Clean Transcript

Implication of forsaking God's Laws

Clean readable transcript. This view follows the Commentary.net cleaned segment text while preserving timestamps for audio follow-along.

• Let's go ahead and turn in our Bibles to Isaiah chapter 30. Isaiah chapter 30. And we're going to be reading verses 8 through 18. Isaiah 30, verses 8 through 18. The title of the message is "Implications of Forsaking God's Law." Implications of Forsaking God's Law. So if you look in your Bibles into Isaiah chapter 30, beginning there with verse 8, the Word of God says this: "Now go, write it before them in a table, and note it in a book, that it may be for the time to come for ever and ever. But this is a rebellious people, lying children, children that will not hear the law of the Lord, which say to the seers, See not."

  #1 | 0:00 to 0:49 | cleaned

• "And to the prophets, Prophesy not unto us right things, speak unto us smooth things, prophesy deceits. Get you out of the way, turn aside out of the path, cause the Holy One of Israel to cease from before us. Wherefore, thus saith the Holy One of Israel, because you despise this word, and trust in oppression and perverseness, and stay thereon, therefore this iniquity shall be to you as a breach ready to fall, swelling out in a high wall, whose breaking cometh suddenly at an instant. And he shall break it as the breaking of a potter's vessel that is broken in pieces."

  #2 | 0:50 to 1:27 | cleaned

• "He shall not spare, so that there shall not be found in the bursting of it a sherd to take fire from the hearth, or to take water withal out of the pit. For thus saith the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel, in returning and rest shall you be saved, in quietness and confidence shall be your strength, and you would not. But you said, No, for we will flee upon horses. Therefore shall you flee, and we will ride upon the swift. Therefore shall they that pursue you be swift. One thousand shall flee at the rebuke of one, and at the rebuke of five shall ye flee, till ye be left as a beacon upon the top of a mountain, and as an ensign on a hill. And therefore will the Lord wait, that He may be gracious unto you, and therefore will He be exalted, that He may have mercy upon you. For the Lord is a God of judgment, blessed are all they that wait for Him."

  #3 | 1:27 to 2:22 | cleaned

• I've preached many times in times past and made this particular statement, which I want to make again today, that the alternative to God's law is man's law. Man, in rejecting God's law, becomes autonomous, and thus he becomes a law to himself. Thus, a denial of and a forsaking of God's law, then, leaves you the only alternative, and that is to be ruled by man.

  #4 | 2:24 to 2:52 | cleaned

• Now, you may think that autonomy is just a competition to the law of God, because it is an alternate law system. And in one sense of the word, it is in competition to the law of God. But the problem is most of us have never really realized the implications of forsaking the law of God. So when one rebels against God and refuses His word, disobeys Him, and conducts his life apart from God, in essence, he's not only destroying himself, but also his family and society as well.

  #5 | 2:52 to 3:32 | cleaned

• Now I want you to hold Isaiah 30, but turn right over, if you would please, to the book of Jeremiah chapter 11, and let's begin reading there with verse 3. I want to just set the stage for Isaiah chapter 30. So notice if you would, in Jeremiah chapter 11, and let's begin reading with verse 3, and we'll read through verse 8. Watch carefully, if you would. Jeremiah 11, beginning there with verse 3.

  #6 | 3:32 to 4:00 | cleaned

• The Word of God says, "And say thou unto them, Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, Cursed be the man that obeyeth not the words of this covenant." So I want you to note that. Cursed be the man.

  #7 | 4:00 to 4:14 | cleaned

• Now watch in verse 4. "Which I commanded your fathers in the day that I brought them forth out of the land of Egypt, from the iron furnace, saying, Obey my voice, and do them according to all which I command you. So shall you be my people, and I will be your God, that I may perform the oath which I swore unto your fathers, to give them a land flowing with milk and honey, as it is this day."

  #8 | 4:15 to 4:39 | cleaned

• Then answered I, and said, So be it, O Lord. Then the Lord said unto me, Proclaim all these words in the cities of Judah, and in the streets of Jerusalem, saying, Hear ye the words of this covenant, and do them. For I earnestly protested unto your fathers in the day that I brought them up out of the land of Egypt, even unto this day, rising early and protesting, saying, Obey my voice.

  #9 | 4:39 to 5:06 | cleaned

• "Yet they obeyed not, nor inclined their ear, but walked every one in the imagination of their evil heart. Therefore, I will bring upon them all the words of this covenant, which I commanded them to do, and they did them not." Now, I want you to note, he said, in verse 8, "Yet they obeyed not, nor inclined their ear, but walked every one in the imagination of their heart. Therefore..." And it's been said over and over, anytime you see a "therefore," you better make sure that you see what it is there for.

  #10 | 5:07 to 5:43 | cleaned

• And this is certainly a conclusion based upon their refusal to obey. And he says, "I will bring upon them all the words of this covenant, which I commanded them to do, and they did them not." Thus he's talking about all the curses that were mentioned in Leviticus 26 and Deuteronomy 28. There were also blessings if they obeyed, but there were curses if they disobeyed. So he said, I will bring all these words of the covenant upon them. That is all of the curses.

