Planning Without God (Part C)

Therefore the Lord will wait that He may be gracious to you and therefore He will be exalted that He may have mercy on you. For Yahweh is a God of justice. Blessed are all those who wait for Him. So He gives them a beatitude. Blessed are those who wait for Him. But you don't want to wait.

You don't want to go to Egypt. He's still trying to reach them. He's got his sarcasm out properly. And now he's trying to say, okay, come to Christ. 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. And now here's Pastor Rick in the book of Isaiah chapter 31 with this edition of Cross Reference Radio. Verse 16, And you said no, for we will flee on horses, therefore you shall flee. And we will ride on swift horses, therefore those who pursue you shall be swift.

And so he's again still mocking them. He's saying, let me tell you what you're thinking. You're thinking you're going to get these Egyptian horses and your cavalry is going to be what's going to save you. But the Assyrians cavalry will be stronger and faster and you're not going to get away.

Your plans are fatal. And Rabsheka, the general of the Assyrians, when he comes to the wall of Jerusalem and he begins to go back and forth with them, he's going to refer to this. He says, look, I'll give you horses if you can find men enough to fight to ride them. So he starts getting foul language and everything. Anyway, he's going to hold them in contempt.

We'll get to that in some other session. Verse 17, One thousand shall flee at the threat of one and the threat of five. You shall flee till you are left as a pole on top of a mountain as a banner on a hill. That pole and banner on a hill is a remnant. A remnant will survive. But he's quoting the scripture to them.

See, I mentioned the prophets read the prophets. Isaiah is quoting Deuteronomy 32, 30, where God says, you drift away. You're punished.

One of your punishments will be cowardice on the battlefield. One will chase a thousand. It should have been the other way. When God blesses, it's the other way around that one. One of the his people will chase a thousand of the enemy, which happened in the last war in Jerusalem in the 70s. When the Jew, the Jew, one Jewish tank was just wiping out the Syrian army and they thought it was a whole brigade of tanks. It's just one guy going up and down the hills and just blasting them away. Incredible story, which was fulfillment of the proper intention of God that one should chase a thousand.

Anyway, and this is 1973, right? War. Verse 18. Therefore, the Lord will wait that he may be gracious to you. And therefore, he will be exalted that he may have mercy on you. For Yahweh is a God of justice. Blessed are all those who wait for him. So he gives them a beatitude. Blessed are those who wait for him. But you don't want to wait.

You want to go to Egypt. He's trying to, he's still trying to reach them. He's not totally, he's got his sarcasm out properly. And now he's trying to say, okay, come to Christ. There is a tension. There's a dynamic. There are pressures and forces pushing on each other between God's justice, God's mercy, and God's grace. All of that encased in time.

Fruit on a vine. It's time. There are things that are, and so he's telling them, just, you know, he'll later, he'll say blessed are those who wait upon the Lord. They wouldn't have it. And they're looking around. They're seeing the Assyrians wipe out their villages, and they're factoring out this. It's a judgment. It's a judgment because they turned from God.

And instead of saying, ooh, we better get this fixed, they double down against God. And but for the righteous, the angel will wipe out that army. Verse 19, for the people shall dwell in Zion at Jerusalem. You shall weep no more. He will be very gracious to you at the sound of your cry.

When he hears it, he will answer you. He's appealing for God, for the people on behalf of God. Zion, it's a name that sets to tune many chords. I mean, you just, Zion, it means a lot of things.

Initially, it meant the desert. In time, it was the first name given to one of the hills in Jerusalem, and it's a natural fortress and became known as a fortress. And of course, the temple is this fortress of truth, and eventually became known for Jerusalem, then Israel, and so it's expanded. There is, it's even applied to the church in the Hebrews, our Hebrew letter. The Bible tells us that in Israel, Jerusalem is God's favorite place. Psalm 87 verse 2, Yahweh loves the gates of Zion more than all the dwellings of Jacob. Now verse 20, and though the Lord gives you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, there's a poetic way of expressing affliction. He says, yet your teachers will not be moved into a corner anymore, but your eyes shall see your teachers. Verse 21, your ears shall hear the word behind you saying, this is the way, walk in it whenever you turn to the right hand or to, or whenever you turn to the left. And so there's being directed by God, there's the ideal of being led by God, asking him what shall I do, and being told. So the bread and water, that's the ration of a law breaker. A prisoner gets bread and water.

