Natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God. They have foolishness to him, nor can he know them.
They are sealed because they are spiritually discerned. And these people are with the wrong spirit. The natural man is the unsaved man. The carnal man is the one that claims Christ but is living like the unsaved.
And we all have an element of carnality that we got to watch out for. So the spiritual man, of course, is in rhythm with scripture, which is the mind of God, because it is the Word of God. You can hear more information about Cross Reference Radio, specifically how you can get a free copy of this teaching. Now here's Pastor Rick in the book of Isaiah chapter 29 with this edition of Cross Reference Radio.
This blindness kept them from understanding their own Bible as it is with many churchgoers. They can't stomach expositional teaching. They want you to get up in the pulpit, give them statistics, give them skyscraper sermons. One story built on top of another story. Thrill them the whole time. But please, whatever you do, don't give me doctrine.
Do not give me exposition and character studies. And that's what Isaiah faced also. We talked about the people saying, was he going to teach us like kids? The drunks were saying, you know, precept upon precept.
It was a jingle. You know, precept upon precept, line upon line. They were mocking him and he mocked them back. I love those prophets. They didn't take any mess. They just, I mean, they had to take some, but when the opportunity arose for them to straight out deal with what was happening, they dealt with it. And here he says they are drunk, but not with wine. They stagger, but not with intoxicating drink. Here in verse 9, alcohol-free spiritual idiocy. That's what that is.
And that's what they would have understand him to be saying. You're walking around drunk with things about God and it's your fault. Staggering from one dumb idea to another idea. Paul said it, tossed to and fro by every wind of doctrine. Going to any church, loving any preacher, no matter what they're saying, always learning and never really getting the point.
This is not acceptable and it shouldn't be. It's not like, well, you've got a handicap where, you know, you can understand God's word. Well, that's not true. That's why Jesus said to Satan, man should not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. And he couldn't say that if it was, you know, only for scholars. Well, anyone who studies is a scholar.
Of course, we use the word differently from time to time. Any student of scripture will learn. Not all of it, but enough of it. There will be things that you will say, hmm, that's perplexing, but there will be a lot of other things where you say, I got it.
And not only do I have it, I have it well enough to give it. And that is letting the Spirit flow through you. Verse 10, for Yahweh has poured out on you the spirit of deep sleep and has closed your eyes, namely the prophets. He has covered your heads, namely the seers. But instead, again, of pouring the Spirit into the people, welcoming them to be in communion with God, he's pouring sleep into them. God himself. Romans chapter 1, therefore God gave them up to uncleanness in the lust of their hearts to dishonor their bodies among themselves. It reaches a point where God says, fine, maybe you'll understand this.
This is what you insist on having, this is what you shall get. And then they blame him for that. And so, in this sleep, they missed everything. He cut the, no more prophets. There's a subtle difference between a prophet and a seer because, you know, some of the prophets were seers. But the office of a prophet had a lot more authority than just a person who could see something. The prophets wielded authority.
And that's my take on the distinction between the two. Romans chapter 1, again, and even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a debased mind, to those things which are not fitting. But the sad thing is, as many Christians cave with them.
They just think it's just better to change teams than to stand. And having done all to stand, to stand. It does hurt, but you've got to take the pain. You're going to be in pain no matter what in life.
There's pain everywhere. You might as well try to make it count for the kingdom. I tell myself that and I believe it, and it has worked well for me. And I'm afraid of thinking where I would be if I didn't take that approach.
What would I do if I just got discouraged with ministry or just life? I don't want to, just change the subject. So, in no way is God to blame for their apostasy or His intolerance. Consider the miracles that Pharaoh refused to yield to. Stick that on God.
It's his fault. No, it's Pharaoh's fault. God was reaching out to him, Moses appealed to him, and he would have none of it. Consider Judas Iscariot. He saw more things than most people who were ever born saw, and look what he did with it. Anyway, it's their fault that Yahweh hurt them for being harmful. Action and reaction. And why are rebellious sinners so upset with God when He behaves like God?
While they deny Him at the same time. Well, this is what sin does to people, and we need to be sensitive to that. You know, when you're dealing with somebody, say, well, you know, I'm dealing with somebody who is in a deep sleep.
I'm dealing with someone who's staggering, but not because of some substance. It's sin that is doing this, and our response is always, I think the same, largely. We can do our part. Our part is always to follow the Spirit.
