Nepaug Bible Church - http://www.nepaugchurch.org - Pastor's Sermon Notes - http://www.nepaugchurch.org/Sermons/zz19960128.htm

THRU THE BIBLE SERIES
"Part XIX: Isaiah - God's Directive To Those Troubled At Governmental Apostasy"

Introduction: (To show the need . . . )

(1) There are basic moral problems in Washington, D.C.. Mona Charen, a syndicated columnist, in the Jan. 22, 1996 Hartford Courant reported on problems in the upper middle class students of Fairfax County schools in Virginia, a county where dwell Washington D.C.'s federal workers, lawyers, consultants and lobbyists. A few years ago, teachers in that county were reported to be "forced to endure ugly profanity from their students on a regular basis . . . because parents decline to support the teachers when complaints are raised."

Then, in just the opposite vein, we read in his last will and testament filed in Virginia that George Washington referred to Jesus Christ as "my Redeemer." The difference between George Washington's value system and that of students from the homes of Washington's federal workers, lawyers, consultants and lobbyists shows us something! We have spiritually DESCENDED a long way in two centuries. Problem: What can we do about it NOW?!

(3) This past week marked another anniversary of the Supreme Court's legalization of abortion. Justice Harry Blackman who wrote the 1972 Roe vs. Wade decision noted that the oath of Hippocrates and Christianity objected to abortion-on-demand. Yet, the court based its Roe vs. Wade conclusion against these two sources in favor of the fact that, in his words, the "ancient religions did not bar abortion." Then, in the 1892 Supreme Court decision in Church of the Holy Trinity v. United States, we read of the Supreme Court concluding: "Our laws and our institutions must necessarily be based upon and embody the teachings of the Redeemer of mankind. It is impossible that it should be otherwise; and in this sense and to this extent our civilization and our institutions are emphatically Christian." (Nancy Leigh DeMoss, ed. The Rebirth Of America, p. 86) When we compare the Supreme court ideology in 1892 with that of 1972, 80 years of time made for a windfall spiritual APOSTASY in the highest court in the land! Problem: What can we do about it NOW?!



(We turn to the "Need" section of the sermon . . . )



