Share This Episode
Cross Reference Radio Pastor Rick Gaston Logo

Isaiah’s Prayer (Part A)

Cross Reference Radio / Pastor Rick Gaston
The Truth Network Radio
January 8, 2025 6:00 am

Isaiah’s Prayer (Part A)

Cross Reference Radio / Pastor Rick Gaston

On-Demand Podcasts NEW!

This broadcaster has 1341 podcast archives available on-demand.

Broadcaster's Links

Keep up-to-date with this broadcaster on social media and their website.


January 8, 2025 6:00 am

This is Isaiah’s heartfelt prayer that the Lord Himself would come down from heaven and set things right. His prayer is answered in Christ and things will be set in order at His second coming.

COVERED TOPICS / TAGS (Click to Search)
YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE
Wisdom for the Heart
Dr. Stephen Davey
What's Right What's Left
Pastor Ernie Sanders
What's Right What's Left
Pastor Ernie Sanders

My role is to be obedient, as best I can. And there are areas that you may struggle in when it comes to obedience, but there are other areas you excel in. You're given a chance, and you have to just excel in those areas.

Satan hates that. Especially if you discover, you know what, this is what God's called me to do. I can do this one. I have the desire. I have the ability. I have the availability and the opportunity.

You get those four, you've got a good deal going on. 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 64, as he begins his message, Isaiah's Prayer. Isaiah chapter 64, Isaiah's Prayer is the title, because that's what we're reading about, Isaiah's Prayer. And it continues what began in chapter 63, in verse 15.

I think that to be a strong Christian, it helps to go through the Bible verse by verse. It just takes time. It's a lot of work.

Not all of it is as exciting as we would like it to be, but the entire process is beneficial. The alternative to me is not acceptable. Well, back in chapter 63, he finished with the last two verses, what we call verses. Our adversaries have trodden down your sanctuary. We have become like those of old, over whom you never ruled.

Those who were never called by your name. And so, he finishes up that 63rd chapter with, we put ourselves in a spot as though we never knew you as a people. And this is the state of mind that the prophet had as he's offering this prayer to God and writes it down for us.

And it just ramps up. When he gets into 65, 66, he's going to give God's response, which is going to be very, I enjoyed it. It gives us some millennial stuff too. Anyway, the state of his mind is important. And I would say that from much of the scripture, understanding where the person is coming from when they're writing what they are writing. Very insightful. Well, he wanted God to answer the prayers, his prayers about the wickedness in the nation.

Well, for us, consider what is so-called transgender story time for kindergartners. What you want to call God. Can you just this one time?

Send fire down. And so, we can understand that he dealt with similar things and you know, the battle between good and evil continues. When Elijah was taken up in the chariot of fire, his mantle fell to the ground and Elisha picks it up. And when he gets to the Jordan to part it, of course, he touches Jordan with the mantle and he says, where is the God of Elijah? And how we find ourselves saying that to God in critical times. And if you say, well, I haven't, we haven't been around long enough. Stick around.

You'll get there. Where is the God of Elijah? Lord, where are you? Well, this chapter is going to build upon that and also, he starts off this prayer in chapter 63 with this request from God.

It's very important because it ties into this chapter. Look down from heaven and see from your habitation, holy and glorious. Where are your zeal and your strength, the yearning of your heart and your mercies towards me?

Are they restrained? He's crying out to God. So, here at the beginning of this prayer, chapter 63 verse 15, he asks God to look down, to take his case under consideration. Now, he starts off with asking God to come down. Verse 1 now, Isaiah 64, oh, that you would rend the heavens, that you would come down, that the mountains might shake at your presence.

Can you come down and clean up shop? You take care of this stuff. So, having received the vision of the warrior in chapter 63, the one that comes up from Basra, that Armageddon or the end of the Armageddon scene, he's asking God to do some of his judgment now, to not wait until the future, to do it now and to do it in Israel, not Edom. He longs for judgment upon the enemies in his lifetime, that the Gentile powers would tremble. He'll say that in verse 3. So, remember, the Assyrians did cross into the Promised Land during Isaiah's time as a prophet and he saw their carnage and he had to live through these things and he knew it was brought on by those who were against God, of the people of God. When Jeremiah, a hundred years later, Jeremiah comes along and after the Babylonians destroyed Jerusalem and the Promised Land is just, you know, really nothing to offer, there's this band of Jews that come to Jeremiah and say, ask God, what should we do?

