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
42, beginning with verse 1, as we continue
with an in-depth message entitled, The Servant
of God.
Isaiah 42.
God is drawing our attention, as He always
does, to His servant.
God declares, behold My servant.
Study, scrutinize, observe.
My servant who I uphold, I support him,
I'm behind him, I sustain him.
Mine elect, My chosen one, in whom My
soul delighted.
And so the description of God's servant, upheld
by God, chosen by God, one who brought
pleasure to God.
I have put My Spirit upon him.
Again, going back to Isaiah chapter 11, the
Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him,
the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit
of counsel and of might, the Spirit of
knowledge and the fear of the Lord will
make him of quick understanding in the fear
of the Lord, so that he will be
able to judge righteously.
The other prophecy of the Messiah, actually it
is the Messiah Himself speaking prophetically in Isaiah
61.
The Spirit of the Lord God is upon
Me, because the Lord has anointed Me to
preach the good tidings to the meek.
He has sent Me to bind up the
broken hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives,
the opening of the prison to those that
are bound, to proclaim the acceptable year of
the Lord.
And how glorious it is for each of
us to be able to bear witness of
the fact that Jesus has opened the prison
in which we were once bound, that prison
of darkness, bound by the power of sin.
Oh, how glorious to be set free.
What marvelous freedom we have in Christ.
And that is a strange kind of a
paradox that does exist, because there are people
today who are talking about freedom.
The American Civil Liberties Union, their whole desire
is for freedom, freedom from religion, freedom from
God, freedom of sex, freedom for pornography, freedom
for all kinds of sexual expressions and desires,
freedom for aberrant sexual experiences.
And yet, there is no one that is
more bound than those who are bound by
their flesh.
There is no one who is less free.
You tell me that that person who is
on crack or that person on cocaine is
free?
You've got to be kidding.
They're not free at all.
They are completely bound.
I'm free.
I don't have to have coke or crack
or whatever.
I'm free.
I don't have to pick up a cigarette.
I don't have to take a drink.
I'm free.
I'm the freest person you ever saw.
And I love my freedom.
It's the person who has given himself over
to these things that is really bound.
And you start out doing them in the
name of freedom.
Well, yes, I want freedom.
And you start doing these things in the
name of freedom.
I'm free to do it.
But yet, once you get started, soon you
become bound.
And once you are bound, then you keep
doing it, but not because you want to
or like to, but because you have to.
You're no longer free.
You've become a slave.
And so, that marvelous freedom that we have
in Jesus Christ through the power of his
spirit.
So God says, I delight in him.
I've put my spirit upon him.
And through the power of that spirit, he
has opened the prison to those that were
bound.
He shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles.
Righteous judgment.
Jesus shall reign over the whole world.
Not just over Israel, not over the Jews.
His is a universal reign.
He's King of Kings and Lord of Lords.
Judgment to the Gentiles.
He shall not cry nor cause his voice
to be heard in the street.
He's not going to lift himself up.
He isn't going to come with the great
publicity campaign.
And as you look at the life of
Christ, he avoided so many times publicity.
There were many opportunities to sort of demonstrate
and show off if he so desired his
miraculous power.
He could have used his powers for his
own personal gain and benefit, but he did
not.
Even when he was before Pilate.
And Pilate didn't want to make a judgment.
He sent him to Herod, who happened to
be in the area at the time.
And Herod was thrilled because he had heard
about Jesus.
He had heard all these stories about the
miracles that Jesus did.
And he wanted to see some kind of
miraculous thing.
And so he sort of challenged Jesus, you
know, do something, show me something, do a
miracle.
And Jesus wouldn't even speak to him.
Now, Jesus could have done some kind of
a miracle and astounded Herod and Herod would
say, hey, let him go.
But Jesus wouldn't use his miraculous powers for
his own personal benefit.
That was suggested by Satan in the beginning.
Hey, turn this stone into bread, feed yourself,
use your powers for yourself, for your own
personal gain.
No.
Man shall not live by bread alone.
Jump off the pinnacle of the temple, demonstrate
your powers.
Let the people be amazed as you'll land
there on the ground, you know, full tack,
no problems.
And then also even offering him the glories
of the kingdoms of the world.
But Jesus ministry for the most part was
on an individual basis in the close-knit
group of the disciples or within the synagogue,
within the temple, within the home or by
the seashore on the mountainside.
