back to index03-23-16 Wed Bible Study
00:09:56.000 |
Now you're all looking at me. Come on. Say something. 00:10:00.000 |
What does he mean by mentioning lions and vipers and... 00:10:15.000 |
What are they doing? What is this a description of? Where are they going? 00:10:32.000 |
I was trying to figure out a way to answer that. There's no other in between. 00:10:42.000 |
What it's saying is they're going through a land of trouble in English. 00:10:45.000 |
It's like they're going through so much and they take all their stuff 00:10:49.000 |
and they go through so much trial to go to a place that's not even a prophet. 00:11:13.000 |
So, remember in the beginning he said they're devising all these plans? 00:11:18.000 |
Right? They're devising all these plans but it has nothing to do with me. 00:11:24.000 |
They're making plans to go all the way to Egypt and that journey to Egypt is not a casual journey. 00:11:31.000 |
Meaning that this is a long distance you have to travel. 00:11:38.000 |
The Syrians and the Babylonians are right at the corner 00:11:40.000 |
but the Egyptians you have to travel all the way to the other side. 00:11:44.000 |
So, not only do they have to travel a long distance to get to them, 00:11:48.000 |
that to travel through that you have to go and face lions and vipers 00:11:54.000 |
In other words, he's saying that you're going through all that trouble 00:11:58.000 |
and facing all that danger thinking that your hope is there 00:12:08.000 |
And when you think about all the comfort and hope that we seek out, 00:12:18.000 |
Right? Does our job security, does that come easily? 00:12:26.000 |
So, in other words, he's saying it's not that you're not planning, 00:12:32.000 |
You're working and planning and devising and pouring so much energy for what purpose? 00:12:37.000 |
At the end of the day, what's waiting for you there? 00:12:43.000 |
So, why you're laboring, but why labor for something that's going to perish? 00:12:49.000 |
So, in essence, that's basically what he's saying. 00:12:53.000 |
You're working hard, but you're pouring your energy into the wrong thing. 00:12:56.000 |
At the end of the day, Egypt is going to fall. 00:13:11.000 |
They're willing to go through all these dangers, but did not consider to turn to God. 00:13:14.000 |
And as a result of that, they're going to see shame and humiliation. 00:13:21.000 |
And the whole reason why they're doing all of this is to save themselves from shame and humiliation. 00:13:26.000 |
Right? Because they're concerned about the Assyrians. 00:13:33.000 |
Right? They're the ones who are going to publicly humiliate you in front of your family, 00:13:40.000 |
And so, he said, "You went through all of that to prevent that, 00:13:43.000 |
but as a result of unbelief, that's exactly what you're going to get." 00:13:48.000 |
And so, neither, Egypt will neither be able to help nor profit Israel, but only shame and disgrace. 00:13:57.000 |
And I always think about that, you know, whenever we think about, you know, missionaries who pack their bags 00:14:02.000 |
and they go to, you know, the remotest part of the world to share the Gospel. 00:14:07.000 |
When you get to the remotest part of the world to share the Gospel, do you know who you meet? 00:14:18.000 |
Business people will pack up everything, risk everything, and live in strange places 00:14:21.000 |
because they think they're going to make money if they get there first. 00:14:26.000 |
So, it's not just the missionaries who are sacrificing everything. 00:14:28.000 |
People in this world sacrifice everything too. 00:14:36.000 |
So, it's not like, you know, the people who are rich, they risk. 00:14:40.000 |
They go through trouble, they go through hardship, but they think the payoff is going to be that they're going to make a lot of money. 00:14:47.000 |
So, the difference is, are we putting in that kind of time and effort and sacrificing for the right thing? 00:14:54.000 |
It's just always interesting to me, like, you can go to India, you can go to the remotest part of China, 00:14:59.000 |
you always run into another American, and when I run into them, my immediate thought is, 00:15:05.000 |
"Oh, it must be a Christian. Why would they be out here?" 00:15:07.000 |
And then when I go there and talk to them, I find out that they're there for business. 00:15:12.000 |
They move their families and their children out there so that they can make more money. 00:15:17.000 |
And you say, "You're going to go through all that trouble to get to Egypt," 00:15:20.000 |
and it keeps saying over and over again that there is no profit. 00:15:33.000 |
What are the qualities of these rebellious people that he says? 00:15:35.000 |
He said, "They are lying children, unwilling to hear instruction from the Lord." 00:15:45.000 |
Verse 9, "They are rebellious people, lying children, children unwilling to hear the instructions of the Lord." 00:15:50.000 |
