Go out, go out. Paul mixes it. It's an interpretive blend, but it's the same lesson. If God rejects the proud idolaters, what should the faithful do with them? Maybe that summarizes everything I've been trying to say. And when he says don't forgive them, if God is going to judge those who thumb their nose at him, how should we treat that person?
Well, we have to have still a readiness to love, but a sobriety that goes with it. This is Cross-Reference Radio with our pastor and teacher Rick Gaston. Rick is the pastor of Calvary Chapel Mechanicsville. Pastor Rick is currently teaching through the book of Isaiah.
Please stay with us after today's message to hear more information about Cross-Reference Radio, specifically how you can get a free copy of this teaching. But for now, let's join Pastor Rick in the book of Isaiah chapter 2 with today's edition of Cross-Reference Radio. Verse 9, People bow down, and each man humbles himself. Therefore, do not forgive them. This is still New Testament teaching in some degree. Isaiah petitions God to not excuse these apostates who are damning other souls through this choice of treason. These are treasonous actions against this high treason against the king. And he had no illusions about saving apostates. Well, we've got to show them love while they're damning souls. I mean, I think some Christians would shake hands with Satan. Well, you've got to, you know, be nice.
No, you don't. Don't touch him. Matthew 26, verse 24, The son of man indeed goes just as it is written of him. But woe to that man by whom the son of man is betrayed. It would have been good for that man if he had not been born.
That's pretty serious. It would be good for that man if he had not been born for betraying God the Son. And those who have heard the truth, that's who we're talking about. Those who have heard the truth and trampled it, they are accountable. You know, Jonah was angry with Nineveh, but Nineveh didn't hear the truth. And when they did hear the truth, it was an intolerant message of doom.
You got 40 days and you're done. That's his message. And they repented.
He wasn't going through Nineveh with a basket of flowers. You know, God loves you. He's got a plan for your life. There's a time for that, but it ain't all the time, especially when you're dealing with monstrosities who are puppets for hell. And we risk contributing to the evil by withholding rebuke by refusing to ostracize those who are damning souls.
I am not going to sit down with a Jehovah's Witness pastor and have lunch and have a good old time. Well, you know, we're both trying to do the same thing, make people feel, you know, stronger in their sorrow and reach out to the community. For what?
My taxes reach out to the community. I want souls. And, you know, the church is the conscience of the community, but if the community says, my conscience is seared with a hot iron, there's not much more you can do. And we must not send mixed signals towards someone's evil.
We got to lay it out. No, that is evil. And what they were doing, Isaiah says, therefore do not forgive them.
Again, you can't send the signal that, well, it really isn't that bad. Well, there's still a hope for you in heaven. Well, there's more, you're leaning more, a lot more towards hell than you.
You're about to capsize under this misguided notion of Christian love. Matthew 23, 14, here's Jesus dealing with the scribes. He says to the scribes, what can I do to make you comfortable? I want to make you come back to church.
I don't want to offend you. Of course he didn't do that. The apostles protested at one point. They said to Jesus, master, you offend them. What did he do? He doubled down. Woe to you lawyers.
He just kept going. So Matthew 23, I'm not enjoying this. I'm enjoying the truth.
I love the truth. I love standing up to iniquity wherever I can find enough strength to do it. But I don't like the fact that people are against Jesus Christ. Woe to you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites. That woe is condemnation. It's mean you're doomed unless you repent. He says, for you devour widows' houses. Well, he didn't want to make them feel comfortable with that. Poor widows were suffering even if no one was attacking them, they were struggling.
And here you had these monsters taking advantage of them. He continues, and for pretense, you make long prayers. You act like you're religious. You know the truth, but you hate it. Therefore, you will receive greater condemnation. That's what he says, Matthew 23, 14.
And this is one snippet, because he goes off on them. John comes along, again, with the Gnostics in mind, who heard the gospel but decided they were smarter than the gospel and they were going to improve it. And in their improvement of the gospel, they were going to redact the gospel, edit out what they didn't like, and put in what they did like.
That's what the Gnostics were doing. John, in his second letter, if anyone comes to you and does not bring this doctrine, do not receive him into your house, nor greet him. You come across a Jehovah's Witness that is actively telling you people that Jesus is not God the Son. Don't be buddies with him.
Now, that can be tricky, because they may work in the same place and we can't be up. Now, you get fired. You'd kill your Witness, because the world doesn't know what they're looking at. I would suggest you make it very clear to that individual, look, I am going to be polite to you, but I don't want you to take that politeness for one moment as an endorsement of anything you think about the Bible. If the color blue to you is blue in the Bible, I disagree with you.