But he didn't go out of his way
to seek publicity.
In fact, he sought rather to avoid it.
He will not cry nor lift up, exalt
himself nor cause his voice to be heard
in the street.
A little bit of the character and the
nature of the Messiah.
A bruised reed shall he not break.
The bruised reed was a crushed reed that
had become bent over.
They are rather brittle.
They grow in abundance around the Jordan River,
around the Nile and going through them.
They're sort of top heavy anyhow, and they
easily break crushed and are broken.
But a bruised reed shall he not break.
Of course, it's a reference to that person
whose life is crushed by the weight of
the world and by the weight of sin.
And when that sinful person comes to Jesus
Christ, he doesn't break them, he restores them.
To completeness, the Lord isn't wanting to break
you, he isn't wanting to destroy you.
The Lord is wanting to save you, to
heal you, to mend you.
The bruised reed he will not break.
And the smoking flax shall he not quench.
That is that little wick in the little
oil light.
The oil has run out, and so the
flame has gone out, and there's just the
smoke now from the wick.
It's acrid, it's irritating.
And the natural thing is just go over
and pinch it, put the smoke out, cause
it to quit smoking.
But he will put new oil in the
vessel and bring the flame back into full
brilliance.
That person whose love and passion for God
has waned there's no longer that fire burning
in their hearts.
Their experience can be likened to just a
smoking flax.
There's the remnant there of past blessings, but
the fire is gone.
As Jesus said to Ephesus, thou has left
thy first love.
That dynamic of the first love, that flame
of passion is gone.
And that person comes to Christ and he
restores the flame, restores the fire.
He shall bring forth judgment unto truth or
true judgment.
And oh God, how we need true judgment
today.
And he will not fail nor be discouraged
till he has set judgment in the earth
and the coastlands shall wait for his law.
I so often get discouraged when I look
at the world, when I look at the
conditions of the world, when I see the
inequities of the world.
I often am discouraged.
I think, oh Lord, how long?
Lord, get me out of here.
I don't belong here.
And it looks to me like evil is
triumphing.
It looks to me like the forces of
darkness are more powerful than the forces of
light.
And they seem to prevail in so many
cases that are brought before the courts and
all.
And I think, oh Lord.
And I get so discouraged in my idealism,
in hoping for real justice and real righteousness.
But he will not be discouraged until he
has accomplished his purpose, until he has established
true justice here on the earth and has
set judgment in the earth.
And thus saith God, Jehovah, he that created
the heavens and stretched them out, he that
spread forth the earth and that which comes
out of it, that is all of the
plant life that comes out of the earth.
He that gives breath unto the people upon
it and spirit to them that walk therein.
God over and over throughout the whole Bible
is acknowledged as the creator, creator of the
earth, creator of the heavens, creator of the
life forms within the earth, creator of man,
the sustainer of man.
He gives breath to man, puts spirit within
man.
God is speaking.
And whenever God speaks, he usually announces himself
as the creator.
And this is another discouraging thing.
Send your children to the public school and
they are taught that they are an accident.
They were not created.
Matter upon matter over, now it's 20 billion
years, has brought forth this marvelous, marvelous instrument.
How can a sane person look at the
body and the functions of the body?
Look at how the DNA can store the
memories.
Look how the blood stream and the operates.
Look how even your breath, God said, and
I give breath to man and just your
breath itself.
The cells of your body need oxygen in
order to function.
They burn the oxygen light like a car
burns gasoline, your cells burn oxygen.
And like your car, when it is burned,
the gasoline gives off a carbon monoxide gas
as the result of the combustion.
So your body gives off carbon dioxide gas
as a result of the burning of the
oxygen in the cells.
And thus there has to be a discharge
of the carbon dioxide and a fresh supply
of oxygen for the cells.
So God has designed this whole beautiful system
of the lungs and your capacity to breathe
in the air.
And from this 79 parts of nitrogen and
20 parts of oxygen, your lungs take that
oxygen and it sort of spreads it out
over the lungs.
And the blood comes pumping into your lungs
from the heart.
And the blood discharges all of the carbon
dioxide that it's picked up all of the
garbage, the carbon dioxide gases that it's picked
up as it's gone through your whole system
in each cell.
And it deposits that carbon dioxide in your
lungs.
And as it goes through, it takes the
oxygen that has just been brought into your
lungs by that deep breath.
