Good evening and welcome to our midweek Bible
study. On Thursday nights we're going through the bible book by book, chapter by chapter, verse
by verse. And we are currently in the amazing book of Isaiah. We finished chapter 41 last week and
so we're going to pick it up, Chapter 42 tonight. And I would invite you at this time if
you're not already there to turn there. And once you do, if you would
please join with me, let's pray. And we'll ask God to bless our Bible study
and our time together in His Word tonight. Oh Lord! Thank You so much for Your
Word at such a time as this. And for this time that we have on Thursday nights
where we can just come to this, Your church. Lord many of us are just super stressed,
and just so much pressure right now, and so much in the way of confusion. We know
that You're not the author of confusion. So much in the way of anxiety
and fear and uncertainty. And Lord, we know that if faith comes by hearing and
hearing by the Word of God, then so too conversely fear comes by hearing and hearing the world. And
so Lord tonight we're here because we want to hear You as You speak into our lives in
and through Your Word. We need to hear Your voice Lord, there's so many voices clamoring
for our attention, the threatening voices out there. Lord, we need to hear Your voice tonight.
We need to hear Your Word tonight. Lord, speak as only You can in that still
small refining voice of the Holy Spirit. Lord bless our time together. This is our time
with You in Your Word. And so Lord blessed our time together tonight, we pray in Jesus’ name,
Amen and Amen. All right. So I made the decision to only take chapter 42 tonight because
it's one of the most magnificent descriptions of what Jesus is like. And as we're
about to see, Isaiah, by the Holy Spirit, is going to paint this powerful, prophetic portrait of the
coming Savior of the world. You know how it is when you know someone, knows someone, and
you want to know what are they like. What do they like? Well, that's kind of
what Isaiah is going to do for us tonight. We're going to get this picture of what
Jesus is like. Who He is and how He is. And really the takeaway is going to be that we
can glean from it, not only what Jesus like, but in so doing, ask ourselves this question,
'Are we like Jesus?' Oh this is what Jesus is like. Well, I want to be Christ-like. And oh, by the way,
the not so often quoted verse after the very often quoted verse in Romans chapter eight; you
know which one I'm referring to, Romans 8:29. Oh no, I'm sorry, 28 comes before 29. Oh we know
it well, right? 'For we know that all things work together for the good to those that love
God, and are called according to His purpose.' Oh, I love that verse. Thank you Lord.
All things work together for the good. But, it doesn't just stop there. There's a
qualifier that is found in the next verse. Because in verse 28, we're told that those who are called
according to His purpose. Okay, well now we've got to ask the question and answer the question of,
'What's your purpose?' So glad you asked, verse 29, the purpose of God is to make us more like Jesus.
He's conforming us into the image of Jesus Christ. That's his purpose. Now we need to know what
the fine print is. The terms of service, If I can say it like that. If you're anything like me,
I know you do this, because you're a lot like me, whether you want to admit it or not. But you know
when you agree to the terms, do you read all of that? That's what I thought. Neither do I. Click
click, come on, let's get this show on the road. Get this thing downloaded. I agreed to these
terms. Have you actually read through those, the conditions that you're agreeing to, by the way;
the fine print, as we used to say back in the day. Well, that's kind of what it is. See this
conforming into the image of Jesus Christ means that God's purpose is to make us more like Jesus.
Okay, well what was Jesus like, so that I know that, that's what I'm going to be made like. Because I'm
going to be made like Jesus. And so that's what we're going to see here tonight. So you ready? With
that introduction. Verse 1, ' "Behold My Servant, whom I uphold, My Elect One in whom My soul
delights! I have put My Spirit upon Him; He will bring forth justice to the Gentiles.'
