3AC Dr. Eric Walsh - Tipping Point

the scripture reading for today is taken from Isaiah chapter 1 verses 17 through 19 learn to do well seek judgment relieve the oppressed judge the fatherless plead for the widow come now and let us reason together saith the Lord though your sins be as scarlet they shall be as white as snow though they be red like crimson they shall be as wool if ye be willing and obedient ye shall eat the good of the land may God add a blessing to the reading of his word [Music] it was Pierce isn't is feed for mice why should he he suffered sore my salvation why should he love me [Music] Oh [Music] holding my face [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] good evening and welcome back to the three angels church here in Newington Connecticut as though the pandemic is surging in southern parts of the United States among young people we'll wait and see if that means more hospitalizations of deaths but the rest of the country and much of the world now is beginning to really come out of it we are still recording in an empty church and have kind of grown used to it now so we want to get into the word tonight for this week and our reading comes from Isaiah chapter one starting at verse 17 through 19 it says learn to do well seek judgment relieve the oppressed judge the fatherless plead for the widow come now and let us reason together said the Lord though your sins be as scarlet they shall be as white as snow though they be red like crimson they shall be as wool if you'd be willing and obedient you shall eat the good of the land our message this week is entitled a tipping point the crossroads of history tipping point let us pray father God we thank you for this opportunity to study a word we thank you Lord for being better to us than we are to ourselves Lord once again I just ask that you make me a nail upon the wall hang a portrait of Christ there Lord let me not be seen instead father God let us hear a word from the throne of grace and of mercy is our prayer in Jesus's name Amen we'll start in Isaiah 6 and verse 1 Isaiah 6 and verse 1 says in the year that King Uzziah died I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne high and lifted up and his train filled the temple Isaiah begins his the sixth chapter of this book referring to the death of a king of Judah that King is king Isaiah now well we look at the map here you can see that at the time of Isaiah's day before the Assyrians took the North Kingdom you could see northern the northern kingdoms of Israel the Philistine still had their land over here Philistia would place like Ashdod in Ashkelon and gaza Judah was here in the middle and where Jerusalem also sat and it just shows you all of these territories around Eitam was out here and King Uzziah had been dealing with Edom and with Philistia for Israel for Judah you in order to make this really plain you can see here that the in Isaiah's day this is the Ministry of Isaiah you notice that Amos comes before Isaiah under pretty much his his ministry here is encapsulated inside of Zayas life the ministry of Micah fits inside the ministry of Isaiah so they are contemporaries as is Nathan who has a short ministry that goes past him and Hosea of course is also during this time the king Isaiah is here he dies in about 740 BC he co reigns with his son Joel him because he gets so sick before he dies and then from there a has rains and then Hezekiah and then his son Manasseh and they Co rained for a while as well due to illness and so you got a great picture here of where Isaiah sits and what is going on in terms of the monarchy and some of the other prophets the Book of Isaiah is often called Isaiah's called the prints of the prophets his book is often called the fifth gospel when you study it it speaks to the triumph of the church it speaks to the punishment of the wicked and it often mentions a remnant it is a powerful book of Scripture one that should be highly studied and and and prayed over seriously and you can see the Old Testament as 39 books the judgment chapters of Isaiah are 39 the New Testament has 27 books the Comfort chapters of Isaiah 27 so the chapters match that way in the total books and the total chapters between the Bible having 66 books and a book of Isaiah having 66 chapters is also noted there the other thing to mention in the time of Isaiah of course is the size and scope of the Assyrian Empire and you can see Nineveh up here which was one of its capitals in all of the green territory is the area they influenced and you can notice that after a while it's just Judah no Israel they get taken from 7:45 to 701 and this is a massive territory they were rivals primarily to the Babylonians and if you really study Isaiah and and kings and chronicles you find that the people of Judah and Israel thought that they could lean on places like Ethiopia and Egypt to help them against the Assyrians and they didn't trust God but he Assyrian Empire was a serious and powerful one that God in many ways used to to deal with the fact that his people had rejected him and I wouldn't say that you know he needed them the fact that they rejected it meant his protection was pulled from off of them and so the Assyrians had the upper hand Isaiah 1:7 says your country is desolate and this is describing what the Assyrians and even later the Babylonians would do your country is desolate your cities are burned with fire your land