Two Paths to Eternity Part 3

Pastor Mike will be speaking on Two Paths to Eternity Part 3. He will be reading out of Isaiah 8:1-20.

It is so sad to see people who are more fearful of what people might think of them than they are of what God might think or say. The holiness of God is the very foundational attribute of who God is, and all of His other attributes emanate from His holiness. Hello, this is Pastor Mike Sanders.

Welcome to Hope Worth Having radio program. We’re glad that you’ve joined us today, and we’re looking forward to studying the Bible together. We’re going to continue our study in Isaiah chapter 8, and we’re continuing this topic of two paths to eternity.

Jesus said, my sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I pray that’ll be true for you today. Let’s study together.

God is with us when we suffer. God is with us when we walk through the valleys of life. God is with us, and we cannot forget that, and we must underscore that in verse 8, and we must underscore it in verse 9, that even as God is judging us through Assyria, in this case, and even as He is destroying our enemies as they are attempting to destroy us, God is with us.

There’s always a remnant. There’s always a remnant of believers that God will not give up on. Those who are true to Him, they are faithful to Him, and He continues to manifest His presence with them, and through that presence, He is empowering His people to be faithful and obedient and loyal to Him.

So Isaiah wants the people to know that God is with them. He is the spokesman for God, and we see just a few times in this chapter that Isaiah is letting the people know, it’s not me, the prophet, it’s God who’s speaking to you. We go back to verse 1 of chapter 8. Moreover, the Lord said to me, and then we jump down to verse 5. The Lord also spoke to me again, saying, and then we see again in verse 11, for the Lord spoke thus to me with a strong hand.

So God has been dictating His words of not just judgment and not just warning, but He is speaking His words of promise and victory and strength and comfort to the people. And so we receive what is being shared in this book, and particularly in this chapter, as the very words of God. Isaiah presents to King Ahaz these two ways.

We learned a few weeks ago the way of light and what that meant. But let’s talk about the way of darkness, because that’s the second way. King Ahaz had failed to recognize that his real enemy was Assyria.

And we see, if we back up just a little bit in chapter 7, and just trying to give you enough context so that you kind of understand where Pastor Mike is going today. But back in chapter 7, in verse 17, I want you to note something here, and that is that the Bible says, the Lord will bring the king of Assyria upon you, and your people and your father’s house, days that have not come since the days of Ephraim departed from Judah. Remember that I told you that many times Isaiah would refer to the people of God as Ephraim or Judah, and these were just the different names of different tribes.

Remember, there are 12 tribes in the people of God, and the 12 tribes make up the nation of Israel. But unfortunately, they had become divided, and there was a northern and a southern kingdom. And so again, the reference point for the prophet is, you’re getting ready to see judgment not since the day that Ephraim departed, one of the tribes of Israel, from Judah.

Because Ahaz had put his trust in Assyria and that kingdom, and not in God, judgment was coming. Look at verse 20 of chapter 7. In the same day, the Lord will shave with a hired razor with those from beyond the river with the king of Assyria, the head and the hair of the legs, and will also remove the beard. And again, this is just a picture of how Assyria is going to humiliate the people of God.

Why would God allow such judgment? Why would he bring such humiliation upon the people? Because they didn’t trust him. They went to the means and the methods of the world to figure out their dilemmas. They chose the way of darkness.

In chapter 8, Isaiah highlights what that means, and I want to bring those to our attention. The first is we see that the way of darkness is a life spent rejecting God despite his gentle provisions. So we pick up in verse 6 of chapter 8, and we just read the first part of this verse.

The Bible says, inasmuch as these people refused the waters of Shiloh that flow softly, the people had chosen a flood of turmoil rather than a peaceful river. Isaiah, who loves to use symbolic language and metaphors, gives a picture here in our minds of a peaceful river. It’s called the waters of Shiloh.

It refers to a particular stream that would supply water to the city of Jerusalem. It was peaceful. It was beautiful.

In this context, Isaiah the prophet is contrasting to what Assyria is getting ready to do in that it is going to flood them and overwhelm them to what God does in that he softly and gently provides his presence, his provisions, and his blessings. This rejection of God was something that had broken the heart of God. They were exchanging the fountain of living water for what is referred to sometimes by the prophet Jeremiah as cracked cisterns.

That is, that they had this beautiful supply of water which was symbolic of God’s blessings and provisions, but they chose the cisterns of the world that were filled with holes. They could never hold the water that was essential for what their needs were spiritually, physically, and even emotionally. Remember the words of the prophet Jeremiah 2.13. He said, my people have committed two evils.

They have abandoned me, the fountain of living waters to carve out for themselves broken cisterns that do not hold water. How many times have you and I found ourselves, rather than choosing the peaceful waters of God to provide for us, we have ran to the reckless, tumultuous things of the world to provide for us. We have let our anxiety overwhelm us, and we have put our trust in certain things or methods that will not bring true peace, because only peace can be found in the Lord Jesus Christ.