You're not going to give them lobster and steak. Anyway, what he's saying is the teachers will get inside the head of the people through righteous influence, and Satan will be displaced, pushed out, the world and self. The time is coming, Isaiah is saying, with the righteous teachers. Isaiah is saying, what I'm trying to teach you, eventually our people will be receiving this.

It's just not that generation. Verse 22, you will also defile the coverings of your images of silver and the ornament on your molded images of gold. You will throw them away as an unclean thing.

You will say to them, get away. So, you know, many of the Jews, they have a little thing on their door, they touch it for like good luck going in and out of the house. And you want to say, listen, by doing that, you are saying there are other forces out there.

That's what superstition is. And you're just giving it Yahweh's name. Why can't you just have faith and trust God?

Why do you think touching something is going to protect you? Touch the heart of God. Psalm 119, to answer verse 22, through your precepts I get understanding, therefore I hate every false way. Well, you could just, when he wrote that, I believe David did Psalm 119, through your scripture, through your teaching, your exposition, I get understanding. And that understanding causes me to hate what is false. And so that's what Isaiah is saying. The day is going to come when you're going to hate your idols.

You can get that thing away from me. That's contempt, born of a righteous indignation with the strength of hatred towards that which is evil. If you love something, in this cursed world, if you love something, then there's something you hate to offset it.

You know, if you love a child, you'll hate whenever it comes to try to harm that child. Or whatever it may be. Verse 23, then he will give the rain for your seed with which you sow the ground and bread of the increase of the earth. It will be fat and plentiful, and that day your cattle will feed in large pastures. Verse 24, likewise the oxen and the young donkeys that work the ground will eat cured fodder which has been winnowed with the shovel and fan. Verse 25, there will be on every high mountain and on every high hill rivers and streams of waters in the day of the great slaughter when the towers fall. Now, no, we're not reading into this 9-11, when towers fall. Some folks are always looking for some, you know, secret thing to pop out. This is typical of the prophets, the near and the far, addressing what's happening in their lifetime and where this is all going in the end.

And we love them for this. This is how we learn so much about the millennial age. Isaiah spoke more, I think gives more insight than any of the prophets into what's going to take place in the millennial reign. And he's going to give us some in a little bit about the climate change that is coming after Christ returns. But here, what he says in verse 25, in the day of the great slaughter, that is the battle of Armageddon which occurs when Jesus returns in Revelation 19 verses 11 through 21. We don't have time for me to read it, but you can reference that.

There's the great slaughter of Armageddon, not the only place, but one of the primary ones. Verse 26, Moreover, the light of the moon will be as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun will be sevenfold, as the light of the seven days in the day that Yahweh binds up the bruise of his people and heals the stroke of their wound. Well, he hasn't done that yet, and the sun and the moon have not intensified as they will. And so, both poles, the north and the south pole will be habitable.

I mean, you're not going to get these storms at 150 mile an hour winds and minus 70 temperature as it does in the south pole. You won't be locked. It's going to change.

Everything's going to change. The ice will melt, and we won't be flooded out. And again, I don't see, I see a law of physics, if you put ice in a glass of water, the water level rises. When the ice melts, the water level goes down.

So, I'm thinking when the ice melts, according to these climate changes, that they're going to, what is that going to go down? The cities are going to flood. You don't know what you're talking about. We all caught you lying already many times, and they are. They are big liars.

We, you know, Isaiah lived under the threat of the Assyrians. We live under the threat of professional activists that they have given their lives to not thinking and changing laws. Look, you want to go, there's a place now on earth where they have defunded the police. Police. Police is two syllables.

But I demonstrated you can conserve your syllables for another word. Anyway, Haiti. Haiti's government's gone. Gangs are running Haiti.

