Two Paths to Eternity Part 2

Pastor Mike will be speaking on Two Paths to Eternity Part 2. He will be reading out of Isaiah 8:1-15.

I want you to grab the bull by the horns, make the most of every day for the glory of God, and lay hold of all that God has for you. And when he calls you home, go busting out of this world into the presence of God and the refuge of Jesus Christ. Hello, this is Pastor Mike Sanders.

This is Hope Worth Having radio program, and we’re glad that you are with us today. We are in Isaiah chapter 8. We’re still talking about two paths, and remember that what is happening in the nation of Israel is Isaiah is showing them how God is using Assyria to judge the nation, because the people of God have rejected him, and they have refused to follow the path to eternal life. And I pray that in your heart you will receive Christ.

So let’s get into the book of Isaiah and begin to learn together. The prophet reminds the people of God that God has not forsaken them, though they had chosen a path that was destructive, a path that does not lead to God, though they had chosen a path that did not honor the Lord and put their faith and trust in God, that God was going to make it all come full circle because of the promise that he had given, and that is God is with us. That’s the thing that you and I have to remember, is that God does not forsake his people.

Even when our life is a mess, and even when we make some bad choices in our life, and we’re going down a direction that is not aligning with our core values or what honors Jesus Christ in our life, God is with us. And we can be encouraged knowing that Emmanuel has not forsaken his people. He has not forsaken those who love him, who live for him, who desire to honor him in their life.

So the judgment of God would be upon Assyria. Now, I told you there was two paths. There is the way of light that Isaiah will teach us about, and then next time, we’ll learn about the way of darkness.

But let’s talk about the way of light, how it is described in Isaiah chapter 8, and I want you to make sure you have your Bible this morning. And if you didn’t bring a physical Bible, grab one out of the pew or use your device, but whatever it takes, follow along with me so that you don’t get lost in the midst of everything I’m trying to share with you this morning. The first thing I want you to see that the way of light is a life in God’s firm grip.

Look at verse 11. He’s already given us the promise, but the Bible says, for the Lord spoke thus to me with a strong hand, and he instructed me. Here’s what I want you to see, that the strong grip is a picture of the presence of Almighty God, that he is there shielding and protecting his people who choose the way of light, who choose the path of God, who choose the path that honors the Lord Jesus Christ.

You have the hand of God, the presence of God, the strong grip of God upon your life. This reminds me that Jesus, who is our shepherd, our good shepherd in the Gospel of John, that he takes hold of every believer, that every believer is in his hand, in his firm grip. Jesus said, I give unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand.

What a wonderful truth to know, that as I’m on my journey of faith, and I’m choosing the way of life and light, and I’m following the path that God has for me, that I am in the firm grip of my Savior. Now, I know that some people like to see it differently. They like to say, I’m holding on to Jesus.

My friends, our grip is not good enough to hold on to Jesus Christ. What we need is Jesus to hold on to us. Amen? We need the power, the presence of God in our life to guide us and to hold on to us, because when the winds are blowing, and the storms, and the seas are raging, and the carpet is pulled out from underneath our life, and everything is chaotic and confusing, we need to know that we are in the firm hand and the firm grip of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

He leads us. He leads each one of us as believers and followers of Christ. He leads us powerfully and victoriously through life, and ultimately, He will lead us to heaven.

He will lead us in that final consummation of our faith, where we will stand in the presence of God, and because He lives, I can face tomorrow. Whatever storms may encounter me, whatever dilemmas I might find myself in, circumstances, I am in the firm grip and the hand of Almighty God. The Apostle Paul said in 2 Corinthians that He is leading us triumphantly.

That’s why I say to the church, head up. Don’t get your head down. Don’t be defeated.

Don’t be discouraged. We’re realistic about our circumstances. We understand the situation that we’re in, but we are head up because we are a people who have already obtained victory through Jesus Christ.

What Jesus accomplished on the cross and through the resurrection has already been granted to us as victorious Christians, and therefore, we are head up. He is the lifter of my head, the psalmist said, and we therefore march with victory every day. No matter what the outcome is on Tuesday, I’m not waking up Wednesday and being discouraged, throw it in the towel, and ready to quit.

I’m not going to do it because all that does not determine my victory as a believer. And I want to encourage you to know that as you walk in this journey of faith, God is leading you victoriously and powerfully. The Bible says in Philippians 3.12, not that I have already attained or am already perfected, but I press on and that I may lay hold of that for which Jesus Christ also laid hold of me.

I love that last phrase, Jesus Christ has laid hold of me. We’re in his grip. We’re in his protection, his covering.

He is watching over us. He is protecting us. What is our job? Because we have the power of Christ, because we have the presence of Christ, because we have the hand of God upon us, we press on, church.