We'll do whatever you tell us that he says to do. We're committed, we just want a man of God to tell us. Ten days later, Jeremiah comes back, God says, don't go to Egypt, stay here, I will bless you. Well, they went ballistic, sort of like the Philemon principle. You think that when you bring something from God to another believer, they're going to be on board and then it blows up in your face. Well, it didn't happen with Philemon, Paul didn't know, but Jeremiah, he knew these boys were bad. And of course, they said, we're going to worship our fake gods in front of your face, there's nothing you can do.

I'm paraphrasing the whole deal, of course. And our wives, they're into it too, they're going to be into this idolatry. In fact, when we stopped it with the idolatry, all the blessings went away. See, they were liars, they were, you know, they were messed up people. But those are the people that also Isaiah had to deal with. They were the ones that brought the judgment on them, but they wanted to spin it around.

You know, if you, if you call, you know, someone, a guy that dresses up like a lady, a dude looks like a lady, and if you say, hi sir, they have a name for that, you're misgendering. They spin everything to make the good seem wicked. That's how it was when Isaiah wrote, they called evil good, good evil, Malachi will ring in on it, we'll get to it. But anyway, he's living in this stuff and he calls for God to come down, verse 2, as fire burns brushwood, as fire causes water to boil to make your name known to your adversaries, that the nations, that's the Gentiles, may tremble at your presence. When you did awesome things, verse 3, for which we did not look, you came down, the mountain shook at your presence. God, remember when you showed up there and with Moses and Aaron, when you came down from the mountain, when Moses came down from the mountain, when the people were gathered around the mountain.

Remember that, what can you do some of that now? Seeking actions by God that would cause visible results, things that would get the job done. And so he asks for very real, visible, unmistakable evidences of God getting involved, not abstract, concrete, not another Bible study, but action. That's what he's asking for in verses 2 and 3 and that's why he uses these real signs. As fire burns brushwood, he's like, I don't want you to misunderstand God, I need action. And so looking back to previous deliverances, when Yahweh manifested his power as in Exodus 19, that's what he's also bringing up when he talks about coming down from the mountain. Now Mount Sinai was completely in smoke because Yahweh descended upon it in fire. It's smoke ascended like the smoke of a furnace and the whole mountain quaked greatly and Isaiah says, please do it again.

We do the same thing. The Christian is not surprised by miracles, we're surprised miracles don't happen. We read the Gospels, we read about the miracles and the wonders and we want that, but we're in the age of faith. That is what is the dominant feature of the believer. Faith based on truth, the outcome love, it has to be that way. Anything short of that is disastrous. And so the Gentiles, they trust in dead idols.

Let them see what the living God can do. Please come down. I told the thing about the horse fly, in the summer months sitting in my garage with my laptop preparing and this horse fly just kept harassing me, coming in uninvited and would go out and come in and it's so fast. And so finally I'm trying to stalk it and it lands, it gets away. One more time, about five feet from me, there it is, I'm making my move and it takes off. But this fly catcher, bird, swoops down, grabs it, takes it 40 feet up into a tree, I can see it, and just has a nice meal.

It's like, see now that's what it means to come down from heaven. That's what it means to do something miraculous. Now can you repeat that?

I've got a list here. It's not how it works. And we say, okay, we'll do our duty. And we do what we're supposed to do. We learn to serve zealously without divine intervention, or should I say any more divine intervention, because there is divine intervention when we come to God. That is God interfering with the processes of sin and the curse. But I want it every day. I think something would be wrong with somebody. No, that's right, I don't need any help from God.

I want something every day that's spectacular. But I know better. Verse four, for since the beginning of the world, men have not heard nor perceived by ear, nor has I seen any God besides you who acts for the one who waits for him. Isaiah, you're trying to butter up God? Well, from the beginning, Yahweh has demonstrated that he only is God, and that the Gentiles of just making stuff up, though there are a few of the Gentiles, of course, that had it, right, Job, being one, bound for a while. And I know there are those that fuss and say, well, he wasn't really one of Yahweh.

