently, this
Shaphan, the scribe.
So, in that day, they will put away
their idols, and then shall Assyria fall with
the sword, but not of a mighty man.
The Assyrians will fall with the sword, but
not the sword of a mighty man.
And the sword not of a man shall
devour him, and he will flee from the
sword, and his young men will be taken
captive.
Interesting prophecy, and it was literally fulfilled.
The Assyrians were slain, 200,000 plus, but
not with the sword of man.
The angel of the Lord came into the
camp of the Assyrians and destroyed them.
And those troops that did remain fled.
The king fled back to Assyria, and he
shall pass over to his stronghold for fear.
He passed back into Assyria, and his princes
shall be afraid of the signs, saith the
Lord, whose fire is in Zion.
And his furnace is in Jerusalem.
So, the fire of God, destroying and devouring
the adversaries of God, the furnace of God
in Jerusalem.
We'll get to that in chapter 37, as
they talk about this devouring fire of God.
Now, in chapter 32, we again have one
of those glorious prophecies concerning the Messiah.
And it is a prophecy that looks ahead.
Now, from a biblical scenario, the earth
has at least seven years left.
Maybe longer, but at least seven.
For there were 77s determined upon Israel, of
which 69 have already been fulfilled.
The 70th seven remains to be filled, the
seven-year period.
That seven-year period will begin when God
raptures the church.
It will be a period in which the
Holy Spirit will be again working directly with
the Jewish people in the Jewish nation.
The end of that seven years will end
in a great tribulation in the last three
and a half years.
Great tribulation culminating in the battle of Armageddon,
at which time Jesus will come again with
his church and with his saints to establish
God's kingdom upon the earth.
He will set his foot in that day
on the Mount of Olives.
It will split in the middle.
A river will flow from out of the
temple that will go on down to the
Dead Sea, and part of it will go
over the Mediterranean.
As it comes into the Dead Sea, the
waters of the Dead Sea will be healed,
and Jesus will reign there on Mount Zion
in Jerusalem for a thousand years.
And his church will live and reign with
him for that thousand years in a renewed
earth, in renewed bodies, in ideal perfect conditions.
He will rule with a rod of iron.
That is, it will be an enforced righteousness.
People won't be able to be bad even
if they want to.
We will be in our renewed bodies or
in our new bodies, our glorified bodies.
And we will have capacities of the glorified
body, one of which, I think, as we
will be more or less enforcers of righteousness,
we will be rulers upon the earth with
him.
We will rule, live and reign with him
upon the earth for a thousand years.
And in this righteous rule, we will be
apportioned the area of the earth over which
we will be ruling or controlling.
And I believe that we will have the
capacity of being able to know what is
going on in a person's mind.
There will be people who will live through
the Great Tribulation, live into this kingdom age,
will bear children and so forth, and will
serve the Lord because they will be forced
to serve the Lord.
I mean, it'll be a righteous reign and
a rod of iron.
So I think that when a person is
thinking, hmm, maybe I'll rip that off, that
you'll be able to know what's in their
mind, you say, hey.
And so it will be an enforced kind
of a reign.
But it is going to be glorious in
that the earth will be renewed.
The animals will no longer be wild.
They will all be domesticated.
There will be no wars.
There will be no fears.
There will be no crimes.
Every day will be a perfectly beautiful day.
Ideal.
God's reigning.
So here is the prediction, and it tells
us some of the things that we can
expect.
As we get to chapter 35, again, he'll
talk about this reign of Christ in this
kingdom age and some of the glories of
the reign.
But here in 32, he gives you some
insights.
Behold, a king shall reign in righteousness, and
princes, that's you, shall rule in judgment.
The King Jesus Christ reigning in righteousness, and
the princes ruling in judgment.
And a man shall be as a hiding
place from the wind, and a covert from
the tempest, or from the storm, a shelter
from the storm, and as rivers of water
in a dry place, and as a shadow
of a great rock in a weary land.
So Jesus will be the hiding place from
the wind, the shelter from the storm, like
a river of water in a dry place,
like the shadow of a great rock in
a weary land.
And physical conditions of man.
The eyes of them that see shall not
be dim.
Can I get rid of these glasses?
Won't need them.
The ears of them that hear shall hearken.
You won't be losing your, you won't have
the aging problems and defects.
Perfect health, strong, healthy.
The heart also of the rash shall understand
knowledge, and the tongue of the stammerers shall
be ready to speak plainly.