strangers devour it in your presence and it is desolate as overthrown by strangers the daughter of Zion has left as a cottage in a vineyard as a lodge in a garden of cucumbers as a besieged City except the Lord of Hosts had left unto us a very small remnant we should have been as sodom and we should have been like unto Gomorrha isaiah in the first chapter but even before the scripture reading that we just gave it tells you that destruction and devastation was coming for God's people and it shows you that Jerusalem the daughter of Zion would be left like a cottage in vineyard or as a large in a garden of cucumbers meaning it'll just be left out as a besieged city all by itself as the Assyrians began to pick off all of the other walled cities in Judah on all of the protection that King Uzziah had built up they would be left alone and any Isaiah gives the reason and don't miss this why Jerusalem had not been completely destroyed by the Assyrians it says except the Lord of hosts had left unto us a very small remnant we should have been like Sodom or like Gomorrah meaning that the fact that there was a remnant who still believed in Jerusalem was enough for God to hold back the winds of strife they should take you to two places in the Bible number one it takes you to the story of Abraham when the angels come to him and tell him that they're going to destroy Sodom and Abraham starts at 50 and counts all the way down to 10 asking the Lord if he would just say spare Sodom for that many and if there were just 10 righteous a remnant in Sodom the whole city would have been spared I want to submit to you that there are places in the world today that are still standing and have not succumbed to the judgments of God because they have rejected him and his protection there are places in the world right now that it is because there is a remnant that they're still standing now let me tell you something church one day when the remnant has disappeared from those places many of those places will fall he says we'd be like Sodom or Gomorrah what does he mean well Ezekiel 16 and verse 49 and 50 tell you what Sodom was like behold this was the iniquity of thy sister Sodom pride fullness of bread and abundance of idleness was in her and in her daughters neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and needy and they were hearty and committed abomination before me therefore I took them away as I saw good what was the sin pride fullness of bread abundance of idleness and neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and needy and they were arrogant haughty and because of all of this they began to commit abomination now this sounds like America pride fullness of bread everybody has more than they need the abundance of idleness and as the we have been dealing with injustice in this country recently there's a whole issue around not strengthening the hand of the poor and the needy so it speaks to our time today and as we are dealing with the aftermath of the killing of Jorge floored Floyd and the gentleman down in Brunswick Georgia and we're dealing with the aftermath than the riots and in more killings and more deaths and in more riots and and more protests and the thing is it's beginning to escalate and and I want to submit to you that America is at a tipping point America is at a crossroad in history on the one hand America has to now answer for the sins of bigotry and Prejudice and of racism that have plagued the country by the other side of that is that America has asked in many ways it's people to walk away from a knowledge of the true God and you are beginning to see that unlike the civil rights movement where the the fight for rights and equality came from out of churches that's not where they come from now and as a different spirit it almost seems at times are leading through the streets so that it is it's a very complicated and twisted time where injustice must be dealt with but how will it be dealt with at a tipping point sort of the chapters that we can go through this the chapters of the book of Isaiah one through five and Isaiah leading up to chapter six we're gonna get back to shows that they were in trouble there was Isaiah one two through nine shows the problems in their nation Isaiah one ten through twenty and to six to twenty one shows of the problems of the religion of the people of Judah and Jerusalem Isaiah one twenty one through thirty one and two twenty two through verse three through chapter four verse one shows the problems in their society the fact that they that the rich were taking advantage of the poor siphoning off all wealth in Isaiah it talks extensively of how drunk later on in the book of Isaiah how drunk how alcohol is one passenger talks about how they vomited the table was full of vomit and filth they got to a point where it was just about revelry and a society became degenerate this City that David had built up in Solomon had built up that was supposed to be like a city on a hill to show the whole world the benefits of serving Jehovah God now it was like all the rest of the nations except on top of it sitting it had arrogance and pride so Isaiah 5 1 through 30 shows the punishment from God that they would suffer now the night says it like this when the people of God are brought into straight places and apparently there is no escape for them the Lord alone must be their dependence so what did God do he allowed Sennacherib any