The Bible tells us to be not anxious for nothing, meaning that there’s nothing that we should be anxious or worry about, but the Bible teaches us that everything should be done in prayer and thanksgiving and supplication. Why? So that the peace of God may guard our hearts and our minds through Christ Jesus. How many people have lost their minds to the chokehold of worry, and they have been filled with anxiety, and peace has drained out of their world because they have turned their back on God and the things of the Lord.

This is the way of darkness. The second thing that we see here is he is pointing out the way of darkness, that it is a way of mocking delight in the sufferings of others. We’re still in verse 6. We saw at the beginning of verse 6 that they were rejecting God, choosing the floods of the world over the beautiful, peaceful waters of Shiloh, but now we see them rejoicing.

Look again at verse 6, and rejoice in Rezin and in Ramaliah’s son. These were two individuals who oversaw Judah, and they’re rejoicing of their demise. They’re rejoicing that not only the demise of the king of Judah, but the demise of his own family, his own son.

Look at verse 7, now therefore behold the Lord brings up over them the waters of the river strong and mighty. Think of a flood. The king of Assyria and all his glory, he will go up over all his channels and go over all his banks.

He will pass through Judah. This is a picture of Assyria. He will overflow and pass over, and he will reach up to the neck, and the stretching out of his wings will fill the breadth of your land, O Emmanuel.

Who does the land belong to? It belongs to God. And the prophet cries in grief and sorrow that the people have so rejected God that they are not only turning their hearts away from God, but they are rejoicing in the sufferings of others. They are rejoicing in the demise of others, and the prophet says, this is going to be the outcome.

This is going to be the result of your actions as you are witnessing this judgment of God. Rather than taking the opportunity, remember I told you that God was using the Assyrian empire to get the attention of his people, and rather than taking that opportunity to look inwardly and to repent deeply within their hearts, what they did is they began to rejoice in the demise of others. How are we as humans prone to rejoice in the demise of others? We watch criminals on trial, politicians in scandals, athletes getting involved in drugs, and we declare in our self-righteous ways that it serves them right.

Jesus reminded us in Luke chapter 13 that this self-righteous spirit is the enemy of our soul. Do you not understand, church, if it were not for the grace of God, there go I. How could we ever be in this moment that our heart is so hard and it is so distant from God and towards God that we would rejoice in others’ destruction? How is it that we could be in this place that we would want others to be destroyed rather than to come and to receive the grace and the salvation that is found in Jesus Christ? We look at verse 12 of chapter 8, and here the prophet refers to what God is saying. Do not say a conspiracy concerning all that this people call a conspiracy, nor be afraid of their threats, nor be troubled that in the midst of all this self-righteousness God is trying to uphold and empower the prophet.

And the people had said that the words of the prophets was a conspiracy, that he was part of the plan to destroy their land. And all that he was doing was proclaiming to the people, don’t look to Assyria for your answers. Look to God Almighty.

Put your trust in Him. He’s the only one that can truly supply your needs. And rather than receiving that message, the people whose hearts were distant from God said that’s a conspiracy.

He’s colluding with the enemies. He’s trying to take us down. And so it is that God says to the prophet, don’t be afraid of their threats, nor even be troubled by them.

As we proclaim this message of the way of darkness, bringing to the attention of God’s people that there is a path that leads us away from God. There is a path that is broad, and it is the way of darkness. It is a way that separates us from God into a place that is called hell, that we would be eternally separated from God.

That when we make that case and we proclaim that message, yes, there are going to be those even among us, and who might even be in our families and our friends, who would say we’re part of some conspiracy or want to push back on this message of warning. But we’re not to be afraid of their threats. We’re to stand bold and courageous for the Lord Jesus Christ.

The way of darkness, it’s a life spent rejecting God’s gentle provisions. It’s a way of mocking and delighting in the sufferings of others. But thirdly, we see that it is a life of stumbling over God.

We come down to verse 13 of chapter 8, and we see that the Lord of hosts, him you shall hallow, or him shall you reverence. The word hallow has the idea of holiness, and he says, let him be your fear. Do you see the contrast from verse 12? Don’t be afraid of their threats.

But in verse 13, there is a healthy fear. There is a reverence of God. It is so sad to see people who are more fearful of what people might think of them or what they might say about them than they are of what God might think or say.

We should have such a healthy fear of God that he is our dread, he is our holiness, he is our reverence. We are reminded in the scriptures that our God is a consuming fire, that it is a holy God and that the holiness of God is the very foundational attribute of who God is and all of his other attributes emanate from his holiness. It is the only attribute that when the angels gather around the throne of God and the seraphims are flying through the throne of God, that they cry out, holy, holy, holy.