Why? Because as the Hebrew writer said, we see Jesus. Everybody else sees problems, we see Jesus. Everybody else sees disaster, but we see Jesus, that even in the judgment of God, he can be doing his work in our life, that even in how things may not unfold like we want them to be, Jesus Christ, God himself, can be working effectively in our life.

And so we press on like that runner. You know, when we watch some of the Olympics, we watch some of these races and how close they were this year, and those runners would stretch, and with all their might, they would agonize to get across that finish line. And I believe one of them there in the race just barely won by stretching forth.

And that’s what you and I do, church. We do not retreat. We do not give up.

We continue to press on for the Lord Jesus Christ because we know that our life is in his firm grip. The second thing I want you to see, that the way of light is a life listening to God’s word. I’m back in verse 11, and again, you’ll note, he says in chapter 8 of Isaiah, that he instructed me, the prophet said, he instructed me, he is speaking to me, his strong hand’s upon me, but he’s instructing me that I should not walk in the way of this people.

So I want you to know that a person who walks in the light listens to God’s word, that the Bible teaches us that we are his sheep, and we listen to his voice. John 10, 27 says, my sheep, hear my voice. I know them, and they follow me.

We do not listen to the voice of the world. We do not listen to the voice of naysayers. We do not listen to the voice of those who are critical, and negative, and hateful, and rude.

We listen to the voice of God, and we follow the way of life and light. We follow the path that Jesus Christ has. Every one of us must remember that there are many voices speaking into our life that are trying to get our attention, and to call us away from the truth, and to call us away from what is right and honorable to Jesus Christ.

But we are his true sheep, and therefore, we should only hear, and respond, and activate the voice of God in our life. How does God speak? He speaks through his word. He speaks through the power of his spirit.

He speaks through people in our lives. He speaks as we pray. He speaks as he gives peace.

God is not the author of confusion, the scripture says, but he is the author of peace. And so, we understand anything that is confusing in this world is not from God. If you are frustrated, and not sure which path to take, I want you to know that follow the path of peace, and what is honorable to God, what is obedient to the Lord.

Don’t follow the path of confusion and chaos. That is not from God Almighty, but we hear, and we listen to his voice. But I want you to note again, in verse 11, he says, what did God say to Isaiah? I should not walk in the way of this people.

I think the third principle is the way of life is a countercultural life, a life that goes against the current. Listen to me, church. We march to the beat of a different drummer.

It is not the drummer of the world. It is the heavenly drummer. We do not live in fear of the world or people.

Notice in verse 12, he says, do not say a conspiracy concerning all that this people call a conspiracy, nor be afraid of their threats, nor be troubled. We don’t follow the fear of man. The Bible says that the fear of man is a snare.

Paul the apostle told Timothy the pastor, he said that we have not been given a spirit of fear, meaning the fear of man. We don’t operate in fear of people. We are living our lives out of love for the Lord Jesus Christ.

We don’t love what the world loves. We love what God loves. And therefore, we live a life that is separated from this world, that is insulated from this world.

We do not live as they live. It doesn’t make us super spiritual. It doesn’t make us self-righteous.

It doesn’t mean that somehow we’re better than others, but we hear the words of God when he tells us in 2 Corinthians 6, 17, therefore, come out from among them and be what? Church, separate. Says the Lord, do not touch what is unclean, and I will receive you. The call of the believer is not to follow the way of the world, but it is to be countercultural and to be willing to follow the path that God has given us.

Will there be people who press down on us and push back because we don’t follow their way, or what the consensus is of the world, or that what the world wants me to believe? Absolutely. And I want to tell you, you are right in questioning some of the things that are going on in this crazy world. You are right to be thinking through it.

Now, we always are respectful. We do things with meekness, and we’re not here to be hateful, rude, obnoxious, but I’m telling you here, church, it’s okay to think through what this world is trying to tell us to do. Amen? And so we’re thinking through those things, but we also note that the life of one who follows the way of light is a life of fear and fearlessness.

Now, I know what you’re saying, Pastor Mike, you just told us. You just told us that we’re not to be in fear. That’s right.

But I want you to know there’s a distinction of a fear of man or fear of people, and there is a fear of God. Look at verse 13. The Bible says, the Lord of hosts, him you shall hallow, or him shall you reverence.

Let him be your fear. Let him be your dread. And what he is saying is that we live a life in fear of the Lord.

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom and knowledge, the proverb writer said. We understand that our God is a holy God. He is a consuming fire, and that there ought to be respect, and there ought to be reverence to God as we live our lives.