No, read the story. You'll see, he'll say Yahweh is his God. Yahweh is his God. But anyway, coming back to this, man has no grounds for conjecture when it comes to who God is.

It's either revelation or not. So you ask, can so many human beings get this wrong? Can so many human beings be going to hell? Who are these idolaters and these atheists? Who's deceiving them?

Well, the deceiver. And they're accountable for these things. But we're also accountable when we get a chance to share the gospel. Paul cites this verse in Isaiah, this fourth verse in Corinthians. And it's often misused or used incorrectly to refer to God showing wonders from heaven. That's not what the verse means there in 2 Corinthians chapter 2 verse 9.

And because I'm a professional, I have it right here. See? Anyway, but it is written, eye has not seen nor ear heard nor have entered into the heart of man the things that God has prepared for those who love him. Little interpretation going on there, but it's a quote from this fourth verse. And it's not about signs or wonders because in the previous verse he says the rulers of this age did not know.

For had they known they would not have crucified the Lord. And then he goes on to say in verse 10, God has revealed them to us through his spirit for the spirit searches all things. So the meaning of the verse is not when it says, you know, for since the beginning of the world men have not heard nor eye or perceived by ear nor has eye seen. He's not saying, talking about the miracles rolling off of the throne of God. He's talking about God imparting knowledge about God to the apostles and to the prophets.

That's how Paul is applying it. And Isaiah is also saying, no one has seen these things about you unless you show them. And in making this distinction between the false gods and the true God. So Christians cannot understand the things of God without God and neither can anybody else. And thus, of course, 1 Corinthians 2 14, the natural man cannot know the things of God.

They're foolishness to him nor can you know them. Spiritually discerned. Revelation imparted to God's people. And in Corinthians it pertains to the messianic mysteries unfolded. Now remember, no matter what you're going through in life, you still have the responsibility to be a basic Christian.

That doesn't stop. Christians have gone out that way at the stake on fire. They've gone out slowly on their death beds. They've gone through all sorts of things and they've always maintained their faith. God's truth are not discoverable by natural means but by spiritual means.

And that spiritual means is the Holy Spirit, God himself. So who acts for the one who waits for him? Well, God works while we wait. We can't see everything.

He does. And God works for him that waits for him. And his unwillingness to deal with evil in an immediate, maybe thorough way does not mean that he's doing nothing. Go back to the story time through the perversions that are taking place. We want God to act immediately.

We don't know all that's going on. Habakkuk the prophet didn't like what God was showing him concerning the judgment on Judah, the same people that gave Jeremiah a hard time, but this was earlier. And God said to Habakkuk, because Habakkuk said, okay, I'm just going to obey. I'm going to watch and I'll see how he does this, but he's going to be faithful.

And he was. And he finishes up Habakkuk 3 with this wonderful, I don't know, if the food goes away, the internet, trucking shuts down. I'm still going to be faithful. But before we get to that, well, I'm not going to go back to it, but Habakkuk said, God's speaking to him, for the vision is yet for an appointed time. But at the end it will speak and it will not lie, though it tarries. Wait for it because it surely will come. It will not tarry.

This is a style that we find in scripture of using more words than are necessary or repeating a word or a thought to enforce the idea. It's going to happen. You've got to wait.

That's just your duty. And so waiting is a big part of Christianity, a big part of the faith of the Old Testament. Righteous also, Saul, King Saul, routinely refused to wait for God. He was dissatisfied with how God did things without saying it. He just did opposite. And he lied about it. I've done all that God sent me to Samuels, and then what's the bleating of the sheep and the lowing of the oxen?

If you did everything, I wouldn't be hearing this. David, on the other hand, repeatedly waited for God. In spite of his failures at times, twice he could have killed Saul, ended the nightmare, and twice he did not. David was greatly inconvenienced while he waited for God, for God to fulfill his promises, as a matter of fact. I'd rather emulate King David than Saul any day, and how I perform while I wait for God reveals my level of faith.