And he says, "Who say to the seers, 'Do not see.'" 00:15:53.000 |
Why would they say to the seers and the prophets, "Do not see," or "Do not prophesy"? 00:16:02.000 |
Why would they tell the prophets to stop prophesying? 00:16:14.000 |
In their heart, they know that what God is going to say is going to be against what they're doing. 00:16:20.000 |
Which is interesting because they're still going to the temple. 00:16:27.000 |
They still hold on to religiousness, yet they don't want to know the truth. 00:16:32.000 |
I mean, isn't it interesting that you would think that people who are making sacrifices to come to church week after week, 00:16:38.000 |
that at the core, what they would want to hear is the truth? 00:16:44.000 |
And yet, hundreds of thousands of people, maybe millions, are flocking to church, 00:16:48.000 |
and yet, they're not interested in the Word of God. 00:16:54.000 |
He said, "That's exactly what was happening to the nation of Israel." 00:16:58.000 |
It wasn't because they weren't going to the temples. 00:17:00.000 |
They just chose to listen to the false prophets rather than the true prophets. 00:17:07.000 |
So, they tell the prophets not to speak or to see. 00:17:10.000 |
They only want to hear smooth things of illusion. 00:17:15.000 |
They do not want to hear the truth of the Lord. 00:17:32.000 |
These people are going to listen, but they're not going to… 00:17:35.000 |
You know, they're going to hear, but they're not going to listen. 00:17:45.000 |
I'm telling you, they're not going to put up with sound doctrine. 00:17:56.000 |
They're going to gather around themselves, right? 00:18:10.000 |
So, it says, "At the end time, that's what they're going to be known for." 00:18:12.000 |
It's not that they're not listening to the Word. 00:18:19.000 |
They're going to want to gather teachers around themselves. 00:18:23.000 |
In other words, it's like, "Teach me what I want to know." 00:18:29.000 |
And so that's exactly how they described the nation of Israel at this time. 00:18:33.000 |
There were plenty of prophets during this time. 00:18:54.000 |
And what they were saying, "Why would God be angry with you? 00:18:59.000 |
And the reason why they didn't want to hear the truth 00:19:17.000 |
will eventually become a burden that they can't bear. 00:19:27.000 |
the more burden that sin will become, eventually. 00:19:40.000 |
and you know you need to clean it, you need to clean it, 00:19:44.000 |
The longer you put it off, the harder it becomes to clean it. 00:19:51.000 |
Basically saying that your sin is eventually going to become a burden. 00:20:09.000 |
And eventually you kind of kick it down the road 00:20:13.000 |
But you know, Spirit of God just doesn't work like that. 00:20:21.000 |
You know, He says, "Behold, I stand at the door and knock." 00:20:35.000 |
kicking this responsibility, this conviction down the street. 00:20:37.000 |
And then three, four years later down the line, 00:20:43.000 |
Not realizing that they've hardened their heart 00:20:45.000 |
to the point where there is no knocking anymore. 00:20:47.000 |
The Holy Spirit isn't softening their hearts. 00:20:52.000 |
That's why I keep saying over and over again, 00:21:23.000 |
So it's kind of like He says in the New Testament, 00:21:25.000 |
"What good is it if the salt loses its flavor?" 00:21:31.000 |
What would salt be good for if it wasn't salty? 00:21:39.000 |
What do you do with salt if it loses its flavor? 00:21:56.000 |
Eventually, the very reason why they went over there 00:22:24.000 |
Can somebody turn to Deuteronomy chapter 32.30? 00:23:53.000 |
the Bible illustrates when the Lord is with us, 00:25:10.000 |
if you include the wives and children, right? 00:26:19.000 |
God still used them in their weakness, right? 00:26:31.000 |
But even in the midst of all of this judgment 00:26:40.000 |
God is still pleading with the nation of Israel 00:27:40.000 |
it's not the horses that are pouncing around, 00:28:39.000 |
So therefore the Lord waits to be gracious to you. 00:28:47.000 |
And isn't that exactly what he's doing today? 00:28:50.000 |
In 1 Peter, say, why is he taking so long to come? 00:29:00.000 |
the Gospel to be spread to the remotest part of the world. 00:29:36.000 |
and yet he is pleading with his people to return. 00:29:48.000 |
Where he says when he judges the pagan nations, 00:31:58.000 |
right, one of the first things that he talks about 00:32:30.000 |
causes you to open your eyes to see the glory, 00:36:39.000 |
I think you guys know what I'm talking about. 00:37:54.000 |
and all these things shall be added unto you. 00:38:00.000 |
Why is depending on Egypt for help so foolish? 00:38:22.000 |
Oh, you just needed more time to fill it out. 00:39:01.000 |
you're going to go to somebody who has more money than you 00:39:51.000 |
They were the oppressors at one point, right? 00:39:56.000 |