This supreme attribute ought to bring great reverence and respect in our hearts to God. This is our place. We are not fearful of the world.

The fear of man, the Bible says, is a snare. But the scripture goes on in verse 14 to say, he will be a sanctuary, meaning God is our sanctuary church. He is that place that is not only providing but protecting.

He will be as a sanctuary, but a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense to both the houses of Israel. Who are those houses? Remember the northern and the southern kingdom. Remember the different tribes of Israel have been identified.

They have become divided and he has become the rock of offense. Look again in verse 14, as a trap and a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem. Verse 15, and many among them shall stumble.

They shall fall and be broken, be snared, and taken. These verses in verse 14 and 15 are the most quoted verses by the apostles in the New Testament. Over and over again, they recognize that this prophecy in verse 14 and 15 was not only imminent in its proclamation for the divided house of Israel, but it was a foreshadowing of the house of Israel and those who would reject God, that they would stumble over the fact that Jesus Christ is the Messiah.

Unfortunately, the people of God had chosen a snare instead of a sanctuary. They had chosen to trip over the truth and to let the truth crush them as opposed to receiving it and believing it and embracing it and following it. They let it become a stumbling block in their life.

Instead of fleeing to Christ for salvation, people today stumble over the stumbling stone. Jesus is referred to not only as the cornerstone, but as the stumbling stone. We see this in the New Testament in Romans chapter 9. The apostle says, why? Meaning why is it that the Jewish people, the house of Israel, has rejected Christ as Messiah? Because they did not seek it by faith, as it were, by the works of the law, for they stumbled at the stumbling stone.

They became offended at the cross of Jesus Christ. They were repulsed at the idea that their Messiah would come and that he would die on a cross. That was offensive to them.

But we understand as believers what the apostle Paul taught us in 1 Corinthians 1 verse 23 when he said, we preach Christ crucified unto the Jews a what? Good. I don’t want you to ever forget it. Unto the Greeks, foolishness.

To the world, the cross of Christ is foolishness. Doesn’t make any common sense. Why would we look to someone who died on a cross for our salvation? To the Jews who had great anticipation for the coming of their Messiah being victorious and overthrowing the government and bringing back the prosperity as it was under the Davidic kingdom.

It was a stumbling block to see Jesus Christ die on a cross. And so in essence, they end up being crushed by Christ and the cross. They are snared by him rather than being saved by him.

Now why is Jesus called the stumbling stone? I want you to join me in Matthew chapter 21. We pick up in verse 42, Jesus said to them, have you never read in the scriptures? He’s quoting again the stone which the builders rejected. He became the chief cornerstone.

This was the Lord’s doing and it is marvelous in our eyes. Verse 43, therefore, I say to you, the kingdom of God will be taken from you and given to a nation bearing the fruits of it. And whoever falls on this stone will be broken, but on whomever it falls, it will grind him to powder.

The stone church is Jesus Christ. Here Jesus is enduring the pushback and the opposition by the Pharisees, the religious leaders of his day, and they are pushing back on his message of salvation. They do not see him as the one Messiah who is to return that the prophets spoke of.

When Jesus said that those who fall on the stone will be broken into pieces, Jesus was warning those religious leaders and all who oppose him, who defy him, that it’s very much in this effort to oppose the kingdom of God and Jesus Christ is like taking your head and beating you against a solid rock. It is a foolish action and it will not accomplish your goal. But Jesus went on to say in this text, whoever falls on this stone will be broken.

That is that they are resisting the stone. They are opposing the stone. They are beating against the stone.

They are pushing back against the stone. Jesus reminds them as well, whomever it falls, meaning the stone falls on them, it will grind him to powder. Jesus is teaching us that those whom the stone falls upon will be crushed.

Jesus is warning us. He is warning all of us this morning about trivializing him or ignoring his warnings or being apathetic towards Jesus Christ. That it’s like standing in the way of a large boulder that is falling.

You can visualize it. You can see it coming at you. And yet rather than moving and doing something about it, you don’t think it’s real.

You don’t think there’s anything to it and you just trivialize it and you’re apathetic to the fact that this stone is coming at you and Jesus says, bam, it’ll crush you. Crush you spiritually as you are separated from God. Jesus is essentially saying to you and me that the work of Christ is from God the Father and that the church will march on.

It will move forward. Those who oppose Christ and those who assume that the work of Christ is inconsequential, meaningless, and useless will either be broken into pieces because of the rock of Christ or crushed to pieces because of the rock of Christ. It is the way of darkness that stumbles over the stumbling block.

The final truth I want you to see is that the way of darkness is a life of false spiritual guidance. But we must remember that essentially you and I are spiritual people. And the Bible tells us in the Gospel of John chapter 4 that God is spirit and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and truth.

