ISAIAH 1:1 - 2:22
THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ISAIAH: "Isaiah" means "The salvation of Jehovah." I believe that God has preserved Scripture just the way He wants it, and it is no accident that Isaiah has been divided into 66 chapters, and there are 66 books of the Bible. Furthermore, Isaiah itself is divided into two parts: Chapters 1-39, and Chapters 40-66: that's 39 OT chapters, and 27 NT chapters. And so Chapter 40 opens with the voice crying in the wilderness....just as the NT opens with John the Baptist.
ISAIAH himself ministered and "wore out" four kings (Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah). His ministry spans the 50 years or so between when the Northern Kingdom went into captivity to ASSYRIA (Assyria stands for godlessness and humanism - that I can live as I please and have to answer to no one but myself) - and when the Southern Kingdom went into captivity to BABYLON (Babylon stands for religious error and confusion - rebellion to and perversion of the Truth.) Both captivities together show the characteristics of human nature that are basically REBELLION AND HELPLESSNESS. "The Gospel according to Isaiah" is that God breaks through to us by love that suffers.
THE PRODIGAL SON: Luke 15 is a kind of commentary on this first part of Isaiah. Isaiah goes right to the root of man's problem: OUR PERVERSE RELATIONSHIP TO GOD. "The whole head is sick and the whole heart faint." Man's neglect of God makes him lower than animals because "even an ox and an ass" know who feeds them and takes care of them. You are dumber than your animals! They are like the prodigal fugitive son who can't get enough of pig-slop! All we gain by our rebellion is more pain and loads of self-deception because rebellion against God is ABSURD. It is strange and unnatural. To forsake God is to despise Him - it is "going backward". We have behaved like ungrateful children who rebel against their Father. God is our forsaken, loving Father.
"WASH YOU, MAKE YOU CLEAN": Repentance and cleansing must come - and the requirements show man's helplessness. Instead of cleansing ourselves, we have applied more and better camouflage. BUT........v.18 "though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool." Willing obedience to the Father brings satisfaction of all our hungers and ravenous desires. If we "refuse and rebel”, we will be destroyed.
FATAL CONSEQUENCES OF SIN: Because of sin, we are dried up and flammable! (1:30-31) Our hearts get dry and hard. Sin makes us flammable, ready for destruction. As we continue in sin, we pile up fuel! It's like storing dynamite in our toes. Evil deeds are the spark. We become self-tormentors. Read Psalm 1 - Jesus severs the connection between us and our evil and then waters us.
THE DAY OF THE LORD: (chapter 2) This is the first time the phrase gets used in the Bible. The day of the Lord can be any day that the "fear of the Lord" comes on you, me, or even the people around us. It is the day that rebellion against God is revealed for what it is. Arrogance and pride will be brought low. This "day" is fluid and active and flows out like a river UPSTREAM AND UPHILL, bringing with it real brokenness and the fear of God. We've seen it: whenever God SHAKES the world, this happens. It's short-termed, so we must always be prepared to rush in and be light and salt.
RESPONSE: People have tried to make counterfeit paradise or counterfeit kingdoms - without God. They don't just NEGLECT God, they despise God and don't want God telling them what to do! BUT, God can break through that attitude, that hardness of heart, that independence with a "day of the Lord" that was made just for them! He did it to me. I am so thankful He knew how to break through to me in love, and not just fear. Yes, the fear of the Lord came first - and that is as it should be. I was a sinner, living in rebellion. Isaiah's pattern is this: (1) condemnation, (2) the consequences, and then (3) conviction, redemption and pardon.
2 CORINTHIANS 10:1-18
HOW YOU THINK IS HOW YOU LIVE: "Now I, Paul, myself beseech you...." Spiritual anarchy is dangerous - and this is Paul's best shot! Listen up! We live IN the flesh - in bodies that have souls (personality, temperament, thoughts, reasonings, feelings, emotions, opinions, etc.) and, as such, have the human capacity for evil. BUT..we don't allow that to control our words or our actions. We live in a hostile environment. Even in our own minds! (Rom 8:7 says the "mind of the flesh hates God") There is a large and distinct contrast between human nature and the new man in Christ. The natural mind actually FORTIFIES (strongholds) itself against God! We try to find impregnable positions so we can defy God and live our own way! "Weapons" to pierce the walls and to reach inside can't be mere human ones.
"IMAGINATIONS" = "Arguments against the Word of God." Man-centered reasoning and thought processes. "HIGH THINGS": Bold accusations or assertions against Truth. Proud, human wisdom that is "earthly, sensual, and devilish" (Jam 3:15). All self-preserving and proud thoughts, imaginations, suppositions, speculations about God and what He said, must be "brought into captivity". People's arguments against God are not actually based on intellectual problems, but on a moral problem. They want to disobey. We must catch every runaway thought and subject them to Christ, in ourselves first. Lawlessness is not freedom; it is deadly and addictive. Once the mind comes under the captivity of Christ, we are truly free again.
REPENT BEFORE I GET THERE: Delay in arriving is not due to cowardice, but to timing. God gives us time to repent before He comes. (2 Pet 3:9)
RESPONSE: I know why the Bible calls opinions and arguments and speculations "strongholds" - because sometimes we get TRAPPED IN THEM. There was a time when I believed that what the Bible said was true, just not true about me. That was a stronghold in my mind. It took lots of TRUTH to tear that down. I would have died in there - the stronghold would have become my tomb!
PSALM 52:1-9
ANTICHRISTIAN SPIRIT: Also called "world-spirit" - it loves evil, is proud, lying, boastful, destructive, trusting in riches, is man-centered, perverts truth. David is actually describing the man, Saul, who had ordered the assassination of 85 priests of God (1 Sam 22:9-23). The unrepentant people who are under the power of the world-spirit will be "destroyed, plucked up, uprooted, laughed at".
CONTRAST THAT WITH THE RIGHTEOUS MAN: I throw myself on God's mercy and believe it is enough to save me. I flourish in the Presence of God. I give praise and thanks every day, all day for God's deliverance and His goodness. The key to my deliverance is my attitude.
PROVERBS 22:26-27
If you are going to help someone out financially, give what you can without ruining your own family - GIVE the money; don't LOAN it. If you don't have that much money to lose, then don't co-sign either!
RESPONSE: The world-spirit of antichristian thought and sentiment is alive and functioning and has been since Jesus' day, according to 1 John and 2 John. We don't have to be afraid - because One Greater than he is lives inside us. From the activities listed in the Bible, we can see that that spirit persecutes Christians and actually is a murdering spirit, wanting to preserve SELF and preserve the status quo. There are people in the world who GNASH on us! However, as I stay in the Presence of God, and give Him thanks IN EVERYTHING (1 Thess 5:18), I can wait for God's deliverance - not FROM trouble, but THROUGH trouble! The Gospel is certainly powerful enough that I can be an influence in the day of trouble.
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