Good Morning! - 2010.07.09- Isaiah 64:7 - None Stirreth Up Himself -

And there is none that calleth upon thy name, that stirreth up himself to take hold of thee: for thou hast hid thy face from us, and hast consumed us, because of our iniquities. (Isaiah 64:7)

Isaiah writes as though this had already happened. But it will be a hundred years before it takes place. None of God’s people are praying or stirring up themselves to pray. People do not pray when they walk the road of sin and rebellion. Pity the individual—pity the nation that ceases to pray. Sooner or later the hand of God will arrive to deal with it. In our borrowed picture of the burning of Jerusalem we see what God is going to do to them and He did just that. America is in a state of strutting and denying God just like Israel did.

Isaac Watts' hymn says: “Is this vile world a friend to grace to help me on to God?” (Am I A Soldier of the Cross?) Living without praying is like trying to live without breathing. “Sin will take you further than you meant to stray; it will keep you longer than you meant to stay; it will cost you more than you meant to pay” (Anon.)

Isaiah continues: But now, O LORD, thou art our father; we are the clay, and thou our potter; and we all are the work of thy hand. Be not wroth very sore, O LORD, neither remember iniquity for ever: behold, see, we beseech thee, we are all thy people.

Thy holy cities are a wilderness, Zion is a wilderness, Jerusalem a desolation. Our holy and our beautiful house, where our fathers praised thee, is burned up with fire: and all our pleasant things are laid waste. (Isaiah 64:8-11)

These are God’s people. They are not naked savages without a book from God or without preachers or without longstanding traditions toward God. They are being warned a hundred years ahead of time.

Isaiah 64:7

And there is none that calleth upon thy name - The nation is corrupt and degenerate. None worship God in sincerity.

That stirreth up himself. It takes some effort to awaken ourselves from deep sleep. Such is the state of an individual or a church or a nation that is overcome with slumber. It is not convenient to give ourselves to prayer. We must be entertained. Prayer is work. If it were not so, more people would engage in prayer. We love to hear sermons on prayer and to hear stories of answered prayer but it is like watching TV. A drowsy man should not go to sleep on a railroad track.

To take hold of thee. To know that God is there is not the same thing as taking hold of Him. It means to exert a strong grip. We had rather have a family fight than to stop and humble ourselves before God. We had rather fight a big war than to repent as a nation. It is possible to pray ourselves out of many bad situations that we are not willing to go to the trouble to pray about. I know about that first-hand.

For thou hast hid thy face - Thou bast withdrawn thy favor from us, as a people, on account of our sins.

And hast consumed us. This means to melt or flow down. It is used of an army that appears to melt down or become dissolved because of fear and terror. This term is used to described one of the effects of the wrath of God, that his enemies vanish away, or are dissolved before him.

Because of our iniquities. Our iniquities have not merely drawn the hand of God but our iniquities themselves have been the instrument by which we have been judged and destroyed by God. All God has to do to bring down a nation is to take His protective hand from it and it will self-destruct.

Good Morning! 2010.07.08 -Isaiah 53:5 -By His Stripes We Are Healed

But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed. (Isaiah 53:5)

Today we shift from the mindset of the soldiers and Jewish Sanhedrin to the mindset of God the Father who appointed Jesus' crucifixion for His own purpose and did so before the world was made.

An angel said to Joseph in a dream: …Joseph, thou son of David, fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife: for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost. And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name JESUS:

for he shall save his people from their sins. Now all this was done, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying, Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us. (Matthew 1:20-23)

But an angel had told Mary:

…Fear not, Mary: for thou hast found favour with God. And, behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shalt call his name JESUS. He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest: and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David:

And he shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever; and of his kingdom there shall be no end. Then said Mary unto the angel, How shall this be, seeing I know not a man?

And the angel answered and said unto her, The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee: therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God. (Luke 1:30-35)

The coming Jewish Messiah, the Christ would die as a sacrificial lamb and would also reign upon the throne of his father, David. Was this a conflict? No, this was not a conflict. He would do both but in a time line that the Jews of that day and even of today, did not understand and would not accept.

I have found in talking with people for a long time that most people do not grasp that God planned for Jesus to die on the cross even before He ever made the earth and that it is through his death we are saved.

…But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot: Who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest (made visible) in these last times for you, (1Peter 1:19-20)

I have also found that most people believe that if they indeed need to be saved, they can only be saved by living a better life than they now live; that they are saved as a result of their living a "good" life. Nothing could be further from the truth. Saved people live a better life than before but they do that because they are saved and not in order to be saved.

Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us. (Hebrews 9:12)

Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost; (Titus 3:5)

God says that we are saved by His plan by which we become righteous in His sight (by repentance and faith) and we insist on doing it our way. We have turned everyone to his own way (Isaiah 53:6). If you try to be saved, to be right in the sight of God, by turning over a new leaf, you will write on the new leaf what you have been writing on the old leaf. It is a new birth that is needed!

What are Jesus' stripes healing us from? Disease? That would be wonderful and I have been instantly healed of damaged nerves in my eyes from French Polio and have witnessed several other healings. But all the well-meaning, wonderful Christians who believe that Isaiah 53:5 is physical healing—every last one of them die of something that is not healed. Oral Roberts is dead. All the other healers are going to die. Peter tells us exactly what it is:

Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed. For ye were as sheep going astray; but are now returned unto the Shepherd and Bishop of your souls. (1Peter 2:24-25)

We are healed from the ravages of sin to walk in newness of life with him. Not perfect saints, but changed saints. Nothing like what we used to be. A new birth. A new direction. A new destiny. A new Lord.Ω

Good Morning! - 2010.07.07 - Isaiah 53:5 - Jesus Carried Our Griefs and Sorrows

Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. (Isaiah 53:4)

It was bad enough that he was beaten almost to death with rods or whips. But, the soldiers and the Jewish Sanhedrin took great pleasure in it. They esteemed, highly regarded, highly prized it.

The soldiers mocked him because they understood that this itinerant preacher and magician dared to defy Caesar and the mighty power of Rome. They mocked him as a king and Pilot's inscription on the cross said: "King of the Jews."The Sanhedrin and temple priests were ridding themselves of the threat they felt from this upstart leader. In America you can honor any nut in town but do not mention Jesus. Islam is welcome in our schools and court rooms and public places but Jesus is out.

Had he not gone into the Temple twice and took charge of the commercial enterprise of sacrifices and money changing and turned their tables over and renounced them? Now it was their turn to take down this man who challenged their authority and they took great delight in punishing him with rage. (This clip is only 2 ½ minutes.)

The keen and accurate prophecies of the Bible are one of the things that set it apart as a book like no other. How could Isaiah have written this hundreds of years before it happened? And consider the other Old Testament prophecies such as Psalm 22.

"The prophet was so afraid that you and I would miss this that he mentioned it three times: "The LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all." "Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise Him." "He hath put him to grief." Consternation fills our souls when we recognize that it was God the Father who treated the perfect Man in such terrible fashion.

"What had he done to merit such treatment? Christ was on the cross six hours, hanging between heaven and earth from nine o'clock in the morning until three o'clock in the afternoon. In the first three hours man did his worst. He heaped ridicule and insult upon Him, spit upon Him, nailed Him without mercy to the cruel cross, and then sat down to watch Him die.

"At twelve o'clock noon, after He had hung there for three hours in agony, God drew a veil over the sun, and darkness covered that scene, shutting out from human eye the transaction between the Father and the Son. Christ became the sacrifice for the sin of the world. God made His soul an offering for sin. Christ Jesus was treated as sin, for we are told that He was made sin for us who knew no sin. If you want to know if God hates sin, look at the Cross.

"If you want to know if God will punish sin, look at the Darling of His heart enduring the tortures of its penalty. By what vain conceit can you and I hope to escape if we neglect so great a salvation? That cross became an altar where we behold the Lamb of God taking away the sin of the world. He was dying for somebody else—He was dying for you and me" (McGee)

Good Morning! - 2010.07.06 - Isaiah 53:3 - Our Despised and Rejected Savior

He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not. (Isaiah 53:3)

My mother had an eye for weeping willows and would not rest until she found a rooted sprout for the corner of our yard at the Homesteads in 1948. It grew to be an impressive tree beside our front gate. Many times I had heard the then popular country ballad "Oh Bury Me beneath the Willows, the Weeping Willow Tree." Every time I see a Weeping Willow I think of that experience and it's a reminder of the Man of Sorrows who died on a tree.

The Bible is full of prophecy and much of it is couched in pictures and symbols. Isaiah portrays the promised Messiah as being despised, rejected, sorrowful and bearing grief. When He came, the Jewish nation was looking for a strong military figure to throw off the Roman Empire that was oppressing the life out of them. Judas was disappointed that the preacher he joined up with did not form a fighting political revolt, so he was ready to sell him for 30 pieces of silver.