Sometimes it's to be quiet, sometimes it's to be encouraging, sometimes it is to rebuke. Verse 11, the whole vision has become to you like the words of a book that is sealed, which men deliver to one who is literate, saying, read this please. And he says, I cannot, for it is sealed. Then the book is delivered to one who is illiterate, saying, read this please. And he says, I am not literate. Well, this blindness is the result of their infidelity to God, as we've been looking at.
And holding God's word is insignificant, because they were frauds, going down to the temple offering sacrifices, blind to the truth. And so here you have the educated and the uneducated. And to one, he says, can you read the scriptures? I can't. It's closed to me.
It is sealed. And he goes to the other one, who can't read, and says, well, I would break the seal, but I couldn't read anyway. Isaiah's giving us this picture. Paul summed it up this way. And as you see this in the Old Testament, you come across the New Testament cross-references, you've got to say to yourself, those New Testament apostles were reading those Old Testament prophets. And so he says, the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God. They have foolishness to him, nor can he know them.
They are sealed, because they are spiritually discerned. And these people were with the wrong spirit. The natural man is the unsaved man. The carnal man is the one that claims Christ, but is living like the unsaved.
And we all have an element of carnality that we've got to watch out for. And so the spiritual man, of course, is in rhythm with scripture, which is the mind of God, because it is the Word of God. And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.
It's all tied in. Verse 13. Therefore, the Lord said, inasmuch as these people draw near me with their mouths, and honor me with their lips, but have removed their hearts far from me, and their fear toward me is taught by the commandment of men. Well, this is Christ, Matthew 15, saying that to the religious Pharisees, saying, give me lip service, but you don't mean it.
You are far from me. You make up laws, and you say God did this, but no, it's really you did this. And you did this to get something from people. You're corrupt.
It's the bottom line. And so they were flattering God, but they were false through and through. This goes back again to verse 1. Ritual alone does not impress God. Oh, look at the candles you lit. I never saw anybody light one with their left hand.
I never saw a righty light it with their left hand. It's very impressive. And there are a lot of people, they are very much into ritual. But they don't read their Bibles.
This is very sad. Man-centered religion, and it's routine. And so here Christ is repeating himself centuries later.
What are we? 700 years later, Christ comes, and he inspired Isaiah to say this, and then he quotes it to the Pharisees, and we, of course, read and quote it ourselves. He repeated it in the New Testament in different ways. And so when he gets to the church at Ephesus in Revelation 2, he says the same thing, that you're drawing near to me, but you don't love me.
And I need you to fix that. Churchgoers that sing hymns and give offerings and labor in the church without Jesus, making a fatal mistake. You can do those things with Jesus.
It is doable. Ezekiel 33 again. Listen to what happened. Here's Ezekiel. He is a preacher. He's a little weird. He's a lot of weird, actually. But he was God's man, and he saw a whole bunch of stuff. And when we get to heaven, and we saw the creature with the head like an ox, and all these other things, the lion and the eagle, all these things, we're going to say, I get it now. He's not as weird as you said he was, Rick. He was right on.
That's not what made him weird. Anyway, Ezekiel 33. God talking with the prophet so that the people can get this. So they come to you as people do, and they sit before you as my people. And they hear your words, but they do not do them. For with their mouth they show much love, but their hearts pursue their own gain. Indeed, you are to them as a very lovely song of one who has a pleasant voice and can play well on an instrument, for they hear your words, but they do not do them. Man, is that not?
That's a flame thrower. To somebody who just comes to church and is playing around, and you come across a verse like that, and you say, man, this is God speaking. He sees through it. Well, the sincere heart will say, ah, and try to fix this. And even they stumble and fail, get up and stumble, fail, continue that, God can work with that. But it's the one who just smugly acts like, no, this is acceptable.
Their guilt is on them. Verse 14. Therefore, behold, I will again do a marvelous work among this people, a marvelous work and a wonder, for the wisdom of their wise men shall perish, and the understanding of their prudent men shall be hidden. Well, of course, the many verses, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise and bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent. Again, Paul, were you reading Isaiah?
Obviously. And putting it into proper New Testament perspective for us. What comes out of this verse, God again abruptly shifts and he says, when I get these know-it-alls out of the way, these religious know-it-alls, then things will be a blessing. Man, imagine God saying, you know, if I can get you out of the picture, people will be a lot happier.