Assyrians to not only March off and disperse the ten tribes of Israel to the north of the kingdom of Judah in the Kingdom of Israel which never existed again that Kingdom was wiped out and everyone was scattered and then Judah was left really two tribes two and a half tribes just left in Judah and Jerusalem and and and now there were those who wanted to turn to God because they saw their impending doom Isaiah the prophet who has been warning them and trying to speak to them is at his wits end trying to deal with his people and enemy by the end of chapter 5 of the Book of Isaiah all that seems to be on the forecast for Israel is destruction and devastation that like Israel to the north now the southern kingdom of Judah would be wiped out and I could imagine as a prophet who had been preaching all this time Isaiah was heavy hearted and we're told that he's in the portico of the temple when all of a sudden Isaiah 6 and verse 1 comes to him in a year that King Uzziah died 740 BC as he's there outside the temple he saw the Lord sitting upon a throne high and lifted up and his train filled the temple Isaiah was upset because as Isaiah died Isaiah and Isaiah Isaiah the King had died it was Isaiah who had built up all of the fortified places it was Isaiah who had made allegiances to protect Judah it was Isaiah who was for most of his life a righteous man Isaiah had hope as long as Isaiah was alive but when he died I can imagine there was despair for many in Judah and Jerusalem and the Prophet himself was worried here's why I look at 2nd chronicles chapter 26 verse 15 and 16 describes some of King Azaz life 1 it talks about how he was a pretty noble King verse 52 15 says he was noble he was a wise intelligent he used technology to his advantage 2nd chronicles 26 15 says and he made in Jerusalem engines invented by cunning men to be on the towers and upon the bulwarks to shoot arrows and great stones withal and his name spread far abroad for he was marvelously helped till he was strong he was able to set up a defense he had over three hundred thousand soldiers but he didn't just have soldiers he had weapons of mass destruction at least for their time that could shoot arrows and stones he was able to protect the city of Jerusalem and much of Judah he was marvelously helped the Bible says until he became strong what does that mean Church verse 16 tells us king of Ziya when he was strong his heart was lifted up to his destruction for he transgressed against the Lord his God and went into the temple of the Lord to burn incense upon the altar of incense and I don't have time to get into the story the priest come in 70 of them or 80 of them come in to try and stop him and he defies them and as he's standing in the temple where he's not supposed to be burning incense he's a king he's not a descendant of Aaron he's not supposed to be there leper he strikes him in his forehead and they go to throw him out and he runs out of the temple and he lives the rest of his life in seclusion and that's why he and his son serve at the same time now in 87 40 after this a man who had built up all this all of these weapons and had protected the people and the kingdom of God here's what happens when he is successful he is polluted let me tell you something Church if there's a lesson you get from the life of King Uzziah and we'll do a message maybe just on him one day but but um it's that you got to be careful the devil will not just use your failures against you he will use your success against you Isaiah was a successful spiritual believing man but his pride his self-righteousness caused him to fail and Isaiah's hope were dashed when this King walked into the temple and did the wrong thing it was diseased and then died I can imagine Isaiah was was distraught he wanted Israel and Judah to come back to God and now he only had Judah to preach to and hear the king who had protected him and now turn the kingdom over to someone who was not like his father Isaiah and here Isaiah is worried about what will happen and I can imagine as Isaiah is worrying about the death of Isaiah God says let me show you something Isaiah says I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne high and lifted up and his train filled the temple it's like God said Isaiah I know you're worried about the death of the king let me show you who the real king is Isaiah is able to look through the portals of time and space in vision and he sees the creator of the universe sitting on his throne high and lifted up his train which represents his righteousness fills the temple here is Isaiah in the of the earthly temple he gets to see God in the heavenly temple and here now he is humbled because the scripture goes on it says in Isaiah 6 and verse 2 above it above that throne stood the seraphim's each one had six wings with two wings twain he covered his face and with twain two wings he covered his feet and with two wings Twain he flew his six winged angel two wings to cover his face two to cover his feet out of respect for the God whom he worship and with two wings he flew come on you got to see this thing Isaiah's worried about what's gonna happen to Israel and Judah especially now Judah and Jerusalem and as he's worried about it he sees God on the throne and then he sees the Seraphim who are there behind him and verse three says and one of the Seraphim cried unto another look at is the call and response they call to each