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Wrath and Deliverance (Part C)

Cross Reference Radio / Pastor Rick Gaston
The Truth Network Radio
January 7, 2025 6:00 am

Wrath and Deliverance (Part C)

Cross Reference Radio / Pastor Rick Gaston

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January 7, 2025 6:00 am

This is the judgment against the Lord’s enemies and the proclamation of salvation for God’s people. It will happen in the last days, God will remember His promises to His children and He will indeed redeem them.

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Asking God in verse 17, O Lord, why have you made us stray from your ways and hardened our heart from your fear? How come we're not fearing you? How come we're sinning?

How come the nation is a mess? How come you don't do more? I find God does not answer a lot of questions, even in the New Testament. I'll ask Jesus questions, and he goes on to this parable. He's not answering the question. I got a lot out of the parable, but he didn't answer the question.

And now here's Pastor Rick as he continues teaching through Isaiah chapter 63 on this edition of Cross Reference Radio. And what was the Father's response? Silence. And what was that silence? It was the meaning of the silence. It can't. The only possible way people are going to get saved is you on the cross and you out the tomb. That's it.

Very simple message. But how much is put into it concerning the judgments? Just the judgments alone. Verse 6, I have trodden down the peoples in my anger, made them drunk in my fury, and brought down their strength to the earth. Now, this sophisticated mind is offended by these things because humanistic people think that they are more merciful than God to begin with. Well, that's why in Revelation 6, 16, they're saying hide his face from him. They hide us from the face of him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb.

Instead of all of that, how about repenting? And that's how the language is presented to it. The Holy Spirit says, you'll figure this out. I'll put it this way.

You'll see. How come they didn't just repent? They did at Nineveh the first time when Jonah went through. He didn't even have to tell them what they had to do. He just said, you're going to burn. And I'm going to be sitting on that hill watching with a long stick and a hot dog on the end.

I can't wait for you to go. That was Jonah's heart. This is from the man who said, just kill me.

Throw me overboard. He's a prophet of God. And I love that guy. Because I was like, man, if he can get into heaven, I can get in there. Alright, verse 7. And I will mention the lovingkindness of Yahweh and the praises of Yahweh according to all that Yahweh has bestowed on us and the great goodness toward the house of Israel which he has bestowed on them according to his mercies, according to the multitude of his lovingkindness. Well, see, okay, there's this where he says, I will mention.

Literally, I will bring to remembrance. There's this outburst of praise on the heels of judgment. He rejoices over the salvation and the just judgment of God. What if God never dealt with the wicked? That'd be pretty messed up. What if you get to heaven and Hitler's high?

He was good with it. You wouldn't be in heaven. We want God to execute just judgment, but we want his mercy on us. And we would want that mercy on anybody who would just come. So in the wilderness, when they complained to God, God says, you know what, I'm sending some vipers to fix this.

And the people began to get bitten by the vipers and die and they came to Moses and God said, hammer a brass serpent. And when they look at it, they'll be fine. They'll be cured.

All you got to do is look. But if you want to be brickheaded and not look, then you die. And that is a type of the gospel too. And then that was eventually abused and Hezekiah got rid of that and called it Nohushten. It's nothing because the people made an idol out of it.

The sinful nature ruins everything that it touches if it's allowed to. Anyway, here's this outburst of praise and he's recognizing the loving kindness of Yahweh. After all the bloodshed, the prophet says, well, the righteous, the righteous will be protected. And verse 8, For He said, Surely they are My people, children who will not lie.

So He became their Savior. I know you have a little child that's so cute. They're not going to lie. You're never going to sin.

Look how cute they are. And yeah, you know better, right? Anyway, he looks back to the days of Exodus and Moses. He looks back to the days of Joshua crossing into the promised land. Days of deliverance for an undeserving people. But also, he sees the second generation out of Egypt, in contrast to the first generation that were unbelieving, the ones that got their act together. That generation that crossed over Jordan, they had their act together in contrast to the ones, that older generation, that littered the wilderness with their carcasses in judgment for their faithlessness.