There's no police anymore. So, you know, go there, if you want to. Just Satan, you know, satanic. And so we're living at this time, so don't get, you know, what's happening to us.

Well, we know what's happening. We're engaged in a spiritual conflict. We wrestle not against flesh and blood, but principalities, powers, spiritual wickedness in high places.

And so we need to be ready. Verse 27, behold the name of Yahweh comes from afar, burning with his anger and his burden is heavy. His lips are full of indignation and his tongue like a devouring fire.

Now this is, he's dealing with Syria. Verse 31 will keep that in context, but he's also dealing with Antichrist here. He doesn't know for sure, but we do because we've got more scripture to color it in. This is Isaiah 11-4 where he shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth. Verse 28, his breath is like an overflowing stream which reaches up to the neck to sift the nations with the sieve of futility. And there shall be a bridle in the jaws of the people causing them to err. So he's, again, dealing with both the Assyrian army that will be dispatched.

And also the delusion that's coming in the days of Antichrist which will lead to their destruction. The metaphors continue to abound. In early in chapter 8, Assyria had come in like a flood. Now they're going to be flooded out.

But here we have a mixture of metaphors. The sieve to filter out, sift the planet, the bridle to control and direct away from Jerusalem as will happen to the Assyrian army. Which will ultimately be wiped out by the Babylonian army. Verse 29, you shall have a song as in the night when a holy festival is kept. And gladness of heart as when one goes with a flute to come into the mountain of Yahweh to the mighty one of Israel. This is not going to happen in his time to that generation.

It is still unfulfilled. Psalm 74, verse 2, this Mount Zion where you have dwelt. So we talked about that earlier being God's favorite place on earth according to the psalmist. Isaiah 2 2 is another reference if you want. Well, coming now to verse 30, Yahweh will cause his glorious voice to be heard and show the descent of his arm with the indignation of his anger and the flame of a devouring fire with scattering tempest and hailstones. Verse 31, for through the voice of Yahweh, Assyria will be beaten down as he strikes with the rod. And so there's the context to know he's still talking about Assyria, but we also know he's talking end times. Verse 32, and in every place where the staff of punishment passes, which Yahweh lays on him, it will be with tambourines and harps and in battles of brandishing he will fight with it. So he is saying here every blow of judgment will deserve the sound of tambourines, the cheering of the righteous. And we will cheer the defeat of Antichrist, the defeat of Satan, like Miriam there at the shores of the Red Sea in Exodus 15. This time it will not be the grave of the Red Sea as it was for the Egyptian army in the day of Moses, but Tofet, which is the fire pit, the final destruction in the New Testament. It's linked with Gehenna, hell, same footprint on earth, geographical footprint. It's a little valley just there in Jerusalem.

Now you can see sheep there, it's very verdant, it's green in season, it's beautiful. But man, in the days of Isaiah and days of Josiah, they're burning children, they're alive. They're a form of abortion. They had a parent's right to offer their children to Molech. And today we have them doing it in clinics with people dressed like doctors.

You're supposed to go to a doctor to be made better. Jesus said their worm does not die and their fire is not quenched. He's saying this is going to be ongoing. It's not going to be like they'll play their time in purgatory and then get out on good behavior.

Their worm does not die, it is not quenched, it's permanent. And that's what hell is in verse 33. For Tofet was established of all, yes, for the king it is prepared. He has made it deep and large, its pyre is fire with much wood, the breath of Yahweh like a stream of brimstone kindles it.

Well, if you have a torch, you have just say propane or acetylene, you put oxygen with that and you've got a torch to cut steel. Well, here you have this pyre with so much wood on it that the fire is stoked by the breath of the Lord. And in other words, it's going to devour. Josiah the king, he hated this place. And in 2 Kings 23, he comes along, he turns it into a garbage dump.

He defiles it, it tells us he hated it. It's the Hinoim Valley there outside of Jerusalem. And by the time it gets to the New Testament, it becomes Gehenna, the son of Hinoim. And Jesus said, this is a type of hell where they used to offer these babies and then they burned garbage there after Josiah. And so will be the king of Assyria in his worship of his Molech.