Just in the first verse, in fact, the first few verses, right out of the chute, we start with
this prophecy. And it's a prophecy that points to the person of Jesus Christ and His first coming;
when this prophecy was fulfilled in Matthew's gospel. We have the record, that It was fulfilled,
in chapter 12 verses 16 through 21. Matthew by the Holy Spirit says of Jesus, 'Yet He warned them
not to make Him known, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Isaiah the prophet, saying:
"Behold! My Servant whom I have chosen, My Beloved in whom My soul is well pleased! I will put My
Spirit upon Him, And He will declare justice to the Gentiles. (And then verse 19 which we're going
to see now in verse two of Isaiah 42.) He will not quarrel nor cry out, Nor will anyone hear
His voice in the streets. A bruised reed He will not break, And smoking flax He will not
quench. Til He sends forth justice to victory; And in His name Gentiles will trust." ' Well that's
a fulfillment of what we're now reading here in Isaiah chapter 42, verse two, 'He will not cry
out, nor raise His voice, Nor cause His voice to be heard in the street. A bruised reed He will
not break, And smoking flax He will not quench; He will bring forth justice for truth.' I'm hoping
you'll just maybe kindly indulge me for just a little bit on these two verses. Because
I don't know if it's possible to overstate what this description of how Jesus was and is;
what Jesus is like. I don't think it's possible to really overstate the nature of Jesus. Because this speaks to how Jesus is not rude or
loud, like some people I know. (laughs) Rather, He's kind, compassionate, and gentle.
Do you ever think about, especially when you're in the gospels, what it must have been like,
what Jesus must have been like. I wonder what His laugh was like. I think like
that. Oh, you know He laughed, right? You know this is a, might as well just get
this off my chest. Why not? You know those Jesus movies? You know the ones I'm talking
about, right? I can't watch them. I'm sorry, you'll forgive me. I just can't. Because
first of all, the portrayal of Jesus, He didn't look like that. That's the first
problem. Okay, He didn't look like that. I hate to ruin your night and your
picture of Jesus. But He probably looked, well, kind of like me, Middle Eastern.
I'm so sorry about that, but that's... Right? He did not look like that.
That's why I stay away from any depictions of, or portraits of Jesus. You know the
most well known one, he's got long hair, and he looks... I don't even want to go
there. That's enough on that. I just... That's that's not what He looked
like. And these movies portray Him as, you know, being stoic and somber. And 'It will
come', 'Follow me, I will make you fishers of men.' And then the actors are like "okay", you know.
No, it wasn't like that. He wasn't like that. I truly believe that just even the tone
of His voice was so gentle, and so loving. And I'll tell you, how I know that and
why I believe that, because children would flock to Him; He was so approachable.
There had to be something about Him that would be inviting to children, not intimidating to children.
You know what I mean? There's that account, you know it well, where the children are like, flocking
to Him in what would seem like great numbers. So much so, that the disciples were like,
'Kids get out of here, what are you doing? Go play on the H3 (freeway).' Of course they didn't have
the H3 back then, but you get the point. And what does Jesus do? 'You guys, no. I told you,
don't forbid the Children who are coming to Me. For such is the Kingdom of heaven made up of
these.' You have to ask yourself the question... I mean, I know with me when children
see me, they run, they run from me not to me, you know. Because, I mean, well look at me, I
guess, would be the answer to that dilemma. But there had to be something so approachable. I
mean, just visually; and I would even say audibly when He spoke. There was just such a loving tone
in His voice. You know, even with the disciples, you know, all the accounts when He calms the
storm; and you know, they're like waking Him up; He's in the boat sleeping in the middle of a
hurricane, I guess, and they wake him up. He's like, 'Why did you wake me up?' Ah do you see what's
happening? We're all going to die. And so Jesus calms the storm. And then it's usually followed up whenever
He does something like that, in the gospels, with, 'Oh ye of little faith.' You know when I was
younger in the Lord, and growing in grace, and maturing in Christ, and learning the Word; I would
always imagine, of course, you know it's probably my temperament; but I would always kind of imagine
Jesus like with this disdain and this disgust in His voice like, 'Oh ye of little faith!'
No, I mean, this picture I have of the Savior is one of Him being so loving, so kind, so gentle,
so compassionate that children would flock to Him. And this is what Isaiah is prophesying
here concerning Him. Look at this imagery, you've got a bruised reed, and you come
upon that bruised reed and He doesn't break it. I imagine Him taking that bent over bruised,
busted up reed and straightening it out. And then in concert with that bruised reed, you've
got this smoldering wick. It's burning, it's barely, barely hanging on. You know how those candles
are. I'm learning a few things about candles. My wife's taught me a few things about candles.