  #11 | 5:44 to 6:16 | cleaned

• So, turn right over, if you would, to Jeremiah chapter 17 and just look at verse 5. Jeremiah 17 and verse 5. I want to tie these two passages together. Because he said, "Thus saith the Lord, Cursed be the man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm, and whose heart departeth from the Lord." Now if you put these two passages together, and you think about the implications of them, when one does not trust in the Lord, the only alternative is for him to trust in man and in the arm of the flesh. Moreover, according to Jeremiah chapter 11, when one does not trust in the Lord, the only thing left then for him to trust in happens to be his own thoughts and his own imaginations. And you have to understand that man is not omniscient. Only God is omniscient. So his thoughts then, are insufficient. He cannot think things through clearly. Moreover, if you look again at Jeremiah 17, verse 5, he said, "Thus saith the Lord, Cursed be the man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm."

  #12 | 6:16 to 7:30 | cleaned

• Now watch, "whose heart departeth from the Lord." So anytime anyone puts any confidence in man, in the arm of the flesh, or anything that man can do, it is indeed a departure from the Lord. So the truth of the matter is this. One either trusts in the Lord God and His law and His word, or one trusts in man and his law and his word. So you're either trusting in the arm of the Lord or the arm of the flesh.

  #13 | 7:30 to 8:02 | cleaned

• Now, in Isaiah chapter 30, Israel was trusting in Egypt. And in doing so, they departed from the Lord. So I want you to go back to Isaiah 30, and let's look, if you would, at the first three verses, setting you up for what comes verses 8 through 18. He says, "Woe to the rebellious children, saith the Lord, that take counsel, but not of me, and that cover with a covering, but not of my spirit, that they may add sin to sin, that walk to go down into Egypt, and have not asked at my mouth to strengthen themselves in the strength of Pharaoh, and to trust in the shadow of Egypt? Therefore shall the strength of Pharaoh be your shame, and the trust in the shadow of Egypt your confusion." Now, it's interesting, he said in verse 1 of Isaiah 30, "Woe to the rebellious children, saith the Lord, that take counsel, but not of me."

  #14 | 8:02 to 9:05 | cleaned

• So they're willing to listen to anyone and everyone except God. And then he said, "...that cover with a covering, but not of my Spirit." In other words, we're going to trust in Egypt to protect us. We'll trust in man and the arm of the flesh to protect us. But we're not going to ask God to protect us. He says, "...therefore they're adding sin to sin." And he said, when they go down to Egypt, they've not asked counsel at my mouth. In other words, all they're wanting to do is strengthen themselves in the arm of Pharaoh.

  #15 | 9:06 to 9:35 | cleaned

• Now, if you will look in Isaiah 31, and verse 1, he says it like this, "Woe to them that go down to Egypt for help, and stay on horses, and trust in chariots, because they are many, and in horsemen, because they are very strong. But they look not to the Holy One of Israel, neither seek the Lord." So, our Lord is telling us that safety and protection is not in the multitude of men, nor in the might of the flesh. None of these things are worthy of our trust. He is telling us that our trust should be solely in the Lord Himself.

  #16 | 9:36 to 10:20 | cleaned

• Now it is true the Lord may use means, but the truth of the matter is we do not trust in the means, we trust in the Lord who makes those means effectual. Now, there's always a failure when you trust in the arm of the flesh. So if you go back to Isaiah 30, look at verse 7. Look at what he says about the Egyptians. Since Israel were depending upon the Egyptians for help, he says, "For the Egyptians shall help in vain."

  #17 | 10:20 to 10:54 | cleaned

• That is, it'll be useless, it'll be worthless, and to no purpose. "Therefore have I cried concerning this, their strength is to sit still." In other words, they're not going to do one thing to help or to protect Israel. Not one thing. So let me remind you of a principle. Over and over in the Bible, in the Old Testament as well as in the New Testament, there are a multitude of verses that tell us that we're not to trust in the arm of the flesh, that we're not to trust in man. In fact, the middle verse in the Bible, Psalm 118 in verse 8, says simply this, "It is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in man." And the very next verse says it like this, "It is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in princes." In other words, you don't trust in man and you don't trust in government. You trust in God himself is what it amounts to. Now, the flesh is going to always lead to disappointment, discouragement and destruction.

  #18 | 10:54 to 12:01 | cleaned

• So let me put it like this. Your flesh, basically, is at war with God. And your autonomy, your alien law system, is also at war with God. That's why He said, "...the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh, and they are contrary the one to the other, so that you cannot do the things that you would." So let me show you. Look in verse 8. This is what God wanted written down.

  #19 | 12:02 to 12:28 | cleaned

• He says to Isaiah, "Now go, write it before them in a table and note it in a book that it may be for the time to come forever and ever." He said, "Isaiah, I want them to see this. I want them to have this. I want them to know it is fruitless, useless and worthless to trust in the arm of the flesh, to trust in man." And said, "this is going to be true not only for the time being, but it's going to be true forever and ever." So he said, write it down, make sure that they understand this. Now, there are implications that I want to point out today, which should be understood, and we should never forget these implications. So I want to give you three implications in forsaking the law of God.

  #20 | 12:29 to 13:21 | cleaned

• The very first one is this. It is our attitude and our actions that reveal our relationship to God. Let me say that again. It is our attitude and our actions that reveal our relationship to God. Professions are absolutely worthless without obedience. Rebellion and disobedience only prove that we are not in a relationship with Him.

  #21 | 13:21 to 13:54 | cleaned

• Now, note if you would please, Israel professed to be His people. They were His covenant people. So if you'll look again in Isaiah 30 verse 1, He says it like this, "Woe to the rebellious children, saith the Lord, that take counsel, but not of me, and that cover with a covering, but not of my spirit, that they may add sin to sin." So, Israel certainly professed to be the people of God, but in reality they were not. They refused to listen. They refused to hear God. They did not desire His covering. They did not desire His protection. And I want you to see how he emphasizes this in verse 9. Look at it. Again, he says that this is a rebellious people. Watch. Lying children. Children that will not hear the law of the Lord. Now, isn't that interesting? He says that they are not only rebellious, that they are lying children as well. You remember in Isaiah chapter 1 how God likened Israel. Here's what he said.