When we think about what we’re doing, where we’re going, what we’re reading, what we’re looking at, what we’re scrolling through, we got to remember that there’s a holy God who is watching us. And out of reverence to him, out of respect to him, out of a holy, healthy fear of God, we respond to walk in the way of light. Ahaz and Judah had become fearful of their enemies.

And the Bible tells us in chapter 7 that their hearts were like the trees who were bending in the wind. They couldn’t handle it. They crumbled because of the fear of man.

And what they should have done when the prophet came to them and said, don’t be afraid of people, don’t be afraid of Assyria, don’t be afraid of the northern kingdom, but put your trust in God, they should have feared the Lord. They should have reverenced God. They should have made God number one in their life.

They should have made him a priority in their life. And they should have walked in the way of the light, and God would have taken care of them. But they said, no, we’re afraid of our enemies, and so we’re going to ask the world to help us with our problems.

How many times have believers done that? There is a fearlessness to us as believers, but there is a healthy fear where we make Jesus number one and we reverence him in our heart. Remember the words of our Savior. He said, do not fear those who kill the body, but cannot kill the soul, but rather fear him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.

So we have this dichotomy going on in our hearts. There’s a fearlessness in us that we are bold and confident and courageous and ready to take on the world for the Lord Jesus Christ, but there is also this reverence in our hearts and our great respect to all that God has taught us in the presence of Jesus Christ, that we have a healthy fear of our God. What is the next step of a person who follows the way of life, of light? It is a life resting in the true sanctuary.

A life resting in the true sanctuary. We come down to verse 14. He will be as a sanctuary, but a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense to both the houses of Israel as a trap and a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem.

What’s he talking about? When he says he’ll be a sanctuary, he’s talking about he will be a refuge, a safe haven. We think about all that happened not too long ago with our fellow citizens in North Carolina, the Western part, where they had all this water flooding their communities and their homes. For some of them, they had to run to shelter.

They had to run to places of even houses of worship so that they could have a refuge from the ravaging flooding that was destroying lives and taking people’s lives. I remember that as a young boy growing up in Oklahoma, how the tornadoes would rip through our communities, and how we all had to run to the tornado shelters. There was community shelters, and then, of course, there were individuals who owned their own shelters, and we would run to these shelters to find refuge and to find safety.

And what the Bible is teaching us, that our safe haven is in our relationship with God, that he is our sanctuary. Now, to the world, he’s a stumbling block. To the world, he’s a rock of offense.

To the world, he is someone who turns them off. But to those who love Jesus Christ, we run to God, and we find him to be a place where we can flee to, even when the waters are rising, even when the fire is raging, that we can run to the Lord Jesus Christ as a true refuge for our soul. Amen? Ultimately, church, ultimately, this life of resting in the sanctuary of God is lived out as we live in the shelter of Jesus Christ’s atoning work on the cross.

Who is the shelter for you from the judgment of God? You see, all sin will be judged. All sin will be dealt with. Because our God is holy and righteous, he will address sin in our hearts.

And the question is, when you and I stand before God, what and who will be our shelter? Well, friends, that’s why Jesus went to the cross. He took the wrath of God. He took the punishment for my sin on that cross, not just mine, but yours also.

And when you put your faith and trust in Jesus Christ, you can stand in the presence of God, and you know that you are in the shelter of the atoning work of Christ on the cross, and that you know that he is your refuge, and that he’s already taken your punishment. He has already taken the penalty, and therefore, you are righteous, not because you’re this great person, but because of what Jesus Christ did for you on the cross. And the Bible says that Jesus will say to you, enter in to the joys of my kingdom.

I cannot stress to you enough, and it’s brought home to me again this past week, of just how short life is. And my biggest fear is that you would come and hear about Jesus Christ, and you would hear about him being a refuge and a shelter for you from your sins and the wrath of God, and yet you would not receive Jesus as your Lord and Savior. I can’t promise you, no matter how young you are or how old you are, another minute, Mike Sanders can walk out of here, some reckless driver could come flying down, Grandview smack me right smack in the side, and I’m out of this world.

Don’t worry, I’ve already voted. But my life could be gone. But here’s the thing, church, I’m not afraid to die because I’m going to stand in the presence of Jesus, and my faith is in what he did for me on the cross.

And I don’t want you to be afraid. I don’t want you to live your life in fear. I want you to grab the bull by the horns, make the most of every day for the glory of God, and maximize the day for Jesus Christ, and lay hold of all that God has for you.

And when he calls you home, go busting out of this world, into the presence of God, in the covering, and the shelter, and the refuge of Jesus Christ, the way of life. Well, it is a life that is guarded by God’s law. Look at verse 16.

He says, bind up the testimony, seal the law among my disciples. Now, whenever in the Old Testament they would talk about the law, they would use different words to describe it. And one of those words is testimony, or the law, which is just basically talking about the Bible.