You know, you could buy some really cheap candles, they're worthless. You know, they don't last
that long. And what really irritates me, I just I guess I've got a lot of things to get off my
chest tonight; but what really irritates me is that you pay this money for this candle and then
the wick doesn't burn all the wax in the candle. You try to light it, and you use, you
know, $500 worth of that, you know, with that lighter. And you're trying to light
this thing, and that thing will not stay lit. That's the picture we have here. You come
across this, it's barely, barely aglow. And what does Jesus do? He rekindles it. You know,
broken things we devalue, and we throw them away. Not with Jesus. Jesus values brokenness. You know
in the gospels, I'm quite taken back by how Jesus was attracted to the least and the last, the broken
people, the weak, the weary. You know, the harshest words that ever came from the Savior's mouth were
reserved for the religious leaders of the day. I mean, He called them names like you viper, you
snakes. Whoa, where's the love? No, that's, how about that one account; and this makes us understandably
uncomfortable; the account when He goes into the the temple and they're taking advantage of God's
people; the money changers at the tables there. I mean talk about the picture of Jesus
being completely thrown out the window. That's not... Keep in mind He was a
very hard worker, worked for His dad. We affectionately refer to Him as the carpenter,
but there are some Bible scholars and commentators that suggests that it was not really lumber
but stones. Now think about that. I imagine Him being pretty rough and tough.
Not this, you know, with the long hair. Again, I'm sorry. Okay, that's the last
time I'll... I hope, Lord help me because I just... You know, it's interesting in Revelation,
where we're told that when we see Jesus, we're going to be just stunned, astonished, when
we behold Him. We're in for a real shock actually. So this picture that we've just painted on the canvas
of this prophecy is one of a compassionate, kind, gentle man, God Man, very
loving. And again, I hope that throughout our study of this chapter that
we, I'll include myself, will allow the Holy Spirit to search our hearts concerning: 'If
this is what Jesus like. Am I like Jesus? Is God making me more compassionate
with people, patient, gentle, long suffering?' By the way, this is all from
the Holy Spirit, right? Galatians 5, that's another verse we quote very often.
Have you ever really gone through that list? How far do you get before you're busted? I mean, I usually make it to
patience. Busted. I'm so impatient. You know what impatience says?
My time is more important than yours. Impatience says, 'I am more valuable than
you. Do you know who I am?' That's pride. And it is the antithesis of meekness. And that is from the Holy Spirit. Let
me say it like this, and I'm going to... No, I'm just going to say it. I mean, here it is,
It just is what it is. We are never more like Jesus than when we are meek, and humble. And we
are never more like satan than when we're proud. Think about that. I want to be
like Jesus. Well, that means that you need to be humble, because Jesus
is the personification of humility. Being meek, not weak as we're going to see now in
verse four, 'He will not fail nor be discouraged, til he has established justice in the earth; And
the coastlands (The coastlands having this idea of being the far off lands) And the coastlands
shall wait for His law." ' Did you catch that? Well, He might be gentle. And He's
not going to break this bruised reed. He's not going to snuff out or
throw out this smoldering wick. But never think for a moment that
because He's meek, He's weak. He's not weak. You see, that's our problem,
isn't it? We have bought into this notion that meekness is synonymous with weakness.
And nothing could be further from the truth. Jesus was not only strong, He was
powerful. And not only powerful, but all powerful, omnipotent. All powerful. ('Amen'
from audience) Verse 5, 'Thus says' Yeah, right, good. I did it. Thank you so much. You had to be there.
We had that planned. Okay. Actually, this is probably
as good a time to welcome our visitors from Nashville, Tennessee,
that are online members visiting with us tonight. I had the privilege of getting to meet them before
the Bible study, because I can't stay after. So I've got to leave. An d so I was able to meet them and
just talk with them. And she said, you know, we have my friends, you know. Is it okay if I
share this? Okay, ah too late. I already started. So, but, they they're going to watch it and
they want to hear, you know, that they're here. And we don't show anybody because we just don't
do that. And so she said, so I have to shout, 'Amen'. To which my response was, I'll pray that
I say something that you can say Amen to. Here we go. Praise the Lord, thank You Lord. Alright, verse 5, 'Thus says God the LORD,
Who created the heavens and stretched them out, Who spread forth the earth and that which comes
from it - Who gives breath to the people on it, And spirit to those who walk on it: "I (verse 6)
the LORD, have called You in righteousness, And will hold Your hand; I will keep You
and give You as a covenant to the people, As a light, to the Gentiles, To open blind
eyes, To bring out prisoners from the prison, Those who sit in darkness from the prison house.'