And what makes us unique in the crown of God’s creation is we have a spirit that connects and can fellowship and can call upon God and communicate with God. And so we have this ability to find our spiritual guidance in Christ as we call upon him in prayer, as he ministers to us in a corporate worship service or in our own personal time, reading our Bible, studying the truth that God is effectively working in our hearts, drawing us, guiding us, that his spirit lives within us, and he blesses us with wisdom, and he blesses us with understanding, and he guides us with discernment. This is one of the reasons we come to be filled with God’s truth.

But when we come down to chapter 8 verse 19, note that the people chose a different path for spiritual guidance. And when they say to you, seek those who are mediums and wizards, who whisper and mutter, should not a people seek their God, not the true God? Should they seek the dead on behalf of the living 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. The people had begun to consult mediums and spiritists, wizards, and magic.

They began to consult the dead on their behalf so that they might find guidance of what they should do, rather than looking to, as the Bible says, the law in verse 20, and the testimony, which is referring to God’s truth or word. And he’s saying, rather than rejecting that, unfortunately, the people are listening to the demonic voices. And these demonic voices are leading people away from God Almighty.

I know that sometimes people tell me in their experiences that they have maybe spoken to one of their deceased loved ones. I want you to know that when our loved ones leave this world, to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. We understand this.

We understand that they are living out the blessings of their faithfulness and obedience to God, and that the salvation that they have inherited from Christ is now in its fulfillment, culmination, and completion. That they’re having such a grand time. And yet we recognize that even in our moments of grief down here, that it’s easy for us to be easily deceived.

That’s why you often hear people say, don’t make major decisions until at least a year, or they encourage you to find a mentor or someone that you can seek out to give you wisdom, godly wisdom, so you don’t make bad choices. Now, some people in their grief, they also have a swelling of pride, and they refuse to hear the elders, the friends, the pastors. Because they don’t want anybody telling them what to do when God has blessed them and surrounded them with these godly people.

But these people will say to me sometimes in the midst of their grief that their loved one came back and spoke to them, and I want to say to you, that’s just not true. Now, I’m not saying you didn’t have some kind of an experience, but I want you to know that you have to be careful, and that everything that I feel, and yes, even experience, is not always true. That the demons appear as angels of light.

But when it comes to our spiritual life, church, let us be careful who we are consulting, and let us consult the word of God, let’s consult the people of God, let’s consult our Lord and Savior through prayer, and seek his guidance through his spirit and through his truth as we try to work forward for the glory of God. Unfortunately, the people had begun a path where there is no light. And when you and I reject God’s word, when we reject the truth and say, I’m going to do what I want, nobody’s going to tell me what to do, and I’m going to live the life the way I want to, I’m telling you, my friends, it’s a light of darkness.

And that’s the message that Isaiah wants to get across, that these people chose darkness instead of light, and it led them to a crisis. And for you and I, we must learn to trust God and ignore the solutions of this world, and study the word of God, and seek godly counsel because there’s wisdom and safety in a multitude of counsel, meaning godly people, and we should strive for the peace of God as we move forward. There’s only two ways, the way of the world or the way of Christ.

Christ, Emmanuel, he is the only way, and as we have been mentioning throughout this chapter, that the key to everything is Emmanuel. Go back and study chapter 7, and then you study chapter 8, and when we get into chapter 9, that name keeps coming up, Emmanuel, God with us. It is Christ alone who can fulfill your needs.

He is the way, he is the light, and he is the one who will provide for us a refuge, and we should flee to him. He is the rock, he is the foundation, and he is the one that brings salvation to every heart that believes in him. In the end, church, we must put our trust in him.

Look at verse 17, and I will wait on the Lord who hides his face from the house of Jacob, and I will hope in him. There are times that even though God says he is with us, we can’t see him. And that’s what was happening to the people of God, that as they were enduring the suffering and the judgment of the Assyrian Empire upon them, there were moments and times that the remnant who loved God and wanted to do the right thing, that they could not see God.

But it does not deny that he is there. I can’t see the wind, but I can certainly sense it. And friends, there are times God may not seem to be there in your life, but he is there.

And what is your solution? Trust and hope in Emmanuel. Trust and hope and wait on Emmanuel, for he is your true refuge. Let’s pray together.

♪♪ The Bible says, Come out from among them and be separate, says the Lord. Do not touch what is unclean, and I will receive you. God calls us to reject and repent of our idols and our ungodly lives and to follow Christ faithfully.

And that we would come out and be separate and commit our hearts fully to Christ. And I hope that that’ll be true for you today, that you would not be ashamed to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and that you would, even in this moment, call out and cry out to God. And the Bible tells us that whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.

May God grant you faith and repentance today. This is Pastor Mike Sanders reminding you that in Christ, there is hope worth having.