other holy holy holy is the Lord of hosts the whole earth is full of his glory can you imagine Isaiah sees our eyes like I just showed you on the last slide your syrian army taking over the world and the righteous remnant are becoming a tiny tiny group Isaiah can see it it seems as if all is lost and God says no look at me on my throne and I want you to hear what the angels say they say I'm holy I'm holy I'm holy doesn't matter how much filth you see on earth the god of the universe remains holy and it doesn't matter how bleak the situation is on earth the earth is still filled with his glory I don't know what you're going through tonight I don't know how hard things are for you tonight I don't know where your family is right now and I don't know how impacted by this virus you might be but I want to tell you wholeheartedly once and for all that you need to know that no matter how dark things are here on earth God is still high and lifted up his train still fills the temple angels still cry out to him holy holy holy and the whole earth is still filled with glory so powerful is this seen as the angels cry holy holy holy that the posts of the door of the temple in heaven somebody ought to realize that whoever built the temple in heaven or put that thing together put that thing together right they didn't have any bad workmanship up in glory yet when the angels cry is so potent are the words they cry that the door moved the posts of the door moved at the voice of him that cried and the whole house was filled with smoke Isaiah had gone in to burn incense and because his sin the prophet Isaiah is allowed to see the type of the smoke in the of the incense on earth in the temple he gets to see the anti-type the real thing in the heavenly temple and I bet you all of a sudden things started to clear up for him as Isaiah is standing there all of a sudden I'm sure to hold the thing starts to change he had been calling everybody else out rebuking everybody else out and calling down judgment on everybody but look at how what happens when he sees the condition of the holy God the environment of his throne Isaiah Isaiah 6 and verse 5 says then said I what was me for I am undone because I am a man of unclean lips and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips from my eyes have seen the king the Lord of hosts when Isaiah who was feeling himself in a civil way as a prophet worried about his people when he stands before the holiness of God he says woe is me I'm in trouble why he says I am undone what does that mean he says I am incomplete I'm not finished not nearly as holy as I thought I was that's the problem for a lot of folks who get self-righteous in our churches they stop looking at how holy God is there's a lot of proper - the Apostle in the New Testament says listen if someone they sin they are they says they have no sin if they say they have no sin they are a liar and the truth is not in them let me tell you something there is a perfection that Christ has that we can always move closer towards now we are covered in the robe of his righteousness he will make up the gap but his perfection is infinite and until we are glorified in our bodies we will all have this human flesh that is degenerate so I never fool yourself into thinking you know what I'm better than another folk because I don't eat this stuff and I'm better than other folk because I don't drink that stuff and I'm better another fool because I go to church on at this church on this day and let me tell you something when Isaiah saw how holy God was this is Isaiah the prophet the prince of prophets as he is called he's related to the kings of Israel of Judah he was royalty when Isaiah sees it he says I am undone because I am a man of unclean lips and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips he starts to realize everything we say what we do who we are is sinful Isaiah 6 and verse 6 then flew one of the seraphim's unto me having a live coal in his hand which he had taken with the tongs from off the altar and he laid it upon my mouth and said lo this has touched thy lips and look at this and thine iniquity is taken away and thy sin purged as Isaiah sitting there pondering this thing he says woe is me I am undone I have unclean lips and I come from a people of unclean lips he starts to realize just how sinful he is let me tell you something in order to be healed you've got to realize how broken you are one of those Seraphim who was crying holy takes a live coal in his hand which had taken with the tongs from off the altar and he lays it on Isaiah's mouth the very part of his body that he said was unclean he lays this coal from off the altar onto his mouth and here's what he says to Isaiah and let me say this if you get touched by the coals you heat it's as if he's saying it to you - and we'll talk about that more in a second the angel says thine iniquity is taken away and thy sin purged Isaiah recognizes his sinful state confesses his condition relieved he repents right there on the spot and the mercy of God is taken from off the altar remember the mercy seat that's in the most holy place in the sanctuary there's mercy at the throne of God because the mercy seat is like God's throne here on earth in that sanctuary when it says it's taken off the altar it's as if a piece of Mercy is taken and applied to Isaiah and his sins are forgiven somebody is listening to this who thinks that