  #22 | 13:55 to 15:14 | cleaned

• "The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master's crib: but my people doth not know, my people doth not consider. Ah sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a seed of evildoers, children that are corrupters: they have forsaken the Lord, they have provoked the Holy One of Israel unto anger, they are gone away backward."

  #23 | 15:15 to 15:41 | cleaned

• Now note what God said, they're dumber than a rock. That's what he said. They're dumber than what we would call brute beast and dumb beast. He said the ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master's crib. And I can tell you, if you don't believe that, just come visit me and get on the golf cart with me and let me ride in front of the pasture with all these cows. And guess what? They'll see me, they'll start lowing, they'll start moving, and they'll come to me. Anytime I ride in that pasture on that golf cart, Alice can tell you, we're surrounded. They come to us, they know who feeds them, and they know where the feed comes from. But God said, my people does not know. In other words, they don't even know which side their bread is buttered on.

  #24 | 15:42 to 16:30 | cleaned

• But here's the interesting thing. Look back in verse 9. He said that this is a rebellious people, lying children. Children that will not hear the law of the Lord. Here's an interesting thought. All rebellious people are liars. That's what God said. They're actually lying against God. Listen to me. When God says they're rebellious and they are liars, the Bible declares God to be the chief good. But what does a rebellious person do? He lies against God. He says God is not the chief good. What is really good for me is the lust of my flesh and the lust of my eyes and the pride of life.

  #25 | 16:30 to 17:20 | cleaned

• I've got to have sin. I've got to have that which God condemns in order to satisfy myself. So he's lying against God. He's saying that God is not the chief good. Moreover, he's lying against God in the fact that he's denying that God is the only true lawgiver and judge and king, because now he wants to make his own law. They're basically lying against God and denying His sovereignty. They're lying against God and denying His authority. They're lying against God in every way possible. That's why God calls them liars. Rebellion and lying are intertwined.

  #26 | 17:20 to 18:00 | cleaned

• You cannot have one without the other. Now listen to this. I want to quote one verse, but I want you to turn to another one. So if you would turn, holding Isaiah 30, to Isaiah 59, and as you turn to Isaiah 59, I want to quote Isaiah 3 and verse 8. As you turn to Isaiah 59, here is Isaiah 3 and verse 8. "For Jerusalem is ruined, and Judah is fallen: because their tongue and their doings are against the Lord, to provoke the eyes of his glory." Their tongue and their doings are against the Lord. Why? How is their tongue against Him?

  #27 | 18:01 to 18:45 | cleaned

• They're, yes, speaking against Him, but they're lying against Him as well. So if you look at Isaiah 59 and verse 13, here's what he says, "...in transgressing and lying against the Lord, and departing away from our God, speaking oppression and revolt, conceiving and uttering from the heart words of falsehood." Notice that in transgressing, that would be rebellion, and lying against the Lord. Anytime you transgress, anytime you rebel, you're lying against the Lord, and you're departing from our God. And the end result, you'll end up speaking oppression and revolt. You'll conceive and utter from the heart words of falsehood. That is, you will be lying.

  #28 | 18:45 to 19:31 | cleaned

• Now, let me show you something. I want you to hold Isaiah 30, but turn in your Bibles to the book of James, chapter 3. Right after the book of Hebrews, you have the book of James, James chapter 3. And I want you to see verses 13 and 14. James chapter 3, verse 13 and 14. Watch this. James 3, verse 13.

  #29 | 19:32 to 19:52 | cleaned

• "Who is a wise man and endued with knowledge among you? Let him show out of a good conversation his works with meekness of wisdom. But if you have bitter envying and strife in your hearts, glory not, and lie not against the truth." So it is possible to lie against the truth. How in the world do you lie against the truth? Well, stop and think about this. Deuteronomy chapter 32 in verse 4 tells us that the sovereign God is truth. He is truth. His way is perfect. Yeah, the sovereign God is truth. Do you know and do you realize the Son of God is truth? John 14 verse 6, Our Lord said, "I am the way, the truth and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me." And did you also know that the Spirit of God is called the Spirit of Truth in John 14 and John 16? And moreover, the Scriptures are referred to as the Scriptures of Truth. John 17:17, Our Lord said, "Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth."

  #30 | 20:01 to 21:14 | cleaned

• And then the Bible tells you in the book of James chapter 1 in verse 18, He's begotten us again with the word of truth. So, here's what it means to lie against the truth. It means that you're lying against the Sovereign God, the Son of God, the Spirit of God, and the Scriptures of God. You remember when Jesus Christ was standing before Pilate, Pilate asked Him, "What is truth?" And the truth was standing right in front of him, and he didn't even recognize it.

  #31 | 21:15 to 21:40 | cleaned

• He did not see it. So, God is saying that those that rebel against Him are liars. Because they are lying against the Sovereign God, the Son of God, the Spirit of God, and the Scriptures of God. Lying and rebellion are intimately intertwined. You cannot have one without the other. Whoever rebels lies against the truth.