It's a healthy read to go through the book of Numbers. You see God dealing with complainers. He makes you say, do I do that? Anyway, God expresses the great expectations He has for delivered Israel, and He does the same thing for His church. They let Him down. We tend to let Him down, but not all the time. We still are useful to God.

We still get enough done. God always has His remnant, and He had them in Israel. And so Isaiah quickly reminds them of their unfaithfulness and God's lovingkindness nonetheless. And the New Testament has perfected that.

Why don't we hear about more problems of the saints in the New Testament? Because God says, you know, you get it by now. I've showed you David's fault. I've showed you, you know, Jacob's fault.

I've showed you that we all have these faults. I don't need to keep harping on the New Testament. And the New Testament would be just as thick as the Old Testament. You have to consider volume. How many of you wish the animals could speak?

Big mistake. You know how loud Earth would be? Shut up! The dogs would be talking, just chattering. Even the birds in the morning, in the springtime, they just won't shut up. Anyway, get that shotgun out.

Anyway, I'm kidding. Verse 9. In their affliction, He was afflicted, and the angel of His presence saved them in His love and in His pity. He redeemed them, and He bore them and carried them all the days of old. And so, you know, it's a shift now from the judgment on Edom, the prophet is talking about the lovingkindness and the care of God, indicating that His presence never forsook them. That God witnessed their hardships and He felt them.

And the translation is accurate because the context, the context demands that. In all their affliction, He was afflicted. He felt it too.

And just because He doesn't swoop down and stop it doesn't mean He doesn't feel it. And this is what Isaiah is going to go in the end. He's going to say to God, Why don't you do more? Ultimately, the Shekinah finds fulfillment in Christ. That light and that presence and that fire is fulfilled in Christ.

And He literally took the affliction of Israel and the world on the cross. And so His presence is very meaningful as we know, but there's more to the presence of God than the mere existence of God, which much of the world doesn't get. There is God and He is active and He is in our midst and it is in our best interest to learn as much about Him as we can. And that's why you come to a midweek Bible study on the prophets like Isaiah. Because you just want God. And you come to church, whether you know it or not, to hear from God.

It's His system. It's not like the only place you can hear from Him, but it is the place that He has ordained if the preachers will preach the word. Even if you don't, well that's never happened here, but in some churches they don't agree always with the pastor. But the scripture, that's another matter. When He quotes the scripture, that will get the attention no matter what. Anyway, the Shekinah indicated to the Jews in the wilderness that God was close enough. He is in touch with His creation.

He could feel what they were feeling. Verse 10, but they rebelled and grieved His Holy Spirit, so He turned Himself against them as an enemy and He fought against them. As mentioned with the vipers from the book of Numbers and the other plagues in the book of Numbers. What happened to the ten spies that wanted to kill Joshua and Caleb for daring to trust God?

God killed them with the plague. So God was present through it all. The interesting thing in verse 10, of course this ties into Ephesians 4, the grief of the Holy Spirit. There are only three direct references, Holy Spirit in the Old Testament. Of course the Spirit of God is mentioned throughout, but as Holy Spirit. Take not Thy Holy Spirit from Me. And the two other places are here in Isaiah 63, 10 and 11. And in the New Testament, you get 92 direct references and not to count all the others. Well, here's an interesting part because God is unfolding His plan. This is probably the only place in the Old Testament where the Holy Spirit's existence is given to us as a distinct person.

Well, you could say He hovered over the earth in Genesis 1, but this one is very distinct and it gives Him an attribute that is human. At least we share it and that's grief. What is grief? Grief is the cost of love. It's one of the definitions of grief. You don't grieve over that which you don't lose. I mean if you don't like it, if somebody gives you food you don't like and it falls on the floor, you're not grieving. I'm glad, I don't want to eat that. But if it's something you love, it's a mild case of grief.