I have to wait whether I'm going to wait or not. Abraham and Sarah didn't wait for the child. They got Hagar involved, and what was the outcome? What is the epitaph of Ishmael? His hand is against every man, and every man's hand is against him. That's who they brought into the world through Hagar, a violent man, a guy you don't want for a neighbor.

Esau would have been a good neighbor, handy at everything. He's a man's man, but not a very good believer. And so we perform as believers that he has allowed us to be steadfast in submission to him, and the slowness of God to act is due to his long suffering.

In other words, he knows what he's doing. There are other people involved, and we accept that. One of the problems that you may struggle with while waiting, I have, is will my waiting be meaningless? Will I just be waiting for nothing?

Will there be no bang for the buck? Well, that's not my business. You have to ignore those kind of thoughts. My role is to be obedient as best I can, and there are areas that you may struggle in when it comes to obedience, but there are other areas you excel in. You're given a chance, and you have to just excel in those areas.

Satan hates that, especially if you discover, you know what, this is what God's called me to do. I can do this one. I have the desire. I have the ability. I have the availability and the opportunity.

You get those four, you got a good deal going on. When you get somebody that has the ability and even the zeal, but they're not available for whatever reason, they're really not helpful. Maybe they're in that season of their life.

You've got to give space there, but if that's their whole life, that's not good. Verse 5, you meet him who rejoices and does righteousness, who remembers you and your ways. You are indeed angry, for we have sinned.

In these ways, we continue, and we need to be saved. Well, the magnanimous prophet sharing in the, you know, he's not putting himself above the wicked that he could. He could say, God, you know these apostates that are, people like Ahaz and Manan, but he doesn't. But he also points out, you meet him who rejoices and does righteousness.

Well, remember that. He says God is aware of those who are doing what they're supposed to do. This is said by a man who's received many revelations. The whole story about him and King Hezekiah is just remarkable. It's not, it's a spiritual story.

Quite miraculous. David wrote, he leads me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake. Our compliance is based on our faith, and we know, we abide, we side with God, even when our prayers go ungranted.

I didn't say unanswered, because when God doesn't grant the prayer, that's the answer. No, and many of them like that. Sometimes painful to me. Always, always though, when I am determined to just do my duty, to struggle if that's what I have to do, always that is hateful to Satan, and always it is useful to God, and always it is beneficial to me. These demands are not permanent.

They are for one lifetime. The day is coming when we will be free from this. He continues here in verse five, who remembers you in your ways. Well, our delight in the Lord directly influences our behavior, but I, you know, it is probably superior to serve God faithfully, effectively, when you're miserable.

I mean, like, I don't want to do this, but I'm going to do this. That's mature Christianity at work. Jesus said if this cup could pass, but it can't pass. Psalm 40 verse 8, David, I delight to do your will, O God, and your law is written on my heart. David, of course, loved the word of God. He didn't have as much of it as we do.

We have more reading to do than he does. Psalm 16 verse 4, their sorrow shall be multiplied who hasten after other gods. Their drink offering of blood I will not offer, nor take up their names on my lips, complying to the Old Testament law given through Moses.

Not even to mention these, give them, don't even give them the attention that they crave. So here's David passionate about obeying God, and God remembers these ways, unlike Saul who in distress turned to the underworld, went to the witch of Endor, and pretended not to be who he was in the process. Saul's religion was the outcome of a life of secondhand worship.

That was his life, secondhand worship. And he thought because he was fooling people like him, that he was also fooling people unlike him. Samuel didn't want to see what he was seeing in Saul. It broke his heart, and he had to struggle with that. And I don't think Samuel ever really loved David like he loved Saul. And that's understandable, because, you know, there was so much he put into Saul, and he's much older now, and when David comes, that doesn't mean he didn't love David.

But you can tell that he just didn't want Saul to be the failure that he was. And so, true faith demonstrates itself, not only by moral conduct, but by unswerving, acceptable worship. 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 / 2025-01-08 08:13:01 / 2025-01-08 08:21:58 / 9

Get The Truth Mobile App and Listen to your Favorite Station Anytime