  #32 | 21:40 to 22:05 | cleaned

• Now, I want you to notice something back. Go back to Isaiah chapter 30 and verse 9. I want you to see this because here is a wonderful explanation. He says in verse 9 that this is a rebellious people, lying children. Now watch. Children that will not hear the law of the Lord. They will not hear. It's not that they cannot hear. It's not that they do not have ears. It's not that they are deaf. It's they will not hear. And the reason they will not hear is because they refuse truth, they reject truth, they repudiate truth, they spurn truth, they simply do not want truth.

  #33 | 22:05 to 22:53 | cleaned

• So their inability is a moral inability, not a physical one. They will not hear. Now, listen to this. In Jeremiah 29, verse 19, God says, "Because they have not hearkened unto my words, saith the Lord, which I sent unto them by my servants the prophets, rising up early and sending them, but you would not hear, saith the Lord." God said, I sent my word, but you wouldn't hear.

  #34 | 22:54 to 23:29 | cleaned

• You would not have it. You would not listen. So the very first principle that you and I have to learn, and the very first implication of forsaking God's law, is that in reality our attitudes and our actions reveal exactly what our relationship to God is. It does not matter about a man's profession. It does not matter where he goes to church or whether or not he's been baptized, or whether or not he serves in some capacity in the church, of course not. It is his attitude, it is his actions that determine whether or not he has an intimate relationship with God. Those who have a relationship obey. They're not rebellious. They're not lying against him. Here's the second implication. A refusal to hear the word of God is a refusal to hear God. A refusal to hear the Word of God is a refusal to hear God.

  #35 | 23:30 to 24:26 | cleaned

• If you get nothing else from this message today, please get this. God speaks in His Word and through His Word. So if you're waiting for a clap of thunder and lightning to flash and for the hair to stand up on the back of your neck and you hear a booming voice from heaven speaking, you're going to be waiting in vain. That's just not going to happen. God speaks in His Word, and God speaks through His Word.

  #36 | 24:27 to 24:53 | cleaned

• Now let me show you. Look in verse 10 and 11. We're going to try to deal with both of these verses. He says, "...which say to the seers, See not, and to the prophets, Prophesy not unto us right things, speak unto us smooth things, prophesy deceits, get you out of the way, turn aside out of the path, cause the Holy One of Israel to cease from before us."

  #37 | 24:53 to 25:20 | cleaned

• You know, as I was looking at this passage, it dawned on me how many times that I've emphasized this truth in different messages. And it's not that I'm repeating the same message. It's the fact that this truth appears over and over and over in the Scriptures. And most of the time, even though it's repeated over and over, we simply do not grasp the significance of it. Now, watch this carefully.

  #38 | 25:21 to 25:52 | cleaned

• I said, here's the second implication. A refusal to hear the Word of God is a refusal to hear God Himself. So, He said in verse 10, "which say to the seers, See not."

  #39 | 25:53 to 26:06 | cleaned

• Now, a seer was nothing more than a prophet. The prophets were called seers before they were called prophets. A seer was someone who saw. They saw a vision of God, or they saw what was going to happen, and they proclaimed it. You'll find that in 1 Samuel 9, because there the Bible says, "Beforetime in Israel, when a man went to inquire of God, thus he spake, Come, and let us go to the seer: for he that is now called a Prophet was beforetime called a Seer." So a seer and a prophet are synonymous. But note, if you would, they say to the seers, "See not," but watch verse 10 again, "and to the prophets, Prophesy not unto us right things, speak unto us smooth things, prophesy deceits."

  #40 | 26:06 to 27:01 | cleaned

• So secondly, those that refuse to hear God do not desire or wish to hear His word. They say, "Prophesy not unto us right things, but smooth things. Prophesy deceits." Now the word "right," when they say "prophesy not unto us right things," the word "right" implies that which is upright, that which is straight, that which is righteous. We even use that word in a statement. So, Clay could ask me something, and I could look at Clay and say, "Well, I'm going to give it to you straight." And when I make that statement, it means I'm going to tell him all of it, I'm not holding anything back, whether it's good or bad, I'm just going to give it to him. Okay? So, that's basically what this word means here, when he said, "Prophesy not unto us right things," don't prophesy unto us straight things. Don't tell us how the cow eats the cabbage. Don't tell us what God wants. Don't tell us what is righteous. Don't tell us what is holy. No.

  #41 | 27:03 to 28:12 | cleaned

• You remember that passage in 2 Timothy 4, verses 3 and 4, when the Bible says, "For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; and they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables." So it's the people who have the itching ears. It's the people who do not want straight things. It's the people who do not want right things. They do not want to hear the truth.

  #42 | 28:13 to 28:44 | cleaned

• Do you understand that sinners have not changed? I mean, we're still the same. I never will forget. We had a fellow that used to attend our church some, and he was lost as a hound dog. He was one of these likeable individuals. You couldn't help but like him, and he would give you the shirt off his back. His wife was a Christian, his children attended the church and everything, but he wouldn't... oh, he would once every three months, once every four months, something like that. And so one day I asked him, I said, "Why don't you come to church more often?" I said, "Your wife wants you to come. Your children want you to come. I want you to come. The rest of the people want you to come. Why don't you come more often than you do?" And he looked at me and said, "Preacher, you want me to lie to you or tell you the truth?" I said, "Well, I want you to tell me the truth." He said, "Well, the truth is the reason I don't come is I know you're right and I know I'm wrong."