But we know I don't want to make it heavy, it's too easy to do that. You get it. Verse 11, we'll take verses 11 through 14. Then he remembered the days of old, Moses and his people saying, Where is he who brought them up out of the sea with the shepherd of his flock? Where is he who put his Holy Spirit within them? Verse 12, who led them by the right hand of Moses with his glorious arm, dividing the water before them to make for himself an everlasting name? Who led them through the deep as a horse in the wilderness that they might not stumble, like I just did reading that. Verse 14, as a beast goes down into the valley and the spirit of Yahweh causes him to rest, so you lead your people to make yourself a glorious name. Well, verse 11, it gives historical reminders, which is common with the prophets and into the New Testament. You know, Stephen gives them a whole history lesson on their past before they killed him, and somebody was there to write it down. So, verses 12 through 13, mankind is told about God, their maker, and his methods with his people, and we now, the church says, and you can be one of his people very easily. Nehemiah says this in chapter 9, when he's doing a similar thing, giving a review of the history to the Jews, what happens when you hide the history of your roots, your people? It's a nation.

You get leftists, you get liberalism, you get this insanity, trying to hide the things that we could benefit from. Well, the Jews, you know, the prophets, they reviewed their history and their sermons, and Nehemiah says, you showed signs and wonders against Pharaoh, against his servants, and against all the people of his land, for you knew that they acted proudly against them, so you made a name for yourself as it is this day. Well, how did he make a name for himself? Well, Rahab, the harlot, she knew, she said, we heard about you people, wiping out everybody.

I want to be on your side. And there were others, so God did make a name for himself. Verse 63, sorry, Isaiah 63, verse 15, look down from heaven and see for your habitation, holy and glorious, where your zeal and your strength, where are your zeal and your strength, the yearning of your heart and your mercies towards me, are they restrained?

Verse 16, doubtless you are our father, though Abraham was ignorant of us, and Israel does not acknowledge us, you, O Yahweh, are our father, our redeemer, from everlasting is your name. So Isaiah, surveying his times, he's made a radical switch from the end time judgment in the first six verses, he then burst out and prays towards God, and now from verse 15 through 19, he is asking God for help, and briefly reviewed their history. He's living in stress-filled days.

How do we know? Why would a speaker say that? Because chapter 63 followed by chapter 64, we look there at Isaiah 64, verse 1, and there he says, oh, that you would rend the heavens, that you would come down, that the mountains might shake at your presence. God, can you just come here?

Can you come and fix this mess? It's indicating how awful times were to him for whatever was going on in his life. It's a plea to God to act on behalf of the righteous.

Gideon, he did the same thing. Where are the promises that God did for our forefathers? How come we have to deal with this mess? And so Isaiah is saying, are we not in part belonging to that unbroken witness from Abraham to Israel, Jacob, to this day, and therefore, are we not eligible for your blessings on our life? Are we not eligible for the direct support, identical support that you gave to them?

That is what he's saying. We're your people. Where are the blessings? Verse 17, oh Lord, why have you made us stray from your ways and hardened our heart from your fear?

Return for your servant's sake the tribes of your inheritance. He's not denying their guilt. He is admitting their guilt, and he is saying that the penalty was upon them for their sinful choices. He's saying God allowed them to sin. But he wanted God to interfere. He wanted God to intervene on their behalf and stop them from sinning. It's understandable.

You may have been there. If you've been around Christianity long enough, God, why did you let this happen? You could have stopped me or you could have stopped them. You could change things.

What is it? It is a declaration of his sovereignty. You recognize that he is strong enough, but he can't reconcile, well, if he's strong enough and he loves me, why is he letting this happen? Why did you not restrain us as you did Pharaoh on behalf of Abraham and Sarah, as you did Abimelech on behalf of Abraham and Sarah? See, Abraham went down to Egypt to avoid the famine, but he wasn't led to go there. But he went anyway, and it was a disaster. And they brought back some of that disaster with them, and the name of that one was Hagar. Because they were doing things emotionally in their flesh. Well, he gets to Egypt, and he sees the men looking at Sarah.

Evidently, she was a knockout, as we would say. And he says, look, I see how they look at you, and I see how they look at me after they look at you. They're going to kill me to get you. So here's the plan.

Tell him you're my sister, which was partially true, and different moms. This is before the giving of the law. Anyway, she goes along with her, of course, because she's not against him. Anyhow, the plague hits Pharaoh because of this. And Pharaoh, the Jews, we're not given the details, but the Egyptians figure it out. Not the Jews.