Of course, they didn’t have the New Testament at the time. But what he is saying, bind up the testimony. Then we look at verse 20 again.

He says, to the law and to the testimony, if they do not speak according to this word, it is because there is no light in them. You see, what is the distinction of us as believers who walk in the way of the light, is that we are guided by the word of God. We are guided by the truth of God.

We have sealed up the instruction of God’s word in our hearts. God’s disciples are those who listen to the Bible, and we follow the Bible. It’s more than just that we memorized it.

It’s more than just that we know it. We actually live it out every day of our life. It guides our thoughts.

It guides our actions. It guides our reactions. It guides every choice, every decision that we make.

We follow the word of God. And what’s so beautiful is that Christ perfectly obeyed the law. Because can we be honest that there are times and moments in our lives that we have failed to follow God’s word? All of us, including Mike Sanders, we’ve all failed to be perfectly obedient, but Jesus Christ was perfectly obedient.

He followed the law. He followed every aspect of the law, therefore qualifying him to be able to go to the cross on our behalf and to be able to die for our sins because he lived a sinless, righteous life. Therefore, he could take the very wrath of God and be the sacrifice for our sins.

And then, amazingly enough, he gives me, by faith, his righteousness, and he takes my unrighteousness when I put my faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. And then what happens? When I am justified by faith, I am filled with the spirit that I might live according to the law or according to the word of God. Romans 8, 4 reminds us this, so that the requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the spirit.

The way of light is not lawlessness. It is not living recklessly out there, doing whatever you want, whatever your flesh says you want to do, but it is joyfully submitting to God’s perfect word. And Jesus said, if you love me, you will obey me.

Now, honestly, I can’t do that in the flesh. I can’t do it by myself. Honestly, left to myself, I’ll make a mess of myself.

But when I surrender to Jesus Christ, receive him as my Lord, and the spirit of God fills me, I am now empowered to live a life that is honoring to God. I think about many times when we officiate a funeral, and I always tell people, here’s what we’re going to do. We’re going to celebrate the goodness of that person, but we’re also going to celebrate a greater goodness, and that is the goodness of our Lord Jesus Christ, who, because of his grace, that person was able to live a righteous and good and obedient life to God.

And that’s what we need to understand, is that if there’s any good in Mike, if there’s any faithfulness in Mike, if there is anything to say, well, we really like that, it is because of the great work of Jesus Christ and his spirit in me. And that’s the same for you, that as you and I submit to him every day, when I jump out of my bed, I know it’s crazy, but I love to get up early. I was all messed up this morning.

You know what I’m saying? I wasn’t supposed to be up this early, but I was up early. And I want you to know that I get up every day so excited to be able to live for the Lord and to fulfill his purpose. And I’m not being crazy.

Just ask my wife. She thinks I’m crazy. She doesn’t want to talk to me until 10 o’clock, or at least after a couple cups of coffee, amen? And my kids, when they were growing up, they never wanted to talk to me.

And I would get up and I would sing songs to them, and they would say, Dad, please, leave us alone, okay? I know I’m crazy. I know there’s something wrong with me. But praise the Lord, God’s going to fix me someday.

Just not going to be today. But here’s the thing I want you to know, is that when I get up every day, I surrender my life to Christ. And I say, Lord, I can’t be what I need to be today.

But I’m asking you, through your spirit, to help me be what I need to be, so I can be a blessing to others. That’s all I’m about, be a blessing to others. And I tell you, if you would get up every day like that, even in the midst of your fifth cup of coffee, even as you’re dragging out into the workforce, if you would just say, Lord, help me today to be what I should be, through your spirit, I yield my life to you.

Let me tell you something, you’ll not only be walking the way of light, but you will be making an impact for the glory of Jesus Christ, touching people’s lives in such a significant way, that they will want to follow the way of light. Let’s pray together, church, this morning. When we think about the path of God, it’s a path of light, and the way of light is described in various ways in chapter 8. And so, we want to follow the light of Christ and follow the light of God.

And remember that His word brings life and light to our hearts, and we want to be faithful to the Lord. So, I pray that God will open your eyes and help you to see the truth. Now, we encourage you to go to our YouTube channel, Hope Worth Having, and this is where you can go to our playlist, and you can go through the different books of the Bible, and you can study wherever you’re at in your study of God’s word, and you can learn more.

Remember, in YouTube, not only is there the video, but there is the words, the transcription is right underneath it. And so, you can either read the study or you can listen to the study to help enrich your study of whatever book of the Bible you’re in. This is Pastor Mike Sanders reminding you that in Christ, there is hope worth having.