And they forgot it was the Lord who delivered them from Egypt. 00:40:06.000 |
The one who repents and returns, what is he like? 00:40:15.000 |
And then, instead of praising and worshipping him, 00:40:18.000 |
you keep longing for the empty things that he saved us from. 00:40:24.000 |
Went through all that drama to deliver them from Egypt, 00:40:30.000 |
and then now they're going through all that drama to go back to Egypt. 00:40:33.000 |
In that day, everyone will cast away his idols of silver and of gold. 00:40:44.000 |
Even in the Lord's greatest judgment, he pleads for his people. 00:40:56.000 |
So over and over again, even as he is pronouncing judgment, 00:41:12.000 |
So when he says that the Syrians will fall by the sword, not by man, 00:41:32.000 |
Obviously Assyria falls because Babylonians come into power. 00:41:36.000 |
But when they fall, you'll know that it wasn't men. 00:41:58.000 |
As terrifying as the Assyrians were known to be, 00:42:01.000 |
when God's judgment comes, that even their most mightiest of men are going to flee. 00:42:19.000 |
there was this kid in our neighborhood who was a bully. 00:42:23.000 |
Nobody like my age, like when I was like, I was like five or six years old, 00:42:28.000 |
we could not roam around our streets in peace because there was one bully. 00:42:33.000 |
But I had an older brother who was three years older, 00:42:40.000 |
People are still scared of him today, but everybody was scared of my brother. 00:42:44.000 |
So because of him, I was the only one in that neighborhood who was able to do whatever I wanted. 00:42:51.000 |
Because everybody knew I had an older brother. 00:42:53.000 |
Right? He didn't play with the little kids. Right? 00:43:03.000 |
Obviously on a larger scale, but God is basically saying like, 00:43:07.000 |
I'm your protector. Why would you worry about them? 00:43:09.000 |
Why are you going from one bully to the next bully to the next bully 00:43:19.000 |
You're running from Syria to us Syria to the Babylonians to the Egyptians over and over again. 00:43:24.000 |
And then why would you not return to me? I can crush these people. 00:43:30.000 |
If I show up, even their mightiest of soldiers are going to run in terror. 00:43:37.000 |
So what God is pleading with the nation of Israel is take your eyes off of them and look at me. 00:43:43.000 |
Because the moment you lose faith in me, you're going to be surrounded by bullies. 00:43:49.000 |
And that's why, again, over and over again, all of this, like, 00:43:54.000 |
again, what I want to encourage you guys to do is we study the book of Isaiah and any other book. 00:43:58.000 |
You know, I know Isaiah is not the easiest book to study because 00:44:02.000 |
the theme kind of sometimes seems like it jumps around and it's hard to figure out the historical context 00:44:07.000 |
and there's not a clear continuity to some of the things that he's saying. 00:44:11.000 |
But don't ever forget what the purpose of the Bible is. 00:44:24.000 |
He said his very breath is in the Word of God. 00:44:27.000 |
So all of these things, even if you don't understand all the historical context 00:44:31.000 |
and how the prophecies are going to be fulfilled, in the end, this is about him. 00:44:38.000 |
So if there's anything that you're able to get from Isaiah, you clearly see the heart of God. 00:44:43.000 |
Because in the end, that's the ultimate purpose of why we studied the Bible. 00:44:48.000 |
So that we can understand and know the heart of God. 00:44:50.000 |
And you can clearly see, right, how much he cares for his people, 00:44:54.000 |
how much he hates sin, that, but even in the context of judgment, 00:45:06.000 |
So again, I want to leave with this encouragement. 00:45:08.000 |
You know, sometimes we can repeat the same thing over and over again. 00:45:12.000 |
We can repeat sins and we can fall short so often 00:45:16.000 |
that we feel like, you know, like we've exhausted his grace, 00:45:21.000 |
that I can't possibly come to him again after what I've done, after what I did. 00:45:34.000 |
you know, even in the context, when he says, "Forgive seven times seven," 00:45:40.000 |
it's not like, "Okay, I'm going to ask for forgiveness, 00:45:42.000 |
he's going to forgive and I'm going to go back and sin." 00:45:50.000 |
As long as repentance is genuine, you're genuinely broken over your sin, 00:45:52.000 |
genuinely desire for forgiveness, God forgives. 00:45:59.000 |
I'm not just saying that to tickle your ears. 00:46:05.000 |
So any thought or anything that causes you to think 00:46:08.000 |
that you cannot possibly come to God in your sins, 00:46:20.000 |
Sometimes we let sin be the cause of more sin. 00:46:24.000 |
and then that causes us to spiral out of control. 00:46:26.000 |
The time that we need his grace the most is when we are in sin. 00:46:29.000 |
That's why he started this passage by saying,