That would be a heavy hit. And this is precisely what he is saying. He has a work around, just not immediate. So, here we see people who smugly think, you know those politicians that think they have so much control and they lie and they cheat, they're corrupt, they're prancing around.
Even when they're sleeping, they're prancing around. God sees that. We have to endure it. 1 Corinthians 1. But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty. But, of course, we have a delay in execution of these things.
Why? Why God? Because he's merciful.
Before you got saved, you would have been happy, too, that God was delaying justice on you. So, that's why we talk about God is long suffering, willing that none should perish and you're supposed to be God-like in the Christ-like sense of the word. We're not like gods in that New Age nonsense.
Remember Shirley MacLaine in her Out on a Limb book, nonsense that Satan got away with there. Anyway, we are not ever going to be like God, but we can be like the Son in Christ-likeness. Paul said, we look in the mirror dimly, but that day is going to come, that day is going to come and we will know him and he will know us and it was going to be radical. Paul is enjoying that now.
We're headed in that direction. Sort of like somebody who took a flight before you. All right, verse 15. Woe to those who seek deep to hide their counsel from Yahweh and their works are in the dark. They say, who sees us? And who knows us?
In other words, no one sees us. Well, of course, Judah calling to idolaters to save them, calling to Egypt, and that was a big fuss with Isaiah, especially in the days of Ahaz, that rotten king in Judah before his son Hezekiah comes to the throne. And so, you know, that's the thing God was bothered by. Why are you asking idolaters for help when I have made it clear I am your help, O Jerusalem? And this verse tells us they put a lot of effort into deception.
Who else does that? Verse 16, surely you have things turned around. Shall the potter be esteemed as the clay for shall the thing made say to him who made it, he did not make me, or shall the thing formed say to him who formed it, he has no understanding? Well, he just summed up evolutionists and humanists and their upside down, downside up approach to life. The demotion of truth, that's what you're dealing with. Professing to be wise, they became fools. How come?
Because they demoted truth. And that's why God said, fine, you're going to be drunk, you're going to stumble around. I'm going to put a sleep into you.
I'm going to control this. It won't be as successful as Satan wants it to be. Verse 17, is it not yet a very little while till Lebanon shall be turned into a fruitful field and the fruitful field be esteemed as a forest. Well, Lebanon with her cedars and cypress trees and all that was stripped by generations of hoarding armies. Anyway, this is Gentile land. This seems to be a veiled promise that God will, he hadn't forgotten the Gentiles. And Isaiah was a prophet who was very sensitive to that. When we get to the 40s in Isaiah, it comes out more to the surface. So radical change, again, comes when Christ returns.
Listen to what Isaiah says in the 58th chapter, looking forward. He's saying, my people will delight in me. Yet they seek me daily and delight to know my ways as a nation that did righteousness and did not forsake the ordinance of their God.
They ask of me the ordinances of justice. They take delight in approaching God. Well, that's Jerusalem, where she should have been, the heroic place of the sacrifice. Of course, that is the lion and the cross. Verse 18, in that day, the deaf shall hear the words of the book, and the eyes of the blind shall see out of obscurity and out of darkness. And of course, the light will overcome the darkness. And Isaiah is saying, things are going to get better. Remember the blind and the people earlier? Well, the righteous will see.
Verse 19, the humble also shall increase their joy in Yahweh, and the poor among men shall rejoice in the Holy One of Israel. Well, we've got two things there. We'll just take one now and the other.
We'll take them both now. The meek shall inherit the earth. Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.
That's one. The other verse that has to do with this, when it mentions the Holy One, verse 19 is where we are. They shall rejoice in the Holy One of Israel. Well, that's Jesus Christ, because Yahweh is Christ and Jesus and Jesus is Yahweh of the Old Testament. Mark's gospel, Jesus goes into the synagogue, also, you know, equivalent to church, and there he encounters a demon, a man that has a demon, and the demon says, we don't want your help. Let us alone. What have we to do with you, Jesus of Nazareth? Did you come to destroy us? I know who you are, the Holy One of God.
Well, that's the same. There's only one Holy One, and the magnitude that this is given to us, and that is the Christ. And so verse 19 has to do everything with Christ. Verse 20, remember he expounded to them, Moses and the prophets, and he would have picked out a verse like that and said, that's me. Verse 20, for the terrible one is brought to nothing, the scornful one is consumed, and all who watch for an iniquity are cut off. Well, chapter 13, God says, I will punish the world for its evil and the wicked for its iniquity.