That's hyperbole. Anyway, if anyone comes to you and does not bring this doctrine, do not receive him into your house, for he who greets him shares in his evil. I mean, that's New Testament theology. And we see this. We see Christians under the guise of love. It's a misguided love. It's different if the person doesn't know, but there are times a person is evil and they're trying to chummy up with them and they're just making them feel, they're just, especially if the person is what we would call a sociopath, who knows how to behave, pretends to give you what you want, but in all the time, he's setting you up for a backstab.
Con orders function that way. Cross-contamination is contamination, whether it's physical or spiritual. You know that. You have a raw piece of chicken in your kitchen and you're chopping it up and you're going to clean up that table? Of course you are, because you understand Salmonella lurks there. Numbers 16, 26, this is when Datham and those boys attacked Moses' authority on the ground, swallowed them up, and he spoke to the congregation saying, Depart now from the tents of these wicked men. Touch nothing of theirs, lest you be consumed in their sins.
There is such a thing as spiritual contamination. And I hope these points, oh, I could have just covered this and said, Isaiah said, Lord, don't forgive them. Verse 10.
No, wait a minute. This is why we have the scripture, why Christ expounded on himself in the prophets and the law. Verse 10, Enter into the rock and hide in the dust from the terror of Yahweh and the glory of his majesty. There's a little Joel-esque here.
Joel was saying, Hey, beat your plowshares into swords because you're going to have a match with me. Well, he's saying the same thing in his own way. He's going to go in the rocks and hide. Like you can hide from God's judgment. That's the whole point. So they are not forgiven in an impenitive state. They are accountable. And when the Lord comes to judge, people will seek to escape. This is the lesson behind Revelation 6 at the end of the chapter when they're hiding in the rocks and they want to hide from the Lamb of God, but they're not repenting. And of course, it's not all of it is literal. The prophets are telling us how the dirty heart works.
It wants to escape judgment from the judge without conforming to the judge's law. That is a soul that is doomed. And they're doomed on their terms. They won't repent. It's just one step to God. And when you step to God, you knew you were forgiven.
What would have happened if you didn't step towards God? This is very simple. It's not calculus. Verse 11, the lofty looks of a man shall be humble, the haughtiness of men shall be bowed down, and Yahweh shall be exalted in that day.
I didn't pause here. This is not legalism. Upholding truth in God's law is not legalism. Legalism is saying, well, if you want to be saved, you're going to have to learn how to tap dance, something like that. You've got to earn your salvation.
Or just being, hey, you can't wear those kind of shoes. That's legalism. But to say, if you sin and you're gleeful about it and have no care for God, you're doomed. That's what God says. Verse 11, he talks here about their pride. They exalted themselves. Psalm 101, the one who has a haughty look and a proud heart, him I will not endure. I can't stand that, God is saying. And he's talking about people who are proud, arrogant. They look down on everybody. It's on their face.
You can see it. The Lord alone shall be exalted in that day. Verse 11, God is not mocked.
What he is saying here is what Paul does when Paul repeats Isaiah, that at the name of Jesus, every knee shall bow of those in heaven and of those on earth and of those under the earth. That's comprehensive coverage. That's everything. There's no more space. So what about the flying saucers and the Martians? Earth is so loony that earth has become a flyover for aliens. They won't stop here.
They just fly over. That's why nobody that gets out the flying saucer and talks to you. This place is loony. Okay, it comes to be a little lampoon satire. Verse 12, we've got to hurry up here. For the day of the Lord of hosts shall come upon everything proud and lofty, upon everything lifted up and shall be brought low. Now we begin. The upon shows up ten times in verses 12 through 16, twice in each verse.
That is a polyscendodon. It is an emphasis. It is repeated to make its point. It's woven into it. There's a benefit of reading Scripture out loud as you pick those things up. You find, hey, I'm saying upon a lot, am I?
Well, what's going on? And you dig a little deeper. So the day of great wrath and little intolerance, which as we know is the great tribulation, mankind's pride and arrogance is rejected by God just like Lucifer's was. Proverbs 21, 4. A haughty look, a proud heart and the plowing of the wicked are sin. The plowing of the wicked is a deliberate work.
They are hard at work to do evil and to spread evil. So wherever insult to God is routine, everything is on collision course with God. The day of the Lord described, it was spoken of here, is described by Christ in Matthew 24, for example, other places too by the Lord. Revelation chapter 6 through 19, the day of the Lord and the prophets, Isaiah, Ezekiel, Joel, Amos, Zephaniah, Zechariah.
It is important. Verse 13, here's another upon. Upon all the cedars of Lebanon that are high and lifted up and upon all the oaks of Bishan. Of course, this metaphor is drawing from nature to point out these people are just, you know, they're exalted, self-exalted. Cedars are beautiful trees and so are some oaks, but I think cedars are cypress trees. Oh man, they're just really beautiful.