they have sinned beyond where God can reach them I was asking God to speak through me now because I know there's somebody who needs to hear this you think that you have gotten so dirty by this world and in this world you think that what you've committed has been so dark and dreary that somehow God can't put you back together let me tell you something that the coals are still available that God can still lay upon your lips and upon your heart the coals taken from the altar calls of mercy coals of grace they can still be applied you have not out sinned God's ability to save you I challenge you to stand before the throne before the mercy seat of the Living God and the call on his name confess your faults in your sins and my god we'll still send Seraphim and angels to come and deal with you about a power of the Holy Ghost he can fill you deliver new and different life about a blood of Jesus Christ he can cover up all that you did in fact I like what the Bible says about how God deals with sin he says he casts it into the sea of forgetfulness and God will remember your sin no more if you come to know Christ as your Savior the coals will touch you and it will like like like hot coals will tell you if you place them on paper where the sin is written that paper will be incinerated and it'll be no evidence again that the sin was on the paper that's how it deals with sin in your life Isaiah 6 and verse 8 once his sin is dealt with look at what the scripture says also I heard the voice of the Lord saying whom shall I send and who will go for us then said I here am I send me six chapters into the Book of Isaiah when Isaiah realizes his condition and the coals from off the altar are applied to his life and his sins are forgiven the next thing God says because God has worked to do in Judah he's got work to do for his people he says whom shall I send and who will go for us the humble now simple contrite Isaiah says here am I send me when God has dealt with your sin you want to serve God but a prophet Jeremiah says it'll feel like fire shut up in your bones you'll want to tell somebody else about what Jesus did for you and then white in the book call porter evangelist page 19 she says when the Lord's voice calls whom shall I send and who will go for us the divine spirit puts it into hearts to respond here am I send me Isaiah 6:8 but bear in mind that the live coal from the altar must first touch your lips then the words you speak will be wise and holy words then you are then you will have wisdom to know what to say and what to leave unsaid you will not try to reveal your smartness as theologians you will be careful not to arise a combative spirit or excite prejudice by introducing controverted points of doctrine you will find enough to talk about that will not excite opposition but that will open the heart to desire to desire a deeper knowledge of God's Word when we intend who who who will debate the scripture with you and and and and it's it's nice to debate the scripture but a lot of times I just give up and and allow them to really just win or think he wins a conversation because if you're dealing with the Bible to try and win a point but almost as if you're trying to prove you know more than someone else that you're smarter than someone else that's not the Spirit of God at work the Spirit that God wants as a contrite spirit where you find common ground in leading other people to Christ and here is a formula given and in the book colporteur evangelists isaiah 6 and verse 9 says and he said go and this part where it gets hard he says go and tell this people hear ye indeed but understand not and see indeed but perceive not make the heart of this people fat and make the ears heavy and shut their eyes lest they see with their eyes and hear with their ears and understand with their heart and convert and be healed and man can you imagine what isaiah gets this that basically listen you I need you to go preach the people who are not going to respond he says gonna shut their eyes they're not gonna see you know they're not gonna be converted and healed can you imagine and Isaiah's response is one of concern for his people he says how long Lord Lord how long god says until the cities be wasted without inhabitant and the houses without man and the land be utterly destined desolate and the Lord have removed men far away and there be a great forsaking in the midst of the land God says you need to preach this thing until Judah and Jerusalem is basically no more until they have been completely broken down now we know that this is fulfilled when Nebuchadnezzar comes after King Hezekiah shows them everything and never came as it comes and first it even takes King Manasseh captive we know that eventually this thing all falls apart and God uses that don't miss this a preaching of Isaiah was a seed so that when the Babylonian captivity came into play and even when Sennacherib surrounded Jerusalem and has a kaya's day the preaching of Isaiah was there like a seed so that later on in captivity and the few that were left behind they would remember the teaching and preaching of Isaiah and it was allow a remnant to be born so that finally later on when Owen Cyrus and the medo-persian Empire allows people like Ezra and Nehemiah to come back and begin to rebuild things that those who come back they come back with an understanding of what God expects I believe Daniel and the three Hebrew boys