I will halt the ignorance of the proud and lay low the haughtiness or the arrogance of the terrible. Verse 21, who make a man an offender by a word and lay a snare for him who reproves in the gate and turn aside the just by empty words. Now he's dealing with the corrupt court system.
The gate is where legal matters were settled. And he says, you know those power crazed prosecutors that care nothing for justice or truth that will take a president and try to bring him in charges and just do all this corruption just to menace and the evil that they do? That's who he's talking about right here. Isaiah had to deal with these people too. And Isaiah was plugged into the court of the king.
You're very close with Hezekiah. He talks about the people who lay a snare for those who reprove in the gate. And that is, of course, the wicked people who twist justice in the court system, the corrupt lawyers, the corrupt judges. Some lawyers are not corrupt. Some judges are not corrupt. Others are.
Journalists and those corrupt journalists and those activists who dig for dirt. You know Billy Graham, when he would go on the road and would get a hotel room, it would always be him and somebody else in that room as a witness. And if someone knocked on the door, the other person would answer the door because they were trying to trap Billy and besmirk the ministry. And they would have, you know, a girl there and a trench coat and that's all.
And when Billy opened the door, she would quickly jump in the way and they'd snap a picture making it look like he was with her. And so they knew to protect against these types of people. And they do many other things.
Now they can just hack your computer and make plant false evidence. Evil people. That's who Isaiah's talking about. And turn aside the just by empty words. They're lying about them. Perjurers do harm. Under oath, they lie and it hurts you. Because the courts think, well he took an oath after I took an oath. These are corrupt people.
And then they go out into society and further do damage because of their penchant for corruption. Anyway, verse 22. So we shouldn't be surprised when we see these things.
But it always is surprising. Verse 22. Therefore thus says the Lord who redeemed Abraham concerning the house of Jacob, Jacob shall not now be ashamed nor shall his face now grow pale. Again, overtones and views of the end times run throughout the prophets.
They always had the hand on hope. Verse 23. But when he sees his children, the work of my hands in his midst, they will hollow my name and hollow the Holy One of Jacob and fear the God of Israel. Boy, there's a triune blessing with God hollowing the name Yahweh, hollowing the Holy One, hollowing the fear of the God of Israel. Always a word of righteousness. Hope springs eternal. Men like Ezra, women like Ruth, these are who will be rejoicing.
And that would be men and women like us in spite of our failures. Elijah was a prophet with like passions. Anyway, coming back to this, I already mentioned about when we pray, hallowed be thy name.
I won't repeat. Verse 24. These also who err in spirit will come to understanding and those who complained will learn doctrine. So God, the things we struggle with, ignorance and criticism. I don't struggle with those things. I struggle with people who struggle with those things.
And I criticize them a lot. Anyway, they're going to learn their Bibles. That's what God is saying.
The time will come when they will love to learn about me. When we will no longer be amazed at the levels of biblical apathy and apostasy and ignorance. I'll close with two verses. Revelation 5. But one of the elders said to me, Do not weep, behold, the lion of the tribe of Judah, the root of David, has prevailed to open the scroll and to loose its seven seals. Remember the seal of the word we talked about? Remember we talked about Ariel, the lion of God. We talked about Judah and Jerusalem. We talked about the sacrifice in this section, chapter 5. He is the lamb who was slain and he is the one that takes the scroll.
He has the rights to the world. No more curse because of him. Revelation 22, 3. And there shall be no more curse but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it and his servants shall serve him. So we pick up on those two verses. Judah, the lion, and the lamb, the altar. It was the lamb, of course, the sacrificial lamb.
All of it fits together. The place of sacrifice that Israel was supposed to lionize, the lion's altar, is fulfilled in Christ Jesus our Lord. Let's pray. Our Father, we thank you that precept is upon precept and lion is upon lion and it is meaningful and it does get things done in the face of discouragement. Yes, we see the struggles but we also see the victories. May they multiply, Lord.
We're not looking for you to add victories. We're looking for you to multiply them because we know these are the things you do. May you get us all home safely. In Jesus' name we ask you.
Amen. When you subscribe, you'll be notified of new editions 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.