Anyhow, back to this, sorry. The people looked at these trees with great admiration and pride and if they could panel their homes with this kind of wood, they would show it off. This is metaphor for natural glory and natural power that is available to human beings but doesn't mean it's right. It's symbolic of the kingdoms and the Gebors, the Ali'arks, the ones that were calling the shots in society. At the time that Isaiah delivered the message, again, there was material prosperity but spiritual poverty.
And their reasoning is like many today. If God didn't like my lifestyle, then why doesn't he say something about it? Well, he is saying something. That's not God. It's you, the Christians and your narrow-mindedness. Well, narrow is the way and straight is the gate. It leads to eternity. So you and your broad mind, wide is the way that goes to hell.
And there are many that go and buy it, we should add. Anyway, the spiritual shortsightedness we hopefully can help people with. Verse 14, upon all the high mountains and upon all the hills that are lifted up, the mountains and the hills, emblematic again of natural power, their pride that is being dealt with here opened doors on earth, but it slammed doors in heaven, slammed them shut in their face. And maybe that's something to share with an unbeliever who is very successful. Yeah, you're opening a lot of doors in hell, but you know, we all have a proverb, don't we? There's no hitch on a U-Haul on a hearse. There's no hitch on a hearse. Don't forget to load up his car and all of his goods because he'll be needing that where he's just done.
What you need is the Lord. Verse 15 is another upon, upon the high tower and another one in this verse, as I mentioned, two per verse and upon two per verse of scripture, not two perverse, just want to clear that up, upon every fortified wall. So they were smug with their false security, you know, we've got fortifications, we can't be attacked and stuff. Verse 16, upon all the ships of Tarshish and upon all the beautiful slopes, the ship, the Tarshish, the trading ships of Tarshish were the largest of cargo ships, making the largest treks with the largest benefit. You get rich if you got a car, if you loaded up a cargo ship and got it to Tarshish, which is believed to have been a city or place in modern Spain and God is saying, yeah, you're pretty smug about these things.
They're nothing to me. And today, again, you look at the engineering, you know, equipment and the ships and just the things that people build and you say, man, that's pretty impressive, but not to God. Not even to the angels. He's like, wow, look at, did you see what that guy did?
Did you see that? You know, the angels will look at the Mona Lisa and go, man, that is really good. They see things that just make that look like, man, why do you have that on your wall? Anyway, I mean, I kind of like the Mona Lisa. I even like the song.
Like, you need to know. Verse 17, the loftiness of man shall be bowed down and the haughtiness of men shall be brought low. Yahweh alone will be exalted in that day. Amen, Lord.
We have to move forward. Well, I got to read Ephesians. With all lowliness and gentleness, with longsuffering, bearing with one another in love. And actually it's more to the individual Christians. Some of these promises in the New Testament are more to the Christians. Not that we are to hate our enemies or attack them, but it is certainly, it does tighten things up and keeps us from being sloppy so that when it's time to love an unbeliever, we think it through a little bit. Sometimes, you know, you live, some people live with unbelievers. You have no choice.
You got to be loving and kind and polite. But when it comes to a topic on God, you cannot budge. And sometimes it's better, you know what, we can't have this conversation. We'll talk about anything you want, but we can't talk about the scripture unless you're really ready. And that is just, you know, using harmless, wise as serpents, as harmless as doves. We are very harmful people. If we suppress the truth with evil intent, if we withhold it when the door is wide open to give it, we can do a lot of damage as Christians by misrepresenting the Lord. King David did, Nathan told him he did. And so we don't have this faith where we, well I'm saved and I don't have to think anymore. That is dangerous stuff and hell is banking on Christians who just refuse to say wait a minute, let me attach this to the scripture and slow it down a little bit. We all make mistakes, every single one of us. We make it in our faith. I get to make them from the pulpit in front of everybody and have them recorded and broadcast it on the radio. I was asleep with that at night. Wake up in the middle of the night, no I meant ten, ten not five.
Alright, coming back to this. Verse 18, but the idols he shall utterly abolish and that's what we're talking. God's going to triumph, not the not gods.
The not gods are going to fail. Verse 19, and they shall go into the holes of the rocks and into the caves of the earth for the terror of Yahweh and the glory of his majesty when he arises to shake the earth mightily. Isaiah is saying this is coming, many people are going to die before this happens but there are going to be those living when it does happen. And he's talking about the final week of Daniel, the 70th week, the great tribulation. Revelation 6 verses 13 and 17, just zero in a little bit more. Again chapters 6 through 19 also in Revelation. Verse 20, and in that day a man will cast his idol of silver and his idols of gold which they made each for himself to worship to the moles and the bats. Well, they didn't see that coming. They thought they had these idols of silver and gold and now they're burying them because they realize they're useless.