Oh, interesting, You know what this is saying? This is what Jesus was called to do when He was
sent to the world. And it was fulfilled when He was in the world. Everything we just read, from
verses 5 through 7, is the purpose to which He was called, as the Savior of the world.
Now it doesn't stop there. It's our purpose too, if we're going to be like Jesus. If this is what
Jesus was like. And it was. And this is what He was called to do. And it is. And if we want to be like
Jesus and we're called according to His purpose. Then you can re read those verses
and just put your name in there, and see how far you get. I'm not
going to tell you how far I got. Okay, I'll tell you I got to verse
five and then that's as far as I got. Verse 8, 'I am the LORD, that is My name; And
My glory I will not give to another, (Will you hang on to that for just a moment. Put that in
your hip pocket. We're going to come back to that.) Nor my praise to carved images. Behold, (verse 9)
the former things have come to pass, And new things I declare; Before they
spring forth I tell you of them." Sing to the LORD a new song, And His
praise from the ends of the earth, You who go down to the sea, and all that is in
it, You coastlands and you inhabitants of them! Let the wilderness (verse 11) and its cities
lift up their voice, The villages that Kadar inhabits. Let the inhabitants of Sela sing,
Let them shout from the top of the mountains. Let them give glory to the LORD,
And declare His praise in the coastlands.' Uh did that sound like we just read out of
the Psalms. That's because we basically just did. Because this is a song of praise to the
Lord. And in this song it is a declaration that it is only the Lord who receives
all the glory. Take that back out of your hip pocket. We need to talk about this.
Because no flesh glories in His presence, God will share His glory with no one. Very
interesting, by the way, you know, in the priestly service in the Tabernacle; and then subsequently
in the temple, the priest had to cover themselves with their robes all the way. So that when they
would step up to the altar to offer the sacrifice, no flesh could show. It had to cover all
of their flesh. And it also had to be made of a material that would not cause perspiration.
Because perspiration comes from the flesh. In other words, when you're in My presence, I don't
want to see any flesh. I'll tell you, every pastor should take this to heart, and take heed to
this. God's the one that gets the glory. No man touches the glory. No man takes the
credit. He alone is worthy of all the praise, all the glory due His name. Never try in any
way, in the flesh, to take credit for that which God alone has done. That's what this is
saying: no flesh, no flesh. Verse 13, 'The LORD shall go forth like a mighty man; He shall stir up
His zeal like a man of war. He shall cry out, yes, shout aloud; (Wait a minute. That seems like the
opposite of what we just read at the beginning. Well, hang in there, we'll talk about it.) He
shall cry out, yes, shout aloud; He shall prevail against His enemies. "I have held My peace
(verse 14) a long time, I have been still and restrained Myself. Now I will cry like a
woman in labor, I will pant and gasp at once. I will lay waste the mountains and
hills, And dry up all their vegetation; I will make the rivers coastlands, And I will
dry up the pools.' Wow! What is going on here? This is the polar opposite of 'His voice,
shall not be heard aloud in the streets.' He's not boisterous and obnoxious. And now
He's saying I will be loud and you will hear. What gives? Well, there's a stark contrast here.
The first part of the chapter was about the first coming of Jesus. And this part here in the
chapter is about the second coming of Jesus. I love and there's been many songs written
about it, much in the way of commentary written about it. But when Jesus came the first
time He came as the suffering servant. But when He's coming back, He's not coming as
the suffering servant. He's coming as the conquering king, conquering king. And you know what? (Grunts) I can't
wait. Because every knee is going to bow, and every filthy, ugly blasphemous tongue is
going to confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. I'm sorry that the vein in the middle of my...(audience "Amen")
There we go. There's another one for you. They're going to start
something here, you know. I tell you why I get so passionate about this. There's a reason for it,
and I think you'll understand when I share this with you. It settles me and it keeps me sane
when I see what's happening in the world today and I see what man is doing. The evil of man
perpetrated upon the righteous. You know it's, you know what my prayer has been as of late,
it's been something along the lines of: 'Lord sustained the righteous
and restrain the evil.' You know in Second Thessalonians we have the prophecy
about the restrainer restraining. And then once the restraining is taken out of the way, whoa,
see ya, I wouldn't want to be ya. Thank you for laughing, because if
I don't laugh, I'm going to cry. Can you believe that right now the evil, as evil
as the evil is, is actually still being restrained. Can you imagine, when the restrainer is taken
out of the way? And so on the one side of it, Lord restrain the evil. And He is.