  #43 | 28:45 to 29:43 | cleaned

• And when you speak, he said, it convicts me. And he said, I don't want to be convicted. He said, I just love my sins too much. Well, that was truthful. So he didn't want to hear the word of God because he didn't want to be convicted, and he loved his sins, and therefore he would stay away from the house of God. It's just that simple. They did not hear the truth. These people did not. They did not want the truth.

  #44 | 29:45 to 30:10 | cleaned

• Look at it back in verse 10. They said, "Prophesy" or "speak unto us smooth things."

  #45 | 30:11 to 30:17 | cleaned

• Now, the word "smooth" refers to that which is slippery, that which is flattering and that which is palatable. In other words, tickle our ears and scratch them for us. And give us that which we can swallow and digest, even if it is not true. Puff us up. Comment on how wonderful we are and how blessed God is to have us as his people, even though we're in open rebellion and warfare against him.

  #46 | 30:17 to 30:54 | cleaned

• That's what we want to hear. Now, watch it again in verse 10. He said, "Prophesy not unto us right things," or straight things, or righteous things. "Speak unto us smooth things," flattering, palatable things. Then he says, "Prophesy deceits." A deceit is not just something that is deceitful. It is that. It is not just something that is untrue. It is that. But it is also an illusion. It is not true now, neither will it ever be true in the future. It is a deceit.

  #47 | 30:54 to 31:38 | cleaned

• Now there are prophets in the Old Testament, as well as some in the New Testament, that prophesied like this to accommodate the wicked desires of the people. There are preachers exactly like that today. There are teachers like that today. And they do so for popularity and for gain as well. In Jeremiah chapter 14 and verse 14, Jeremiah said, "Then the Lord said unto me, The prophets prophesy lies in my name, and I sent them not."

  #48 | 31:39 to 32:14 | cleaned

• "Neither commanded I them, neither spake unto them: they prophesy unto you a false vision, and a divination, and a thing of nought, and the deceit of their heart." In other words, it's totally an illusion. It's not true. Never has been true. Never will be true. But you have the same warning in the New Testament. In Colossians 2 and verse 8, God said, "Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ."

  #49 | 32:15 to 32:53 | cleaned

• So these people wanted smooth things. They wanted deceits. They wanted to be encouraged in their wickedness, in their fleshliness. And they wanted unscriptural prophets and preachers. And you know, in one sense of the word, when you look at the prophet Isaiah, when you look at the prophet Jeremiah, when you look at the prophet Hosea, all of these men of God were literally hated and despised. And when you look at Jeremiah and Isaiah particularly, I mean, they were arrested, they were thrown in dungeons, I mean, they were hated and despised, and at the same time, all the false prophets were held in high honor. Even during the time of Ahab and Jezebel, God's prophets were hiding in a cave, eating bread and water, when the 400 prophets of Baal were at Ahab's table having roast beef and steak every day.

  #50 | 32:54 to 33:57 | cleaned

• I'm just simply pointing out the fact that these people had rather hear someone prophesy or preach something smooth, something easy to swallow, even though it's not true. They'd rather hear something deceitful, even though it's not true, to their own detriment and damnation, rather than to hear the truth to their own preservation and salvation. And it's just like that today. And one does not need to express these sentiments with his mouth. He doesn't have to say, "Well, I don't want to hear the Word of God." I mean, obviously, people who don't want to hear the Word of God, they don't ever bother seeking out the Word of God. They don't bother seeking out someone who would really preach and teach the Word of God. If one truly and really wanted the Word of God, he would find it.

  #51 | 33:57 to 34:55 | cleaned

• He would seek it out. It would not matter how far he had to drive. In two hours, three hours, it wouldn't matter. It wouldn't matter the cost of gas. It wouldn't matter the inconvenience. If he wanted truth, he could really, really find the truth. That is for sure. But most people today had rather be in a very comfortable Christ-denying, Bible-denying, air-conditioned church that will hold a service for 15 or 20 minutes and go out with their conscience salved than to hear an exposition from the word of God.

  #52 | 34:55 to 35:37 | cleaned

• That's where we were in Isaiah's time. That's exactly where we are today. I want you to know something. They did not ask that there would be no preaching. They just wanted to control what was being preached. They were willing to listen as long as it was lies and deceits and smooth things. But they were not willing to listen to the truth. Now, I want you to see the ultimate end of all of this. Hang on. You look around at the churches today that have full services regularly. But there's really no truth there. The Word of God is not really expounded. I want you to go back to verse 10. Look at it. "Which say to the seers, See not; and to the prophets, Prophesy not unto us right things, speak unto us smooth things, prophesy deceits." Now look what they say to Isaiah.

  #53 | 35:39 to 36:51 | cleaned

• "Get you out of the way. Turn aside out of the path." In other words, Isaiah, if you want us to listen to you, you preach what we want to hear. And so what you need to do is get out of this straight path, this straight and narrow way. You need to quit giving us the demands of God. You need to stop telling us about all these moral imperatives that God demands in our lives.

  #54 | 36:52 to 37:24 | cleaned

• We're not interested in hearing that. You get out of the way and we'll listen to you. And here's what they're saying. Watch verse 11. "Get you out of the way. Turn aside out of the path." Why? "Cause the Holy One of Israel to cease from before us." We don't want Him. We don't want His will. We don't want His Word. We don't want His way. What we want to do is our own thing. Get out of the path if you want us to listen to you.

  #55 | 37:24 to 37:59 | cleaned

• Keep us away from God. Now, I want to show you something. As wicked, as vile, and rebellious as these people were, they still understood one biblical truth. They understood one biblical truth, and that is this. If you have his word, you have him. If you do not have his word, you do not have him. It is impossible to separate God from his word. They did not want the Word of God because they did not want God.