No physical infirmities.
And in that day, the vile person shall
no more be called liberal.
And the Bible says it.
These liberal politicians, these liberal theologians, the vile
person will no longer be called liberal.
You call them what they are, vile.
The churl is a person who is stingy,
a person who is out for himself, gathers
for himself, takes from others.
The churl will not be said to be
bountiful.
For the vile person will speak his villainy,
and his heart will work iniquity to practice
hypocrisy and to utter error against the Lord,
to make empty the soul of the hungry,
and he will cause the drink of the
thirsty to fail.
And the instruments also of the churl are
evil, for he devises wicked devices to destroy
the poor with lying words, even when the
needy speaks right.
That vile person will be exposed for his
villainy.
And that churl person who takes advantage of
the poor people to enrich himself, who devises
these wicked devices to destroy the poor.
But the liberal devises liberal things, and by
liberal things he shall stand.
So rise up ye women that are ease.
Now as Isaiah is making these prophecies, these
gals were probably just lounging around there and
sort of, you know, treating the prophet in
a rather snide way.
And so he turns to them and says,
rise up ye women that are at ease.
Hear my voice, ye careless daughters, and give
ear to my speech.
So calling directly to these women that were
just there making fun.
Many days and years shall you be troubled,
ye careless women.
For the vintage fails.
You're going to run into problems.
There will be no vintage.
The crops are going to fail.
The gathering, the crops will not come.
You're going to go through some hard times.
So tremble ye women that are at ease.
Be troubled, ye careless ones.
Strip you and make you bare, and gird
sackcloth upon your loins.
Times of sorrow are coming for you who
sort of take lightly the warnings of the
prophets of God.
Now, you shall beat on your breast, a
more literal translation, as a person is who
is often diswrought over circumstances just, oh no,
you know, the beating on your chest is
what is meant here for the pleasant fields.
As you look at what were once pleasant
fields and you see the barrenness, you see
the emptiness and the vines that were once
fruitful that are now bare.
Upon the land of my people shall come
up thorns and briars.
Yea, upon all the houses of joy in
the joyous city.
The houses of the city will be left
desolate.
The Jews will be carried away captive.
Upon the land of my people where there
was once crops, it'll just be weeds, thorns
and briars instead of a fruitful field.
And the palaces will be forsaken.
The leaders will be taken away captive and
houses empty.
It'll be a very doleful place.
The multitude of the city shall be left.
The forts and the towers shall be for
dens forever.
That is, the wild beast, the foxes and
so forth will occupy the forts and the
towers.
And the fields will have wild donkeys upon
them until this desolation, until the Spirit be
poured upon us from on high, when the
wilderness becomes a fruitful field and the fruitful
field be accounted for the forest.
And so this desolation until God pours out
His Spirit and His blessing, then judgment shall
dwell in the wilderness and righteousness in the
fruitful field.
And I love this verse, one of my
favorites.
The work of righteousness shall be peace.
That is always true.
The work of righteousness is peace.
Righteousness is being right with my fellow man.
Godliness is being right with God.
But righteousness is being right with my fellow
man.
That is, living with my fellow man as
God would have me to live, living right,
doing the right thing.
And the effect of righteousness is peace.
If you're living in a right relationship with
your fellow man, which depends upon living in
a right relationship with God, then you have
peace.
The effect of that is peace in your
heart and in your life.
And the effect of righteousness, the work of
righteousness is peace.
The effect of righteousness is quietness and assurance
forever.
You know, if you're doing the right thing,
you can just have that quietness and assurance.
And I love that quietness and assurance that
God gives to us when we've done the
right thing.
Well, you know, God will take care of
it.
I've done what was right.
Let me see.
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-3256.
Again, that's tape or CD number C-3256.
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 2000 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
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Please call our customer service department to help
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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.
When it shall hail coming down on the
forest and the city shall be a low
in a low place, blessed are ye that
sow beside all waters.
That is, sow in an area that is
well watered, that send forth thither the feet
of the ox and the donkey.
So the blessings of living in righteousness, the
peace, the assurance, and the fulfillment, the prosperity
that one experiences when they live for God,
doing the right thing.
We'll continue chapter 33 next week and then
chapter 34, we get into the day of
the Lord and Armageddon.
Interesting studies coming up.
This program
is sponsored by the word for today.
The radio ministry of Calvary Chapel, Costa Mesa,
California.