But in concert with restraining evil, there needs to be this
sustaining of the righteous. Sustain the righteous, restrain the evil. And I'll
tell you what restrains me in my righteous anger, when I see what's happening, is
knowing that when my Jesus comes back, He will come back as the King of kings, the conquering King. And every knee is going
to bow, and every tongue is going to confess, Jesus is Lord. But here's the thing, when they
do it's not for salvation is for damnation. Now, if that seems unloving and harsh,
I think we would all do well to consider, that yes, Jesus loves me. But while Jesus is
loving, He is also just. And if He's not just, He's not loving. And if He's not loving,
He's not just. You cannot separate the two. Justice. Verse 13, "The Lord." Oh, we
just did that, wow. Verse 16, how about that? Did I miss a verse? Someone tell me if I missed
the verse. I didn't, right? Okay, we're okay, good. I'm telling you, it was a rough week, this week.
'I will bring the blind by a way they did not know; I will lead them in paths they have not
known. I will make darkness light before them, And crooked places straight. These things
I will do for them, And not forsake them. They shall be turned back, They
shall be greatly ashamed, Who trust (in science, I mean) carved images,
(I'm so sorry, not really.) Who say to the molded images, 'You are
our gods.' (We're putting our trust in You.) "Hear, you deaf; (verse 18) And look, you blind, that
you may see. Who is blind, but My servant, Or deaf as My messenger whom I send? Who is blind as
he who is perfect, and blind as the LORD's servant? Seeing many things, (verse 20) but you do not
observe; Opening the ears, but he does not hear." ' Who's this speaking about? Oh, well
Isaiah is turning a corner here, and he goes from describing Jesus
to describing His people, Israel. They have ears, but they don't hear.
They have eyes, but they don't see. Give me a moment here. There's something
here I think we would do well to notice. And it has to do with how it
is that you can hear but not hear. Right? You know what I mean by
that? I mean, you can hear but you're not really hearing. You
have ears, but you don't hear. Every one of the seven letters in the Book of
Revelation to those churches ended with this: 'Let he who has an ear, hear what the Spirit is
saying to the church.' You know how it is when you're in a conversation with somebody, and not
you. I'm talking about other carnal Christians do this, not you guys. You guys are amazing.
But you know, they're talking but you're not really hearing them. I mean, you're hearing
but you're not really hearing them, but you know. But you're, oh, you're good at inserting the you
know, right things at the right time. Like, oh, is that right? Hmm. You are miles away,
thinking about something totally different. Or worse yet, you're not hearing them because
you're thinking about what you're going to say. And then sometimes you'll even
interrupt them. You're not hearing them. Have you ever noticed that God did not deem
it fit to give us ear lids like He did... I know this is weird, but there's actually a
profound point to this. You notice, we have eyelids, we don't have ear lids. You ever thought about
that? There's never a time when you shut your ears the way you would shut your eyes. And by
the way the eyes aren't off the hook yet either. Because you can you know, how you can be
looking, but you're not really seeing. You know, when we say eyes to see well... And by the
way, how rhetorical is that? Let him who has an ear. What? Okay, wait a minute. Everybody who
has an ear? Well everybody has an ear. In fact, everybody has two of them ears. Okay
hear then. Same thing with the eyes. You have eyes, but you're not seeing it. You don't
have eyes to see. You don't have ears to hear what the Spirit is saying to the
church. This is a sad description of God's people. Unless we be too harsh on Israel, as I know many of us are prone to do. I
know I'm just as guilty as the next guy. When I'm in the Old Testament, which I am often,
and I read about the Israelites, especially during the Exodus, murmuring and complaining. I'm like,
man, how could you? And the Holy Spirit is like, 'if you were there, you would have been at the
front of the line, complaining.' We want meat to eat. So bored of this manna. Manna yesterday,
manna today, manna tomorrow. I mean you can only make so many manna burgers. We want meat to eat. I would
have been the first... I would have made up... No, maybe not. I was going to say I would have made up those
posters and started a protest and 'give us me to eat'. You know, and we would read that. Oh we're
so pious in our spiritual, you know... Well I would never do that. Yes you would. Yes
you would. Yeah, I have ears to hear. No you don't. No you don't. Oh yeah, okay here's here's a
good example. Just came to me. I'm hoping this is the Holy Spirit, believe it is,
here it goes. You know how when you're hearing God’s Word, you're sitting under the
teaching of God’s Word. Maybe you're listening to a message and here's what you think to
yourself, man so and so needs to hear this. I think I'll send them the link. Oh really? Oh they
need to hear it. You don't need to hear this. I mean, you're good. No, they.