His burial ground will be a garbage dump. Now, we have just a few minutes left. We can go through this 31 because he just really just repeats himself.

It should have been linked to 32, but then we like to break. Anyway, verse 1, woe to those who go down to Egypt for help and rely on horses who trust in chariots because they are many and in horsemen because they are very strong but do not look to the Holy One of Israel nor seek Yahweh. So we've commented on all of that. He is not saying that it's wrong to have weapons of war. What he is saying is wrong to trust them without God, which is the main point. Verse 2, yet he shall also be wise and will bring disaster and will not call back his words but will arise against the house of evildoers and against the help of those who work iniquity. Verse 3, now the Egyptians are men and not God and their horses are flesh and not spirit. When Yahweh stretches out his hand, both he who helps will fall and he who is helped will fall down.

They all will perish together. I mean, his doctrine is so solid. He understands the spiritual realm versus the physical realm, the limitations of one, the power of the other and the ruling class in Jerusalem, they had high hopes for the Egyptian army and none for God and it will collapse on them like that wall he mentioned. Verse 4, for thus Yahweh has spoken to me as a lion roars and a young lion over his prey when a multitude of shepherds is summoned against him, he will not be afraid of their voice nor be disturbed by their noise. So Yahweh of hosts will come down and fight for Mount Zion and for its hill. So we know this is end time, he's weaving it in and out, Assyria, where he lives now, then of course the days of Messiah, our Christ, verse 5, like birds flying about, so will Yahweh of hosts defend Jerusalem, defending, he will also deliver it, passing over, he will preserve it. And so God is the lion in the metaphor in verses 4 and 5, you have two metaphor. Assyria, this represents the shepherds coming to resist the lion, but it's not going to work.

The birds, again, air superiority, which meant everything for the Battle of Britain, the Germans could not get air superiority over the English Channel and therefore they could not invade England. My point is God is superior and Isaiah is using the image of the lion and the bird, God's air wing. Verse 6, return to him against whom the children of Israel have deeply revolted, that's a zinger.

Verse 7, for in that day every man shall throw away his idols of silver, his idols of gold, sin, which your own hands have made for yourselves. And he's just laying it on them, not giving them any leeway. You know, when a pastor steps in the pulpit and mentions, he told you those buzzards up in DC, well that's what the prophets are doing.

That's what he's doing. He's calling them out for what they are, a bunch of apostates who are doing evil and causing immeasurable suffering with their stupid decisions. Verse 8, then Assyria shall fall by the sword not of man, and a sword not of mankind shall devour him, but he shall flee from the sword, and his young men shall become forced labor. And so here we have it setting up, Isaiah 37, where, so when the prophet says this, he doesn't know how this is going to happen.

And when we get to 37, it happens, just like he said. And the fact that his words are preserved like this is testimony to the people who said, we heard him call it. You know, Babe Ruth is said to have pointed to the, where he was going to hit the home run, well he didn't. He's really pointing to the dugout. But that became a myth, because it would be so incredible on that level of baseball to hit a round ball with a round bat, you know, 400, 300 feet, and point to it.

Well, he couldn't. Well, Isaiah is pointing to it. He's saying, I'm telling you where the home run is going. And he's just going to leave out the exact amount of footage. Verse 9, he shall cross over to his stronghold for fear, and his princes shall be afraid of the banner, says Yahweh, whose fire is in Zion and whose furnace is in Jerusalem. Isaiah could see it. He says he's going to run like a dog with his tail between his legs when God gets done with him.

And that is just what took place. And so we read this and we say, well, if he's right about all that, he's right about all of that, we can trust the end-time prophecies of the scripture. We can trust we're going to be in heaven when there's silence for about an hour. Oh, man, I can't wait.

Nobody's going to say anything. All right. Let's pray. Our Father, may we learn to trust you. May we learn to seek you regularly.

So much so that it becomes so much a part of us that there's no effort involved. We just seek you for everything. May we respect others who believe and seek you and come away with what they feel led in its proper course.

In Jesus' name, amen. 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 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.