  #56 | 38:01 to 38:50 | cleaned

• They had no desire for holiness, no desire for righteousness, no desire for justice, no desire for obedience. Their desire was to cause the Holy One to cease from us. They knew that God demanded obedience and they didn't want obedience. They knew that God demanded righteousness and they did not want to be righteous. They knew that God demanded holiness and they did not want to be holy. They'd rather have another gospel. They'd rather have another law system. They'd rather have another God.

  #57 | 38:50 to 39:24 | cleaned

• Here's what John Calvin said on this verse. Listen carefully. He said, "Here he again points out the cause of so great wickedness, which doubles their guilt, namely, that God does not spare or flatter their vices but acts the part of a good and skillful physician. Men desire to be flattered and cannot patiently endure that God should threaten them. Hence it comes that men hate and reject the word. Hence proceeds the furious attack on the prophets whose reproofs and threatenings they cannot endure. For there is no reason why men should revolt from the government of God, but because they take delight in what is wrong and crooked and abhor the right way."

  #58 | 39:26 to 40:16 | cleaned

• "Appropriately, therefore, does the prophet join these two things, dislike of heavenly doctrine and hatred of uprightness." So what did he say? If you don't like God's Word, you don't like God. It's just that simple. So not only do our attitude and actions tell us exactly what our relationship to God is, secondly, if we refuse the word of God, we basically refuse God himself. Because here's the third one, the refusal of God is a rejection of God, which brings judgment and destruction.

  #59 | 40:17 to 41:10 | cleaned

• So I want you to look in Isaiah chapter 30, beginning there with verse 12. "Wherefore thus saith the Holy One of Israel, Because you despise this word, and trust in oppression and perverseness, and stay thereon: Therefore this iniquity shall be to you as a breach ready to fall, swelling out in a high wall, whose breaking cometh suddenly at an instant." Now, I want you to note that God actually charges them with despising His Word. The word for "despise" here means to despise, to refuse, to reject, to abhor, and to treat as loathsome. Here it is. Do you remember that passage in 2 Samuel chapter 12?

  #60 | 41:11 to 42:10 | cleaned

• David had committed adultery with Bathsheba and had Uriah the Hittite, her husband, slain with the sword of the children of Ammon. God sent Nathan to David in 2 Samuel chapter 12. And listen to what he said. "Wherefore hast thou despised the commandment of the Lord to do evil in his sight? Thou hast killed Uriah the Hittite with the sword, and hast taken his wife to be thy wife, and hast slain him with the sword of the children of Ammon. Now therefore the sword shall never depart out of thine house, because thou hast despised me," saith the Lord. So in the first verse, God charged him with despising the commandment. And now God charges him with despising him.

  #61 | 42:10 to 43:09 | cleaned

• So let me repeat a principle that I've enunciated over the years, over and over. It's impossible to hold one attitude toward God and a different attitude toward His Word. Someone says, "Well, I love God, but I don't like the Bible." That's impossible. "Well, I love the Bible, but I don't love God." That's impossible. You cannot separate God from His Word. To despise His Word is to despise Him. To love His Word is to love Him. And God has said, "You've despised Me." Wow! Now watch it. He said, "Wherefore thus saith the Holy One of Israel, Because you despise this word, and trust in oppression and perverseness, and stay thereon." In other words, once you despise God, you despise His Word, you live for the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, pride of life, the imagination of your heart, whatever.

  #62 | 43:10 to 44:07 | cleaned

• Now look what is going to happen. God says in verse 13, "Therefore, this iniquity shall be to you as a breach, ready to fall."

  #63 | 44:07 to 44:18 | cleaned

• Now look, "swelling out in a high wall, whose breaking cometh suddenly, at an instant." Wow!

  #64 | 44:18 to 44:28 | cleaned

• Now, here's what God is saying. My judgment is going to fall on a wicked people. It is likened to a bulging, broken wall that is ready to fall. So if you could picture in your mind maybe something like the Hoover Dam or some huge dam that holds back a body of water. And all of a sudden that dam starts bulging in the middle. What does that mean? That means that pressure from that water is coming and pushing against that concrete in such a way that it's going to burst forth. Or you look up and here's a big high rise building. And guess what? The whole side is bulging out. And you know that building is getting ready to actually fall. And here's what he said, "Therefore this iniquity shall be to you as a breach ready to fall, swelling out in a high wall, whose breaking cometh suddenly at an instant," just like when that dam broke. What was it?

  #65 | 44:29 to 45:45 | cleaned

• The Johnstown flood in the early 1900s. I forget how many thousands of people drowned because that dam burst, and it swept away an entire town. Suddenly, in an instant. That's exactly what he's talking about, judgment here. In other words, his judgment is going to be fast, furious, and fatal. It is going to come.

  #66 | 45:45 to 46:14 | cleaned

• Now, here's an astounding thing. Look at verse 14. He said that "he shall break it as the breaking of the potter's vessel that is broken in pieces. He shall not spare so that there shall not be found in the bursting of it a sherd to take fire from the hearth, or to take water withal out of the pit." So it's like taking up a piece of pottery, maybe a good bowl or a pitcher, and taking it out to the concrete and slamming it on the concrete. How many thousands of pieces is it going to burst into? And God said, when I judge you, I'm going to judge you so thoroughly, it's just like throwing a piece of pottery against the concrete. He said, you're not even going to be able to pick up a shard that could dip some live coals out of a fire to transfer it to somewhere else and start another fire. You're not going to have enough to dip in water just to take a swig out of.