I wish they were here to hear this. They need to hear this. What
about you? Maybe you need to hear this? No, I heard it. Well, oh you have ears, but did you really
hear? You know I always, and I did this before I got into the pastorate. But I would always ask the
Lord, prior to a Bible study, and a Sunday morning service, any time I was going to sit under the
teaching of God’s Word; I would always ask God to prepare my heart to receive the Word; to give
me eyes that would see. I mean, I have eyes. I don't need eyes. I just need eyes that see what
You want to show me Lord. Because I know you want to show me something. And just because you're
showing it to me doesn't mean I'm seeing it. And just because you're speaking it to
me, doesn't mean I'm hearing it. So Lord, when You show it to me, give me eyes to see it.
Because I want to see it. And when You speak it, I want to have ears that are going to
hear it and heed it. Because we can be guilty, as James says, of being merely hearers
of God’s Word, but not Doers of God’s Word. The litmus test by which you know that you're
hearer and take heed is when you're a doer of God’s Word. Oh you've got it. Yeah, watch me
now. I'm doing it. I'm taking heed. I'm a doer. I'm not just a hearer. You know I heard it, and
then I left, and I forgot everything that I heard. And you're like a man looking into a mirror, the mirror, the perfect mirror of God’s Word.
Because that's what God’s Word is. The law is perfect, and the law like a mirror shows us, us.
I don't like to look at myself in the mirror, especially nowadays. You get up in the morning,
you look at, Lord come quickly, please, Jesus. Oh, I remember one time, this was a while back, I
apologized to my wife. I said honey, I'm so sorry. I was born this way and I... the years have not
been kind to me. They've been great to you. She's beautiful, but I'm so sorry that you
have to... Jesus come quickly please, you know. But what, what does that mirror show me. It
shows me as I really am. It shows me, well you need to do something about that. Yeah, I better
shave that, cut that, do something about that. That's what the Mirror... I'm going to do something
about what I saw and heard because my mirror talks to me too. Dude, you're getting old. It talks to
me as I'm going to do what? Something about what I hear, because see, God’s Word shows me as
I really am. As much as I don't like it. And I mean throughout the pages of Holy writ, it's
just like one mirror after the other. I'm a sinner. I'm a sinner. I'm a dirty rotten sinner. I'm
a stinking rotten sinner. I'm a sinner. I'm a sinner. I need a Savior. I need a Savior. I need a
Savior. That's what the mirror of God’s Word does. I don't want to hear it. I need to hear
it. I don't want to see it. No, I need to see it. Verse 21, 'The Lord is well pleased
for His righteousness sake; He will exalt the law and make it honorable. But (verse 22, this is
interesting. Listen to this.) this is a people robbed and plundered; All of them are snared
in holes, And they are hidden in prison houses; They are for prey, and no one delivers; For plunder,
and no one says "Restore!" Who among you will give ear to this? Who will listen and hear for the time
to come? (And here's another question, verse 24) 'Who gave Jacob for plunder, and Israel to
the robbers? (That's a good question. Answer:) Was it not the LORD, He against whom we have
sinned? For they would not walk in His ways, Nor were they obedient to His law.