The Egyptians figure it out, and they come to Abraham. You lied to us. She's not.

She's your wife. You could have killed us. Why didn't you just tell us? Anyway, that was a disaster. Well, years later, he goes back to the Promised Land, but years later, he goes to a place named Gira. Same thing.

Tell him you're my sister. Before we just beat up on Abraham, you think Sarah would have said, that didn't work last time, but they're both going along with it again. So, Genesis 20, verse 6, tells us how God intervened, got involved on behalf of Abraham. And so God goes to the king, Abimelech of Gira, the king of Gira, and God said to him in a dream, yes, I know that you did this in the integrity of your heart, for I also withheld you from sinning against me.

Therefore, I did not let you touch her. Okay, well, Isaiah knew this passage, and here he's saying, God, why didn't you do this for us? I withheld you from sinning against me. So he's asking God in verse 17, oh Lord, why have you made us stray from your ways and hardened our heart from your fear? How come we're not fearing you? How come we're sinning?

How come the nation is a mess? How come you don't do more? I find God does not answer a lot of questions, even in the New Testament, because like, they'll ask Jesus questions, and he goes on to this parable, and he's not answering the question. I got a lot out of the parable, but he didn't answer the question. So, anyway, he is not charging God with wrong, but he's recognizing the sovereignty. He's identifying a big problem, and he is yielding at the same time to God's prerogative. God doesn't have to swoop in and interfere. Frequently in Scripture, God is said to have done what he has allowed, and that is a testimony of sovereignty.

Pharaoh's heart was already hard. He was already doing wrong. God just supported him in what he was doing, turned him over to what he was doing wrong, because God is sovereign. You can't have a free willed people without a sovereign God and expect to have anybody do well. So, again, how can God lead insistent sinners from sin?

By force. Well, he's not going to do that as a rule. Sometimes he does interfere, and many times, most of the time he does not. What would it look like if every time I needed God to interfere? Why bother living? Because, God, can you live my life for me?

I'm making a mess of things. Well, we have to live it out, and we have to live it out with him. We have to abide with him. He will cooperate.

He will be with us. Isaiah knew that. That's why he continues to preach. But he's sharing with us what was going on in his heart, a struggle in his heart. He sees the judgments of God on the world, the nations, on Bozrah and Edom. He praises the Lord for the justice that's coming. He recognizes the history that God wanted more from his people, didn't get it, but was faithful nonetheless. But then he still has had his problems in his life, and he voices it, and he writes it down so we can see it, we can identify with this. And you know there are those commentators when Paul says, wretched man that I am, who will deliver me? When he says, I will to do good, but evil is present with me? There are those commentators, well, Paul's not talking about himself.

Of course he is. He's a sinner. And he's the one that said that he's not fit to be an apostle. And by the end of his life, he says, I'm the chief of sinners. Of all that I've been used by God, of all that I know about God, of all that, you know, I'm the beloved Paul, I've graduated. I've got a promotion.

I'm worse than I thought. And so we read that and we learn these things and we say, thank you Lord, just hope for me. If God can forgive David and use David like he did, what a merciful God. We talk about his mercies anew every morning. Well, it's easy to receive that.

We have to make sure we're able to give it also. Verse 18, your holy people have possessed it, but a little while our adversaries have trodden down your sanctuary. Sanctuary here may apply to all the promised land. The northern kingdom might have been gone by this time because Isaiah lived through that. But it could be the abuses that were taking place on the temple mountain. There were many of them through men like Manasseh and Ahaz and others. Verse 19, we have become like those of old over whom you never ruled, those who were never called by your name.

And this would be, of course, the Assyrians and even the traitors within. So this is a lamentation. And again, it sets up the first verse.

We'll close with this one more time. We'll read Isaiah 64. Oh, that you would rend the heavens, that you would come down, that the mountains might shake at your presence. The New Testament Christian might say, I hope the rapture is today.

If he won't come down, maybe I can go up. Well, there's work to do, though. There's work to do.

Focus on the mission. 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.
Whisper: medium.en / 2025-01-07 08:05:47 / 2025-01-07 08:15:02 / 9

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