  #67 | 46:15 to 47:17 | cleaned

• It'll be fast. It'll be furious. It'll be fatal. There will not be very much left. Wow.

  #68 | 47:18 to 47:25 | cleaned

• Now, here's an interesting thing. Their light attitude toward God, their contempt of God, their despisement, their outright hatred of God is manifest in so many ways. But I want to show you something. This to me is absolutely astounding. In light of all their hatred, in light of all their wickedness, in light of all their rebellion, in light of the prophesied judgment against them, God is still merciful. And God holds forth an olive branch to these people. Look in verse 15. "For thus saith the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel."

  #69 | 47:26 to 48:24 | cleaned

• "In returning"—that is coming back to him—"and rest shall you be saved; in quietness and confidence shall be your strength. And you would not." God said, I've told you to repent. I've told you to come back. If you don't want this destruction, return unto me, saith the Lord. And then he said, "and you would not." And you would not. They wanted their own will. They wanted their own way. They wanted their own law. And they refused God.

  #70 | 48:25 to 49:19 | cleaned

• Now, look at verses 16 and 17. "But you said"—when he offered them peace and rest and quietness—"but you said, No, we don't want that. We don't want you. We don't want your word. No. For we will flee upon horses, therefore shall you flee. And we will ride upon the swift, therefore shall they pursue you. They that pursue you shall be swift." So the people wanted to go down to Egypt.

  #71 | 49:20 to 49:54 | cleaned

• They were wanting to get rid and get away from Nebuchadnezzar and the Babylonians. God had told them not to go down into Egypt. But they said, "No, we're going down to Egypt. And we're going to trust in Pharaoh to protect us and Pharaoh to serve us and help us. We're going to ride upon swift horses." God said, "Go ahead. Those that pursue you will be swifter." And if you'll remember, I preached this several weeks back. God had given Egypt into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar. They were running straight into the judgment of God.

  #72 | 49:54 to 50:35 | cleaned

• Instead of obedience, there was disobedience. Instead of trust and confidence in God, there was distrust in Him and trust in the arm of the flesh. Instead of relying upon His protection, no, they relied upon Pharaoh. They relied upon Egypt. Fast horses cannot outrun the judgment of God. That's why he said, look at verse 17. Watch this. "One thousand shall flee at the rebuke of one. At the rebuke of five shall you flee, till you be left as a beacon upon the top of a mountain and as an ensign on a hill."

  #73 | 50:38 to 51:21 | cleaned

• Now, in order to understand verse 17, you must understand that the promise of Leviticus 26 and verse 8 is reversed. I'll give you the verse in just a moment, and the threat of Deuteronomy 32 and verse 30 is realized. So in the blessings of God in obedience, in Leviticus 26 and verse 8, He said, "And five of you shall chase a hundred, and a hundred of you shall put ten thousand to flight: and your enemies shall fall before you by the sword." So God said, if you obey me, five of you will chase a hundred, and a hundred of you will put ten thousand to flight, and they'll all fall before your sword. But now here's the curse, and now the curse is reversed, and they're the ones who are being chased by one man, or by five men. Deuteronomy 32 and verse 30 says it like this, "How should one chase a thousand, and two put ten thousand to flight, except their Rock had sold them, and the Lord had shut them up?"

  #74 | 51:22 to 52:30 | cleaned

• So when God sells them into the hands of their enemy, it does not take a very great enemy to defeat them. It does not take a very great enemy to destroy them. Listen to what John Gill said. Two paragraphs. He said, "A troop of horse, consisting of a thousand men, shall flee upon the attack and onset of a single person. So dispirited should they be, and so possessed of the fear of the enemy, what was promised to them with respect to their enemies is hereby turned against them. At the rebuke of five shall you flee, being attacked by a very small number."

  #75 | 52:30 to 53:07 | cleaned

• "The whole army should run away. This, in those with what ease they should be routed and put to flight, it is to be understood, not of what would be at the present time, but of what should come to pass hereafter, when the Chaldean army should come against them, not only in the land there, but also in Egypt where they wanted to go." So, let me give you a principle that you must learn at this particular point. Refusal of God's law

  #76 | 53:08 to 53:36 | cleaned

• always brings reliance upon the flesh, and reliance upon the flesh always brings disaster and destruction. You cannot outrun the Word of God, and you cannot outrun the judgment of God.

  #77 | 53:38 to 53:53 | cleaned

• Now, in light of their rebellion, and in light of their refusal to hear, there's another verse here that just is absolutely mind-boggling to me. Because in judgment, God remembered mercy. If you've ever had any doubt concerning God's love, God's grace, God's mercy, God's goodness, this next verse should clear up any and all doubt. Because look at verse 18. "And therefore will the Lord wait that he may be gracious unto you. And therefore will he be exalted that he may have mercy upon you. For the Lord is a God of judgment: blessed are all they that wait for him." Yes, God will judge and yes, God will chasten. Those who receive the benefits and blessings of that judgment and chastening will turn to him in repentance and faith.

  #78 | 53:55 to 55:02 | cleaned

• And what does he do? He waits to be gracious. He waits to be gracious. You know, the Bible says in Lamentations 3 in verse 33, "For he doth not afflict willingly nor grieve the children of men." God is not some old meanie in heaven just waiting to strike us down and just ready to destroy us. No. The Bible said he waits that he might be gracious. These people deserve judgment.