Therefore (verse 25) He has poured on him the fury of His anger And the strength of
battle; It has set them on fire all around, Yet he did not know; And it burned him,
Yet he did not take it to heart.' Wow, wow! You know what this is speaking of? It speaks to a very hard truth. It's very
hard to hear. It's very hard to accept. But it's a very hard truth concerning the lengths the Lord will go to get His people to return to
Him. And I think this is the clarion call today. This is what the Spirit is saying
to the church, to God's people today. And it's a hard truth. It's a hard message. I
don't want to hear it. I don't want to teach it. But this is what the Lord's saying. I'm
the one who has brought this against you. Who gave Jacob for plunder? Why Lord, are You allowing the plunderer, the robber, the
thief? Why are you allowing the adversity? Why are you allowing all of this to happen?
Because, I'm trying to get your attention. Have I got your attention yet? God has a problem. God doesn't have problems,
but just bear with me. The problem God has is that when things are going really
well, He doesn't have our attention. Because when things are going really well,
we're just kind of like, we glide and abide. We're going and glowing, praise the Lord.
It even shows up in our prayer life. Right. When things are going good. Thank
you Lord, bless this, bless that, in Jesus name, Amen. Oh, then let adversity
strike. Oh, Lord! Oh now I've got your attention. This is Ecclesiastes seven verse 14, I think. I'm
very uncertain about it, but I'm pretty sure it is Ecclesiastes 7:14. If it's not, somebody
can lovingly correct me, lovingly correct me. But Solomon writes this, this is a paraphrase,
During times of prosperity, just enjoy it. When God's blessing you, enjoy it. But when, not
if, when adversity strikes, oh I wish it said if, by chance, you know, adversity should
strike. No, when adversity strikes, stop and consider. Now that God's got your
attention, He's allowed both the prosperity and the adversity, so that man will never
become complacent about his future. Hey, when times are going good, I mean
it's kind of like, hey, praise the Lord. But then when adversity strikes, Lord, why.
Why are you allowing this to? Oh, now I've got your attention, because there's something I want
to show you. And see I couldn't before I allowed the adversity, the plunder, whatever it is into your
life, because you're just so busy going to and fro. And your life is so loud, and you
couldn't hear my still small voice. I always use the example of a teacher I had in
high school, his name was Mr. Bowman. I actually at a high school reunion told him that he was the
subject of many a sermon illustration. To which he thanked me, I think. But he was one of those guys
that talked real softly. I mean and you know kind of a monotone voice, never got animated. And as you
might imagine for me, first day of class: 'Hey Mr. Bowman, speak up, we can't hear you! Well , I
learned real quick about Mr. Bowman and his voice. He says to me, 'No, this is how I speak. If
you want to hear me, you've got to quiet down.' Oh, I get saved at age 19, and the Holy Spirit's
like, 'Hey, remember Mr. Bowman?' Yeah. I speak in a similar small, still, quiet voice.
And if you want to hear what I'm saying, you've got to turn the volume down on your life,
or else you won't. I'm not going to compete. You want to hear what I'm saying? Yes.
Well then I don't want to use the two words that start with S and U, I'll leave it
there. Just be quiet so you can. You want to hear Me speak? Then, This is how I
speak. And now that I've got your attention, we need to talk. Because there's
some things I need to tell you. There's some things I need to show you. And now
that I've got you, because of this, I can show you, I can speak to you. I want to close the
Bible study with First Peter Chapter four, two verses that I struggle with. I don't want
to say anything more than that. I mean I guess a pastor shouldn't say they have a hard time with
the verses in God’s Word. But I think if we're honest with ourselves, we would have to admit that
there is some verses you read them and you go, 'oh Lord, I'm not quite there yet.' One of them is James, consider it pure joy my
brothers when you encounter various trials. (laughs) Pure joy, when I'm in a trial; how about pure hell
when I'm in a trial. That's more like it. Well, this is one of them, like that. Verse
12, 'Beloved, do not think it strange concerning the fiery trial, which is
to try you, as though some strange thing happened to you;' Now he would go on to
explain why God has allowed that adversity, that trial in your life. There's a purpose for
it. God wants to show you something. God wants to say something to you that He could not say to you
before. So He's allowed this trial into your life. Because now He's got your attention, and
now you're all ears, as we say. You're on the edge of your seat, now that He's got your
attention. And don't think it's strange like, oh, why is this happening? No, don't think
that, like that. Yeah, this fiery trial that I'm in. Lord, why? No, that's that's not
the right question. It's not why, it's what, Lord. It's not why Lord. It's, what Lord do you want me
to see in this? Not, why are You doing this to me? No, it's what are You wanting to show me? And
then, verse 17, you want to talk about chilling, and it comports with this
prophecy in Isaiah chapter 42. The Apostle Peter, by the Holy Spirit writes,
'For the time has come for judgment to begin at the House of God;' Okay, that, I don't want to. I don't want to hear that. I want
judgment to begin with the evil and the wicked. No, it's the House of God. 'And (listen) if it
begins with us first, what will be the end of those who do not obey the Gospel of God?'
