Pastor Tim Brown, Calvary Chapel Fremont, Wednesday April 7, 2010

Download | Duration: 00:52:54

Isaiah 57

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth and the earth was w/o form and void.  God brings something out of nothing and order out of chaos.  Our world works in a way so that things are ordered/predictable.  When I turn left onto Paseo Padre I don’t want to find myself in Union City.  When you turn left onto Osgood, you will come to Auto Mall Pkwy. and not Washington Blvd.  If things changed all the time, there would be pure chaos.  Isaiah conveys the promises of God/teaches the principles of God.  Principles spell out order/predictability.  God is a God of order/predictability.  God does not change; His nature is to bring order out of chaos.  If your life is in chaos, knowing how God works will bring order n2 your life.

I will highlight four groups of people in whom we see either chaos because of not knowing God, or order as people get to know Him

RENEGADES 56:9-12 belongs to C57   

The spiritual l’ship are called watchmen/shepherds.  They are watchmen who do not see/guards who do not warn/shepherds who do not tend.  They are blind/ignorant/they have no voice – can’t speak of reality/asleep on the job/greedy/discontented/self-centered/driven by pleasure/hopeless/no sense of the coming of the kingdom.  They are not looking out for danger/not looking out for the sheep.  They think there is no danger.  Their sin has blinded/ made them speechless. No sense of calling/responsibility/vision/ holiness/eschatology.  Here’s the 1st of the principles to emerge -  

    * A man isn’t to be measured by his title, but by his life.

Do not strive for position/title/place, but for integrity of life.  The Pharisees loved 2b called ‘Rabbi’/be seated at head of table.  Where there is selfish ambition, there is disorder/every evil thing – chaos.  Lust for the things of this world had crowded out the life of God.  

I must order my life according to what God desires for me and not what I desire for me.  I must face the painful possibility that my ambition may exceed my gifts.  John Koessler, pastor, Leadership, Vol. 13, no. 3.

    * A ministry isn’t to be measured by its size, but by its message.

Some of you are striving for more/more, thinking that life is in the more/that the better is in the bigger.  The push for more stretches you out of the shape God wants u2bn and goes beyond His calling.   

Koji Harada is a Japanese teenager who only had one ambition: he wanted to be a sumo wrestler.  But Koji had a problem, he was only 5’2” tall. And according to the Japan Sumo Association, you have to be 5-8 to wrestle.  But Koji had a solution.  He went to a plastic surgeon who injected silicone implants into his scalp, adding ½ foot to the top of his head. The result? Conehead Koji now wrestles with the big boys. But Koji’s not the first Japanese young man to try to get taller in order to wrestle. Others have used stretching machines/ whacking themselves on the head w/a club, resulting in monster goose eggs—just for sake of an extra centimeter or two.  But the Sumo Association recently banned silicone implants.  Koji isn’t just the world’s first Conehead sumo wrestler - he’s also the last.  “Strange World,” Campus Life, Vol. 53, no. 7.

If you think that size is an indicator of the favor of God you will only go to the biggest church in town/be deaf to the message.  Official spiritual l’ship is not necessarily ordained of God.  Their lives were in chaos.  They were blind – no vision/mute – no message/ drunk – no hope, no sense of danger - no warning of the wrath to come.   

C57  RIGHTEOUS  1-2

Taken away, not 'by evil', but 'from evil.'  Is God removing His people prematurely to keep them from the judgment that is coming?  Even though violence may be visited upon the righteous, the Lord has a gracious purpose behind it all.   

    * The purpose of God overrides the power of man/What wicked mean men for evil, God means for good/Death is not defeat/Evil does not have the final word.  

If you think that evil men are having the last word, you may resort to vengeance – this breeds chaos.  Don’t judge by what uc, but by the ways of God.  Could the trouble in your life be God removing you from trouble?  Joseph sold n2 slavery/Jonah in the whale. Both were released to their destiny.  You have a double calling: the character of Christ/service.  The trouble in life is what the Holy Spirit uses to transform/prepare you.  When, by faith, you embrace what God is bringing 2u, it serves His purpose.

REBELLIOUS  3-10

Character of the people: sons of sorceress/offspring of adulterer.

Behavior of the people: mocking the righteous – v4/idolatry – vv5-7 (Smooth stones were polished and formed into an image/gods. GILL)/infanticide (human sacrifices to insure a good future) – 5b/unbelief that God would protect them – v9/endurance in unbelief – v10.  (Evil gets a 2nd wind)

    * The further you get from God, the further you get from good.

What if it wasn’t this way?  What if the further you got from God you became more humane/kind?  What if, when a man turned to God, he became more depraved/indifferent to human need?  This is like turning left onto Osgood and coming to Washington Blvd. This is why, when people look at the history of the church, they discount Christianity. There are episodes of violence/oppression.   

Those Isaiah is addressing no longer feel a need for God.  They uncovered themselves far from God.  What was shameful became shameless when far removed from God.  The conscience is calloused and reason has bowed b4 rationalization.  Our culture glories in nakedness and the shamelessness felt.  Not only physical nakedness/shamelessness, but spiritual nakedness/shamelessness, also – cast off the covering of His righteousness, establishing one of their own.  Maybe they felt abandoned by God.  He is not helping them in the way they think they should be helped, and so they go off to find the help they think they need.    

11-13  Fearful of larger nations/threatening empires, Israel sought foreign alliances, turning from God to the gods of the lands.   

    * What you build today you will have to live in tomorrow.

It’s true – what you trust today you will have to stand on tomorrow.  There are those who take refuge in God – 13b.  God will be their strength for tomorrow.  When you build on Jesus today, you stand on Him tomorrow.  What you build on the Rock cannot be shaken.   

REMNANT  14-21  

    * God is attracted to the humble.

14-15 – There is something about the heart of the contrite/lowly that reminds God of heaven.  In heaven: God’s supremacy is acknowledged/holiness is recognized/glory is praised/Son is prized.

16-17  God’s anger is for a season.  What if it was not?  If foundations destroyed, what can the righteous do?  Psalm 11:3  

18-19  God’s favor is to eternity.  What if it was not?

20-21   no peace for the wicked.  What if it was not so?       Ps. 50:23