And it goes back into the heart and
down through the cells, resupplying them with oxygen
and on the return trip, picking up the
carbon dioxide.
Now, when you do a little exercise, do
your aerobics, you're using more oxygen, the cells
are working harder.
And so they're burning up more oxygen.
So what happens?
Your lungs start working faster.
Your heart starts beating faster because you have
to get more oxygen to those cells that
are sloughing off the carbon dioxide.
You got to keep the cells functioning properly.
And so you start now, do you think
that, well, I'm really been running hard.
I better really start breathing harder.
No, you don't even think about that.
Why?
Because your lungs are involuntary muscles.
You have voluntary muscles and involuntary muscles.
Your voluntary muscles are attached to the skeleton
of your body and they are operated by
a command from the brain.
You say to your hand, move, it moves.
But of course, there's quite a functioning actually,
because the brain not only tells your hand
to move, but it tells your arm and
the elbow and everything.
I mean, it just, you know, and it
says, clench your fist, you know, in their
voluntary muscles and they're controlled by the brain,
but you have your involuntary muscles, your heart,
your lungs, because you see your life depends
on your heart and your lungs.
The sustaining of life depends on the heart
and the lungs.
You know, you can live without clenching your
fist.
You can live with a withered arm, but
you can't live without your heart pumping and
your lungs working.
So those muscles of your body that are
important for the sustaining of life, God keeps
control of those.
He lets you control your other muscles that
can get you in trouble or do things
for you.
But those muscles upon which your life depends,
God keeps control of those muscles so that
you don't have to think.
Heart beat, lungs work.
They're involuntary muscles that operate without a conscious
thought patterns from the brain.
Marvelous, marvelous the way God has created us.
And to think that that could have all
just evolved over a matter of time by
mutations and all is just ridiculous.
And yet that's what they are.
And that's where I get discouraged.
I think, oh God, you know, it's so
insane to try to propose that all of
this came about by these fortuitous concurrences of
accidental circumstances.
It's crazy.
Thus saith the Lord, Yehovah, he that created
the heavens and stretched them out, put the
stars up there, even in the form of
a cross and an opening in the clouds.
I love it.
He that spread forth the earth and that
which comes out of it, the plant life,
the marvels of the plant life.
Oh, amazing.
Each seed with the genetic code within it,
with all of the potential for the development
of that same plant.
Marvelous.
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 3261.
Again, that's tape or CD number C 3261.
As we come to a close in today's
program, we'd like to recommend a resource just
for women.
Sometimes it's easy to get caught up in
the hustle and bustle of Christmas, 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 presents
a season of joy, an audio Bible study
that reflects the true meaning of Christmas hosted
by Kay Smith, wife of Pastor Chuck.
Kay reminds us to spend time at the
Lord's feet, despite our busy schedules.
Guest speakers also include Elizabeth Elliott, Sheila Walsh,
and Marge Caldwell, exhorting us to remember that
it's through Jesus Christ that our season of
joy can be peaceful and complete.
Also ask about Pastor Chuck Smith's tract entitled,
How Can a Man Be Born Again?
Available in both Spanish and English, this would
make the perfect addition to Christmas cards or
gifts.
To order your copy of A Season of
Joy and How Can a Man Be Born
Again, call the word for today at 1
-800-272-WORD or write to us at
P.O. Box 8000, Costa Mesa, California 92628.
And remember the word for today would like
to assist you this Christmas in spreading the
gospel of Jesus to your family, friends, and
coworkers.
Please call our customer service department to help
you in finding that perfect gift that will
reflect the true meaning of Christmas.
And if you call right now and mention
this radio ad, the word for today will
give you a 20% discount on any
resource carried by the word for today.
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'd 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
is Pastor Chuck.
Now God says, consider this, look at the
thing, consider this, because it is a pattern
of man that is followed over and over
again.
You call upon God, he delivers.
You forsake God, you get in trouble again.
You call upon God, he helps.
You forsake God, but there comes the time
when you can exhaust the patience even of
an infinite God.
A time when you're snared, a time when
you go into this prison, a time when
you become a spoil and are robbed.
Therefore, he has poured out the fury of
his anger and the strength of battle.
You've been set on fire round about, yet
you don't know you were burned.
You didn't lay it to heart.
You didn't realize it's because we've turned our
backs on God.