This is the language here. I mean, not so literal, but if you're in a cave hiding from God and you have the idol with you and you realize okay my idol's not doing anything for me, it's fake. The moles here is an unfortunate translation. It's a rodent for sure and it's a burrowing rodent according to the Hebrew. The translator just said the moles are a good one. The bats of course they're in the caves where the people are pictured as being. So what Isaiah is doing is he's painting a picture for the unbeliever.
He said look what's going to happen in the end. You people who love these little idols, they're useless. You're going to throw them away. You're going to bury them where the rats are, where the moles are, where the burrowing rodents.
You're going to hide them with a bat. You want them out of your sight because they've forsaken you. But, and this is what Isaiah is leaving open, will you repent? Will you repent? Well John comes along again chapter 6 verse 17 says no they won't.
So many of them. Some will of course because there will be tribulation converts. There will be people coming to Christ. Anyway, this is fantastic language. This is, much of it is just the intelligence of Isaiah laying it out in a language for his audience to read and be interested in and have to think about it.
Verse 21, to go into the clefts of the rocks and into the crags of the rugged rocks from the terror of Yahweh and the glory of his majesty when he arises to shake the earth mightily. And so he's saying this is ridiculous. You can't hide from him but you're going to try it anyway because you're doing it now.
You're hiding from him now. You look at the heavens and you know. You know your idol didn't put that there and yet you continue. Let's take a piece of Revelation 6 verse 16 when they're being judged and said to the mountains and rocks fall on us and hide us from the face of him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the lamb.
And John is saying can you believe that people confronted with the truth? Who did something this crazy? You saw it all and turned on it.
Judas Iscariot did it. You don't have to look far to find the people who do this kind of stuff. You know the truth. You know it's fake and you won't give it up. What's this stuff about kissing a man's ring because you think he's what? In the name of Jesus.
You can't see the folly of that? Man, the other guy just put his lips there. That alone shit's getting you uncouth.
Social misbehavior of religious people. Anyway, verse 22, sever yourself from such a man whose breath is in his nostrils for of what account is he? So he ends this section with saying get away from those people. This is a man that's living in the created realm only. He's carnal. His breath is in his nostrils.
He's not self-existent. Isaiah is saying and he will continue in Isaiah to disfellowship the wicked. 52 verse 11, Isaiah, depart, depart, go out from there, touch no unclean thing, go out from her midst, be clean, you who bear the vessels of Yahweh. Paul picks this up in Corinthians.
Go out, go out. Paul mixes it. It's an interpretive blend but it's the same lesson. If God rejects the proud idolaters, what should the faithful do with them? Maybe that summarizes everything I've been trying to say and when he says don't forgive them. If God is going to judge those who thumb their nose at him, how should we treat that person?
Well, we have to have still a readiness to love but a sobriety that goes with it. You know there are Christians that would let a serial killer back into society. I wouldn't. You could repent and be saved. I'll come to the jail and I'll preach to them but you ain't getting back out here with us because Satan will trigger again that thing that was in you and it ain't worth the risk.
So you die comfortably here and you'll live in glory forever. You know who would want Jeffrey Dahmer to move in? Hey, I served my five years and I've got out on a plea bargain. I'm your new neighbor.
Is that your kid? See? They're like, no. You know what? I'll be visiting you tonight when you're sleeping and I'll get, no, okay, that's carnal.
I shouldn't have said that. All right, coming back, let's finish this up. Oh, House of Israel, Isaiah 2, where he begins. Come, let us walk in the light of the Lord and then here he says, sever yourselves from such a man. I close with this verse from Proverbs. Go from the presence of a foolish man when you do not perceive in him the lips of knowledge.
If you want to stay around those who are ignorant and dangerous, it's going to rub off. Thanks for tuning in to Cross Reference Radio today. Cross Reference Radio is a ministry of Pastor Rick Gaston of Calvary Chapel, Mechanicsville in Virginia. If you'd like to learn more about this ministry, we invite you to visit our website, crossreferenceradio.com.
You'll find a number of teachings from Pastor Rick available there. We also encourage you to subscribe to our podcast. When you subscribe, you'll be notified of new additions of Cross Reference Radio. Just search for Cross Reference Radio on your favorite podcast app. You can also follow the links at crossreferenceradio.com. We're glad we were able to spend time with you today. Tune in next time to continue learning from the book of Isaiah with Pastor Rick right here on Cross Reference Radio.