knew the teachings of Isaiah that's why they were able to stand so strong in Babylon and ultimately convert and Nebuchadnezzar Isaiah's preaching didn't go in vain he did not live to see the fruit of what he preached like John the Baptist did not live to see the fruit Isaiah was cut in half by King Manasseh and-and-and-and-and and John the Baptist had his head chopped off by Herod but yet and still what they taught and preached has eternal ramification let me tell you something you may think that what you're doing doesn't make a difference but I'm telling you state of course the ministry you're doing the word you're speaking the folk you're helping I want you to understand and some of you your mission field house cuz you've got wayward children like Isaiah you may not live to see the fruit of the seed you've planted planted anyway I know why says it like this it is not surprising that when Isaiah was called to be a God's messages of reproof he shrank from the responsibility he knew he would encounter resistance as he thought of the stubbornness and unbelief of the people his task seemed hopeless should he in despair leave Judah undisturbed to that to their idolatry where the gods of Nineveh to rule the earth in defiance of the God of heaven such thoughts as these were crowding through Isaiah's mind as he stood under the portico of the temple suddenly there rose up before him a vision of the Lord sitting on a throne high and lifted up while the Train of his glory filled the temple on each side of the throne the Seraphim United in solemn invocation holy holy holy is the Lord of hosts the whole earth is full of his glory until pillar and cedar gate seems shaken with sound and the house was filled with praise it's gonna be a difficult work for you when the work gets difficult look to the throne look to the throne that Isaiah saw as he has 6 and verse 13 says but yet in it shall be a tenth and it shall return and shall be eaten as a teal tree and as an oak whose substances in them when they cast their leaves so the holy seed shall be the substance there of the seed that Isaiah planted would allow for the remnant to return now let me say this church we have a prophet who planted a seed over a hundred years ago so that the remnant today would be strong and return and I challenge the people and the house of God who hear this message be the remnant follow what God has said when he says whom shall I send say like Isaiah here am I the assurance brought courage to Isaiah he had seen the king the Lord of hosts he her the song of the Seraphim the whole earth is full of his glory verse 3 of Isaiah 6 he had the promise that the message of Jehovah would be accompanied by the convicting power of the Holy Spirit and the Prophet was nerved for the work before him throughout his long audience mission he carried the memory of this vision for 60 years or more he stood as a prophet of hope predicting the future triumph of the church Isaiah and the portico of the temple reached the tipping point when he saw God on that throne Isiah realized that as long as God is on the throne there's hope and I don't know what you're going through tonight but I want you to know regardless of pandemic protests injustice regardless of economic failure unstable leadership in the world I want you to know that that God of the universe is still sitting on his throne he's still high and lifted up his train still fills the temple and the angels still cry holy holy holy when you feel distraught and you feel like you're gonna lose it all I want you to take a page from Isaiah in chapter 6 of his book and I want you to look to the king not Isaiah who built earthly for strongholds and weapons who made allegiances with the kingdoms of this world I don't want you to look to the kings of the earth the politics of this nation I want you to look to the God of the universe who is still sitting on his throne I want you to have a tipping point of having an experience with God use the rest that is locked down for that purpose so that you'll be ready for what he has for you to do and ready when he comes father God we thank you for this opportunity Lord to study a word what a powerful image of you high and lifted up seated on your throne in the temple Lord God somebody tonight needs help listening to this their marriage is failing the children are in rebellion the doctor has given them a terrible diagnosis their money is running out their faith is waning the doubt is growing Lord tonight I pray that any who hear this would reach the tipping point that they would look up and see you high and lifted up on your throne and they would understand that you are in control and as Isaiah experienced your mercy from a coal from off the altar I'm praying for mercy to be deltad those who are willing to look to you the grace would be applied to them that father God that you would show up in their lives this is our prayer in Jesus is precious and Holy Name Amen hi my name is Darrell I hope you enjoyed the program today we'd like to offer you a free gift it's a book called path to peace do you have stress in your life do you have guilt in your life do you know someone that does well then why not order this free book path to peace and enjoy it I'm sure you'll be blessed by it thank you

Channel: Three Angels SDA Church

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Length: 43min 19sec (2599 seconds)

Published: Sat Jun 27 2020