In other words, and here's the takeaway, this adversity has struck, this trial has hit,
because God is purifying you. He's purifying you. I think it's in, I forget what Psalm, David says
it. The blows cleanse away evil. He says, if You didn't do this to me, Lord, I would
have went astray. He's actually thanking God for the blows, the adversity. Because were it not
for the affliction, I would have went astray on my merry way. Thank you, Lord for stopping me
dead in my tracks. And here's the bottom line. You must really love me. Because think about
it. If He didn't love you, He wouldn't bother. With our Children growing up, I
thank God that God is a merciful God. I think God's got an extra measure of
grace for parents, in our parenting. Right? Our Children growing up, we used to tell
them that we're disciplining them because we love them so much. Well, you said the same thing.
We have different ways of saying it, you know. It's going to hurt you, hurt me a lot more than it's
going to hurt you. Well, then why hurt yourself? (laughs) I do this because I love you. Well, love me
less. Why? Why? No, If I didn't love you, I wouldn't, I wouldn't bother. And I would tell my
boys when they were little, I said, 'you know, listen I'm disciplining you because I love you. If I
didn't love you so much I would just say to you yeah fine. Go ahead, juggle knives on the H3
at 5 p.m.' I'm really interested in the H3 tonight, for some reason. You get the
point? In other words, yeah, go ahead. I don't care. I don't care what happens to you. No, I love you.
Don't despise the chastening of the Lord. Don't despise. That's how you know
you're His, when you get a spanking. Yeah. Oh, because you're not going to... Could you
imagine you're in a restaurant? Of course nowadays, take out, I guess. Or I don't know camped out
in front of that. I'm sorry. Who wants to stay in this world anymore. Anyway,
where was I? Oh, it's a profound illustration. So you're in a restaurant and you're sitting
across from a table with a young family with young Children. And, I mean, they are just screaming,
and fighting, and throwing food at each other. And the parents are doing nothing. And you want to
get up out of your seat and give them children a good spanking. What keeps you from doing
that. They're not your kids. You did that? You can't do that. That's not your
child. Oh, but if I'm the father, I can do that , that. Oh so you see in the grocery
store, those temper tantrums that the kids throw, it's always down the aisle where the candy is.
And you see that parent disciplining that child. How do you know that's the mom? Because
they're disciplining the child. What, some stranger is going to come down
that aisle and discipline the child? I mean they might want to. Discipline child on aisle
five, you know? No, I... Oh that must be the mom, the dad because they're disciplining the
child. That's what our Father says of us. You're my child and I'm going to discipline you,
because I love you enough to discipline you. Why don't you stand. We'll have the worship team come
up and we'll close in prayer, we'll close in song. Can you imagine if we did two chapters tonight?
We'd be here till midnight? No, there's a lot here. Right? Lord, I pray that You'll take this now, and by the
Holy Spirit begin that process, and it is a process, where You're taking Your Word and
letting it do its work in our hearts. Lord I don't think there's one of us here
tonight that doesn't want to be more like Jesus. And if this is what it takes, then so be it Lord.
As hard as it is, Lord so be it. Lord, thank You, thank You for this chapter in Your
Word. Thank You for inspiring Isaiah to write this so that we, all these generations
later could read it, heed it, be edified by it. And more importantly apply it to our lives.
Thank You Lord, in Jesus’ name, Amen.