  #79 | 55:03 to 55:29 | cleaned

• Look how they hated him. Look how they despised the Word. But God said, I'm going to wait. Let me tell you something. And think about this. To show you the absolute mercy of God and the grace of God and the patience of God. How many of you repented the very first time that you sinned? Fact is, you don't even remember the first time that you sinned. You sinned as a baby.

  #80 | 55:29 to 56:04 | cleaned

• You say, how do babies sin? Well, they lie. But you know, here's that baby crying and mama goes to pick him up. Well, he must be hungry. No, he's not hungry. She picks him up and he stops crying. Well, that's fine. She puts him back down. He starts crying. Well, he must be needing a diaper change. And she checks. No, there's no diaper needed to be changed. So she puts him back down. He starts crying again.

  #81 | 56:05 to 56:29 | cleaned

• All he wants to do is to be held. But he's crying. And he's lying because he's trying to make mama think something's wrong with him when it's not. And all he wants to do is be picked up and held and loved. You know, that's just babies. You know, the Bible says in Isaiah 58, they go astray as soon as they be born, speaking lies. May I remind you of all the sins that you committed? I don't mean just as a child, but how about as a teenager?

  #82 | 56:30 to 57:05 | cleaned

• How about as an adult? What if God was so absolutely perfectly just with you that the very first time you sinned, He cut you off and cut you down? But He didn't. He waited that He might be gracious. When I think of my life, my sins, I've often wondered why God had to kill me a million times. All I'm trying to say is this, folks. Therefore will the Lord wait that He may be gracious unto you. God did not exercise His judgment all of a sudden against these people. He waited. He waited.

  #83 | 57:06 to 58:03 | cleaned

• You know, when the children of Israel came out of the land of Egypt, God put a sword in their hand and told them to utterly destroy the Canaanites, to wipe them out. Did they deserve wiping out? Yes. They were horrible, wicked sinners before God. But here's the amazing thing. When you read Genesis chapter 15, you know what God said to Abram? "Know for a certainty that your seed will go down into a strange land for 400 years because the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full." God waited another 400 years before he put a sword in their hand and said, kill them all. All I'm trying to say, folks, is as wicked as these people were, God was still willing to be gracious to them. As wicked as you and I were, God was still gracious to us and waited for us.

  #84 | 58:03 to 59:12 | cleaned

• Let me make an application. I want you to think about this. We must learn that a refusal of God's law is not only reliance upon the flesh, it is a rejection of God, it is a departing from God, because His word is law. He is judge. He is lawgiver. He is king. And to refuse His law system is to reject Him in all three offices. And here is something else I want you to think about.

  #85 | 59:14 to 59:49 | cleaned

• What I just preached from Isaiah chapter 30 certainly applies individually. But may I remind you, He's talking to a nation. To a nation. Look at where we are in America. Look at what is happening in our country. And the reason it's happening is because we rejected God. We rejected His law system. We departed from Him. We despise Him. We don't want to listen to Him. We don't want His Word. We don't want His authority. We want to do our own thing and trust in the arm of the flesh.

  #86 | 59:53 to 1:00:51 | cleaned

• So let me point it out, unless there is individual repentance and unless there is national repentance, you better watch out. Because that huge, high, bulging wall that's holding back the judgment and the wrath of God will soon burst. Our trust and our confidence must be in God alone, in God alone, in His Word alone. What does the Scripture say? "Trust in the Lord with all thine heart, and lean not to thine own understanding."

  #87 | 1:00:54 to 1:01:36 | cleaned

• "In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy path. Be not wise in thine own eyes, depart from evil."

  #88 | 1:01:36 to 1:01:43 | cleaned

• The implications of forsaking God's law should be evident to every true child of God. And there is a need in our lives, not only for repentance, there is a need for worship and thankfulness and joy in the fact that God has spared us and he waited that he might be gracious unto us. Let me close with this. I probably told you this, but I remember this like it was yesterday. And I can only remember this, I can take you to the very spot that this happened, even today. I remember as a young boy, having been raised in church, Sunday morning, Sunday night, Wednesday night, any night there was a special meeting, we were there.

  #89 | 1:01:52 to 1:02:51 | cleaned

• I was riding down the road on my little scooter. And the thought hit me, if you died right now, would you go to heaven? I don't know where that thought came from. It came from the Lord evidently, but I mean, as far as I know, our church I was raised in never really preached the Bible, never really preached the Gospel. There were probably some attempts at it, but not very much.

  #90 | 1:02:51 to 1:03:24 | cleaned

• But I remember my answer in my mind. Here's what I said to myself. "Well, I'll make it in somehow. I've always made it in everything else." Which was absolute, utter blasphemy. You're not going to make it into heaven somehow. You're either going to make it in God's how, through the Lord Jesus Christ, or you're not going. It's just that simple. But He waited to be gracious. And I'm thankful. Father, in the name of Jesus Christ, we bow to Thee. We ask You, Father, to teach us, to build us up in the most holy faith, and Lord, help us not to forsake Thee, not to forsake Thy Word, not to forsake Thy Law. Call us back to Thyself, not only as individuals and families and churches, but call us back to Thee as a nation. Give us, Lord, Your grace and Your mercy. Please wait and be gracious to us. In the name of Jesus Christ we ask and pray, Amen.

  #91 | 1:03:27 to 1:04:38 | cleaned

deepseek | deepseek-v4-pro | clean_readable_transcript | 2026-06-06T01:41:49Z