Need: "When I compare George Washington's will which calls Christ 'my Redeemer' to the moral vacuum in current national leaders, and see even the Supreme Court's apostasy on the abortion issue, I really get upset! What can I DO about it?! Any ide as?!"
  1. Isaiah lived during the fearful, critical era when HUMAN GOVERNMENT spiraled down into apostasy and God's program to salvage world history through Israel looked humanly hopeless:
    1. Though God created the world and set man up as His deputy, sin deposed him, so Satan became ruler on earth, Gn. 1-5; 2 Cor. 4:4.
    2. The Lord renewed history through the Noahic flood, Gen. 6:1-9:7.
    3. Yet, Noah's descendant, Nimrod, began an apostasy opposing God's rule of the earth, Gn. 10:8-10; 11:1-9; Rev. 12:1-3.
    4. God thus chose Abraham to start a nation to check this sin, Gn. 12:1-3
    5. After many challenges en route, that nation, Israel failed to curb Nimrodian error, itself becoming so seduced by it that God's judgment began to fall on His people, stiffling God's world outreach through her:
      1. Because of apostasy on Solomon's part, God divided his kingdom, giving most of the tribes to his servant, Jeroboam, 1 K. 11:1-13.
      2. But Jeroboam started an idolatry to keep people from returning to Solomon's side! That led later kings to sin, so God sent Jeroboam's nation, Israel, into Assyrian captivity, 1 K. 12:25-2 K. 17:41!
      3. As Judah witnessed this disastrous fall of Israel to its north, its government was tempted to make unbiblical treaties with Gentile nations to preserve itself, Bib. Know.Com., O.T., 1029-1030!
      4. It was in this critical era that Isaiah ministered to Judah's needs.
  2. Isaiah called for Judah to forsake her false securities and trust God to provide national salvation from Gentile invasion, Ibid., p. 1030.
  3. However, ISAIAH saw that God's people would NOT respond, halting God's WORLD outreach: thus, in grace, based upon Moses' writings and David's Covenant, God led Isaiah to predict beyond Israel's judgment to God's provided WORLD kingdom:
    1. Isaiah's book is organized into negative and positive sections to mirror the Mosaic Covenant's curses & blessings sections, Ibid., p. 1031f.
    2. That Covenant also carries a hope of restoration following national judgment were Israel ever to be divinely disciplined, in Dt. 30:1-11!
    3. Since Isaiah foresaw Israel breaking the covenant, he laid out his book like this covenant to view past judgment unto WORLD salvation!
      1. Isaiah 1-39 judgmentally speaks of God's afflicting Israel for her sins, dwelling on the "cursings" fulfillment of Deuteronomy 27-28.
      2. Isaiah 40-66 speaks with comfort of God's restoring Israel as He alone would give her a new heart as Moses said in Deut. 30:4-6!
      3. (Liberal theologians once claimed 2 men wrote Isaiah to explain the differing styles of these sections, & that Is 40-66 is thus postexilic. Yet, the Dead Sea Isaiah scroll, 150 B.C. starts Is. 40:1 at the base of the same vellum sheet ch. 39 ends, & by then the Essenes called it Scripture, ZPEB, v. 3, 317ff. The Liberal theory is unfounded!)
  4. Thus, the "thread of redemption" throughout Isaiah foresees this coming WORLD Kingdom, and supplies its cursing and blessing sections with predictions of Christ's redemptive work to that end!
    1. Messiah is born as God incarnate (7:14; 9:6) and starts His ministry in Galilee of the nations (Capernaum, Is. 8:1-9:7; Mt. 4:14ff)!
    2. Messiah is rejected by the nation, Israel (49:1-5) so God enlarges His outreach to disciple the Gentiles, Is. 49:6, 7-50; the four Gospels!
    3. In being rejected, He suffers and dies as a sin offering, is buried and rises again to open up world justification, 52:13-53:12; Rom. 3:24-26!
    4. Thus, WORLD salvation comes via Messiah, Is. 54-57; Gal. 3:13f!
    5. In Isaiah 42, sinless Messiah is contrasted with sinful Israel, and, in grace, God promises to regather sinful Israel in Isa. 43:1-44:5!
    6. Isaiah 34-35 predicts what we know as the Great Tribulation, a time of world judgment to deal out justice prior to God's world kingdom!
    7. Messiah is seen rising up to renew the Davidic throne, filled with the Holy Spirit to give salvation (1st and 2nd advents), Is. 11:1-12:6!
    8. Blessings of this world kingdom are given in Is. 2:1-5; 25-27; 58-66!
Application: Respond to government decay by (1) giving up on OUR restoring perfect government and become a citizen of the messianic kingdom by faith in Christ for salvation, Jn. 3:16; Is. 53:11! (2) As citizens of HIS kingdom, (a) confess any sins we do to God (1 Jn. 1:9) and (b) depend upon the indwelling Holy Spirit (like Messiah, Is. 11; Gal. 5:16-23) to live righteously. (c) Then, recruit people for that kingdom, Mtt. 28:19f! (d) We relate to corrupt governments as law-abiding people to aid in our mission, 1 P. 2:13-17; Ro. 13:1-8!

Lesson: It is HOPELESS for man to salvage human government, for everyone SINS, making society fail. ONLY in GOD'S coming WORLD KINGDOM will government be pure and effective, and ONLY by justification through Messiah, Jesus, can ANYONE become its citizen!

Conclusion: (To illustrate the sermon lesson . . . )

 During the darkest days of the American Civil War, two leaders of great personal character on opposite sides in that war made these statements worth repeating for our era:

(1) President Abraham Lincoln, on April 30th, 1863, in his Proclamation for a National Day of Fasting, Humiliation and Prayer, said: "We have been the recipients of the choicest bounties of heaven. We have been preserved, these many years, in peace a nd prosperity. We have grown in numbers, wealth and power, as no other nation has ever grown. But we have forgotten God. We have forgotten the gracious hand which preserved us in peace, and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us; and we have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own. Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God that made us! It behooves us, then to humble ourselves before the offended Power . . . to pray for clemency and forgiveness." (Nancy Leigh DeM oss, exec. ed., The Rebirth Of America, p. 151)

(2) Across the Potomac, in the South, Robert E. Lee, a godly believer and general of the Confederate army, said: "Knowing that intercessory prayer is our mightiest weapon and the supreme call for Christians today, I pleadingly urge our people everywhe re to pray. Believing that prayer is the greatest contribution that our people can make in this critical hour, I humbly urge that we take time to pray . . .

Let there be prayer at sunup, at noonday, at sundown, at midnight -- all through the day. Let us all pray for our children, our youth, our aged, our pastors, our homes. Let us pray for our churches.

Let us pray for ourselves, that we may not lose the word 'concern' our of our Christian vocabulary. Let us pray for our nation. Let us pray for those who have never known Jesus Christ and redeeming love . . . Let prayer be our passion. Let prayer be our practice." (Ibid., p. 183)



We need to work and live for the kingdom to come, the kingdom of God's dear Son, to respond to our national needs!