We must hasten to point out that Jesus the Christ was burdened with our sins and our sorrows and our griefs. He did nothing to cry over his own problems. It was the mess you and I made out of our lives that gave him pause.

However, He did not resent taking our place. He was not grumpy about praying for us and dying for us. He always took the long look and saw the end from the beginning. He was pleased with the outcome that lay ahead.

Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. For consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds. (Hebrews 12:2-3)

Not only did He pay the penalty for our sins, it serves as an example of what our attitude should be. No need to be discouraged when people don't like for you to talk about the Lord. Think about what He went through. That's what the verse above says.

The other thing to realize is that God did not choose a world-class, muscle-bound athlete to be your savior so you would be drawn to him. That kind of image sells cokes and cigarettes but it won't do for attracting people into the Kingdom of God.

For centuries people have complained because God chose to save sinners through an ordinary-looking man dying on a cross in the despised country of Israel. It still goes against the grain today and the world still says: "We will not have this man to rule over us." Okay—then you are left with your own wicked passions to rule you and the friends you pick out who think like you.

God is willing to save to the uttermost, but salvation will always be through that man of sorrows who was despised and rejected of men. There will always be a price if you make him your Savior and Lord. But when you think of the price you pay if you don't accept him, God's offer looks really good.

Good Morning! 2010.07.05 - Isaiah 53:2 - Root Out of a Dry Ground

For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: he hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him. (Isaiah 53:2)

This does not need a lot of explaining since about everybody knows that water is essential for yards and gardens and farms and trees and shrubs.

Grass turns brown and goes into a dormant state in dry weather and will remain so until there's enough water to turn it green again.

Dry seeds will not sprout because they are encased in phytic acid, which inhibits growth. Water dissolves the phytic acid and launches a process of enzymatic explosion in the seed. .

About a hundred years ago, dry grains of wheat at least three thousand years old were found in some of the Egyptian pyramids. When they were carefully planted in damp soil, they sprouted and grew into normal wheat plants.

For many years I have raised sprouts in quart jars in winter to use in salads. I keep twenty-plus jars of different kinds of dry seeds for this purpose. Some roots and bulbs are like seeds in that they are dormant and will not attempt to grow when they are dry. But, what does this have to do with Isaiah 53:2?

McGee make this observation: "Christ was a root out of a dry ground. This means that at the time of the birth of Christ the family of David had been cut off from the kingship. They were no longer princes; they were peasants. The nation Israel was under the iron heel of Rome. They were not free. The Roman Empire produced no great civilization. They merely were good imitators of great civilizations. There was mediocre achievement and pseudoculture. The moral foundation was gone. A virile manhood and a virtuous womanhood was supplanted by a debauched and pleasure-loving citizenry. The religion of Israel had gone to seed. They merely performed an empty ritual, and their hearts remained cold and indifferent.

"Into such a situation Christ came. He came from a noble family that was cut off, from a nation that had become a vassal to Rome, in a day and age that was decadent. The loveliest flower of humanity came from the driest spot and period of the world's history. It was humanly impossible for His day and generation to produce Him, but He came nevertheless, for He came forth from God."

God once sent me into an area to pastor a church. It was at the end of nowhere. No doubt about it, through several unusual things that made up the picture, it was His will for me to go. I never doubted it then or at any time since. I have never banged on doors to get them to open nor tried to help the Lord guide my steps. I've always figured that God knows where I live and knows my phone number and that's the way I have operated for fifty-plus years.

When I went to look at the place and the church, it looked ho-hum to me. But as I drove the 300 miles back home and was thinking and praying about it, the phrase: "Root out of a dry ground" kept bearing down on me. I finally realized that it was not idle thought going on but was the Lord. So I agreed to go. It turned out to be one of the most fruitful times in my whole life. People came during the summer from Detroit and other places and got saved while they were visiting. I think I baptized over a hundred the first year in the swimming hole in a creek. That was not the purpose of the prophecy in Isaiah. But it did illustrate what God was about to do in my life and in that community.

Are you trying to grow something in a dry ground? Wet it good with the Word of God and prayer and if need be: tears.

It's good to remember that Jesus did not attract people because of being handsome and athletic. He was not. He was the most powerful figure in world history but it was not a natural attraction of beauty.